Saturday, July 14, 2007
Their Cheese, My Cheese
Last night I started keying in a paper on the contractual aspects of setting up an India to India engagement between Indian IT service firms and India captives of US/ European firms. Something that I was closely involved with in my previous job and I suspect was one of the first few attempts in India. The paper was nearly done before I switched over to Orkut and my weblogs. But I was left with a couple of thoughts.
It has been a while (more than six months) since I did something that was intellectually challenging and professionally satisfying. All these six months I was involved in business development, resource mobilization and management of program and/or project objectives. Not that these activities are less challenging in themselves, but these were not the kind of challenges I am looking for. And when you end up doing something you do not enjoy, it is like pushin' shit uphill.
The second thought that crossed my mind was that maybe I am working with people who are less intense than me, or with people who have a different set of priorities.
I can understand that programmers and analysts who are too junior might have a different set of challenges and different priorities. Their immediate challenge might be to get the piece of software working and still manage to leave office in time enough to catch the latest movie they planned with their buddies & the dinner at a chic restaurant on high street. Good for them !
What worries me more are the priorities of peers & superiors. They seem to be in no hurry to get home in time for a movie or a dinner at some fancy eatery. They spend most of their times at their desks adding very little value to the firm and the industry. Their immediate priority seems to be to settle into a position, overseas for most of them, where they have a promised tenure and a decent sized crowd to manage. A promised tenure for the overseas candidates so that they can repatriate dollar savings back home and fund the purchase of that fancy row house. A decent sized crowd for the ones left in India so that they can stake their claim to the next big title and the next big cubicle. Their cheese !
It has been a while (more than six months) since I did something that was intellectually challenging and professionally satisfying. All these six months I was involved in business development, resource mobilization and management of program and/or project objectives. Not that these activities are less challenging in themselves, but these were not the kind of challenges I am looking for. And when you end up doing something you do not enjoy, it is like pushin' shit uphill.
The second thought that crossed my mind was that maybe I am working with people who are less intense than me, or with people who have a different set of priorities.
I can understand that programmers and analysts who are too junior might have a different set of challenges and different priorities. Their immediate challenge might be to get the piece of software working and still manage to leave office in time enough to catch the latest movie they planned with their buddies & the dinner at a chic restaurant on high street. Good for them !
What worries me more are the priorities of peers & superiors. They seem to be in no hurry to get home in time for a movie or a dinner at some fancy eatery. They spend most of their times at their desks adding very little value to the firm and the industry. Their immediate priority seems to be to settle into a position, overseas for most of them, where they have a promised tenure and a decent sized crowd to manage. A promised tenure for the overseas candidates so that they can repatriate dollar savings back home and fund the purchase of that fancy row house. A decent sized crowd for the ones left in India so that they can stake their claim to the next big title and the next big cubicle. Their cheese !
