Humbling ! Truly humbling !!

The diagnosis has brought in ample "humility" along with the usual rest-of-it, that it comes with.

We have no control.

Being proud of things one does right .. not the pride that comes across as boasting or arrogance, but more affably preachy types.

-  Take care of your health.
-  If you do not find time for exercise, you ll find time for falling sick
etc. All that lil pleasures of advising, caring with self at the center, as an example. No point really !

All that - "Stay cool.. and you are not in control of future" ! - better said than done.

That sense of satisfaction in providing for the family, the sense of accomplishment in being a useful employee - all that creates a small sense of pride inside. Somewhere. Over a period of time.

And then, all that comes crashing down .. making one believe "really!! You take credit for that ?, can you sustain it ?"

Its been a very humbling lesson indeed !

A true *test* ?

In India, the students pursuing computer science, want to be developers when they come out of school and enter their dream IT companies. The formal education, curriculum around testing and validation has evolved just a bit, in last 20 years. The project work even the masters do, all focused on churning some leveraged code, which can not stand the test of productization, field usage even for a day.

So, today we were trying out an experiment to boost our luck of hiring young talented engineers motivated about test. The experiment had all the known pitfalls addressed.

Masters only, so no attrition after 2 yrs for higher study. M.Techs means MBA vs. MS ambiguity is over. Compensation is good. It was clearly marketed as network testing role, so people who are truly interested would come for it. Campus season is over, and all of them are placed. So, only when truly interested in this company, they will come to the test. - That was the thought !

So, 250+ students wrote the test, 45 selected for interview, and 19 cleared the interview for 8 positions available.

So, as a tie breaker, we went to the "team work" test round. Single, large problem to be solved by a larger group, while observers watch their approach, who takes the lead, who provides clues, who helps others, who leverages others - all that.

And, one group was "Strong Hires" from tech rounds, and the other batch "Hires" !

Interestingly I found the "Strong Hire" side was all over each other, making a point each - thinking like "Developers". While the "Strong" batch was more civil in discussing the problem, and coming somewhat to a decent solution, and thinking more fundamentally correct way.

Question it - were those "Strong Hires" from technical interview rounds all "faked" during the interview about being "passionate" about test ?

Will know, only after they join and see them work for some time :)