Hi Chirag, and others, Please find some more from me on this topic below. I hope my mail helps-- and my apologies if I sound harsh or sarcastic-- but better that I tell a bitter truth-- and point you towards excellence-- rather than me be silent-- and let you wrongly think things are bad.
Also, feel free to fwd my mail around-- and if any questions from you or your friends-- feel free to mail me on-list OR off-list unicast to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- I am happy to help. On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 7:07 PM, Chirag Anand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > I could not agree with Prakhar more... :) > > The points he has put up, are the things that we face in our colleges > everyday, we see it happening but still we cant do anything about it. Like > faculty using windoz, some of them do not even know what Linux is. They are > teaching students windoz softwares. They are still using the good-old DOS > based turbo c++ compiler (18 yrs old). > Buddy-- it's about learning to be a engineer- and a solid engineer-- the important thing is that the teachers run you through examples- and transmit their own c/c++ knowledge to you. It's not just the 18 year old compiler--- it is also the sorting algorithms (atleast 30-40 years old) and the concepts like dynamic programming, branch and bound and recursion (maybe 40+ years old). If a teacher shows you awesome gadgets and interfaces-- but doesnt strengthen your basics-- he is doing you a big dis-service-- even though you may think "me religion FOSS; teacher religion also FOSS". A teacher's job is to use the tools he knows-- to transmit maximum of his knowledge to you (his students)-- you need to respect your teachers-- even if their choices of tools differ from yours. > And its not that, we have not tried...we have recieved a lot of thrashing > because of this. (I mean a LOT). But it takes something to change the > system. We have done what was in our hands and will continue to do so in > the > future. But in the end, you do need to follow the college course structure. You know-- it's also about whether you come accross as someone who wants to rise to the top of the ecosystem-- OR whether you are just another kid who wants something to cling on to-- and kick others around. Probably you are well-intentioned-- and you want to pursue excellence-- but just wanting is not enough-- your actions must convey that-- because actions speak louder than words. If your actions differ from your words-- and your actions highlight a basic disrespect for knowledge; a sense of indiscipline and a lack of willingness to see the big picture view--- then anyone in a position of authority will either recruit you as a foot-soldier (testing / maintainence/ non-high level opening/ unimportant promoter of commercial product) OR they will ignore you (2500 candidates for 20 seats). > > No matter, how deep you feel about FOSS or are contributing to it, you will > only get testing/maintaining jobs. Its not that, we do not deserve to be in > a thinking/product based job in which we are required to think and innovate > and not act like burden-donkeys, but the fact that we only have these buddy, see my comment to the point above. Remember-- that to innovate, you need to respect knowledge and display professionalism and a willingness to pursue technical excellence at all costs. > > companies coming to our campuses. It is not our fault...that FOSS companies > do not come on our door. buddy-- see my next mail. > Talking about off-campus jobs...everyone knows what > happens there. Some 2500 people turn to give interviews for a vacancy of > just 10-20. And i have seen it, written test papers are not even corrected > fairly. Do you think, you can find some 10-20 deserving candidates out of > 2500 in just 10 hours (max). This may be a good conversation topic-- but it's not a reflection of reality-- especially not if you have a skillset that puts you in the top 5% of programmers-- and practically, if you know gcc, can use unix shell scripts; recompile the kernel etc... chances are you are better equipped than most to pursue the path to the top. Please also see my next mail. > > > Can you tell me, that so many FOSS companies are here on this mailing list > but why you do not come to campuses?? Or why you do not take freshers (i > may > be wrong here), but i have seen job openings in LFY...not a single opening > for freshers. Please tell me, where do we go (FOSS students) for gaining > some experience? Buddy, if one is hiring freshers-- one needs to be very sure of their skill-sets and level of discipline to work in a team. To you it may seem like a exercise of personal taste-- but spelling mistakes "windoz" OR "oppurtunity" and a possible disrespect for knowledge-- do not reflect well on one as a professional. It is a matter of choice for you-- but if you choose to be highly professional-- and committed to your own technical excellence--- companies will queue up to you. But if one gets a "know it all" kind of guy who refuses to understand the work at hand-- and insists on criticizing and trying to force his way through--- then anyone-- especially a hiring manager has good reason to be afraid-- and to prefer someone with atleast 1-2 years of experience-- who understands what is good and what is bad. > Ultimately, even if we go to companies like tcs, infy etc. > we wont be getting any FOSS exposure there. Does that make me eligible for > a > placement in a FOSS company? Just becuase, we have been promoting > FOSS/Linux > in our colleges and have contributed something to FOSS and advocating and > fighting for it, make us good enough for your firm? Do we even have an > oppurtunity to realise our dreams? > this statement of yours is wrong-- even TCS and Infy need and have many great Linux/Unix guys--- but you need to be disciplined; professional and technically solid. Regards, Nalin [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- [email protected] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
