A link was forwarded to me the other day on “A developers Bill of Rights” and is available on Spoiled techie

It set me thinking of how much we score and not surprisingly we came out pretty well (over 85%…i know it implies there is scope for improvement, but then even perfection can be improved, so am not really complaining too much right now.)

Well, here is how we stack up

1. Every Programmer shall have a quiet working environment.
Almost Always

2. Every Programmer shall have the right to listen to music.
We provide free headphones so as to not be forced to listen to someone else music!

3. Every Programmer shall have a fast PC.
3 GHZ, 2 GB RAM, with atleast dualcore/core2 duo machines, MAcbooks, Macminis, we are better than most other companies.

4. Every Programmer has their choice of both Keyboard and Mouse.
Well as no one has any objections as yet, so i feel yes.

5. Every Programmer shall have a fast Internet connection.
This is an area where we have always upgraded but can always further improve.

6. Every Programmer shall have two or more monitors.
Yes. Since the very beginning we have done this!

7. Every Programmer shall have a high back comfortable chair.
We are giving Mid-high back chairs for all devs

8. Every programmer shall have access to the right tools.
We allow people to download and use any s/w tool they want.

9. Every programmer shall have the right to have admin access on the PC.
Almost all confirmed employees have all required access.

10. Every programmer shall be allowed to attend a developers conference once a year.
Some of the devs have been able to attend, but so far mainly marketing folks. So this is an area of improvement.

So maybe we can give ourselves a small pat on the back and plan ahead!!

Its interesting to know how candidates make life difficult for themselves while writing their resumes. Imagine getting applications where the candidate has all the requisite skills and has not mentioned his/her contact information! To me it implies that the candidate does not have a high regard for attention to detail. It also implies that the candidate neither thought before starting the resume writing process nor did (s)/he bother to check for completeness before posting the same online.

Some other interesting observations that I think will help any candidate applying for a job across the world are listed below in the order we discovered them while sorting through the resumes received by us at Infocom 2006 and subsequently after candidates decided to take the challenge on our website and uploaded their resumes.

Some of the common Turn-Offs

• Contact details missing….well, does the candidate feel so sure of rejection!
• Incorrect contact details….duh, it is as bad as the previous one or maybe even worse!
• Just mentioning years of experience without giving any details of the kind of experience…makes me want to know if the candidate feels that his experience is irrelevant to the position being applied for!
• All candidates from an University stating their Dean/Director as a reference…wonder how many candidates will the dean personally know!
• A candidate felt that mentioning the reasons of quitting his previous organization should be part of the resume…I guess, I do not want to hire somebody who wants to talk bad about his past employer in an resume!
• A couple of candidates actually mass emailed their resumes to about 35 different companies and addressed it all to just 1 of them….as you may have guessed, it was not even addressed to my organization, so should I be processing the resume?
• This one takes the cake; I got 1 resume that was typed in all caps…HELLO! ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME or applying for a job?
• 1 candidate is probably a wannabe model, 50% of the 1st page is his photograph….looks and muscles may be important but I think we are recruiting for brains rather than brawns, or was that pose meant to intimidate me?!
• Another amazing one is from a candidate who has 3 years of experience working on Python 4.2.2 ….hmmm, when did this release!

Wonder what kind of experiences other people have when it comes to sorting through resumes. I would like to expand the above list for the benefit of all candidates, so am looking for contributions from all the readers of the post.

Cheers!
-Abhishek Chamaria

All in all Infocom seems to have been a great launching pad in India. We had to reorder the developer preview kit CDs and promotional material to cope with the demand. A lot of interesting feedback was received and now we need to start following up on all the contacts generated through the event.

Today was an hectic day. I was trying to sort through the 400 odd resumes we received at Infocom 2006 and also had my team collate the various responses, comments and feedback received from the developer community and end users.
I am expecting Prateek’s video and our stall photographs along with the scanned images of the newspaper articles to come in by the 15th of November’06. Then i will be able to share them with you all. In the meantime we have short listed about 40 odd candidates and have invited them to take the challange and kick start/rejuvenate their careers.

As a policy we have 4 rounds of screening:

1. Online Aptitude test
2. Matching the Candidates skill sets to our Requirements (based on the resume)
3. Telephonic Interview
4. A round of orientation and up to 3 personal interviews along with team based activities.

Some of the key personality traits that are important to us are:

1. An inquisitive mind open to research and learning
2. A sense of team spirit
3. A keen sense of humor
4. Willingness to shoulder and fulfill responsibilities
5. Desire to go the extra mile and ensure that the work is not just completed as per expectations but is actually exemplary
6. Laziness – This ensures that the code you write will be lean and mean and always reusable!
7. Focus and commitment

On our side we know that if you dole out peanuts you will at best get monkeys! So we ensure that employees have:

1. A healthy work life balance, have a comfortable work environment,
2. Users have 2 monitors instead of the usual 1 to maximize screen real estate.
3. Flexi time is the norm.
4. Free lunch is provided to all employees on Saturdays.
5. We believe in constant improvement and learning throughout life so we play videos from the leading universities/ websites and have regular training sessions.
6. Meeting milestones implies that the employees get time off to relax, unwind and even play games on the Xbox against each other on the projector!
7. We believe in the 70:20:10 rule and all employees get 10% of their working time and company resources to follow their dream projects!

Now I guess its time for me to get back to inviting the short listed candidates to take the test on our site. If you are one of them then I would like to wish you all the best! If not then no worries, it was a pleasure to have you come to my weblog and your comments and feedback are welcome.

Cheers!
Abhishek Chamaria