[sam_boy]

Let me tell you a story :

" In a government school in pre Independence era, after the regular morning prayer sessions all the students used to do Namaskar to the teacher ( Pay respect in India Style by folding their hands and bowing the head). This is always expected as the Indian guru is synonymous to Gods at that time . But what was different is, at the end of the prayer the Teacher too did a Namaskar to all the wards with folded hands and bowed head. Once a British official paid a visit to the school and he was amused and shocked by the gesture of the teacher and asked him the reason for doing a funny thing ? The teacher replied humbly that in his entire life he could manage to be a primary school teacher and he might end up being the head master, but for the kids the entire future is lying in front of them. Many can be engineers, doctors and in many ways possibly can bring glory to the nation so in this way he pays his token of respect to the future heroes."

The reason I am telling you this story is next to me there can be many Murthys, Steve Jobs and Zuckerbergs. By not getting the due attention they might miss out on their opportunities. When we deal with juniors we do not try to foresee their future, in fact we end up focusing more on their shortcomings. My suggestion is to make them aware of their responsibilities and give them some real example of people around them who were in the similar situation not so long ago.

Apologies for the long post and I know I am a little old school type

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by sam_boy

The reason I am telling you this story is next to me there can be many Murthys, Steve Jobs and Zuckerbergs. By not getting the due attention they might miss out on their opportunities. When we deal with juniors we do not try to foresee their future, in fact we end up focusing more on their shortcomings. My suggestion is to make them aware of their responsibilities and give them some real example of people around them who were in the similar situation not so long ago.

Can you provide some practical ideas here? How does one treat every trainee as future Murthys, Steve Jobs and Zuckerbergs? I don't think even Murthy and Jobs were treated like future Murthy and Jobs in their first job. Still, they didn't miss out.

[sam_boy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Can you provide some practical ideas here? How does one treat every trainee as future Murthys, Steve Jobs and Zuckerbergs? I don't think even Murthy and Jobs were treated like future Murthy and Jobs in their first job. Still, they didn't miss out.

Well, I am not telling you to treat your trainees as Murthys and Zuckerbergs but what I am suggesting you is to believe in their potential and foresee their capabilities. I agree no body could have stopped Murthy to become the Murthy we know, but had some one not taken care of Sam_Boy in the initial days, it would not have been the same Sam_Boy today. ( Well I am no one in this huge galaxy, but I am just thankful to my mentors for what ever little I am today)

The whole purpose here is to invest in the fresh blood believe in them and put faith and time for making them a better professional and a better person capable of giving back to one more set of people. The point is to start a trend of Investing time with the younger people discussing not just about code and logic but to enable them to think in the right direction. I know there is too much of ideal case scenario here, but that should not stop me or you to start a tradition of giving it back.

Working with great guns and making a good product is easy but working with average people and making a good product is Awesome !!!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by sam_boy

The point is to start a trend of Investing time with the younger people discussing not just about code and logic but to enable them to think in the right direction.
.
.
Working with great guns and making a good product is easy but working with average people and making a good product is Awesome !!!

Well, I have been doing exactly that for almost a decade now.

Quoting an earlier post:

Originally Posted by Samurai

Sure. I have been running a software product development company in a rural area. Have created quite a few jobs in a region where there are very few IT jobs. I did work for large IT companies in the 90s for six years. That experience taught me how not run a software company. I hire only freshers. Since I only hire for immediate requirements, I can't do campus recruitment. Therefore, I mostly get to pick from people who couldn't get through campus recruitment for various reasons. May be that explains why I get high volume of low-quality candidates. Visitors to my office always wonder how I manage to find talent in such a place. But I have learned to see beyond mark-sheets and resume and really assess the person by their capability. I basically pick people capable of learning, and then turn them into top-notch engineers over the next few years. Many BHPians have visited my office over the past years and seen it themselves.

Here is one: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...ml#post1618825

This doesn't mean I can't highlight the problem and crib about it. In fact, I have earned that right.

[sam_boy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Well, I have been doing exactly that for almost a decade now.

This doesn't mean I can't highlight the problem and crib about it. In fact, I have earned that right.

Samurai San, No one (including me) would know the pleasure more than you which I mentioned in my post. You have been doing it from a time when I started my job. I just wanted to highlight the importance of good Mentors. From the post I can see that you are one Fantastic mentor. You can crib, shout and rant but we need to note that every generation is special in its own way.

Yes, the world needs more people like you. For me when a student fails, with him even the teacher fails.

Again, hats off to you for your initiatives and giving opportunities to guys who are winners at a second go. There is a lot to learn from you

[gomzi]

Originally Posted by sam_boy

The whole purpose here is to invest in the fresh blood believe in them and put faith and time for making them a better professional and a better person capable of giving back to one more set of people. The point is to start a trend of Investing time with the younger people discussing not just about code and logic but to enable them to think in the right direction.

I hear what you're saying and I do agree that more time and effort must be spent to groom talent. Most times though, the basic technical skills are missing and I think that's what this thread started as (not that I strictly mind going OT).
I'd list the most basic ingredients as constructive/intellectual curiosity, willingness or attitude to learn and aptitude for the nature of work, i.e. technical skills.
Arguably, the aptitude can be developed but the major problems arise when the first 2 are missing and our education does not groom students on those. If the willingness or curiosity to learn is missing then investing any amount of time and effort is a waste and I think that's what samurai san highlighted in one of his posts.
The hallmark of all great inventors and leaders is this and that's how they push boundaries no matter what education they've had.

[joe1980]

Originally Posted by amitk26

Ha Ha my solution was same using ternary operator but in pure C .

Quoting back from a very old discussion that I came across, I could not resist posting a Scala version!

(1 to 100) foreach {
case i if i % 15 == 0 => println("FizzBuzz")
case j if j % 3 == 0 => println("Fizz")
case k if k % 5 == 0 => println("Buzz")
case l => println(l)
}

Please remove if this should be ir-relevant!

[Pallavi]

Originally Posted by gomzi

Arguably, the aptitude can be developed but the major problems arise when the first 2 are missing and our education does not groom students on those. If the willingness or curiosity to learn is missing then investing any amount of time and effort is a waste and I think that's what samurai san highlighted in one of his posts.

You nailed it. And this is true right from primary education.

I thought my daughter is the only one missing out on the practical application of the science and math lessons she is learning in school. When i look around and compare her to kids from other schools, even they are in the same situation.

Very few schools teach kids how to apply their knowledge in the practical world. And without this even the willingness and curiosity to learn are snuffed out as the kids dont realize why in the world they are learning about patterns or states of matter.

I started a small study group where kids can discuss and use their knowledge to solve a problem. The best idea gets a good prize. The group is rapidly expanding, showing how easy and important it is to get the kids curious and willing to learn if they are taught the right way.

[gomzi]

Originally Posted by Pallavi

I started a small study group where kids can discuss and use their knowledge to solve a problem. The best idea gets a good prize. The group is rapidly expanding, showing how easy and important it is to get the kids curious and willing to learn if they are taught the right way.

That's a good initiative.

Please do share details (here or maybe on another dedicated thread) if you don't mind, so that anyone with a bent of mind towards it can also start something similar in their neighbourhoods.

[drsingh]

Originally Posted by Pallavi

I started a small study group where kids can discuss and use their knowledge to solve a problem. The best idea gets a good prize. The group is rapidly expanding, showing how easy and important it is to get the kids curious and willing to learn if they are taught the right way.

My favourite teacher at school was Mr. Pandey. Science teacher who took all his classes in the lab. The only teacher who made students stay voluntarily after the bell rang. It felt like a 'free class'. And we had to make our own 'notes' of what we saw in class for assignment. Hardly ever touched the text book for his tests.


I've never come across anybody like him since then. Except a couple of professors in Medical College.

It is a sad truth, but 'curiosity to learn' is something parents will have to impart themselves to their kids.

Due to the dismal state of the education sector and growth in other professional careers, intelligent people and those curious to learn will not be signing up as teachers any time soon.

[Samurai]

Most of my former employees are native to the coast where my company is located. During festival/vacation time they visit their home and also drop-in to check on their former company, which is more like alma mater to them. They also regularly join our company picnics and Deepawali/New year party. It is like they never left.

Ten days back, we had two ex-employees joining us at the office new year party. Both had worked two years in the company and left us 2+ years ago, now working in different metros. They shared some interesting tidbits, but the main theme was this. They said they can think very differently than their campus recruited colleagues. It gives them immense advantage at work. They both said that they are often asked how do they know stuff despite their lack of pedigree. And both are glad to answer "I worked for a startup!".

[Pallavi]

Originally Posted by gomzi

Please do share details (here or maybe on another dedicated thread) if you don't mind, so that anyone with a bent of mind towards it can also start something similar in their neighbourhoods.

Most of the activities are age/class based. We make up the activities on the go.

Ongoing one is related to "Best from waste" competition from school. The idea is to create usable stuff from unused stuff lying around at home. We added a twist that the kids should make do with the stuff at home. No buying new things to generate waste as it usually happens during such activities.

One girl made a cute pencil stand out of the hollow tube which comes with the kitchen towel, painted with poster colors and decorated with some stickers. Another girl made a dream catcher from old bangles and earring danglers. We are waiting for others to show us what they came up with

Previous one was a quiz on countries and capitals. The winners got a globe with their name engraved and it became the centrepiece of their showcase.

When there is a science project for a class in school, we encourage other kids to come up with their own ideas or pitch in to help the kid who got the project. Encourages team work.

Hope these ideas help. The initiative is very simple but helps increase curiosity in the kids.

Request to mods: if this is off topic, please move it to the appropriate thread.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by joe1980

Quoting back from a very old discussion that I came across, I could not resist posting a Scala version!



Please remove if this should be ir-relevant!

And I could not resist such a funny problem.
Took me back to my college days.

So chose sql.


SELECT
CASE (mod (Rownum, 5) + mod (Rownum, 3))
WHEN 0
THEN 'fizzbuzz'
ELSE
CASE (mod (Rownum, 3))
WHEN 0
THEN 'fizz'
ELSE
CASE (mod (Rownum, 5))
WHEN 0
THEN 'buzz'
ELSE ' '
END
END
END AS b
FROM dual
CONNECT BY Rownum <= 100

[Samurai]

And it is that time of the year again...

Here is an interesting resume which had us confused for a while, until we realised it is a cut-n-paste mess. The candidate chose a very old resume to copy from... a distinction student with very little attention to detail. Nevertheless, we have called the candidate for the test.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Samurai

And it is that time of the year again...

Here is an interesting resume which had us confused for a while, until we realised it is a cut-n-paste mess. The candidate chose a very old resume to copy from... a distinction student with very little attention to detail. Nevertheless, we have called the candidate for the test.

Attachment 1369910

Don't read too much into it. When I was in college, most of us went online to search for sample resumes. WE had basically no idea at all about how to go about it, and there was nobody to guide us too.