Archive for the ‘Job Experience’ category

I’m Your Senior, Mind It!

January 3rd, 2009

I was in grade 8 when I had this conversation with one of my uncles about political situation in Bangladesh. I asked him why all these people couldn’t just live peacefully, and he would be like “Junal, naturally, we people fight for power, we don’t want to follow anyone, instead we want to have a lots of followers!”. And then I went to high school/college and met some students who were senior than me,for that they didn’t allow me to smoke in front of them. Because, you got to respect seniors, but in my head I would be like why I cannot do such thing that you can do in front of me? So, I always had this idea that one day, I would be “senior” like them when I will ask my juniors not to smoke in front of me!

This situation had improved when I went to university, seniors didn’t mind for smoking with me, but the attitude of seniority was there. Seniors wouldn’t allow juniors to say anything, their decision was the final decision in every case.

And finally, after graduation I started my career as a PHP developer in a local software firm. And yes, situation was unchanged! Seniors like to order “learn this, learn that…i want you to finish this by next day!” blah blah …. but there is a difference between “request” and “advice” and these two words can make a huge difference.

I wrote another blog about senior developers on my old blog and yesterday, after reading this blog I felt like writing next one on similar topic. Does it mean I’m really frustrated about this barrier ? Answer is “NO”, not really, personally, I consider myself very lucky to to work with some nice guys. Specially, after joining at Tripperlabs. But I have this sympathy for junior developers  from around the world . I know situation is not same everywhere. I want this to be changed. I hope a “Senior act” will remain there but it will not be transparent.

I really like this blog that I read yesterday, let me get some part of it here so that it makes clear how seniors/juniors should be everywhere!

With a senior developer, you have to be lucky that he’s learned from his previous mistakes (and every developer makes mistakes, no matter how good he is or how much experience he has), that he hasn’t picked up too many bad habits and that he is open minded. If you can get a senior developer like that, consider yourself very, very lucky because there really aren’t that many of them.

With a junior developer, you can easily mold them into the kind of developer you want them to be. They haven’t really had a lot of time to pick up bad habits, and they are eager to prove that they belong at your company so they will be very eager to learn and improve. All you need is a couple of people who are willing and capable of teaching these young developers.

Ok, I hope I will not write anymore blog on senior/junior stuff. Hope it gets better in upcoming days and hope juniors feel lucky to have RIGHT senior developer with them.

First Person Singular Number, at The End of The Year, 2008

December 21st, 2008

Lately, I have been a little bit slow, slow at work, slow at thinking and slow at doing something new! But, I believe this is not how the year 2008 been for me. I never had such expectations or desires from a time. Out of office work, I mainly spend my time on my own way, and most of them are unplanned.

So, what I have been up to in 2008? Let me remember, although I can guarantee that I won’t be able to remember all of them, just because I got a goldfish memory :)

  • Me and my friend Jewel have developed this personal Facebook application called “Fallywood“.
  • From my office – we have developed Facebook applications, NCAA 09 , Madden 09, Tigerwoods, Godfather-I/II, Deadspace and many more, and of course my first individual Facebook application Kissability was also developed at the beginning of this year 2008.
  • I joined FriendFeed and Twitter and been trying to be active there.
  • I moved my personal blog to my own domain and hosting.
  • On an average I wrote at least one blog per week.
  • Reviewed 4 more tech books for Packt Publishing.
  • Moved to Linux from Windows
  • Learned about Wordpress/Drupal/Elgg.
  • Gained some good experience about CSS by work.
  • Started Bangla blogging.
  • Attended some tech seminars.
  • At the end of the year, I had a great Vacation with my family, friends and my village people!
  • Outing more than last year.
  • Have been sleeping well since I moved to a single room.

It’s been great so far. As I have said earlier that I have less desire/expectations (maybe, thats the best way to be happy?), So I don’t have any desire or expectations for 2009. I don’t even have a plan for tomorrow! All I know, I will move with the flow. I will try to follow my heart in every aspect of my life. All I know I will keep searching for a place that has already been found!

Attending Career Seminar at Independent University, Bangladesh

November 16th, 2008

Well, today was a different experience day for me. Things that always make me curious to know, things that always make me to run for, yes today I had this kind of experience. Not fully, but still met some faces. Hard some good advices (some of them where just dumb!)This is my university where I completed my Under Graduation.

Independent University arranged a seminar on Career guideline for fresher. There were some senior figures from different organizations and among them Hasin bhai was there too! Speakers were supposed to guide the students what they should do, how they should prepare themselves, how they should face the interview board. Everything went well and speakers just said what students were expecting. Although Hasin bhai’s presentation where kinda different (why im thinking like that? because we are from same field? maybe!)

But why I said some of advices were just dumb?! Because I just didn’t like some ideas or traditional process that were mentioned by the speakers [i.e. how to prepare your resume, how you should dress up and shit like that] For me yes, it’s just dumb! But I know this is what needed for bank employees and other organization except IT field.

So what I missed from the speakers?

Inspirations! This is what I missed; there were lots of packages of advice. If I was there as a fresher this would scared me for sure! Damn! I’m a human being, why the hell you don’t share your experience how you started your career and how you submitted your resume and stuff. What are the problems you faced? And what are the things that brought you in the position you are in today? Wouldn’t it be inspiring for me? Because you are a man of success eh!

I wish there were 1st or 2nd year’s students who were confused to decide their major subject. I would shout and say that listen guys, forget everything! If you are confused then just go for “Computer Science”. Become a nerd and become a developer, keep 50% of your heard crap!!! And go ahead. Spend hours in front of your computer every day, you never have to worry about your CGPA and stuff again!

But, I still think these fresher if they want they can choose this field even now. Not saying this to make them confused but letting them know if they are enthusiastic then come here! Become a developer , make your pocket healthy, and get known by others.

A fresher question – if I don’t get chance to work then how will I get experience?

November 8th, 2008

I have been hearing this question a lot for last one or two years. Two years back I used to ask this question to myself and seniors as well. I was desperately looking for a job just after completing my under graduation. I dropped my resume to many places and they didn’t call me just because I didn’t have any previous experience except some university projects.

I don’t know, I feel, I have this soft corner for fresher, so whenever I can, just try to help them, encourage them make them believe that they can overcome this situation. Well, because I believe in hard work and I came out from this situation!

So, I better tell all fresher how I came out from this situation, maybe it will help them.

I started my journey with the help of Ahsan, he actually recommended me to that company named Alliance Creation and I carried the rest. [Note: it's always good to stay in touch with some Senior IT developers; so that, somehow they know u have some capability to work]. They used to work on PHP project and I was studying on .NET at that time. My all university projects where done by either Java or .Net. [Note: please try to do your university project by yourself; do solve the same problem using different language] So it was completely new scripting language for me to start with. But as I was desperate to be a developer, I took the challenge. At the beginning, life was hell because I was a dumb!! A super dumb who didn’t know how to submit a form using PHP, Who didn’t know how to get value from returned Array (). Well, our universities don’t teach us, do they? But I accepted all those criticism and kept myself positive. My starting salary was surely lower than a rickshaw driver [Note: please don't care about your starting salary!]. After 6 months of work  I decided to leave the company because I got enough confident to work on other better places. But company requested me to stay with them. I did! But in next 6 months I joined TripperLabs which was my third company!

Ok, I’m using too much “first person” here, sorry for that. But my intention is not to talk about myself; rather I want to inspire you that you can!

My former colleague Emran wrote a similar post here, I guess you can get more help from there. Just finishing this with some request…

Try to..

  • Stay positive
  • Work hard, damn hard and believe you can!
  • Be a quick learner
  • Have problem solving ability!
  • Be good at communication

All the best for you newcomer!

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