Its been quite a while since my last post. After the completion of our project Bill and I got split up with different parts of the Lexis Nexis project release. This began about a week after our project because they were trying to confirm the next quarter update for the web app. My part was to analyze documentation about a future release. I didn't really have a chance to do much as that wont be my client when i return home so they gave me an extremely light part to kill time pretty much.
In the meantime, i have received random emails from HR in the US which got me more lively about my soon to be return home. Now I was about to plan my return trip. Originally i wanted to take my last vacation days left here and use them to travel earlier. This pushed my leave date from the 18th to the 14th. Then i realized there is a national holiday that Wednesday and i would not be charged as a day off which gave me an extra day. Taking that into consideration i would leave Wednesday. Like a systematic churning of my brain, why leave on Monday when i can leave on Friday evening. I walk into the travel agency for the 3rd time now with another change of plans and for once i was extremely satisfied of the service here. He told me there was no flights on Saturday so i said check a day before and a day after and what he got me was a return 2 days earlier. So tomorrow morning at 5:00am i will be flying towards London Hethrow and at about 6pm est i will be in Newark airport!
On Monday I got a chance to meet with John Ensign one of the Senators of Nevada. He had come to Infosys to see what type of company this was and how it influences offshoring. Who knows the hidden agenda behind politicians, but it was nice to talk to him and a few other folks who accompanied him such as the American Ambassador to India and a few member of the foreign ministry counsel. We had a presentation about the economic history of Infosys and then a Q&A with him and the 8 of us Americans. This was followed by a lunch.
As i depart from my 6 month experience a smarter, older, more experienced man, i leave with some peacefulness and sense of accomplishment. I was reaching the point of anger and frustration having to deal with certain cultural differences and irritation when dealing with people who automatically try to screw you because your white, but knowing that i will be back in the best country in the world within a week was enough to sooth my soul. The biggest frustration with India is that the service industry is completely terrible because they don't focus on the basics of pleasing the customer.
The friends i have met here have been many and diverse, ranging from local Indians to people from Norway. The other foreigners that i have met who i wouldn't call my friends surprised me in their strange ways. There were a few people who were completely antisocial and there were people who came to India but were too scared to leave their room. The trip required you to take a huge risk of leaving the place you live for 6 months to come to a 3rd world country to learn. While others seemed very immature and childish at moments.
This will probably be my 2nd to last post, unless i return to India in the future, so the next will be in a couple of days once i land and settle back home and i can talk about all the things 95% of Americans take for granted. I believe that all Americans should come here for about 1 month when they are in their late teens to become more humble. I will post pictures next time.
CYA BACK HOME!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Official Information
Its official! I have confirmation from my Mentor and my HR that i will be taking a plane back home anytime between the 18th-25th of August. This pretty much means that i can book my flight depending when i want to leave during that week... which in turn means i will be booking my flight for the 18th of August at 12:01 am.
With that said, i have not requested a booking yet because i want to see if i can leave earlier and use my leave days so i can go travel around Europe and maybe still India. I'm 99% sure that my flight back will be a connecting flight, so i will see if i can get my connecting flight pushed back a few days while i travel.
As far as my project goes, Bill and I have held to our promise and displayed a working version of our E-commerce site with all the functional deliverable that we have agreed on with our PM. He was very impressed with our work and gave us individual feedback as well after the group feedback. Only positives were spoken and the communication was briefly touched upon. He requested that we give him our work for him to post it on a server and in turn use our project as a model for future trainees. Its always great to hear something like that. Today we have been documenting our work so that when we give it to him later today, he will have everything he needs. I'm actually at work right now.. done with my part of the documentation and just doing a bit of e-gloating i guess you can say.
Today we met with our PM's boss and he also gave us some feedback on what he has heard from my PM.. you still with me? And pretty much told us what will be in store for us in the future. He said the account managers in Bridgewater are still figuring out what account to put us on, but for the meantime we will continue to do some small work for the Lexis Nexis account here in Bangalore. He also told me that he discussed with his boss (my Mentor here) and my PM... still with me?... when we should leave and that's when i first heard of my formalized leave date.
2 guys from Mysore are coming on Wednesday afternoon to work here for their remaining month which will make the rest of my stay here go by faster. All in all, today was a good day with many questions answered and i look forward to finalize my stay here and return to my friends and family back in the states.
If anyone still reads this besides my mom and dad and wants to see more pictures of my nephew, let me know.
With that said, i have not requested a booking yet because i want to see if i can leave earlier and use my leave days so i can go travel around Europe and maybe still India. I'm 99% sure that my flight back will be a connecting flight, so i will see if i can get my connecting flight pushed back a few days while i travel.
As far as my project goes, Bill and I have held to our promise and displayed a working version of our E-commerce site with all the functional deliverable that we have agreed on with our PM. He was very impressed with our work and gave us individual feedback as well after the group feedback. Only positives were spoken and the communication was briefly touched upon. He requested that we give him our work for him to post it on a server and in turn use our project as a model for future trainees. Its always great to hear something like that. Today we have been documenting our work so that when we give it to him later today, he will have everything he needs. I'm actually at work right now.. done with my part of the documentation and just doing a bit of e-gloating i guess you can say.
Today we met with our PM's boss and he also gave us some feedback on what he has heard from my PM.. you still with me? And pretty much told us what will be in store for us in the future. He said the account managers in Bridgewater are still figuring out what account to put us on, but for the meantime we will continue to do some small work for the Lexis Nexis account here in Bangalore. He also told me that he discussed with his boss (my Mentor here) and my PM... still with me?... when we should leave and that's when i first heard of my formalized leave date.
2 guys from Mysore are coming on Wednesday afternoon to work here for their remaining month which will make the rest of my stay here go by faster. All in all, today was a good day with many questions answered and i look forward to finalize my stay here and return to my friends and family back in the states.
If anyone still reads this besides my mom and dad and wants to see more pictures of my nephew, let me know.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Destined To Fail
Don't worry about the title as of now.. you will see by the end of the post what i mean. But hey, its a sweet attention grabber :)
So since Bill and I have arrived to Bangalore, the first 2 weeks were kind of a waste because nothing was going on. About 2 weeks ago on a Friday we finally got some action. We were put on a mock project to create a full blown E-commerce site. This having functionality of what was written in my last post. So we have spent our days and even a couple of nights (not too late... they only pay us rupees... or poopies as i call them) to work on this bad boy.
By yesterday (Tuesday) we had gotten the login, search, product display, add features for a user such as addresses, credit cards, preferences, and a basket working. Tuesday we were supposed to meet with our PM and present what we had. We came into the meeting pretty confident because we got a lot done after just learning the technology as we went. What began as a friendly meeting turned into an argument between Bill and our PM.
Apparently when we promised to meet on Tuesday our PM had intended us to provide him with a finish product, while both Bill and I thought it was just a checkup on our progress. I wont discuss much of what was spoken of, but from what i interpreted from my PM was that we were supposed to fail. He had commented that he gives the Indian newcomers only 5 day to do this. Bill took that as a personal offence and started saying that he should take an Indian over him and that our PM was insulting his intelligence. I realized what he was trying to tell us. His main point wasn't about our technology but our communication. I never communicated to my PM saying we wouldn't get it all done in time. Many other things were mentioned about deadlines and such but half of the time in the meeting was Bill being stubborn and not understanding the point of that meeting. We were destined to fail.... our PM knew what he was doing and it taught me some valuable lessons.... Bill on the other hand, i don't know.
So after the meeting we gave a concise list of what we will have done and we were told we need to get it done by Monday. Apparently our PM's boss has other plans for us after that which is pretty exciting. Its Wednesday night and in about a week 2 more people from Mysore will be arriving including Flowers, which will throw in a 3rd person to hang out with.
There are many different faces here on campus from all over. Most of who i have talked to are MBA interns from countries including Israel, France, Spain, Denmark, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. They are all older than me so its interesting to hear from them.
At the end of the day, the count is updated as there is a minimum of 32 days to a maximum of 39 days till i return to the best country in the world. I'm getting real tired of going out on weekends and having all the bars/clubs close at 11:30.. how lame.
So since Bill and I have arrived to Bangalore, the first 2 weeks were kind of a waste because nothing was going on. About 2 weeks ago on a Friday we finally got some action. We were put on a mock project to create a full blown E-commerce site. This having functionality of what was written in my last post. So we have spent our days and even a couple of nights (not too late... they only pay us rupees... or poopies as i call them) to work on this bad boy.
By yesterday (Tuesday) we had gotten the login, search, product display, add features for a user such as addresses, credit cards, preferences, and a basket working. Tuesday we were supposed to meet with our PM and present what we had. We came into the meeting pretty confident because we got a lot done after just learning the technology as we went. What began as a friendly meeting turned into an argument between Bill and our PM.
Apparently when we promised to meet on Tuesday our PM had intended us to provide him with a finish product, while both Bill and I thought it was just a checkup on our progress. I wont discuss much of what was spoken of, but from what i interpreted from my PM was that we were supposed to fail. He had commented that he gives the Indian newcomers only 5 day to do this. Bill took that as a personal offence and started saying that he should take an Indian over him and that our PM was insulting his intelligence. I realized what he was trying to tell us. His main point wasn't about our technology but our communication. I never communicated to my PM saying we wouldn't get it all done in time. Many other things were mentioned about deadlines and such but half of the time in the meeting was Bill being stubborn and not understanding the point of that meeting. We were destined to fail.... our PM knew what he was doing and it taught me some valuable lessons.... Bill on the other hand, i don't know.
So after the meeting we gave a concise list of what we will have done and we were told we need to get it done by Monday. Apparently our PM's boss has other plans for us after that which is pretty exciting. Its Wednesday night and in about a week 2 more people from Mysore will be arriving including Flowers, which will throw in a 3rd person to hang out with.
There are many different faces here on campus from all over. Most of who i have talked to are MBA interns from countries including Israel, France, Spain, Denmark, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. They are all older than me so its interesting to hear from them.
At the end of the day, the count is updated as there is a minimum of 32 days to a maximum of 39 days till i return to the best country in the world. I'm getting real tired of going out on weekends and having all the bars/clubs close at 11:30.. how lame.
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