We the IT folks

Information Technology Industry - the much talked about industry that is directly or indirectly contributing to our country's economy - be it in the form of R&D, services and outsourcing and business processing. The engineers who work in the IT industry - lets talk about them.

They are smart, pragmatic and the elite ones; agile, geniuses who can churn out new technology and new products at the snap of their fingers. If you thought this is what I am going to say; sorry! We engineers are as normal as everyone else; with limitations galore. We are not THE CHOSEN ONES. In fact, we are the most amusing and entertaining creatures one can find :-) Why so? Because we are so confused ourselves.

Most of them get enticed into the creamy seeming IT; and they remain confused - neither here nor there. They graduate from a different stream; major in a totally unrelated subject but get submerged in this mighty ocean. Systems, application, R&D, domain, development, QA, support, technical writing, analyst, consultant...........all these seem so very trivial and unimportant when all you want is a IT job.

Its only much later that you realize you are not meant to do what you are doing; you want to work on core product, but here you are working on some banking application. Gosh!! but yet its IT!!!! So yeah, we are consistently confused, always on the run to grab opportunities, constantly learn something new. We work hard to prove ourselves only to be told "You are not proactive". You successfully complete all your assignments only to be told "But why don't you write a paper? An IP? A Disclosure? You are so capable you now" and this stalls your promotion :-)

Amidst all this, we are a bunch of fun loving people; insane and confused. Only among us will you see the maximum and optimal use of technology that is offered to us. Two mates sitting beside one another would 'talk' to each other via internal messenger communicator than just turning back and talk directly. Here is a sample

A and B sits next to each other. A initiates a text conversation

A : Hi B, what is the status of the module you were working on?

B : Hmm, I am working on it. I think I can leverage some of your functionality.

A : OK, I need Pinky tonight. May I?

B : Sure. I am done with Pinky. Go ahead.

A : Cool, come lets go for tea.

Both go for tea. By the way, Pinky would be the name of a server or some piece of hardware.

We think we can get more out of technology. Like; we try to call from our desk phone to our own extension.....or keep punching the keyboard after powering off the laptop....or more; use our office badge to swipe to unlock our house gate :-) We are smart, didn't I say? We foresee a lot and thats how we invent new stuffs.

Gadgets - Aaahhh those are our toys! How we love them! From those complex multi-core processor servers to  latest phones and music players to cameras to laptops. We can learn the functionality of these gadgets faster and so remain always ahead. We are crazy! When others use desktops, we use sleeker and less bulkier laptops, when they start switching to laptops, we use netbooks. When people start using netbooks, we use a 17" massive laptops. We are different! adapt to technology soon. The same with any gadgets. When you all use a "mobile type" mobile phones, we use a matchbox size phones, when you guys think that's cool and switch to these, our new toy is a 4" display keypad-less touchscreen smart phones.

We think too high as well. Engineers you see; computer engineers :-) Our lingo, our talks are on a level beyond comprehension for most layman. We can "fix" the most impossible of the issues; we "leverage" and "optimize". We "boil down the ocean" to get issues resolved. We are super humans who can multitask and yet deliver with perfection and remain proactive and consistently over perform :)

We are software engineers. Our world is a 4x4 feet cube. Oh! even those are for the privileged ones. Our companion is our laptop and desk phone. Our friends are messengers, emails and websites. We emote, we talk, we cry, we feel within this world. We are branded as geeks or nerds. Some of us are zombies, but all of us are morons. I found this apt image online.

Image courtesy - http://www.prashantmhatre.com/fun/software-engineering-classics/

No questions asked, not even promotions :-P

PS : I dedicate this post to all the engineers working in IT industry