04 July 2006

Two years as Software Engineers

I never thought one day I would be writing a post related this topic. Now its exactly 2 years after we became so called Engineering graduates of VTU. Immediately we started working as Software Engineers in top IT/Telecom firms in Silicon Valley of India - Bangalore. Yesterday there was a dicussion among our classmates (in chain of emails) about achievements in 2 years. Its seems most of them are not completely satisfied with things they have done over 2 years. Everyone has one reason to be unhappy.
  • Some are frustated for not getting onsite opportunities in spite of working in good product development team.
  • Some are calling themselves ' jack of all, master of none'
  • Domain is very important in long term, salary is secondary is opinion of one person.
  • One person said 'Drawing Room Status' is important. How outside world looks towards is important, so onsite opportinities and salary matters.


Looking at all these reactions one of my friend said 'We should enjoy over life to the fullest'. One should live for the moment. I feel 'live for the moment' means changing goals, ethics on day to day basis. I dont think this is right way of living.

I believe in order to be happy, satisfied one has follow this famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi ...

" Live as if u were die to tomorrow. Learn as if u were to live forever."


Its really difficult to follow both aspects of above quote. Balancing between Living and Learning is really a challenging.

So learning is also important in life. Now its season of ppl going to United States for higher studies (Fall 2006). Many of my friends who are 2 years experienced Software Engineers have got their Visa approved and are flying to US next month. Some are planning to settle there, some are planning to stay there for 5 years and a few have decided to come back to India immediately after MS.

Looking at this rest of us are getting motivated and are planning to write GRE, TOEFL and are hoping that they will make it US for Fall 2007. Some are planning to write CAT this year, irrespective of whether they are really interested in management or not. Some are in conflict i.e their head saying something and heart is saying something else ....

Its nice to see people are giving importance to learning. Equations have changed over 2 years from the time we finished our engineering to present.

So Congratulations to all my batchmates for completing 2 years in software industry. All the best to people who will be starting new innings in their life.

Please feel free to post comments.

14 comments:

  1. congrats on completing precious 2 yrs of engineering

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  2. good post.

    congratulations on completing 2 years as a software professional.

    Hope to see you all as budding entrepeneurs or tech bigwigs in the coming years

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  3. Anonymous12:53 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Anonymous5:00 PM

    Duniya mein do tharah ke log hote hain(wink wink)
    Type 1: Those with "Fire in the belly" aka ever active aka perenially unsatisfied kind
    Type 2: Those with "Antacid in the belly" kind.

    Being the Type 2 that i am, i say in these 2 years i njayed all the "biscuits" life has thrown at me :)
    And oh! congrats Senior-Software-Engineer-Shande!

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  5. Anonymous8:00 PM

    Thanks for reminding me that I completed my BE just 2 years ago. It seemed like ages to me. And the irony is that I just have 2 months of valid s/w exp, i have no regrets for that. I have experienced the life of a BE - IS grad who is not a s/w eng yet,hoping to get that tag soon. I am currently pursuing my masters.

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  6. Anonymous10:53 AM

    Hey Sandeep,
    Congratulations on completing 2 yrs as a Software Professional..

    Indeed, its been a different experience than what we had expected.. Its really nice that ppl still yearn to learn and are getting ahead to meet up to their goals.. All the best!!

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  7. Good topic to discuss.It's there in everybod's mind about "why have i bcome s/w enginner".But to find some changes in this field selected, many are planning to go back to their studies which we somehow wanted to come out of it during schooldays..What a contrast.

    It u take my case, I got attracted to Mtech, CAT, and now GRE..Not very sure to do on any of these..

    The final mantra is njoy where ever u are..So "har pal yahaa jee bhar jiyo"...."kal ho naa ho"..
    So, njoying all the onsite opputunities and almost decided to be in the state of inertia of being s/w eng....

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  8. Anonymous12:31 PM

    Most of start off our careers on seeing the lucrative salaries and a welcome break after 4 years of continous internals and exams. Only those with a very strong objective of research go for higher studies immediately..rest leave it for 'one or two years after working'. Now that we're 2 years old in the industry we start questioning the need for higher studies and the complete change that it requires in our lifestyles of branded jeans to digi cams from motorazors to cars. Basically I think one needs to understand ones interests - financial success or research/mental progress. Tough question and most of us want both...so for this category the best is to pursue our present 'comfortable jobs' and do all those things on our own.
    As to what I have learnt in my 2 years of industry exp is that we're not doing something great compared to the non-IT people but are getting paid well and well, thats what matters rite ?!
    sudhirskiwithoutabloggeraccount

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  9. Anonymous2:38 PM

    One more thought...how on earth does the 'market value' of a s/w engg increase over the years ??
    I think the explanations such as 'value addition', 'business process understanding', 'human resource value' etc are just cock and bull stories. It is just that there's tons of money lying out there with the people/industry which is thrown away to 'suitable' candidates who make others work !
    manager -->control path
    engineer-->data path
    !sudhirskistilldoesnothaveanaccount!

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  10. thanks for complements.. wish u all the same.

    thanks to all for taking ur precious time for posting comments.

    @ sudhirski
    u have hit the nail on head. there is really trade off in everyone's mind between financial success and mental(research)progress.

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  11. Anonymous11:13 PM

    First of all congrats for ur successful completion as s/w engineer. I accept and strongly believe in what u said and the comments given. I dont think I have any thing else to say, if so it would be the duplicate of other comments. However enjoy, adapt and live a happy life is the overall summary.And we need to do many thing at different times to achieve this.

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  12. Life is calling shande, I think it is the time for us to do big things in life..what say?

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  13. u are right ritesh its time to big things.

    but what things can be categorized as big things ?

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  14. I beleive that by showing that small piece of cheese ,( money, onsite et al..) we are made to run in the rat race .. I was just wondering if we can pursue what we wanted to do in life leaving the cheese aside...what r ur thoughts on this ?

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