Aninda Das from NASSCOM “joining a engineering college gurantees a JOB? Who needs to be blamed for this?”

Aninda keeps asking amazing (and useful question). Aninda Das “Why does one join an Engineering College? Only for JOB? Who is telling him/her(student) that joining a engineering college gurantees a JOB? Who needs to be blamed for this? – parents or education institutes for wrong promotion?”

I am as free as watching Mamta ji’s recent CNN video. Here is my take on the subject from my personal experience.

I had no idea, what I needed to do, where I will get job – during grads College

I was as ignorant as any other student when I was in Xaveirs. … Thats how we are … our education has no interface with reality. Whom to blame?
My take: College should have more interface with reality, industrial fairs, making it compulsory (we were training that way), http://aji.techshu.com/indians-fear-failure/ . In our colleges we only have one type of judging … Grades (as per theory) … Its damn boring and it ignores many other dimensions … many who are not good in sitting and studying loses their confidence. That’s ok, no country is perfect, world isn’t either.

Ok, now professional course – MCA … MBA

MBA students had knowledge what companies will ask and what is needed (better than MCA & probably engineering). In MCA, we will have 2 type of students, one who were planning for Infosys and one who hardly bothered about job but will keep reading magazines, web, papers and will end up scoring very low (I think 5 point something out of 9). Some people like me, would shuffle between here and there. Both are successful in their own terms. Some got jobs from college and some got from off campus. Some worked in small companies then joined bigger ones. Some worked in startups and now own companies. Different people, different path to JOB and success.

While passing out of professional college? Most of us had no idea about what we gonna do, whats good for us. We just did the way others did. The fact is we did.

Whom to blame? Certainly not college, our college did put a lot of interface with real problems … I also made many cool application for our professors .. students? I never understood that I guess the way I should have … I was very interested in  computers, so I could spend a lot of time in computer labs. Job? May be not, as the selection is very different.

My job interview at Alumnus, must read

I was asked about MMS, I never heard that word by then. Then they asked many more things, I had no idea. They failed us. I requested for one more chance. I prepared better, then they asked about Linux and Windows security stuffs, I had no idea again … again I was failed, I asked for one more chance … I think the fifth time, I called them at night, asked “who will take the interview and whats his strength, what questions I can expect” … I learned those and cleared the interview for “A CHANCE”. On job, I got trained for php, mysql etc … all Google learned, people hardly taught anything … We did good, so next opportunity came … Grmtech …. joined there for a mobile ….. http://aji.techshu.com/three-years/ ..Job trained me, shaped me, gave me a direction on what to do in life …..

My final take – Don’t define job, do job properly and it will help you find the path

Understand, you are different from me, your opportunities are different from mine, so is mine with someone else. We all are different. Take it step by step. Don’t fall victim, just fight it out. Get a desktop, get an internet connection, study it again, enter somewhere where you can be mentored and given chance. Offer your laptop or desktop, work from home, keep working, keep learning. You can’t change your past, you can’t change your country or culture that easily (I fought with many companies in Salt Lake when I was student, asking to give MCAs a chance to sit with Engineers, they said no, I argued but they did not listen to me).

  1. Hey’s it ok if you are not good but you need to understand you are not good and improve from there.
  2. Grab opportunities, work hard, work smart, learn as much as possible. My professors told me “What you learn here in 3 years, your company will teach you in 3 months”.
  3. Show positive attitude, work day and night when you can, party day and night (the things you enjoy) whenever you can. During my first job at Grmtech, I will work for 3 to 4 days, 16 hours or so and from Friday to Sunday I will go back to hostel to enjoy with friends.
  4. Gain confidence in yourself.
  5. Meet mentors (in office and outside), Meet good guys/girls (and get positive energy from there), go for events, network …
  6. Don’t try to learn, just be listeners, just be there, and learn in bits and pieces … it will make sense at a later stage, just be there, collect nodes/dots to be connected later  http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
  7. Enjoy, take pride in whatever you do.
  8. Nobody needs that much money, it will come, just take care of your basic needs and don’t put yourself in demands which can lead you to depressions and wrong directions.
  9. It’s ok to be human, we all do wrong, we all fail, we all get rejection but we all can fight back ….
  10. Never compare, its never between you and them http://aji.techshu.com/never-between-you-them/

Hope it helps atleast one person in next 10 years, then my 30 mins goes worth.

Internet Premier League (IPL) Static Internet 120/10 v/s Moving Internet 360/3 – A new era for Internet

You read it right. Static Internet is bowled out! It is out of IPL (Internet Premier League), could not even quality for playoffs. The moving internet is 3 times better than the static internet. New era of internet is more fun. I have been a Vodafone user for last 8 years or so and thus all my experience of new era internet is on Vodafone http://www.vodafone.in/fun.

3G & Touch, defining moving Internet !

There were days when people will go on vacation on a sea beach and will wish for a café with Internet. We improved from there and had basic connectivity on laptop (wifi), then again we wished for better. Then came basic internet on mobile, we wished for speed and better mobiles. Then came better touch & keypad mobiles & pads with 3G connectivity. Now it’s a new era, almost!

Internet is more fun now! “Porn to Poke”

The other change was, “what we did with Internet?” Web has transformed from information to entertainment in last few years. From “Porn to Poke” was a major shift, now people are connected on social media and want to see what’s happening with their friends and want to update what’s happening with them.

Bulk updates from static internet is boring, its about runtime moving internet

Bulk updates are boring, where you visit the Himalayas and then update it once you are back. It is fun when you can update from Himalayas and people can comment back and you can interact with them time to time. This is a new world of communication.


(This is my best friend from Himalayas updating his status. Commenting on this photo was way different, I felt really good) Imagine the situation when you are frustrated or extremely happy, there is no fun in holding it (and infact you want to share it right then).

“Happiness only real when shared”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/quotes (From one of the best movies of all time). I can rephrase it to “Happiness only real when shared real time“). Remember the ad, Maja aya? Asli mazaa SAB ke saath aata hai (The real happiness is when shared with all).

My fun experience while on Vodafone 3G in Mumbai

I was in Mumbai for business trip and had to travel all around. IPAD & 3G was my guide, I could instruct the auto drivers, “oh not that route, go this route!”. I could just surf for Mallu restaurant while traveling and demand amazing food. In between, I could stop and do a conference call. I had conference calls with UK team standing in the Andheri Ticket counter. It was really fun to have amazing connectivity and I am sure it is to go better and better from there. Other fun on Vodafone 3G and ipad:

  • Siting in a cafe and taking web interviews by playing games (The boring puzzles are over)
  • Wifey doesn’t have issues going on vacation anywhere as she can still watch TV on move on youtube.
  • WOW! Now you carry a powerful informational and entertainment tool along with you. The only space between your problem/query and the solution is asking it to your connected mobile device (and Google or Facebook).
  • Attending webinars is no more an issue, I can attend it from car now
  • Amazing possibility and much more fun

Orkut vs Chirkut and now “3G vs Uncle”

I remember the days when orkut came to picture in India, there were 2 communities, orkut or Chirkut http://aji.techshu.com/orkut/, soon I can see other 2 communities “3G vs Uncles”. Anyone not having a connectivity on mobile will be called uncle.

 “Have fun! I use vodafone internet and its fun!”