Works Visit

Writing on the blog after a very long time. Maybe the break of a week which we got due to the works visit has enabled me to put in this time and write something about it - well, lots of things seen, experienced ... it was a very nice time spent in Bangalore.

We started off from Bombay just after our midsem. ToC was our last paper and it was pretty terrible for me, as my results will show. But we were to leave for Bangalore on that same evening ... 15th of September, so it was nice in a way ... there was no time for me to think about that paper ! We left from IIT in the insti buses and reached Kurla in time for the train ... everything went on perfectly and we were on our way to Bangalore by the Coimbatore express at 10:20 p.m.

In the train, we immediately started off with playing cards, cracking jokes, having discussions, taking Prakhar's case and many other things. We were distributed in two bogies ... but it didn't really matter ... we had a lot of fun on the journey and after a long but enjoyable trip, were there in Bangalore at about 10 p.m. the next night. Our accommodation was reserved at Youth Hostel Bangalore. It was a nice place overall, except the fact that there seemed to be a shortage of water there ... which forced some of my batch mates to complete their daily chores in some companies instead of the hostel! The hostel also had other restrictions like students not being allowed in after 10:30 p.m. and all ... but we got it relaxed much to our relief ... because 10:30 would have meant at least half of us having to sleep outside everyday! There also used to be complaints regarding our talking / shouting etc ... but overall, it was quite okay to be staying at YHA for a week. I was sharing the dormitory with 11 other people - Shantanu, Sushant, Aditya Dhoke, Sahil Thapa, Amit Upadhyay, Saransh Mittal, Vishal Jaatav, Varun Garg, Amit Arora, Pondy, Ashish Meena - and it was a nice opportunity to interact with everyone - actually hadn't really got an opportunity to have a long talk with many of these people - so that was one of the best aspects of the works visit - much increased interaction among the batch - atleast for me, my interaction with many others did increase during the trip ... I hope that continues!

The companies we visited were also decent. A short description of each visit is given below:

1. Trilogy: This was our first destination. Was a neat place ... they had a presentation and then followed by that, we had a chance to interact with one of the project leaders there and to go around the office with him. The working styles didn't seem too attractive ... people there said they were not really enjoying their jobs too much and all. However, they were good hosts - as they offered us a pizza treat, with lots of juices etc. It was a decent start to our work part of the work visit !
2. Intel: This was perhaps the worst of the lot. For two main reasons - firstly, they were a but too stringent with their security rules - not allowing Maruti to enter because he didn't have an i-card, and secondly, the presentation which we saw was at best ordinary. Nothing special at all ... and to add to it - no grub, no T-Shirts, nothing at all :((
3. Motorola: Again, the presentation was okay ... but nothing special. The kind of work the people there seem to be doing was quite interesting though - developing applications for embedded systems - mainly for cell phones. But the talk and overall style in which the visit was conducted by the Motorola people was probably too formal to be useful! And again ... even though we had two companies on that day, no food was served :(. So, we were on our own in the afternoon to have our lunch and head towards the next company.
4. Synopsys: This was probably the best we had seen till then. The HR manager was a really good speaker, and that probably led us to having a good overall impression of the company and the visit. But it was neatly managed on the whole. Got slightly boring when there were some core technical talks, but the food and drinks break in between and the talk by Manish Jain after the break was quite nice! The HR manager Anshuman gave us some fundae of life - telling us what we should do when we are looking for a job etc. Nice experience - something that I had expected to get during a works visit - I was not at all expecting too technical talks - I hoped the visit would give me a broad picture of how things are in the corporate industries, how people work, what companies do etc.
5. MSR (Microsoft Research): This was the place I liked the most (as I think was the case with most others in the batch as well). The work culture there was very nice and informal - with people writing on walls, sitting down on the floor to discuss things, a X-Box machine kept in the lobby with couches kept to laze around! It was an amazing place, and probably a nice office to work in as well. In fact, we liked it so much that we went back to their office the next day afternoon as well - as we were very much impressed by the way even their Director, Prof. Anandan spoke to us about various things, very frankly. The next day when we met the people there, it further strengthened my belief that it was a very good place. Not to mention the 4-course lunch they had offered us on the first day!
6. Infosys: I was very much enthu about seeing Infosys, mainly to see how an Indian, IITian has created such a huge enterprise. We reached Infosys campus and went around having a look at various things they offer their employees. The company really cares for their employees - as they believe they are "powered by intelligence" of theirs. But overall, the visit was a dissapointment as they had not really taken any efforts to treat us well ... they just showed us a small movie clip about the company's progress etc. and that was it! Probably the fact that not too many IITians take up that job and stay there for too much time has led them to the feeling that they should not spend too much time on us. After all, the greatest incentive for a company accepting us as visitors is that they will have a chance to capture the brightest amongst us when the time for the placement comes. This is almost nil in the case of Infosys probably.
7. Sasken: Sasken, again a Indian company was a different experience. We got to see some different work being done ... and it seems to be a great emerging company. They claimed they have the best technologies in their fields. They make applications for cell phones and the backend workstations which help companies handle their centers (exchanges sort of in the mobile phone industry). Having a look at growing Indian companies was nice as it gave a feeling - "You can do it as well". Absolutely, I do not think there is any reason why some company like Sasken cannot be owned by someone from our batch of 60 in the next 20-25 years or so. It makes me think - what is a bigger achievement - Doing some research which probably leads to a breakthrough in the industry, or owning a company which employees about 2000+ people? I unfortunately don't have answers to this and many other such questions which have always been in my mind. Probably, there isn't a single correct answer at all ... it is all subjective and depends on how a person perceives himself and what he/she wants to do.
8. Google: Our last company and probably the one which was the most eagerly awaited by a majority of people in our batch. We had a brief talk by the person who has setup the Bangalore Google center. Following that, Navnit Lohiwal gave a wonderful talk on his brainchild - Google Finance. He explained how it is like to develop an entirely new product and gave us a flavour of what he and his team did in the process of coming up with Google Finance. It was a pleasure listening to someone about whom we have heard so much! After that, we had the part we were all enthu about - collecting Google T-shirts, which ended up becoming a uniform for most of my batchmates in the train return journey. Google also seemed like a very cool place to work at - with great workstations provided to each person and a nice, informal atmosphere in the office.

Thats about it ... the work visit I must say was a great success - apart from the glitch at Intel, it went very smoothly (on the administrative side). Well, personally for me, as Khedkar Sir had said, it has raised a few questions regarding my career and what I should choose and all - but I guess I have been talking about it a bit too much in the past few days - so as of now, that is ditched!