The American Fixation

Why are Indians always so fixated with Indian-Americans who are have made a name for themselves? Im talking about the recent Sunita Williams episode. The Indian media was going hysterical over her return journey,live coverage of the space shuttle plus repeated telecast of people praying for her safety.The media gave an impression that she was the only person aboard space shuttle Atlantis.What abt the other six astronauts?

I would like to clarify that my intention here is not to criticise the media and i am in complete awe of Sunita and all that she has accomplished .But what i cant understand is why Indians try so hard to portray her as an Indian, pretend that she is one of us,that we constantly focus on the small,petty things she likes abt India(samosa and chole). People should accept the fact that she is an American,that her mother is Slovenian, her husband is an American,her favourite baseball team is Boston's Red Sox or that she likes sushi.

Be it Kalpana Chawla,Freddie Mercury or Bobby Jindal Indians try to owe their success to their Indian origins.I can understand Kalpana Chawla being called an Indian-American as she was born here and even did her engineering from Punjab University.

According to me the reason is that India lacks icons,people you can look upto. But there are plenty of people in India who can act as role models. They work away from the limelight and thus we may never come to know them.Its the role of the media to show that we indeed have many heroes amongst ourselves,people whom we can emulate and people who play a role in our nation's success.

Campus Placements

Campus placement is probably the most important event that takes in a student's life. And especially if you are an undergraduate it is probably your first interaction with industry. Being in one of Mumbai's premier engineering college,VJTI, has many advantages. There is no dearth of good companies when it comes to VJTI-be it a core or software company. But being in VJTI certainly doesnt guarantee you a job.
After being rejected thrice -Siemens,Tata Elxis,Tata SED- I came face to face with reality. That i wasnt good enough. Yes getting good scores in exams in ok but when it comes to technical knowledge most of the people falter. Blame it on the college,profs or the outdated syllabus, the fact remains that several engineering graduates are not fit to be employed. And so the onus is really on the companies to train and transform these graduates from unemployable to employable.I really dont understand as to why we have four years of engineering when all we study during the first year are subjects which are of no practical use-physics,chemistry,maths.I still cant recollect what we studied in physics and chemistry.Instead they should limit the course to three years, so we can atleast start earning an year in advance.Something needs to be done about the state of engineering course in India-of course,except the IITs,NITs,IIITs. But the question is who is going to do it?
So anyways after three rejections, I studied like i never studied before. In 8 days i completed subjects spanning two semesters.Finally getting placed in WIPRO VLSI was a dream come true.
"EXPERIENCE IS A COMB WHICH LIFE GIVES YOU WHEN YOU ARE BALD"
So if you are an engineer(especially an electronics engineer) waiting to get placed and need advice on how to prepare for your technical and HR interview then feel free to ask me.If you have any query just drop in your comment and i will try my best to help you.

LIFE INSIDE GOOGLE

Lets see how much people really know about the World’s Best Company .

1. How many gourmet cafeterias does Google have at its Mountain View headquarters?

a). 6

b). 8

c). 11

d). 14

2. People at Google have a language of their own. Which Google-ism below has the wrong definition?

a). Noogler: New employee

b). Google 15: Side effect (in pounds) of all the free food

c). Googleplex: Where Googlers work

d). Economic volunteers: Google job applicants

3. Which of these perks is not offered by Google?

a). $ 500 voucher for takeout food after the birth of a child

b). $5,000 subsidy to buy a hybrid car

c). $2,000 bonus for referring a new employee

d). All of the above are offered

Well !! If you want to find out whether you got all three right then read on. Voted as the “Best Companies to work for” by Fortune Magazine in 2007, Google has a work culture that most engineers can only dream of. Headquartered in Mountain View, California the new Googleplex(where googlers work) is a first of its kind.

With 11 gourmet cafeterias and a mouth-watering cuisine to die for its hard to keep your mind off the food. How about

“house-baked spelt bread french toast drizzled with ginger Infused maple syrup and topped with caramelized pinata apples, served with hot coconut-masala muesli, coco-berry granola and crimson gold heirloom apples” or if you are not of the sweet-tooth type maybe you want to try

Shrimp Scampi with Jasmine Rice; Steak Milanese with sauteed mushrooms & shallots, steamed green beans and fried green plantains with honey glaze.”

And the best part is its FREE!!!

With so much free food to lay your hands on it resulted in a side-effect called Google 15(it means a googler on an average gained 15 pounds).So what you do when your employees are getting fatter.Well, you make them sweat. Rock climbing ,swimming pool ,gymnasium and volleyball are provided on campus. Other fun activities at Google include Foosball, videogames, pool tables, ping pong and roller hockey twice a week in the parking lot. And if all this activity is making you dizzy you can opt for a massage(but it will cost you $30 an hour).

(Googlers sweating it out on campus)

Google also offer a lot of perks to keep

their employees happy. $500 voucher

for takeout food after the birth of a child and $2,000 bonus for referring a new employee (who is called Noogler) are just some of the benefits.
Google also likes to inculcate an eco-friendly attitude amongst its employees It offers $5,000 subsidy to buy a hybrid car or a Segway.

(Googler on Segway)

So why does Google spend so much on its employees?

Well,the answer is simple. In this highly competitive field,Google wants to recruit and retain the

Best. No wonder it gets around 2500 resumes per day and has one of the lowest attrition rate.

Google was a basically a postdoctoral extension of the Stanford computer science department, and its founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin wanted to maintain the same college-like atmosphere in Google. So whether its bringing your dog to office or wearing jeans and t-shirts to office,life inside Google is much like life in college.

So if you are not into wearing formals , want a college-like atmosphere then Google’s the place for you. If you want to set your foot in Google, the next time Google comes for campus placemnt make sure that you detail your extra-curricular activities. Google likes to hire people with many diverse interests, prefers team players . Narrow skills are a big turnoff. By the way if I have forgotten to mention you should be damn good at “programming” or like googlers like to say

“ organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful”.