Jignesh's Blog

PHPCamp 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:56:00 +0000

PHPCamp was held first time in India, on 20th Sept 08. It's un-conference where you can share your knowledge/ideas with campers (attendees).

Venue was Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd, Pune. I reached there around 9:30 am. I entered my presentation details on display board. I had two sessions - Performance Tunning in PHP and Debugging with PHP.

After 3 words introductions of 700 campers, parallelly two sessions were started on 7th and 4th floor. My both sessions were on arranged on 4th floor. One was in morning and another in afternoon. My morning session was about Performance tunning in PHP. I entered in conference room with my Suse Linux powered Vaio notebook. I was amazed to see the crowd, who were waiting to attend my talk. Even campers were standing to listen my talk. I didn't expect that much campers in my talk.

After my first talk, I got a chance to meet Ranjeeta, ex-Yahoo like me. She was with her Adda team. I had long technological discussion with them. Then i met Vaibhav Arya, CTO at Directi. He was in my performance talk. He did couple of argue on PHP $_SESSIONs with me in between my talk. During lunch we (my self and Vaibhav)discussed, how to gain performance in web application. "We should reduce system I/O calls, to get better performance", said Vaibhav. As per my (limited) technical knowledge, system I/O calls are biggest overhead in PHP performance. And my performance talk was mostly targeted on how to reduce system I/O calls.

During lunch time I met lots of campers - Rohit, Tarun, BigAdda fellows, few Directi techies. Lunch arrangement was very nice even though un-organizers (Amit / Priyank), didn't arrange it for 700 campers. During lunch timing Vaibhav introduced with Directi's Pretty Hot Programmers.

After lunch I attended session on Web Application Scalability by Vaibhav. It was awesome. Then I had another session - Dubugging with PHP. I discussed about Xdebug in this talk. Campers were impressive with Xdebug's features. Let me thank to Derick Retahns for creating such a nice tools on behalf of campers.

There were few other sessions like Open Social with Orkut, PHP Security, PHP-MySQL tips, Drupal, Joomla etc, though i attended couple of sessions.

I got a chance to meet one of my old friend Anu, who is working at Persistent. We have shared the employer in the past.

I went there with my digi-cam and I tried to capture few moments. You can find it here. More PHPCamp photos are available on PHPCamp Flickr group.

My presentation slides are available on my slideshare.

Finally it was awesome PHPCamp, I pleased to meet PHP community members and PHP users from Pune, Mumbai, Ahmednagar, Bangalore.

Hoping to have high intensity blast next year. It's not about terrorist bomb blast, but it's about PHPCamp '09.

PHPCamp in Pune

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:26:00 +0000

In last week I was reading feeds from www.phpdeveloper.org My eye caught on the news about PHPCamp, Pune.

Yeah, PHPCamp is the PHP unconference in India, to make PHP community bigger, where you can share your ideas/knowledge on PHP.

Even Details:

Date: 20th September 2008 (Saturday)

Time: 10:00am to 6:00pm (Whole day event) .

Location: Pune, India

Who should attend this event?

If you are PHP developer or beginner or want to learn about PHP, come to PHPCamp.
If you know something and want to share with the community, give a talk on it.
If you are entrepreneur and want to adopt PHP, come to PHPCamp.

And I've also decided to speak there.

Join PHPCamp on Google Groups.

Hope to see you there :)

A lot could happen with HR executive

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:35:00 +0000

When I moved to Pune, it was my dream to find a good girl in Pune. The ultimate goal was to find a girl whom with I can enjoy my weekends. So my life would not be lonely. I don’t want to make my life more misery than it was in Mumbai.

Hence, I always love to use competitor’s product. I have learnt it from my Yahoo! days. One day I was just browsing the competitor’s product Mooskers and I found one girl. I sent her message which intended to flirt. And she responded the message which contained more flirt than I did. She looked quite gorgeous in her Dating Card - user’s public profile which indicated her location as Pune and profession as HR executive. Almost a month passed in message exchanging, then we decided to set a date at Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) in weekend. We met in last weekend. Oh, I forget to mention her name – Diya.

We choose CCD at Baner because we both are staying in Baner, not a bad place to stay in Pune. Actually it’s called as a Baner Village but the real-estate is costlier than Metro.

Here is the almost conversation we had.

“Hi, I’m Jignesh Thummar”, I greeted her with my introductory handshake.

“Diya”, with cute smile on her beautiful face and having quite maintained physic. She wasn’t looking that much beauty as it was described by her photographer. Not to mention, she had a nice frame-less glasses in which she looked damned cute rather than beauty. Her height seemed 5 feet 6 inches and weight around 56 kg. But not a bad look, in huge competition. I was thinking, why didn’t she mention her last name. But in general, whenever girls introduce first time they keep away their last name. But does it matter? For me it didn’t matter at all.

Luckily it was early evening, with few clouds in the sky and her hair were bounded with small hair bend even though cold wind was making her hair falling on smiling face. A perfect climate for date.

We ordered cold coffee for both.

“So how come you are free on this weekend?”, on most of the weekend recruitment keep her busy. I asked her. Just I wanted to start a conversation.

“Yaar, what can I do? It’s a part of Job. We have to go week end, but company give comp-off for this.” She replied.

“Diya, till now you haven’t mention your employer name?”, she already knew my employer's name. So I wanted to know her.

“I do work in Metalica Softwares, the US based company but founded by Indian”

“Wow, good”, I responded.

In between, waiter came with coffee. I thanked him.

“What about you? You are Software Engineer, but are you working in which platform?”, she asked.

“I’m working in PHP. We are making our audience happy on Internet. Our audience’s happiness lead to our happiness.”, I replied.

“I have heard PHP, but I haven’t heard this kind of work profile. I’m in this field since mid 2005. Your profile seems quite interesting and new for me. But first tell me what is PHP exactly?”, still smile was there on her face.

“PHP, Hypertext..... never mind. It’s web programming language. It’s the thing that powers more websites than any other language”, I skipped the technical thing.

I stopped to get response from her. But she didn’t say anything. So I continued, “Umm, It powers Yahoo!”

“Generally I use Rediff or MSN to surf the net. Does PHP power it?” she seems interested to know which other things powered by PHP.

“No. Rediff is in JAVA and MSN is in Dotnet. But which social network do you use to connect with your friends?”, I thought to ask about her social life on Internet.

“Orkut – my favourite site on Internet. Does your PHP power it?”, replied as she has achieved so many things after signing up in Orkut.

“No it doesn’t. They use Dotnet. But world’s most trafficked social network site – Facebook is powered by PHP. World’s first social network site - Friendster is in PHP and even Wikipedia is powered by PHP. I can say almost 40-50% Ineternet media is powered by PHP. Moreover, it’s Open Source!!!”, I tried to explain her PHP in business prospects rather than technical.

“It seems powerful language. That’s why nowadays our company is looking for PHP developers like you. Why don’t you forward your CV to me?”, she tried to get one resource for her employer. No way, I’m not the resource she was looking for!

“Yeah, it’s powerful. But, right now I’m not looking for job change.” I tried to change the topic,” What about your job profile?”

“My job includes recruitment and maintaining the relationship between employees and employer.”, she gave short description about her job profile.

“Diya, I have heard that, HRs are always super busy. What’s the reason of it?”, I asked.

“Because we are only 4 HRs including our manager. Just think, for 500 employees, how can we manage recruitment, employee care, party–picnic organization etc.? That’s reason it keep us busy.”, she answered.

“Ok.”, I gave up, because there is no meaning to fight against HR’s work profile. They have their own HR fundas. But continued with other topic, “People are thinking that IT is in recession mode, is it true?”

“Somehow true and somehow wrong. Because it’s depend on your company’s client and company’s management. If your company’s client is not affording your billing, then it’s true.”, she replied.

“So do you think IT is not safe in India? Does it affect on job openings?”, I asked.

“I can’t say about safety. But that’s sure; there are so many job openings in market. And because of it we are suffering from attrition. In last couple of year attrition rate is very high. This is my first job; I’m here since mid 2005. In my first year, I didn’t see much attrition. In fact it’s increased by 20% compare to last to last year. This is the most important thing, which is making us super busy everyday”, she responded with cute smile.

“Nice research about industry. But do you think, it will affect on appraisal?” I was thinking to ask same question to my employer’s HR. But I’m bounded with my limitations. So I decided not to ask them, I will get to know, when hike letter will come in my hand.

“A nice question. Let me share some confidential thing with you. Just last week we had meeting with company’s upper management. One of my lady colleague proposed that we should take advantage of recession, we will show that, because of recession company need to do cost cutting. And for that company will give less hike compare to last year.”, HR always carries lots of confidential information. One should have girl friend in their employer’s HR department.

“But Diya, if you will give less hike, then your company’s attrition rate will be increased more than current rate, isn’t it? So do you want to reduce attrition rate or give less hike to your employees?”, I raised the topic in more depth.

“That’s the thing we got stuck. That meeting was lasted for 5 hours on this topic only. Still we are doing survey about other company’s policy for this year. But again, it’s up to your employer’s upper management. ”

It was around 9:00 pm. She wanted to meet her friend at Pizza-Hut, Aundh. I hope, he is not her BF. So decided to leave CCD.

“Nice to see you and pleased to meet you as a friend.”, I thought, she can help me in job change whenever I need it.

“Same here. Bye”, seemed that she was in hurry. But smile was still there.

“Bye, Jignesh. Take care”. She was gone.

After coming out from CCD, I just looked on the CCD board. It’s saying, “A lot can happen over coffee..." It was somehow true.”If not a lot, but sure something can happen over coffee…” Yes, something was happened.

Note: Competitor’s product name is changed to hide my work profile. My friend Diya’s name and her employer’s name are changed to protect her job. She doesn't have any relationship with Talentica.

Disclaimer:

In this post, all are my own and Diya’s words. I’m employed at Talentica. My employer’s HR department don’t agree on this. If you think, they do agree, then you might need some serious medication.

Google is selling Orkut to Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:14:00 +0000

“Google has tried to stand in Social Network market. It has developed Open Social API to make better look of web. Since Open Social API launch, Google is failed to attract good social apps developers who can put good application for Orkut’s apps product directory. Because of huge competition, less audiences and less advertisers, Google has planned to sell Orkut to Facebook. From 1^st May 2008, www.orkut.com will be automatically redirected to www.facebook.com .
All Orkut users’ profile will be automatically created in Facebook with same Orkut user name and password. Orkut’s scrap page would be converted into Facebook wall. Orkut communities would be Facebook groups.

Moreover, Facebook agrees to launch next version of development platform which would be based on Open Social API. The current platform will support till the next platform launch. And the apps which are on the current Facebook platform would be converted into Open Social platform by Facebook engineers. So Facebook will hire the developers who know both Facebook platform and Open Social API. Facebook will plan to open its second development center which would be in India.

This deal will be entirely in cash rather than stocks.”

I got this news from my old pal who is employed at Googleplex.

He he he LOL :D

Every year on 1^st April Google does some big announcement about Google’s new product or reveal the technology behind existence product. In actual, it’s April fool hoaxes which lead to an intellectual sense of humor. So I thought this year I will make April fool hoax before Google does.
Look on Google's previous April fool hoaxes at here.

Happy March ending :)

Quitting from Smoke

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:07:00 +0000

Tobacco smoke is extremely complex in makeup, with over four thousand compounds identified in its composition. A total of sixteen known carcinogens, fourteen alkalis, and numerous other compounds with known biological activity are included in the four thousand plus compounds. Tobacco smoke is a mixture of gases in tiny droplets, and when a person inhales, about fifty percent of the inhaled smoke is retained in the lungs, and some of the droplets are deposited directly in the walls of the bronchial tubes. It directly causes lung cancer.

Each cigarette contains from one to three milligrams of nicotine, and for smokers who inhale, up to ninety percent of the nicotine is absorbed into the lungs. Nicotine causes constriction of the superficial vessels in the limbs; it raises the blood pressure; it increases the pulse rate; it makes the heart work harder. Its effects on the digestive tract are insidious and complex. It can cause nausea and vomiting, especially when one begins to smoke. It acts as a stimulant on the central nervous system. From above conclusion, single cigarette sounds like a dose of lethal poison.

And the worst thing about nicotine is that it's addictive. The levels of nicotine can easily be manipulated during the manufacturing process. "If," the level of nicotine is artificially increased, then smokers would naturally become addicted much faster. More addicted smokers mean more cigarettes sale. And more sales lead to more profit for cigarette companies. They intentionally kept nicotine high so people got hooked!

“Nicotine is physically and psychologically addicted to human”, stated Dr. Ashmita (new friend, came in contact from one old relationship with her friend), who works at Cancer Ward, Surat General Medical Hospital.

"Smoking cessation (stopping smoking) represents the single most important step that smokers can take to enhance the length and quality of their lives", says Dr. Yogesh Vaghela (an old pal since schooling days), who is Surgeon General in medical science.

Former drug addicts have testified that it was easier to quit heroin and cocaine than cigarettes.

MY SMOKING HISTORY
It was 6th April 2004, I smoked first cigarette in my life. Not to calculate how many days and how many cigarettes I smoked. Initially I was not heavy smoker (i.e. in 3rd and 4th year of Engineering). As I was struggling for job searching in Pune, I was in much frustration for not getting interview calls. In this phase the rate was increased. After coming in Industry it was regulation. In general, smokers can make friends very easily – as they are always gossiping together at cigarette/tea tapri(shop). And if your friend offers a cigarette, you can’t refuse to him. Initially I used to smoke 3-4 per day, but later on it increased to 8-9 per day and some days or on occasion it was reaching up to 13-14. Really it was too much, I knew that I was crossing my limit, but I couldn’t able to control on it. Since very long time I’m thinking to quit from it. But every time I failed on my decision. Now surly, it’s time to quit from it. I thought too much on it. And it’s DONE now.

CONCLUSION
I'm convinced cigarettes are dangerous and deadly; they kill more than four hundred thousand people a year; they're loaded with nicotine by their makers, who've known for a long time that the stuff is addictive; they could be a lot safer if the companies wanted, but the nicotine would be reduced and thus sales would suffer.

Special thanks to my friends, co-workers who tried to take me away from cigarette smoke. But I didn’t thorough it. It was my mistake. I confess it.

INSPIRATION
I inspired from The Runaway Jury – a novel by John Grisham. In last week when i was reading this novel I decided to quit very soon. The nicotine related most of the contents are taken from his novel.

If you are smoker and bit interested to read novel, please read this novel. It’s worth to read. If you want e-copy of this novel, just drop a mail to me. I will send you.

PS: come back after a week to know, pros and cons of quitting from smoke.

flickr has been cloned

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:27:00 +0000

I was just flipping through my google reader, i saw one blog and that guy has just posted the blog on his photos. I would not reveal that great blogger's name. But I can say he is very famous "funny blogger" in blogging community.

Almost one year back, the internet media startup ibibo has recently launched beta version of ibibo photos . Have a look on it!!! Its completely cloned from flickr , a yahoo!'s photo services company. I'm wonder, does any flickr developer or product manager has joined this startup. When ibibo started, mostly they hired from Yahoo! Bangalore. A typical startup company's policy, hiring from competitor.

Just have look on this product. After seeing my snapshot definitely you will say, its just directly copied form flickr. Scroll down to see all the snapshots, which i took for my flickr and ibibo photo accounts.

Snapshots

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own and neither Blogger nor any other party necessarily agrees with it.

Trekking at Harishchandra Gadh

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:14:00 +0000

I was much curious to join any trekking group as I love to see the god’s creations. And luckily I got the trekking group in my own company. In Talentica, so many folks are trekking lovers including our most senior Project Manager. They organized a trekking a few days back. I decided to take part on their trekking. And now officially I’m member of Talentica Trekking Club (TTC), it was announced by TTC’s Chairman and President Ranjan Kumar.

The Trek was on Harishchandra Gadh in Sahyadri, Maharashtra.

Trekkers:

TTC’s Chairman and President – Ranjan Kumar, the fish-ponder and employee title announcer of Talentica.
TTC’s Senior VP – Sandip More, ______________ (it’s for you… Please add a comment about his description).
TTC’s Financial Controller – Rakesh Pathak, the Marathon winner (Talentica Marathon)
TTC’s Resource Manager – Ashish Pande (Pandeji), he is master in describing the Dams among all over the India. He has visited all of the Dams in Maharashtra. And particularly he loves to visit Bhushi Dam, Lonavala. He visits Bhushi Dam monthly.
TTC’s ex-General Manager – Manoj Rana, the guy who made a place for me in Talentica.
And of course me – Jignesh Thummar, Do I need the description about me?

Journey:

Harishchandra Gadh is located on Kalyan-Ahmed Nagar main road. If you are in Mumbai, you can pick any ST bus which is running towards Ahmed Nagar or Nashik via Aale Phata and you have to get down Khubi Phata. If you are in Pune, you can pick any ST bus going towards Ahmed Nagar or Nashik and you have to get down Aale Phata. And from Aale Phata to again you have to pick a bus towards Khubi Phata. And from Khubhi Phata there is 8 KM distance to Khireshwar- the base village of Harishchandra Gadh, is the starting point of trekking for trekkers. Even though there is direct bus to Khireshwar from Pune which start around 4:00 pm from Pune Station. (Later on we got to know this). This is the journey route for Harishchandra Gadh. Let me tell you something about our experience.

We started around 7:00 pm from Pune and picked a bus towards Nashik, which dropped us Aale Phata around 9:30 pm. From Aale Phata to Khube Phata its around 1 hour journey in ST bus, if you get the bus. On Aale phata we inquired about the bus for Khube Phata. Everybody was telling that, there is bus frequency at every hour. But during early night to get a bus towards Khube Phata is on your luck. We got bus around 12:00 am. And we reached there within 40 minutes. It was Poonam on that night. So moon, stars and hills around it, were clearly visible. The look around Khube Phata was awesome with nice climate. During night you will not get any vehicle for Khireshwar – base village. Not any option. We had to walk to reach base village. And we started our trekking from Khube Phata itself. There is a nice Dam on the way to base village. We all were walking very fast. While we are walking Sandeep More was telling us ghost stories. He was telling that, during his one trek he met a lady ghost and she had mobile in her hand. But we all knew that the ghost thing is all fictions. We were just laughing on his stories. Even Pandeji asked him, why he didn’t take ghost’s cell number. Within an hour we covered almost 5 KMs. We were not that much tired but we decided to take rest for couple of hours, because actual trekking was long. From base village to Harishchandra Gadh is almost 4 hours trekking. And we found one School on the way. We ate some snacks and fruit juice.

School was nice place to take a nap. But when Ranjan Kumar was snoring at that time it is very difficult to take a nap for 5 minutes. Ranjan Kumar has started snoring since he get entry in his sleeping bag. Though we took some physical rest and it was needed.

In early morning we stared around 4:45 am and around 5:30 am we reached base village – Khireshwar. It was Poonam’s night and we ware thinking that we could plan this night trek. And most of the people had done night trek on that day. They must have started in early night and taking fun of camp fire on the way and they could reach around mid night, take rest for 4-5 hours and morning they can roam around Harishchandra Gadh.

The trekking journey was too much nice, though some places are little bit risky. And some risky places there are railings, so that you can take a support of it.

We reached there around 9:15 am. So it’s around 4 hours trekking. There is temple of Shivji and very good Shivling. There is eatable food available on the top. So no need to carry more food with you, otherwise your trekking bag will be heavy. You can get, Pauha, Tea, Sabji-Roti and Khichdi. But we found, one family bought packs of Maggy. If you go there, keep Maggy packs with you. You can boil maggy in the restaurant owner’s utensils. You will not get any kind of juice on top.

There is one point Kokan Kada, it’s half an hour walk from temple. It’s very nice point to see the scenic beauty of Sahyadri Hills. If you are standing, you can’t take view of the down side. Really if you want to take a view, you have to laid down on sleeping pose. Then only you can see it. We feel, the magnificence of Harishchandra Gadh is Konkan Kada. If you go to Harishchandra Gadh and you don’t visit this place, then you are missing something. We snapped so many photos there in different poses.

Another point, Taramati Point, almost 40 minutes almost vertical climbing from Temple. It is the top most point on Harishcahndra Gadh. It’s risky to get on the top of that point. If you are not much tired, you can visit this place. From this place you can see the complete view of Harishchandra Gadh. Here you can see the Dam of base village. And the road from Khubi Phata to Khireshwar.

Now time for back to pavilion. We started 3:15 pm and we reached 5:30 pm on the base village. Again the same case there is not transportation after 5:00 pm towards Khubi Phata. So you have plan accordingly. We were too much tired. We thought to take whole night rest in base village and catch a bus in next morning towards Pune. But it was Sunday. On next morning we have to reach office. There is bus from base village to Pune at 5:30 am. But luckily we got lift in car. Around 7:00 pm we reached Khube Phata. And we got one truck. The truck ride was nice and Manoj was enjoying talk with truck driver. Manoj wanted to seat in truck like he is seating at Talentica’s reception desk’s sofa as a guest. First time in my life I travelled in truck. The truck driver drop us Narayan Goan, form there we got bus towards Pune. And we reached Pune at 11:00 pm.

Overall, it was my first trek, but I enjoyed too much. The awesome trek with Talentican trekking crazy public. Our Project manager has been 14 times there. So you can amaze, how the beauty of this place. Even I have heard that people are trekking on this place during monsoon. It must be fun as well as much risky in monsoon.

The photos this trek can be found here

Really it was warm welcome in the trekking world!!!

PS: Don't forget to add a comment about Sandip More

my worst experience about Gujarat's IT company

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:38:00 +0000

I wrote this mail in Gujarat_IT_Movement@yahoogroups.com

Hello Friends,

In this group few of the people knows very well about me and my experience about one of the IT Company in Ahmedabad. Though let me give a short introduction about me.

I’m Jignesh Thummar, B.E. Computer Sc. From SVNIT,Surat (formerly known as REC Surat) , 2005 batch passed out, a kid in this highly growing and booming IT industry. My family is in Ahmedabad. I was in Mumbai till September ’07 and I did work in Yahoo! India. Now I’m in Pune working for a small company. But few of the people around Gujarat IT Industry are creating terror while you are on the growing phase of your career. And I’m going to write about it in brief. So keep patience while reading, it will help you taking a career oriented decision (particularly those who wants to move in Gujarat). And at lastly I will show the real conversation between me and company’s HR with looped in company’s MD.

Disclaimer: This writing is whole and sole on my practical experience based incident. For any kind of punishment neither GIM(Gujarat_IT_Movement) group nor me are responsible. If somebody post a reply on same thread and they reveal company’s name, though me or GIM are not responsible for market damage of talent capitalization. I’m pretty sure this is going to hurt somebody, but let it be and I don’t care about it. But that might be helpful to others while making a career in IT industry of Gujarat.

Here I’m not going to disclose the company name publicly, after all they are into business and they want to do their business, in fact want to expand it in India. (Why should I kick on somebody’s stomach?) . But the smart people like me, will easily figure out the company name.

During whole reading the company name will be referred as The Company, the Managing Director of the company will be referred as MD and the HR Consultant will be referred as HR. Anyways both are going to read this thing, as they both are in the same mailing list, the HR with real identity (but people and industry know him as nick name only) and MD with fake email address but real name is clearly displaying on the members list page of the GIM group.(I found this thing very smartly). I guess, this much hint will be sufficient for the smart people to reveal the company name. Just read this thing properly, definitely you will find the identities of both.

It was around first week of June ’07. I had seen the mail about PHP job opening in Gujarat_IT_jobs yahoo groups. It was posted by the company’s HR. I thought, I should try out for Gujarat’s company. And I just replied that mail to HR without sending my CV. I asked for the company name to him. And he gave me the complete profile and I responded him with my resume. I thought, the company is Silicon Valley, CA based and they have started the development center in A’bad. I was quite impressive with the company profile.

Within couple of days they conducted my telephonic interview. I want to write in brief about the technical interview but it will be too long. But let me tell you one thing here. The technical panel was taking PHP interview of candidate with 1 year 8 months exp in PHP. Do you want to know what kind of question they had asked me? They asked me brief in kernel and threading of OS. Just tell me which Application developer knows about the System Programming. It was just example but they asked me so many. Though they had asked me about PHP questions as well.

Within 2-3 days they called me for personal interview round. While calling for personal Interview the HR’s very first question was,"Do you planning to come A’bad in near future, so that we can schedule your personal interview?" I guess it was irrelevant question, while you calling to candidate for Interview. I planned my interview in the same next week. Thanks to Raj National Express for providing online booking facilities.

It was 9th July 2007, Saturday. I entered in to premises of the company which was too much huge to occupy 25 employees. I thought they must have big expansion in India. The HR welcomed me and I greeted to him with introduction pleasantry. With warm welcome he asked me very first question, “Hey, Jignesh what’s your current CTC?”, I thought it was the screening round question, but why the hell bloody HR was asking me that question on that day. What he was doing during my interview process? Wasn’t he busy with new job posting in Gujarat_IT_jobs groups?

“It’s 4.0 lacs PA”, I replied while clearing my throat, though my heart beats where increasing.

“And what’s your expectation?”, again right question at wrong time.

"Not that kind of special expectation, Just I want to move A’bad back", I responded him highly professionally.

“Is it 8 lacs or 9 lacs ???”, the HR asked me.

“No, no … not that much!!!”, I responded while I was thinking whether they are capable of it or not?

“Why? We are not capable to give that much?”, he demanded reply from my side.

“OK. We can discuss this thing after my personal interview”, I just defended to him.

Luckily on that Saturday they had off for employee but they are working on Saturdays. The Silicon Valley based company work on Saturdays, very strange. Even local companies in B’lore, Hyderabad or Pune are not working on Saturdays. Here it’s a lack of professionalism. There are so many things where you can find un-professionalism. These things are started by our own Gujarati leaders and we have to suffer it.

Within 5 minutes I entered in MD’s cabin. We greeted each other. Even HR was also there in same cabin. He asked me about my introduction. I gave it in very brief. In between his mobile (I guess it was HP PDA) started ringing. He started talking in Gujarati with caller. He had nice personality with typical management attitude and very young guy to manage a Silicon Valley based company, oh...he is the co-founder of the company as well.

While discussing the things I said, “I love to work on Open Source. I do all day, everyday PHP and Linux”, and still I’m doing. (Recruiters are not welcome, currently i'm not looking for job change)

“What you have contributed in Open Source world?”, his quick question.

“I have not contributed anything”, I replied.

“Then you are not working in Open Source”, he responded fast.

“No...No...MD, you are wrong, but I’m active user of so many mailing list related to open source and I’m responding to the people’s queries”, I defended him.

This way we fought too much, I was facing too much tough personal interview.

I have only 52.5% aggregate marks of engineering, so he asked me why too much less percentage?

“May be my work and study was not in proper direction and another thing, to getting mark from faculties of SVNIT, Surat wasn’t that much easy. In other universities topper has more than 85%, while in SVNIT topper is playing around 70-72%.”, I replied after little thoughts.

“No, Jignesh, this is wrong assumption. But you have very good faculties. One of my friends is professor in your college, in fact in your department.”, he started lightly discussion.

Then he gave me details about his friend. His friend was one of my favourite faculty members.

I have very good or very bad habit, you can say it. Whenever I’m going for interview or I’m going to meet any unknown person, before that I’m always doing Internet Research(Its Googling, I’m not Googler but one day I will be) on that person. I found the company’s MD name from company’s website. And I just done little googling and I found his profile on LinkedIn, the very well known social networking site, in the Internet Market. He has written about his contact details in USA.

He asked me next question, “Why do you want to come back in Gujarat?”, the stupidest question of the interview. He knows about me and my family background in Ahmedabad. Then why did he ask me this question?

I thought, now it’s time to show smartness and to being a smarter than smartest(the MD).

“MD, If I’m not wrong, you are US return, right? Why so?”, a quick question rather than answer from me.

“Yes. I was in US. I’m back because of family reasons”, he said.

“Same with me”, I replied with coolness. He got answer form his own answer.

Again we had some technical discussion. He informed me about the company’s culture. It was kind of Okay. Typically Gujarat based IT company!!! You can’t say it as good. He told me about the work profile. Blah… Blah… Even also asked me about, why I want to leave Yahoo! ? I had big discussion on it. But it will be too long to write it here.

I thought he would give me offer on the spot. But here it was the different scenario.

“If you want to work here, we are ready to hire you. But I will not consider your almost 2 years experience as experience. Here the Interns with 3 months of experience are giving more output than you. For you, i will calculate less than one year experience.”, he asked me.

“OK”, a quiet simple reply. But it hurt me too much. If I had rights to slapped him, I would have done it. I had too much verbal fight with him. He wasn’t ready to count my work experience. If he was getting unexpected productivity from Interns then, why he is hiring experience talent, as in Job Opening it was written that you need 2+ exp. and nowadays they are seeking for 4+ years of work experience(Courtesy: Times Ascent). That was $1 million question, wasn’t it? Generally, so many Gujarat based companies are doing same thing. The companies’ upper management is thinking that, they can play with candidates’ emotions.But No, its wrong. Now onwards it will not happen. That's my promise.

Till that time, they didn’t ask me about my salary expectation.

“OK. Jignesh, you take your time to make a decision. And let us know, within a day or two about your decision. ”, he said.

Till the question about salary expectation was hanging. None of them asked it. I thought they will ask me in next conversation.

I left their office. I was ready to accept the offer, even if they would offer me same as my current salary.

The next day, I informed to HR about my interest to join the company. He replied on phone, “Jignesh, You will get the best offer. I will discuss with MD and will let you know about the next process.” It was Sunday. I left A’bad on Sunday evening as I wanted to join office on Monday morning.

It was 11th June ’07 and Monday, I wasn’t eager to wait for that company’s offer. On noon I got e-offer letter from HR’s mailbox. Just guess, how much did they offer me? It was neither the same as my current one nor Rs 8 or Rs 9 lacs which was HR discussing. It was only Rs 2 lacs PA. (You can say in Guajrati as, Bhasta kutra kadi karde nahi) (In English: The braking dog will never cut you)

I responded him quickly without thinking for single moment.

Here is the conversation between me and HR with looped in company’s MD. Though I had sent same thing to few of the members, but read it carefully. You will enjoy it. The Blue colour is the conversation of thread. Just keep your eyes on the timing of emails.

From: HR
To: Jignesh Thummar
Cc: MD
Sent: Monday, 11 June, 2007 12:15:16 PM
Subject: Offer Letter :

Jignesh,

Attached please find the Offer from us.

Once you accept it, we will post Hard copies to your address with us so that you can return one copy after signing.

Look forward to having you on board at COMPANY.

HR’s Name
Head Manpower Resourcing

I replied of his e-offer very nicely.

From: Jignesh Thummar
Sent: Mon 6/11/2007 1:42 PM
To: HR
Cc: MD
Subject: Re: Offer Letter :

Hi HR,
Thanks a lot for your offer. Really I had a nice time at your office while facing the toughest interview I have ever faced (only HR round).

In our telephonic conversation, yesterday you told me that I will get best offer among the industry. I don't think this offer is the BEST one. (Almost 2 years industry exp. and package 2 lacs PA. and leaving brand like Yahoo!..... such a sad offer) So simply it’s rejected.

MD, really you are expert in hiring top talent. But I am different kind of talent. In span of my career's 21 months, I have given total 7 interviews. 6 out of 7 are cleared with more than you offered me. In last month I have rejected offer of 4.5 lacs PA. Even at level of 6 months industry experience, one company offered me more than 2 lacs PA. So bottom line is, I'm not the talent which you are looking in concern of the compensation.

Once again thanks a lot for your offer.

Regards,
Jignesh Thummar

I had written about expert in hiring top talent, because company’s website editor has written about him on company’s website. Editor has written that MD is expert in hiring top talents.

Now HR’s reply on the same:

From: HR
To: Jignesh Thummar
Cc: MD
Sent: Monday, 11 June, 2007 2:28:05 PM
Subject: RE: Offer Letter :

Jignesh,

Thank you for your Email.

You must realise that we are offering you a compensation in line with others in the organisation -- so that there is no disparity -- to begin with.

Also, we would have revised your compensation once you delivered more than what was expected out of you and that you were really outshining the others !

By not spending a little time over our offer; you may have just missed one good opportunity in Ahmedabad !

However, our doors are open - you will have to reappear for round(s) of interview - as and when you want to seriously reconsider your decision.

Our offer is still valid for the next 7 days.

Should you still decide to reject; we wish you all the very best in your future endeavours and do keep in touch.

HR,

Head Manpower Resourcing

Again HR had tried to convince me. But I already took my decision. And I was in mood to do e-fight with them. I decided that I will write such a way that, they should realize that they picked a wrong guy. I replied his mail again.

From: Jignesh Thummar [mailto:jignesh_svnit@yahoo.co.in]
Sent: Mon 6/11/2007 4:40 PM
To: HR
Cc: MD
Subject: Re: Offer Letter :

HR,

Yes, I realize one very good thing. When somebody tells that they are offering best compensation, so it’s BEST among the company not industry!!! I am enough mature to know, how company's management is revised the compensation even though your input is highly appreciated.

If I were outshining the others, you could have offered me at least more than current compensation not half of the current!

By not spending a little more money over my talent and tag, you have missed one good talent from brand.

Simply I am rejecting your offer today itself, why should I wait for next 7 days? (I'm quick decision maker :))

Wishing you all the BEST for your future and your branding in open source world.

See you in nearest future as a competitor.

Regards,

Jignesh Thummar

Now what can HR do in this type of scenario? Finally he had to surrender. And he did it, by writing simple line in his last email.

From: HR
To: Jignesh Thummar
Sent: Monday, 11 June, 2007 5:37:08 PM
Subject: RE: REPLY

Jignesh,

I like your style.... keep in touch.

HR,

Head Manpower Resourcing

This is complete non-fiction. Whatever i have written here, its completely true.

So, try to learn a lesson from my experience. Before giving any interview in Guajrat’s company, frankly tell them about your expectation. Otherwise you will waste your time. They don’t care about time. That’s why they all do work on Saturdays. They are hard workers not smart workers. Industry does care only for smart workers.

My dear friends, you must have enjoyed my writing. I know it was too much long but how can I hide the truth? It took me 3 hours to write it and 1 hour for QA. I love to writing on my personal life. This writing is not only limited for GIM group. It will be posted on my weblog site http://jignesht.blogspot.com/ . So the friends around me can know the worst experience.

I’m pretty sure, after sending this email my mail box will be flooded with queries. I would love to response your queries even if it will be personal. But it will take 2-3 days to get back your response, as I’m too much busy with my work schedule.

PS: Neither company’s MD nor HR’s mail will be entertained on this regard. Even job recruiters’ mails are not entertained.

Thanks a lot for reading too much.

Regards,

Jignesh Thummar

16 hours of Unemployment

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:26:00 +0000

On 13^th Sept 2007, Thursday was my last day at Yahoo, I got so many wishes and gifts from my yahoo friends. It was too much misery while leaving Yahoo’s work desk and most importantly Yahoos. I tried my best to stop tears rolling out from my eyes, though my eyes got moisturized little bit.

I left Yahoo Office at 6:00 pm with my Vashi cab-mates. And I was supposed to join my next job nearly 10:00 am on 14^th Sept 2007, Friday. So I was unemployed for 16 hours.

On Thursday night I was thinking that, what would happen, if I don’t have job? I got so many thoughts in my mind.

1. Very first I would plan for MBA, so that I can get a job in market and I can survive in this world (for at least two meals per day).

2. Who will pay for my cigarette? (I am not smoking any cigarette which paid from non-smoker’s wallet) .So I wouldn’t have any option rather than quitting from it. It will be better for pocket as well as for health.

3. Who will give money to purchase those costly novels?

4. Who will pay for my 3 credit card’s unpaid bills?

5. Most importantly, I have to change my mobile from post paid connection to pre-paid connection.

6. Whenever I will go on date with gorgeous girls, I don’t need to pay those restaurant bills. So sad for those girls!!! But still those beautiful girls are welcome.

So many things can happen to me!!!

PS: This blog could have been much much better and i could have got numbers of hits (PVs) on my blogs. If i would not get good PVs(Page Views), you can purely blame to my new friend AD. She didn't give me too much time for unemployment, so i didn't get too much exposure on my unemployment. I know, it affected too much on my blog audience, but i can't do any thing!!! For everything, she is the only responsible.

Last mail to Yahoos

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:18:00 +0000

Hi All,

Life is moving so fast and it will never halt during any circumstances. The word GOOD BYE, itself makes, keeps, leaves and importantly does so many things. The time has come to do many things. It was very pleasant and wonderful journey of one beautiful year as a Yahoo while doing yahoo and working together with Yahoos.

I know all yahoos are trying their best to make the Internet better. Internet is the best place to communicate with the friends and family at any given time with any available resource. So wishing you all the best to Yahoo! and Yahoos for better than the BEST for the Internet.

Most importantly I would like to give a sincere thank to my team members and my managers for helping me directly or indirectly for making my professional or personal life better.

Be in touch through either unbreakable Internet or Connected Life. My email address: jignesh[DOT]thummar[at]yahoo[DOT]co[DOT]in (for loyal Yahoos) or jignesh[DOT]thummar[at]gmail[DOT]com (for those who are testing competitor’s product).

Still I’m not able to figure out whether it is immeasurable happiness or unspeakable sadness?

You can read interesting things about “My post Yahoo! Life” on my newly started blog: http://jignesht.blogspot.com

Once again Thanks a lot to all Yahoos and good bye till we cross our foot steps in this very small and most beautiful world of Internet.

Regards,

Jignesh Thummar

PS: Don’t forget to send me the invitation of upcoming beta products of Yahoo!

Quitting from Yahoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 06:42:00 +0000

It was rumor since 2-3 weeks. The yahoos around me were discussing the things, whether it’s true or not? And few have tried to ask the candidate about rumor. The Yahoos surrounded within three-four meters radius of my desk were suspicious on me. Though few of the yahoos (some remote yahoos as well) were aware of it. The rumor was about neither company's MD nor any director, but Jignesh Thummar is quitting from Yahoo!

It was the toughest decision I have ever taken till now in my life, whether to quit from Yahoo! or not. When I joined Yahoo! at that time I had too much expectation from Yahoo! and I had till one month ago. I thought purple color has beautified to my life, but life should be more colorful with more gorgeous colors. So just I want to add few more colors in my life. To add these colors, I didn’t have any option except my resignation mail to my manager. My move from Yahoo! is purely career oriented. As a human being changing from one place to another place for the obvious reason - better prospects of the life.

Yahoo’s offer of working in Yahoo! makes me extremely proud of me and my integrity. What I have accomplished in one year down there is a source of great pride for me; I will delight in telling my friends and family about my success as ex-Yahoo.
I had very nice experience in Yahoo! It has been really pleasure while working in Yahoo!, working together with yahoos and doing yahoo as a Yahoo.

Still I’m not able to figure out, whether it is immeasurable happiness or unspeakable sadness?

I will miss so many things, after quitting from yahoo. Let me list out few of the things here:

The beautiful work culture in Yahoo! and the most intelligent Yahoos, that’s why hats off to them millions of times.
Blowing clouds of smoke and throwing ash or butts in non-yahoo ash tray or the way to Yahoo! office. That’s sutta timing with Yahoos. And sipping ginger made cutting tea with gossips of Yahoo! Networks at TCS.
The ymum@ list. So now onwards you will get very less spam in your mailbox.
And the most important the Yahoo! girls. (http://in.girls.yahoo.com), as some girls in Andheri office says this.
My Vashi cab mates, who made me virtually married while travelling from Vashi to Andheri and vice versa. It has been really fun while travelling in Vashi Cab with terrific traffic in Powai.
And my @yahoo-inc.com email address. So you have to edit your address book with my new email address: jignesh[DOT]thummar[at]gmail[DOT]com.

So now onwards you (to Yahoos) are gonna miss the biggest spammer from Yahoo! Mumbai.
Wishing you (to Yahoos) ALL THE BEST for bright future as YAHOO.

Many many thanks for giving me everything and helping me in my professional as well as personal life.

about me

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 14:59:00 +0000

Piscean by born, with late 80s childhood days. In mid 90s schooling days(rather i would say, innocentness days), and in early millennium’s Engineering College days.

Jignesh - a very common name in Gujarat, with meaning "A person who wants to know something". That's true about me. That's why people around me think that I know so many things, but in actual I don’t know anything. (Don’t take a chance to ask me anything).

I do work as a software engineer in a software development firm. Though i did work in Internet giant - Yahoo! . I am (thankfully) not a hardcore coder.

I’m passionate about lawyer’s novels (That’s why I’ve read all John Grisham’s book). If time (and of course, with money) sufficiently had given, I would have been lawyer.

I’m an enthusiastic amateur photographer. I love going out with my camera in hand and taking pictures. I can do it for hours on end. (See my flickr photo album)

I love writing. I used to keep journals while I was in engineering but as time grew I left it. Now, I’ve thought to keep it on Internet (So friends around me can read my boring writing). And I’m part of Internet Industry, so why not to keep my industry alive. When I’ll be in my 50s, I think it will be interesting to turn back to happy or misery past days and read about the stuffs I’ve written.

About love, still searching... (the only thing you can't find on google and if you find from there, it might be dangerous for the life) Being left with shattered dreams is not a nice feeling. But as they say, life always gives you a chance to grab your love and I’ve always been an optimist :)

I can neither love nor hate my life. But as they say, "Life isn't what you want it to be, it's what you make it become".

There are so many people on this planet who care for me. So why not to give a beautiful shape to my life for them?

I am currently reside in Pune, India. It’s a wonderful city, surrounded with hilly areas. The weather is beautiful.

CONTACT:

If you have something pleasant or unpleasant to say: jignesh[dot]thummar[at] gmail[dot]com .

Hello

noreply@blogger.com (Jignesh) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 05:31:00 +0000

This my first post in the world of Blogs.
Right now just want to say Hello World!!!
I'll write very soon. So keep visiting.

- Jignesh