Of man, his convictions and his actions
To correct a wrong, sometimes one needs to do a wrong.
There is this ex-colleague of mine, a gem of a person, who is exceptionally brilliant. 3 years back we had joined the same company, on 1st April 2002, and none of us knows till this day who made a fool of who, the company made a fool of us or did we make a fool of the company? The thing is, there wasnt much work coming. Oh, no, the company was not closing down. It's a very big company, which I will let you figure out. It's responsible for your telephone bills generation, AT&T, Sprint etc... in US, BT in England... and many more. But the work was monotonous and not very frequent. So for almost 2 years, I was on an extended picnic. I used to say, "I am highest paid call centre guy in India," because I was getting handsome salary for just talking to the clients, AT & T wireless, and coordinating with my team. Ofcourse it impacted me negatively in the sense, my technical skills were completely rusted. So I decided to move on. For 6 months I worked at another mid-size company where I realized I was wrong all along. I had thought no other company could be quite as bad as my previous company but this company proved me wrong. And so I changed yet again. Now I am not a frequent job changer. I don't believe in it. But I had to. And now I am in my dream job. Now this company is another big company which has a datawarehousing product and I am in the product development R & D center. Technically very satisfying.
So this friend of mine, my junior, is still with the same old company and now he has decided to move too. I forwarded his resume here and he had an interview today. As I said, he is simply a brilliant chap. But the problem is that he a bit like Mycroft Holmes, the elder brother of Sherlock, who had better reasoning abilities but was never curious enough to verify them. So this guy actually hates when someone asks him to code in the interviews. And I must say he is right. If one wants a candidate to code in an interview, one should provide a computer as well to the candidate. Now he has written a file system himself, and how difficult that is would depend on how much is one comfortable with the computers. Let me just say that he is amongst the rare 2% of the software programmers who know a thing or two about file systems internals.
But he is a man of principles too. And that is really his undoing. He had actually rejected a promotion. Now how many guys do that? So today when my manager came back after taking his interview and told me he is kind of "OK", I actually wanted to scream, "he is better than either of us just that he has a problem with the kind of questions you have asked him."
But I also feel that he would love his job here and for that he needs to bend his rules just a little bit. Ofcourse, my respect for this wonderful man grows everytime I meet him. I hope he makes it. :)
There is this ex-colleague of mine, a gem of a person, who is exceptionally brilliant. 3 years back we had joined the same company, on 1st April 2002, and none of us knows till this day who made a fool of who, the company made a fool of us or did we make a fool of the company? The thing is, there wasnt much work coming. Oh, no, the company was not closing down. It's a very big company, which I will let you figure out. It's responsible for your telephone bills generation, AT&T, Sprint etc... in US, BT in England... and many more. But the work was monotonous and not very frequent. So for almost 2 years, I was on an extended picnic. I used to say, "I am highest paid call centre guy in India," because I was getting handsome salary for just talking to the clients, AT & T wireless, and coordinating with my team. Ofcourse it impacted me negatively in the sense, my technical skills were completely rusted. So I decided to move on. For 6 months I worked at another mid-size company where I realized I was wrong all along. I had thought no other company could be quite as bad as my previous company but this company proved me wrong. And so I changed yet again. Now I am not a frequent job changer. I don't believe in it. But I had to. And now I am in my dream job. Now this company is another big company which has a datawarehousing product and I am in the product development R & D center. Technically very satisfying.
So this friend of mine, my junior, is still with the same old company and now he has decided to move too. I forwarded his resume here and he had an interview today. As I said, he is simply a brilliant chap. But the problem is that he a bit like Mycroft Holmes, the elder brother of Sherlock, who had better reasoning abilities but was never curious enough to verify them. So this guy actually hates when someone asks him to code in the interviews. And I must say he is right. If one wants a candidate to code in an interview, one should provide a computer as well to the candidate. Now he has written a file system himself, and how difficult that is would depend on how much is one comfortable with the computers. Let me just say that he is amongst the rare 2% of the software programmers who know a thing or two about file systems internals.
But he is a man of principles too. And that is really his undoing. He had actually rejected a promotion. Now how many guys do that? So today when my manager came back after taking his interview and told me he is kind of "OK", I actually wanted to scream, "he is better than either of us just that he has a problem with the kind of questions you have asked him."
But I also feel that he would love his job here and for that he needs to bend his rules just a little bit. Ofcourse, my respect for this wonderful man grows everytime I meet him. I hope he makes it. :)
posted by F-ftOS at 12:25 AM
8 Comments:
Oh, I know people like that too... hehe, I mean, I am like that too... I would turn down a job if it went against my principals. It took me an extra year to get through college because I do not believe attendance and homework should count towards your grade. Only tests and research papers. Sometimes I wonder if I should change... Anyway, I hope your friend gets the job. I'm searching for a job myself-- hopefully spreading good vibes will help me :)
Hmmm, Anoop, I'm not sure what you mean, he'd have to bend his rules a little bit. Isn't it a computer place?
I once did a job in advertising for 5 years, wrote ads in a Caribbean country.
Then one day, a client came and told us we have to convince the entire population that they MUST have soda morning, noon, night, soda for breakfast.
And all I could see in my mind's eye were the poor little street boys, and all I could think was, these are poor people who need to eat nutritious meals. I had to leave.
My boyfriend left a great job in advertising because he had to do add to promote big tobacco. It was a great position, but his morals wouldn't allow him to continue to kill people. He has sense been blessed with another great position in the entertainment industry and says he'll never promote any company or product that is known to kill people. God I love that man. I wish your friend the best.
Sometimes principles are just more important than money...
I have no intention to explain my work in any way, but money is not everything, feeling good, having a clean conscience is the most important thing for some people. The sense of being useful is a great reward too, sometimes greater than money or fame.
I agree with all of you. Nope it was not the moral principles I was talking about.
A person goes for an interview. He does not like being asked to code in the interview. But he is asked those questions. Now he is wroth having in the company but because he is not interested in answering such questions in the interview, he perhaps wont be considered.
That is where I think he needs to be a little flexible.
Well, yeah, Anoop, I agree...flexible! After all, if he can't do that, or doesn't want to, the employer can think, this person doesn't want to follow instructions, or is difficult.
GG, the problem is that the employer, in this case my manager, would not even know that he is good enough if he does not answer those questions. :(
I know how you feel about your friend. He's a bit, um, stubborn, you would say? :-( indeed.
The thing about doing an interview is that the prospective employee is selling his skill...he wants the employer to buy.
So sell, sell!
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