The nice man in the uniform at the buffet ladles your soup for you, and the nice man in the uniform by the coffee pours that for you, and asks you how much milk you want, and if you add sugar he uses your spoon to mix it in for you. And there's full waiter used-plate-pick-up service during/after the buffet meal. I thought that the point of a buffet was that it was self-serve, lol.
Anyway, just another culture difference
Monday, January 10, 2011
My first post to the main forum!
Was totally inspired by Rrodrigo's courage in going first. I mean, I just sent an email to the entire company (or at least the ones who don't filter out the townhall mailing list) ...that's like 1800 people and includes people whose books I've bought and read. It's exciting.
I was replying to a thread about diversity in hiring, i.e. quotas vs. goals, with a side of how to get the pool of interviewees to be more diverse.
On a related note to diversity recruiting, I also am currently at TWU (dev, Chicago office) and I am interested in the small and diminishing presence of women in IT and what can be done to redirect the trends towards a ratio which more closely resembles parity.
My favorite document on the topic is a (longish) howto by Val Henson about how to avoid driving female Linux users out of groups, and how to find more and retain them. I believe that his points are very generalizable to the IT industry as a whole. http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO/
When it comes to interviewee's backgrounds in computer science, I too am one of those who came to the field from an unexpected direction. I was in the Humanities department during my undergraduate career, and programming didn't gain me anything in my particular academic or social circles. I think that, as a solution, "lowering the bar" is worse than the problem because it gives fuel to the cultural theory that women in IT are not as skilled as their male counterparts.
I believe that mentoring of female students by women in the IT industry gives good result percentage per time invested on the part of the mentor. Mentoring needs to start with students before they enter college, where they have already begun to choose their specialties. In fact, I think that late middle school (7th and 8th grades) may be the ideal start time for introducing the specific field and attributes of our field to students.
Random notes
Future TWUers: the 24-hour cafe in G-block named Java is a sit-down place but you can get take-out. Take-out is an extra 7Rs. A box of white rice is 35R - jut under $1USD.
Bug bites are a perpetual and severe annoyance.
One of the door greeting guys at the Royal Orchid has an amazingly excellent hat, and shook everyone's hand as they came in the door. :)
Cultural differences regarding complementing clothing continue to confuse me.
Bug bites are a perpetual and severe annoyance.
One of the door greeting guys at the Royal Orchid has an amazingly excellent hat, and shook everyone's hand as they came in the door. :)
Cultural differences regarding complementing clothing continue to confuse me.
ponderings on professionalism
What are traits of professionalism? Here's a short list of my current learnings.
- staying late if the situation requires it
- having a passion for your job
- making sure things get done properly
- everything that falls under customer commitment- not just for the hours or the money but because you're proud of what you do
- showing up on time
- if they ask for something and you think it's not the best thing to do, tell them no, no matter what. You could do it and just pocket the money, but don't.
Labels:
professionalism,
rewrite,
TWU
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Training Day 1
Future TWUers: the "ice cream list" means that the people on the list buy us all ice cream at the end of the week. Things that will get you onto it: being late, writing emails with poor spelling, cell phone during work, sitting all with people from your office (during sessions, not when actually working).
I hear that TW has a service where they can do our taxes if we want them to. I wonder how that works...
Today we did something called a fishbowl, where there are two rings of chairs, and the ring on the inside is 4 or 5 people with one empty chair, and only people in the middle are allowed to talk. And anyone who wants to from the outside circle can come sit in the empty chair, but then someone from the inside has to get up and leave. And only people who have spoken already are allowed to leave the inner circle for the outer circle! It was really fun.
The fishbowl and our independent lunch discussions were about some value studies of value issues within TW: recruiting women, client:TWer environment issues, management issues, and the truck factor + salary differences between countries.
"There is no better way to get people hooked in [to our company] than to give them what they want." (talking about the fact that TW supports employee entrepreneurial efforts)
Geek nights- each office has basically a study party for people's independent projects. Frequency varies by office
PM groups- usergroups for project managers where non-TW people come in and hang out and talk about best practices.
Quotes about leaders:
"TW pushes its leaders quite a bit"
"That's because I'm hard on my leaders."
Reminds me of the V for Vendetta quote about how a government should be afraid of its people.
Apparently when Roy comes into the TW offices (he visits all of them to make sure they're going well) he talks to the lowest person on the ladder and if they're happy than it's probably a happy office.
On a completely unrelated note, I think that India should buy thousands of these and put them in Poo River.
TWUer: "What makes you tick?"
Me: "Large amounts of obstinance."
As part of a diversity discussion, we had a discussion about Chuckecheese. :)
The "truck factor" is how many people on a project can be run over by a truck before the project grinds to a halt.
Pro tip: the trainers say to order takeout chinese food from "Mainland China" (although possibly only after your stomach has adjusted to the food!
Is there any country with a large % of women in tech? (According to one of the Brazil TWUers, Brazil is even lower % than the USA(?))
One of the things that the company considers best practice (Google aslo does this!) is to have a woman or a member of a minoity group or a person in a very different age cohort in on at least one round of an interview, to check the interviewee for obvious negative reactions which would imply that they would be unemployable by a global company.
Prezi is a cool way to give presentations.
"technology stack" means what platforms and tools you will be using to develop on a particular project.
The last several TWU teams created an internal application called Chronicle.
At the very beginning of the morning, we did:
- facts exercise where we have to fun around the room asking everyone whether particular obscure facts that our trainers pulled from facebook are true.
- put up anonymous postits about our hopes and concerns on a board on the wall
- listened to a presentation that covered:
knowing the big picture concept vs. knowing the tools (tools can be looked up; big pictures can't)
fail fast to reach perfection iteratively (less total effort)
TWU is a proving ground: people have washed out before and you could do it now. We'll be graded on:
- tech skills
- consulting skills (how well we interface with a client and our team)
- people skills (are you a good person to work with?)
- drive (do you learn fast and enthusiastically?) - Over 4 weeks, we will have 160 hours of practice on a project to teach us what to do when we get assigned to something billable.
I want to keep a chart of who gets sick and when... just for statistical purposes... but eh, it might be difficult.
Values are things that outweigh practicality. (my definition)
Origin of the name TWU: used to be TW Global Boot Camp. Also there used to be "lateral immersion" for two weeks...?
The TW Director of Social Responsibility has some cool projects. I want more details.
Labels:
opensource,
rewrite,
TWU
Professionalism (part deux)
http://davidmaister.com/search/ > "professionalism" > read everything
But if I do that right now I'll be exhausted at work today, so it has to wait.
I like this guy's writing style.
Labels:
professionalism,
TWU
Sleepless in Bangalore
The ill seems to have receded for now, but I went to sleep so early that I woke up just past 4am. I wonder whether I will ever get my sleep schedule regularized. Going by the activity on the mail.thoughtworks chat list, and the lights that are on under my flatmates' doors, I don't think I'm the only one with this problem.
I do like having a quiet hour to myself to upload photos and catch up on blogs... maybe this isn't so bad.
Labels:
TWU
The Amazing Race
Today we met up at 8:15 and took a bus down the road to a large temple of Shiva. We took many pictures. Then we went to a park and ate breakfast sandwiches in boxes. i also had lychee juice, which was tasty but had an odd aftertaste.
We walked a little ways further into the park and played some games.
We walked a little ways further into the park and played some games.
- Bag and skipping game (teammates put a bag on their feet, hop to the skipping rope, then skip to a marker, then run back- it's a type of relay race, with the winner being the team that completes the course the fastest.)
- Balloon game (inflate as many balloons as you can and tie them to one of your teammates before the time limit, then we all stand in a circle and the balloon people try to crush each others balloons for a minute... the team whose gladiator has the most balloons left at the end of the game wins!
- Was there a third one? I forget.
- The Amazing Race, which was actually pretty fun. Teams are given a starting clue which will lead them to somewhere on MG road, and then into fancy shops at which the front desk has another envelope for their team. We went to five shops I think, and also solved all the clues for what to buy at roadside stands.
At one point we piled all 5 of us into one rickshaw! (I hear that this is pretty normal) We depended very heavily on the Indian TWUers to help us find stores. I had some trouble at first because running did not go well... but my team actually won, thanks to our amazing teammates! Go Red Rhinos. :)
The last lue led us to a restaurant at which we ate a delicious buffet meal. Sadly, I was feeling badly in the stomach (so was another guy) and I didn't partake heavily... I tried to try one of everything, and I accidentally ate a pickle (which is not recommended and didn't go well!) The desert was very good though- a kind of rice and cinnamon pudding. There was also papaya and light whipped-cream-texture ice cream.
We got back to Diamond around 4pm. I think that most of us went to our rooms to shower and rest; it was a very exertion-y day. :)
Tomorrow we meet at the Orchid next door! (I can see it from my balcony.) 9am class starts... 8:30 breakfast. Mmmm, breakfast. I hope there's coffee.
I'm feeling a little ill. It's kind of like the feeling when you drink on an empty stomach, except I only feel it when I eat or drink something. :/
Labels:
TWU
Saturday, January 8, 2011
future TWUers:
1. Indian driving is not scary to me. It is similar to how some of my friends drive. Some facts:
- the cars get very close to each other, but never intersect. you can count on this.
- they honk before they overtake from behind
- they honk when they're coming up to an intersection
- it's kind of like in Chicago where you're required to honk when exiting an alley so that oncoming traffic knows that you're there
- when you cross the street, it;s best to do it in a group. The drivers can see that you are waking towards their path. People do this every day, and they will let you by. All road-crossing is a giant game of chicken, and even the timid (me) learn how to play fairly well in under a day or so.
2. I have no proof for this and I haven't run scientific trials, but I strongly suspect that the reason I got a giant pile of bugbites those two days was that I was using American soap that I brought with me. Other current TWUers who wear cologne also have bugbite problems. Bring your own soap just in case, but only use it if there is no soap waiting for you in your room. Buy soap in the N block grocery. Buy anything that looks local to India and you should be good.
3. The grocery store is in N block basement. Go downstairs in N and just walk around. It looks scary and the ceiling is very low, but it is a safe place and the prices are reasonable. The entrance is not very easy to see, but aim towards the light and wander. Bring your own bag/backpack if at all possible so that you will not have to buy a plastic bag (5R and also some disdain - there is a large saign saying "avoid plastic bags!" (they are bad for the environment) It is open form roughly 8am to 9pm.
There is an all-night cafe in G building. Walk into the building and turn, and it should be right there...
Somewhere there is a pharmacy but I haven't found it yet. I think it's under N building.
3. At a resturaunt, they will bring you bottled water, and the cap should be sealed. That click of the cap pulling open and snapping the little plastic partitions that hold it on is yur safety sign. Unless your waterbottle does that in your hearing, don't drink from it. Also, avoid ice. You have no way of knowing what water was used to make the ice. It is probably not safe water.
4. At the B1 office, meals work like so: they're in the back pantry (all the way back and to the right after you walk in the front door after the security desk on the 2nd floor)_ you take a plate and go through the buffet line putting things on it. It;s considered acceptable to skip the line if you only want something from the end of it (but I haven't seen many do it?). When you're done eating, scrape your plate off into the trash can (behind the long table that had all the food on it) marked food scraps. Then give your plate a pre-rinse in the sink and put it in the stack for the professional dishwashers. Ditto for forks, cups, etc. If you leave any plates/cups in the office, eventually a man in a maroon polo (the catering staff) will come around and pick it up off your desk.
5, I strongly recommend that you never use a public toilet. They are the epitome of filth. If you need one badly enough to approach it despite the smell, I can only say good luck to you. Try to use a bathroom in a resturaunt if you can find one. Walk in, order something if you have time or possibly pass the waiter a bill if you don't, and aim for the loo. You may want to develop a habit of never using a toilet before proving that you know how to flush it. This is sometimes a problem.
6. A rickshaw from Diamond to MG should be around 40R, although paying up to 60 is ok. I know that you don;t care because you have lots of money, but rich tourists overpaying for rickshaws make the drivers exhort the locals too. Don;t be part of the problem. Frequently, rickshaws will refue to carry you; try to negotiate in an area where there are several rickshaws and just go from one to one arguing. Using the meter is preferable but it's hard to get them to do that. Frequently when you get out of the cab after negotiating verbally, they will want more than the agreed-upon price. Just keep saying no, pay them, and leave.
While you are in a rockshaw stopped in traffic, it will not be uncommon for beggars to come up to you. Say no. They will go away sooner or later. I did give a packet of cookies to a child who was begging, but she looked at them with disdain and obviously preferred money. So do as you will, but eh.
7. Diamond District is surrounded by bars and you will probably see most of them during your stay. The correct price for a shot is around $1-2 USD, no higher than that. The correct price for a pitcher of import beer is around 600R.
8. The office will give you a phone. It will not be a very good phone (think USA era 1999ish, and heavily used by the previous owner) but it will work. If you have an unlocked phone, just put the sim card from your office phone into it. If not, eh.
9. Your apartment's electrical system is unable to run more than any three items which are air conditioners or water heaters. If you try to turn on all 3 ac and water heaters at once you will knock your power out and have to call the office to have it reset.
10. Your bed will be harder than USA hotel beds. Personally I find it comfortable but to each their own.
- the cars get very close to each other, but never intersect. you can count on this.
- they honk before they overtake from behind
- they honk when they're coming up to an intersection
- it's kind of like in Chicago where you're required to honk when exiting an alley so that oncoming traffic knows that you're there
- when you cross the street, it;s best to do it in a group. The drivers can see that you are waking towards their path. People do this every day, and they will let you by. All road-crossing is a giant game of chicken, and even the timid (me) learn how to play fairly well in under a day or so.
2. I have no proof for this and I haven't run scientific trials, but I strongly suspect that the reason I got a giant pile of bugbites those two days was that I was using American soap that I brought with me. Other current TWUers who wear cologne also have bugbite problems. Bring your own soap just in case, but only use it if there is no soap waiting for you in your room. Buy soap in the N block grocery. Buy anything that looks local to India and you should be good.
3. The grocery store is in N block basement. Go downstairs in N and just walk around. It looks scary and the ceiling is very low, but it is a safe place and the prices are reasonable. The entrance is not very easy to see, but aim towards the light and wander. Bring your own bag/backpack if at all possible so that you will not have to buy a plastic bag (5R and also some disdain - there is a large saign saying "avoid plastic bags!" (they are bad for the environment) It is open form roughly 8am to 9pm.
There is an all-night cafe in G building. Walk into the building and turn, and it should be right there...
Somewhere there is a pharmacy but I haven't found it yet. I think it's under N building.
3. At a resturaunt, they will bring you bottled water, and the cap should be sealed. That click of the cap pulling open and snapping the little plastic partitions that hold it on is yur safety sign. Unless your waterbottle does that in your hearing, don't drink from it. Also, avoid ice. You have no way of knowing what water was used to make the ice. It is probably not safe water.
4. At the B1 office, meals work like so: they're in the back pantry (all the way back and to the right after you walk in the front door after the security desk on the 2nd floor)_ you take a plate and go through the buffet line putting things on it. It;s considered acceptable to skip the line if you only want something from the end of it (but I haven't seen many do it?). When you're done eating, scrape your plate off into the trash can (behind the long table that had all the food on it) marked food scraps. Then give your plate a pre-rinse in the sink and put it in the stack for the professional dishwashers. Ditto for forks, cups, etc. If you leave any plates/cups in the office, eventually a man in a maroon polo (the catering staff) will come around and pick it up off your desk.
5, I strongly recommend that you never use a public toilet. They are the epitome of filth. If you need one badly enough to approach it despite the smell, I can only say good luck to you. Try to use a bathroom in a resturaunt if you can find one. Walk in, order something if you have time or possibly pass the waiter a bill if you don't, and aim for the loo. You may want to develop a habit of never using a toilet before proving that you know how to flush it. This is sometimes a problem.
6. A rickshaw from Diamond to MG should be around 40R, although paying up to 60 is ok. I know that you don;t care because you have lots of money, but rich tourists overpaying for rickshaws make the drivers exhort the locals too. Don;t be part of the problem. Frequently, rickshaws will refue to carry you; try to negotiate in an area where there are several rickshaws and just go from one to one arguing. Using the meter is preferable but it's hard to get them to do that. Frequently when you get out of the cab after negotiating verbally, they will want more than the agreed-upon price. Just keep saying no, pay them, and leave.
While you are in a rockshaw stopped in traffic, it will not be uncommon for beggars to come up to you. Say no. They will go away sooner or later. I did give a packet of cookies to a child who was begging, but she looked at them with disdain and obviously preferred money. So do as you will, but eh.
7. Diamond District is surrounded by bars and you will probably see most of them during your stay. The correct price for a shot is around $1-2 USD, no higher than that. The correct price for a pitcher of import beer is around 600R.
8. The office will give you a phone. It will not be a very good phone (think USA era 1999ish, and heavily used by the previous owner) but it will work. If you have an unlocked phone, just put the sim card from your office phone into it. If not, eh.
9. Your apartment's electrical system is unable to run more than any three items which are air conditioners or water heaters. If you try to turn on all 3 ac and water heaters at once you will knock your power out and have to call the office to have it reset.
10. Your bed will be harder than USA hotel beds. Personally I find it comfortable but to each their own.
Labels:
TWU
Chille's in India
Is much more expensive than most things. The food is good, the beer isn't anything special, and they charge for surprise birthday cake (Tom, Jan 6).
We did have fun, though.
It's on Airport Road on the same side of the street as Diamond, a long walk. I'd estimate a little over a mile over broken terrain in the dark.
Almost all sidewalks in India count as broken terrain. Absolutely nothing is wheelchair-friendly. We saw two dead squashed rats on teh sidewalk on the walk there, and five or six street dogs. Passed ten-ish street vendors.
We did have fun, though.
It's on Airport Road on the same side of the street as Diamond, a long walk. I'd estimate a little over a mile over broken terrain in the dark.
Almost all sidewalks in India count as broken terrain. Absolutely nothing is wheelchair-friendly. We saw two dead squashed rats on teh sidewalk on the walk there, and five or six street dogs. Passed ten-ish street vendors.
Labels:
TWU
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