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Another change of seasons

Dullbert's blog has been really dull. A combination of factors including but not limited to
1. Lack of interesting things to say
2. Lack of time
3. Work Pressure
4. Exhaustion- after navigating through painful Bangalore traffic

Life has whizzed by. Past few months have been amazing. Work has been significantly better. Writing requirements for products has been interesting and online personal finance is an interesting domain. Bangalore weather is way better than hot Chennai.

What I've really missed though is the company of some awesome friends that I had in Chennai at work and outside- Pucci, Bell, Ram, The Old Fart, Kumar, Sid, Ruks, Arun,.. the sessions of time pass at the tea shop, besant nagar beach.. It's somehow not the same. My word-play skills have significantly dropped and I'm possibly no longer as much fun to be around with as I once was ;) It never is the same. But no complaints -The biggest plus from moving to Bangalore has been quality time with K :) Well, at least from Aug- December, and then work become really hectic.

And anyways, every one is getting married. The Pucci is married and we've been told by his better half not to call him Pucci. Hell with it. Old habits die hard ;)

And now, in a weeks time, I'm finally taking the plunge.

This marks the end of my bachelorhood. Maybe it's a good time to end this blog too. If it hasn't ended already.

A change of seasons..

"Work Life balance" is a very interesting term. It seems to imply, that balance is required between work and life- thereby hinting that, you might not have a life at work. A typical Indian MBA graduate, enters the corporate world with high hopes.
He sees some of his classmates strike it big. Some go to the top investment banks. Some to the top consulting companies. Some to the top FMCG companies. Some to the top IT companies. The typical MBA grad wants to have a lot of money - there's that educational loan to pay off- there's that house to buy, and hey, now that he's an executive-he needs a cool car, which implies more EMIs. He pays a fortune in income tax, and and he soon realizes, that what he actually requires, is a raise.

And in the meanwhile, work isn't too interesting. In the top IT services company, he's part of the pre sales proposal factory. He does opportunity analysis accountwise, because the top management wants its account owners to do the same periodically. The account owners do what they would have done - in the absence of the analysis. But the task is done. Top management is happy- the account owner is happy. The MBA isn't...

Meanwhile the investment banker finds, that he's basically doing a lot of legwork - building crazy models, to support decisions that have already been taken, pricing models to suit pre-decided prices...The consultant finds that clients hire them, so that they can claim that XXX consultants recommended this course of action..

The one thing common to all, is an overdose of word, excel and ppt... which results in boredom, frustration and high first job attrition rates.

Finally, after beating the average IIM grad's first job lifetime by a significant margin (maybe cos I didn't have the ed.loan, neither the car, nor the house), I am moving too. This time, I think, I have found what I want to do.

Afer Configuration Modelling, leaving configuration modelling at a mind boggling salary for Documentum at a pittance, Leaving Documentum to go get an MBA to get the salary that Configuration Modelling promised but Documentum couldn't match, after a BA stint in IT services, I'm moving to Products. A move, adviced a year and a half ago, by a buddy's brother, whose career I realized I was stalking- {IIT M,Mandak, 1 yr in IT services, IIM C, with a bro 6 years younger who did CA...Vijay, Were there a few others?}

I think I've made the right decision- This gives me a foot in the door into Product Management, a chance to write requirements "first hand". The domain and the company seems very interesting, the salary is better, and on the personal front, moving to Bangalore will result in a happy ending to a three year long distance romance and the addition of quite a few pounds to the life side of my work life balance scale.

And interestingly, I'm still stalking that career :) with a stint in IT services followed by a move to the same company whose India operations my buddy's bro set up.

What really matters, the role or the dole

This is that time of the year when companies complete their ith Up-Raisals. This is usually a zero-sum game of one-up-manship between the employer and the employees.

Many companies have bizzare appraisal processes. Some companies claim to have "transparent" processes, but like most most teasers in Delhi Malls, there's usually a slip between the cup and the hip.

Any ways, the Dullbert funda of choosing the best job, is a simple Analytical Hierarchy Process.. a job should give you:

- Interesting work
- Work Life balance
- Lots of money

Now, if you have 100 points, rate how important each parameter is to you. Then, given two companies, score them, on the 3 parameters, compute a weighted score and decide which one is best for you.





image source: http://www.funny.szm.sk/Animal/Up%20yours.jpg

shiT-SHIrT

More Dullbertisms

What's Dulberts theory of the whoring IT worker?
~Most jobs suck, so always pick the one which gives the most buck for the least bang.


Why does Dullbert like the simplex method?
~It gives him an ORgasm.

What did Dullbert do in his meeting.
~He came, he slept, he concurred.

Dullbertisms

* The job of most Analysts stinks, because Analysts work on the back end.
* The output of most types of Analysis is a Fart
* Behind every successful man is a fat ass and a lot of hot air
* The world can be divided into two mutually exclusive but collectively exhaustive sets: the overt perverts, and the covert perverts.
* If you dont know, which of the above two you belong to, then you belong to the latter
* A bird in the hand is worth more than a bang in the bush
* India has population explosion, Amsterdam has copulation explosion