My First Job

People always remember their firsts: first day in school,from the project just after a week. This time also I
first day in college, first day in university, first job, firstgot lost and found myself
love, first kiss etc. For me it is my first job which isdriving on a very narrow road. There was no way to
very memorable.But before that some history aboutturn back. Finally I stopped
myself.on the shoulder which was grass. There was a car
I came to USA for doing Ph.D in physics which Icoming from behind, so I waited
completed in 1993. After that Iuntil it passed. But to my surprise, the car stopped just
worked as a post-doctoral research associate forby my car. I was very
two years in Norman, OK. But whenscared. But when the windows rolled down, I saw an
the funding ran out and it turned out I am not quite theold lady instead of a someone
Einstein I thought to be,pointing gun at me who asked if I was alright and
I was left with no choice but to find a job outside ofneeded any help. I was so
academia.Some people said with my background intouched by this gesture. So I smiled and said no. I
physics and with Ph.D from a well knownturned back and eventually
university and also an MSc from one of I.I.T's in India, Ifound the guy and headed back to the guest house.
can easily get a jobThe fight with Lawyer The first thing they had do was
in industry in companies like Microsoft, Hewlettto get an H1B approval for me. But
Packard, Applied Materials etc.the lawyer was very much against me. One day the
However, my job search did not turn up any results inpresident of the company got
two months. Even though Iin phone with him and an entertaining conversation
got some job in India, I was not willing to go back andfollowed.Lawyer: How can you be sure he can do this
wanted to explore further what uncle Sam might havejob?President: I know his background, he can easily
in store for me.But no job, no job. Then someonelearn this.Lawyer: Okay, but his degree is in physics it
suggested I could look for job in the softwarewill be very difficult to get H1B
industry which was beginning to boom. I had done lotapproval for him.President: He has done lot of
computing as part of myprogramming as part of this research, it should not be
research. So I thought it is not a bad idea. So I startedany problem.Lawyer: Okay, but this is still a very
applying to softwarecomplicated case and lot of extra work needs to
companies in the internet. But most companies keptdone, it would cost XXXX dollars.President: Oh my
rejecting by saying I don'tgod! Etna mat bolo. Hamara seva karo. (Don't quote so
have any relevant experience. Some will talk to memuch, serve me well).Lawyer: No man, it can not be
for a few days and then eventually it will not goany lower than that.President: Kar do bhaiya! Main to
anywhere after that.While I was doing that, I startedgarib admi hun. (Please do it, we are too poor!)Lawyer:
learning about C programming language. BeforeI am giving you the lowest price! Others will charge you
then I have done programming in Fortran languagea whole lot. (Meaning he would suck the last drop of
only. So I started learning about pointers, memoryblood from you if he could.)And the coversation
allocation, etc. I also started learning about C++ whichcontinued for a while. It ended like this.President: Okay,
was gaining popularity at thatwe will get all paperwork ready. Please start working
time. I kept on learning. Encapsulation, inheritance,on this
polymorphism. Ias soon as possible.Lawyer: Don't worry. As long as it
liked the idea of inheritance and polymorphism veryis in my hand everything will go smoothly (meaning he
much. While the universitydidn't have a clue what he was talking about). Return
had no funds to pay me anymore, I could still use theirto India At some point, I decided to go home and stay
computing and other resources, e.g. phone, fax, internetthere until get a project; the chance of
etc. This turnedwhich was getting slimmer and slimmer each day. So I
out to be a great service for me.But I was still notbought a one-way ticket to India and headed home.
having any luck in finding a job. Everybody said theyThere was very good chance that I will not return
need industryback to USA. At home, my parent pestered me so
experience which I lacked. Almost a whole monthmuch to get married.
went by, and still no luck.In fact, a time came when ISo I decided to get married even though I did not
gave the hope of getting a job and almost about tohave a job. This is partly
head back home. But before leaving I gave a call tobecause I was not having much luck with girls. I did
one of companies I was dealing with. I had talked withhave chances though, but I
them before. This time, the president of the companyblew them all. But this is not relevant in the context of
himself took the call. When he learned about my story,this story. May be later.But right after getting married,
he decided to give me aguess what, phone started ringing from USA.
chance. He offered me to come there and stay inThe infotec company has finally found someone who
their guest house and learn morewas interested in my resume
programming and they will look for projects for me. Atand an phone interview was scheduled quickly. The
that time, it sounded like a gift from heaven to me.So Iinterview was not as great as
packed all my stuff, vacated my apartment, bid finalI thought! But one hour later, I got a call back saying I
good bye to the academic world and headed for Newwas selected for the
Jersey. New Jersey It was a small infotec company injob. Take that! I got a job. After that everything was
New Jersey. They had a two bedroom apartmentarranged with lightening speed. The plane ticket was
which they used as their guest house.They also urgedbooked and
me to learn visual C++ and I started learning it.I headed back to US. But even this part was not
However,without kinks. They booked a
they had only one computer for use and sometimeticket on Tower airlines! I was supposed to fly out of
there will be competition over who will get to it first.TheMumbai. I was to collect
company had probably 50-60 employees and most ofthe ticket from the Tower office in Mumbai. When I
them were at their clienttried to find their office
site working on various assignments. There were onlyin the largest city of India, I had troubles. The taxi driver
four people in the office.took me around the
In fact, most people were recruited over phone andcity (probably twice) and when finally located the
never even came to the homeoffice, they said I simply
office.They had rented a two bedroom apartmenthad to pick it up from their counter in the airport itself.
which they called the guest house. ThisWell the taxi raced
was going to my address for a while. Life in theback to the airport and dropped me there. He
Guest House At a times, their guest house really gotdemanded about thousand rupees (or
crowded. People were coming from India.fifteen hundred, I don't remember today).
Some got placed pretty much immediately but someBut everything went smoothly after that! In the airport
had to wait a while.Sometime the mood got veryin New York, two people
festive. People talking, joking, playing. One day,from the office came to meet me! It was so touching.
someone was cooking while some other peopleMy professional career In the first job, I performed
having a hearty adda (chit chat). Soreally well. I guess having some good education really
he also joined in the party. But he forgot to switch offmakes a difference. After a few months, everyone
the cooking burner.was talking about my programming style as if I had
He was having so much fun, he didn't realize the oilbeen doing programming for years!One year later, I
had gotten over heateddecided to look for another job and I got one this time
and started burning. It caught our attention only therein the
were smoke all over thecompany called Sabre group, a spin off company
living room. Immediately we ran to the kitchen andfrom the American Airlines.
switched off the gas. But theThis was a difficult decision to take, to quit the
oil was still burning and so much smoke came out thatcompany which helped me land
it triggered the smokemy first job. But I thought I have served them enough
alarm. We quickly opened the windows and tried toeven though I am pretty thankful for what they did for
fan the smoke out with some newspapers. At oneme.In the second job also I did really well and although
point we were worried if police or fire brigadethere were twists now and then, I was
will come and what they will think when they find soemployed long enough to get my green card.In my
many foreigners in a singlefirst job I did mainly C programming, then move to C++
apartment. So someone suggested most of us couldand java and then
hide in the bathroom. ThenJ2EE. Ironically I never used visual C++ or visual
someone pointed out the closet which was a walk-inbasic.At this place I also got to know about stock
close and could fit 5-6 people easily. But no police ormarket. I saw lot of colleagues surfing
fire brigade ever came and the smoke cleared in anthe finance sites (e.g. Yahoo finance) during office
hour.In another day, someone put a hot cooking pothours and also doing stock
containing lentil right onto the carpet. No one seemedtrading in their brokerage account. I did not know
to notice what happened until we finished eating. Theanything about stock market
potuntil that time. So I looked for some information and
has burned the carpet it was sitting on, we discovereddecided to get in
when the pot was lifted.this game: a decision I very soon learned to regret.
Everybody was very nervous. Weeks later, it will aAlmost all my trades
subject of obscene joke : an black round spot exactlyended up in loss! Those early days of investing is
in the middle of the apartment.Also people will forgetdescribed in in my web site: a year
one or another sometime : may be switching offI had lost almost half of my money! But then came
light or the air conditioning, one someone even forgotthe internet bubble. I made good
to turn off the cooking gas, it kept burning the wholemoney by trading first Ebay and then Amazon. I
day. It was very fortunate that the whole apartmentcontinued trading until March of
was not burned down. But every time the company2000 when my account value was almost at stone's
president knew aboutthrow away from the million
it, he would start yelling, and the blame game will start.dollar mark! But as the internet bubble burst, so did my
Hopeless quest for job As I was learning visual C++,account. It quickly
they would try sending my resumelost half of its value, and then three-fourth, and so on.
for review to some companies. In all cases, it will beBut it didn't go down
completely ignored. Sometime the marketing personto zero! In fact, I never held onto any stock for a long
will talk to someone mentioning my impressivetime. Even though some
educationalstocks went to zero, my losses were limited. But I
background. But only response he would get from thewould try to recover the loss
other end was in the form offrom another stock which would also go down. And
a question : how much industry experience does hethe losses added up. I guess
have? Answer was, of course, ZERO! It was gettingsome people never learn. But slowly my trading
more and more frustrating.activities stopped and I have to
In one instance, he almost yelled at them saying : 'hebe content with my account balance which is now
has written thousand lines of code'! To this day, theonly fraction its peak value.On the job front, having
desparateness, frustration and poignance stillspent almost decade in industry, I feel I am at the
rings in my ear.I was also getting sick of learning visualsquare one
C++. I know I can write program thatagain sometime. I find it difficult to find jobs. Probably I
can fetch data and display it on the screen, but whatwill not find any job at a
all is there to learn?time when all jobs will be lost to outsourcing. But I will
One can not memorize the whole windows api.As Inot go hungry, I have
was learning visual C++ and sometime visual basic, Ienough to live in India happily. I also think of starting a
also had another taskcompany with my ideas. If some angel investor or
to take care of. This was to drive people around.venture capital will give some money, may be I
Even though most peoplewill do just that. I also write occasionally. Having written
found jobs without too much effort, there were fewa few poems, short
who took some time. Theystories and articles like this I sometime feel like writing
will have interviews here and there. Since they justa full length novel
came from India, they didn't know driving and my abilityand become a writer full time.
to drive a car came very handy to them. SoWho knows what I will be doing in future? But
I would drive them to places. In one incident, I drovewhatever I
one guy to some placeend up doing, I will never forget the way I landed my
in North Jersey and I got lost. Cell phone werefirst job and the chain
available at that time, but almost no oneof events surrounding it and the few months I lived in
had them. I stopped at a lonely gas station and madethe company apartment (the guest house). Hope you
a call. It was so lonelyenjoyed reading it.Copyright © 2005 Gautam Dev.
and time was around 11 pm, I got really scared. InAll rights reservedAuthor is a software engineer by
another instance, I wasprofession and occasional writer.
supposed to bring back a guy from some town inHe has a web site at which contains growing list of
philadelphia who got rolled offinteresting web sites.