Sins of a Software Rookie

Most elite professional workforce, with the so-called golden spoon in their mouths isn't all that Glossy & glitzy really. This write-up reflects light off a software rookie, but with no intention what so ever to tarnish image of a software rookies. Software rookies have their own ways of committing sins.

Internet a boon is also a curse in disguise for organizations, where it gets misused for chatting, mass email forwarding, surfing, shopping, booking tickets & what not. A software rookie on an average spends 1-2 hours on chat engines like yahoo messenger, msn, Gtalk etc. The mass email forwarding happens to such a an extend that your mail box sometimes is piled up with heaps of forward mails. There is a good probability that a mail that you have received, you will receive it again. These forwarded range from human psychology, pictures, religious forwards, informational mails, IQ Tests, inspirational stories, jokes to mails as Microsoft Paying offers etc. Some of the mails are really good, & informative, others just fizzle you out.

Other activities are as surfing the web for social networking sites, like Orkut, face book, catching up like a fever within the younger generation? History on a typical computer will easily show 20-50 accessed sites per day. Companies do have network monitors, to monitor traffic flowing to each node on the network, & they can trace what sites have been accessed, amount of downloads / uploads & even peep into your mailboxes, block specific emails to enter your mailbox, or block your send folder from sending some unethical mail. No one can escape these network crawlers. The network administrators even have the rights to discard any mail on the network that we send, or may want to receive.

Gaming is another passion of the software fraternity; whether it be the online gaming, network gaming or desktop gaming. Network games are typically played in after office hours typically between two or more employees.

Work begins relatively after the second half of the day, the first half comprises of socializing with peers, chitchats over coffee, checking emails, sending forwards. The work won’t become infinitesimal & so the rookies have to stay overnight to wash off their sins, of the first half. The fresh rookies sometimes enjoy this. For them there is no catch in going back home, as most of them are outstation candidates, & don’t have a family in their town. With no social life in the external world, they remain confined in their virtual world. Food & cab facility is provided by the company for people working till the night shift. No need to go home & cook for yourself, or do the dishes. At these late hours the conference room phones are also used appropriately to call family, friends, & girl friends, & these calls may sometimes stretch on for hour’s altogether.

Tea Coffee breaks range from 3-8 in a typical day, each ranging from 10-20
Minutes each. So these breaks take up a minimum 1hour, lunch accounts for another hour. Then comes the work part, where most of the code or the pseudo code / documentation / is taken from google, or websites such as open source(gnu), sourceforge.net, techfooksforfree.com, msdn.com to name a few. Once you get to the code that you wanted, all you have to do is port it to your system, i.e. copy paste, & this pilferage software rookies can do efficiently & effectively. Software fraternity strongly believes in Standard Operating Practices, of reusing the code, rather than having to re write the whole code from scratch. Testing & validation people, in extreme cases can go to the extend of fudging the logs, to make them look good, & not to open the Pandora’s box, which in turn could create a lot of furor & hue & cry. Better modify the logs & let the peace prevail. Or maybe trying to maintain the silence before the storm.

Another sin is that of proxy attendance, swiping proxy cards for peers in cases of emergency of even generally. Such absences go unnoticed, & the culprits can’t be easily bought to task, till the time there is no whistle blower on these unethical practices. Some people even go back to office after boozing during office hours.

I belong to this fraternity of high-headed nerds & geeks. Intellectual; fire in the belly, with Bill Gates dreams; of making it big in the real world. This is what goes in the mind of software Engineer. Still they strive & stride to make this world a better place for everyone. There is no dearth of the hard work that they put in when the project schedules demand Asses to sweat it out, without even sighing. Still proud of being a Software rookie.