Life as an Engineer in South Korea - Part 1

Its quite some time since I've updated this blog.  I can come with a multitude of reasons, but honestly deep down I know its due to sheer laziness.  Sorry for that (as if you are waiting with baited breath he he).  

Anyway,  its close to three months since I entered this beautiful place and I thought of writing a bit about it here.  Usually we get enough information about Indian Engineers in US/UK or any other English speaking countries.  But information about Indian Engineers in Korea is hard to come by on WWW.  So, hopefully, this will give some insight into aspiring Engineers who're looking to take up employment here.  I'll give the information in parts.  In this post, I'll address some concerns I had before coming here (these are very common, and most people would've them too).

For the uninitiated, I recently took up job as an Engineer at one of the most prominent companies of S.Korea (no cookies for guessing ;) ) in Suwon City , S.Korea.  I had lot of apprehensions initially about accepting the job offer and life in general, at a country where, finding someone who speaks English, is equivalent to finding someone who likes Tees Maar Khan in India.  Sorry for the bad punchline, I'm not so good with analogies !

Some of the most common concerns I had were in the below areas - 

1. Food
2. Working long hours 
3. Harsh climate 
4. Language Barrier
5. Cost of Living

Let me address them one by one.

1. Food - Food is not an issue so far, mainly because we had brought most of our Indian groceries with us here.  So I get to eat delicious Indian food daily.  And my wife seems to have found an otherwise previously undiscovered love for cooking delicious dishes deep inside her, which works greatly to my advantage.  Add to that, my office has a good, well stocked, Indian Cafeteria, which offers decent Indian vegetarian meals.  There are some pizza places, where one can order vegetarian pizzas as well.  You have a couple of Indian restaurants as well in Suwon where you can find vegetarian food.  But as a whole, being a veggie, one is at a disadvantage here.  Some of the vegetables like green beans are very very hard to find, Indian  stores are few and far , and even if you do come across the few Indian stores, Indian Rice cost like $22 for 5kgs !  So, if you are an Indian veggie, life maybe a bit tough, if you don't have enough groceries with you and your company doesn't provide Indian food.  You might find it tough to socialize with your Korean colleagues as well, as, being a veggie, you will always stick out like a sore thumb in office parties and lunch/dinner treats.  

2. Working Long Hours - This seems to be a common misconception outside of Korea.  Yes, hours are long only if you make them to be.   So far, nobody at my office has told me to stay back and work for extra hours.  In fact,it has been quite the opposite, I'm encouraged to work smart and not slog.  But this might vary across companies.  But, in general, from what I've noticed, Koreans are hardworking people.  They don't mind staying long hours in office, and they are pleased if you stay back too. 

3. Harsh climate - Coming from the air conditioned weather of Bangalore, the weather here in S.Korea does seem harsh at times.  The cold can go as bad as -16 , literally forcing you to stay indoors.  But nothing , a couple of hot pakoras with warm coffee and a thick sweater and blanket can't solve.  If you are having trouble with harsh winters, this might be an issue for you.  I've heard the summers can be nasty too, yet to experience it, so no comments yet !

4. Language Barrier - Well this is indeed a huge problem.  So much that, sometimes I fear it can potentially cause social isolation and induce loneliness.  There are some Indian families around in the city of Suwon, but the knowledge of local language is needed the most, especially when you go out to shop or roam around, where, a trivial task like asking for that grocery you want, or  checking out directions can be a huge hassle.  In office, not knowing the language can put you in a great disadvantage compared to your peers.  You develop a frustrating sense of dependency on your co-workers for even insignificant stuff like getting your computer repaired, paying your bills (At least the first few times) etc.   Meetings and most of the technical training happen in native Korean, and you miss out on them as well.  So, unless you are prepared to spend time and efforts to learn Korean, you might want to re-think about a long term career here.  I've started to train myself on Korean with some information available on web, planning to attend some classes shortly as well. 

5. Cost of Living - Yes, S.Korea is expensive compared to India or China and almost as costly as US in some aspects.  Renting an apartment is very expensive, so are vegetables and other groceries. Same goes for clothes and other household items.  But, I received a fully furnished apartment as part of my job offer from my Employer due to which I'm relatively at a safer side. Kid's education is another thing to look out for.  Monthly fees can cost you upwards of $500 in an English school for simple Kindergarten education (excluding initial deposit, travel/books/uniform and other such miscellaneous expenses).  I've not checked for primary schools, but my guess would be that it would be much more.  Medical Expenses, cost a lot too from what I heard, but there's a medical program from govt., which is kind of mandatory (I assume), which covers most of the regular ailments.  The premium for that is quite less, so unless you are illness-prone, you should be able to get along.  To sum it up,  without the benefits of housing, accepting a job in S.Korea, especially for people from India , can be daunting since the cost of living here is very high compared back home.

So that's a brief summary based on my 3 months of living here.  I'll try to update the blog more regularly whenever I get free time.  Catch you later :)

Pathetic state of 'Project Management' in silicon valley of India

I had a heated exchange with my boss today leaving me very exhausted mentally and irritated to some extent.  The worst part is, no matter how hard I try, I just cannot help but bring this to home - which results in a nasty snowballing effect of adding more stress as everybody else is stressed out at home when they see me grumpy.

     I can make a blog and fill it up with 100 posts about how much office work contribute to stress for a working individual in India.  Especially in the software industry.  The main reason is the disagreement and the way its handled in our so called 'modern offices'.  Have an issue with your manager, well the way to sort it out is to sit for hour long lectures on anything from 'Empowerment' to 'Turning around', 'innovation' and more management terms, which you never use in your daily life.  Don't agree with your boss/co-worker, the official way is to schedule a skip level meeting, where invariably you are taught lessons on how to get along with your boss/colleagues by your skip level manager.  You can run from pillar to post, but the end message is the same - "Just stick to the plan and get on with your work.  Your opinions can be shoved up your behind for all we care !"

    Sad really ! One of my colleagues was telling me today that "people don't leave companies, they leave managers".  And its so true.  One of the main reasons I attribute this pathetic state of project/resource management in India is to the vastly unskilled/undeserving pool of managers.  These guys were the engineering graduates of the late 90s or the early 2000s, who entered the industry during the 'dot-com boom'.  At that time, attrition was so high, a guy with 4 years of experience was the tech lead, a guy with 2 years of experience as tech lead became a manager and so on.  Naturally when the tide is slowing down and getting into a state of normalization, we have all these vast pool of people who are stuck at mid-level/upper level management positions, who are so unskilled in technical areas, you've no option but to continue using them.  And now we are beyond the previous "maintenance" projects, getting more and more of end to end development and guess who manages these ? The previously unskilled pool !

    Most of these so called 'project or resource managers', still work by the age old method of bribe/blackmail/carrot & stick for employee retention / satisfaction.  Some of the popular methods of making an employee "contribute" more to the company:

1. On-site opportunity: By far the most popular one.  Find a grumpy employee not happy with his salary/work/environment or whatever, forget about spending time at counselling him to find the root cause, just throw in the assurance of sending him onsite and rest assured he'll fall in place.  Any place from Singapore to Buenos Aires will do, as long as him/his wife and his kid's tickets are paid for and he is allowed to stay back long enough to change his location in facebook profile and paste pics about his onsite spoils.  No matter how stupid his outing was or how bad his new fake accent is.

2. Contractual obligations:  Worried about losing your fresh talent jumping onto other companies ? Worried that all you taught to the fresh minds are being stolen away by other companies at your expense ?  Don't bother about improving your in house work culture or incentives to make them stay.  Throw in a complicated contract which could result in the employee paying a hefty sum of money in case he leaves you.  You can even throw in an advocate at the time of making the contract to really strike fear into their hearts.  For best results visit the innermost parts of India where students are actually ready to sign their life off for an opportunity to work in a s/w company.  Use their poor financial situation complete to your advantage! Now that's how geniuses in HR roll yo !

3. Ridiculous notice periods:  I heard that the notice period in US is usually two weeks.  Well, welcome to Bangalore ! Here it varies any time between 2 months to 6 months depending on which company you are in.  Impossible to retain an employee thanks to your sucky company policies ? Well let us make it such that its not possible for them to find employment anywhere either.  'You can't lose if you don't play!'

4. Unbelievable lateral hikes:  Finding trouble poaching talent with your sucky bureaucratic company policies ? Tired of being rejected by anyone who's able to write a program to print "hello world" without compiler warnings or errors ? Well, here's the instant solution - give them a ridiculously high package which is more than twice the amount another poor loyal guy with the exact same skill set and experience is making at your company.  Add a signing bonus as an icing on the cake to seal the deal.  Rest assured you'll land that guy for your next induction program.  Now, to stick to your process of suckiness, ensure that his future hikes are dramatically reduced to fractions lesser than one, and depend on point 1,2 or 3 for his retention.  Also, don't bother about normalizing the salary of that honest/loyal engineer stuck with your company.  What kind of a loser sticks to a company beyond 2 years eh ?

If you think I'm trying to vent out my frustration or being sarcastic, you are free to walk in and join any software company in Bangalore and see if for yourself.  Don't bother checking the logic or the reasoning behind any of these points, unless you are in mood for some real "coaching" on how "you should first ask yourself what you've done for the company before you ask what the company has done for you" !

Why India is 'Startup starved' ? A theory !

More often that not we hear grandiose stories from silicon valley of how a acne covered geek working in his grandmother's basement found the solution to that 'obvious' problem which everyone overlooked and eventually made millions. And stories like facebook time and again prove that the 'American dream' very much exists even today in US. But while in our own silicon valley - Bangalore, the story is almost the converse. We have very few tech heroes like mark zukerberg, the last known public figure of rags to tech riches is the now retired ex chairman of India's 3rd largest 'services' company - 'NR Narayana Murthy'. Even after NRN founded infosys some 25 years ago, hardly are there 25 such companies to boast of in the 'silicon valley of India'. I wonder why. A little bit of idle browsing and talking to peers and colleagues in the industry, I feel partly, India's age old social structure and cultural principles have a significant contribution.

Let me explain.

1. In India, social obligations are way too high compared to the west. For ex: An average American has to play the role of a husband, a father perhaps and then a good worker. Its quite manageable. Compare that to an average Indian. He has to be a good father, husband, brother, newphew, grandson and whatnot while balancing his work life.  There are some families I know of where one person feeds everyone from grandfather to his kid brother.  One single guy.  I can only imagine how stressful would it be for that poor soul to just juggle so many relationships, while balancing his career.  Where is the time to think beyond the box ? 

2. In the west, a techie studying in college, has little or no obligations to his family, other than to perhaps pass the course if his father paid for his tuitions. In India, not only has the son / daughter need to pass with "flying colors", he needs to provide support for his family, clear his father's debts, secure money for his sis' marriage, ensure enough bank balance is present to fund is little bro's college fees etc etc. And believe me, I'm not talking about a very far fetched scenario. Many of my friends who passed out of college, have done all these. So the risk taking attitude in Indian students is way too less compared to their counterparts in the west.  I mean, how am I supposed to think of "denying" that high paying job from an "IT services" company, when my dad is neck deep in loans because of me ? The guilt of "wasting" their parents hard earned money is way too high among Indian students if they don't end up getting into a proper company after their course ends.  Starting a company is something that's only in the movies or for some rich kids is the general perception among the middle class.

3. In the west, a working techie has little responsibilities.  If,  overnight he gets an idea which he finds worth 'entrepreneuring' on, he just can pool his savings so far and start right away. In India, we are expected to save for ourselves, our kid's marriages, college education, buying a house, a car so on and so forth. We need to ensure that not only our future is "safe",  but also that our kids get into good colleges, get married and have their own kids.  The responsibility just doesn't end till they are 18, you need to ensure your kids have a spouse and job too.  Basically it means, we just don't have the right to spend what we earn. And to think of investing all that in a 'startup' ? The person should be nuts.

4. Its ok not to get married in the west. Nobody raises eyebrows, or make you a social outcast.  Complete opposite in India, and this plays a significant role in shaping your career. In India, its pretty tough to be belonging to middle class and not be married if you are beyond 30. Almost everyone will be breathing down your neck forcing you to tie the knot. And two years down the line, you "should" have a kid and buy a house. You are left with very little time for experimenting with your life, making mistakes or failing which is more often than not what happens with most start ups. The room for error is very less, so most people just tend to take the easy risk free path of 'employment'.  Like the quote from 'The Wire' - "you can't lose if you don't play".

Having said all the above, I don't mean to say that India cannot produce entrepreneurs. Its just that the social and cultural aspects of our society has quite an impact on our youth in shaping their thinking. Very few have the courage the break these social barriers and emerge successful.  These are the guys about whom we read in books and newspapers. Unfortunately such numbers are far and few in between. Here's to hoping more such success stories happen in 'India's silicon valley'. Signing off for now....catch you later !

A cookie for the happy man !

As the day goes by, sometimes I wonder.... I wonder when or what makes a man truly happy ? Is he happy when he gets what he wants? Is he happy when he gets the recognition he thinks he deserves? Is he happy when he is the leader of all ? When all subjects bow to his command ? Does wealth and prosperity really bring the kind of happiness that we assume it would ? Truth to be told, after more than a quarter of a century of my existence, I have come to believe that none of them can bring true happiness. Happiness is a state of mind and doesn't need any trigger. We as individuals determine if we are happy or not. Chasing down a dream and for that matter even achieving it wont make us happy, it just makes us empty. Makes us crave for more. True happiness is the one which we can experience without any trigger, without any precondition, without any strings attached. And for those of you who think you a are happy this way, heres a cookie from me, wishing I would one day become that happy man !

Ipad2 is here finally !

learning java

Hi,

Been a long time since I updated. Life has been going on so far. BTW, just wanted to put in here that I've started to learn Java. Kinda self educating myself whenever I can spare time at home. But the hill to climb is pretty steep. Its not that I don't know anything about oo programming. Being a CS graduate, I'm quite well versed in them, but what I'm out of touch is with the lang itself. And Java has grown so vast in the past years, its hard to keep up. Anyway, I've no intention of taking up any SCJP, my intention is to only learn as much needed to code on android platform. Let us see how it goes....wish me luck, and wish that I don't give up along the way.

Old "might" turn out to be gold !

Life has been really dragging lately. After playing Mafia II and The Witcher, I don't feel like playing anything else. Watched some movies though - Dabgangg, SALT and Aisha. Dabangg was pretty average, but nice time pass. SALT was totally awesome. Aisha was quite decent.

Now coming to the topic title, I wonder what made Dabangg click in the first place? For us southies, the movie is nothing new, its a rehash of any other regular movie with the hero fighting off more baddies in ways that would put iron man to shame. So whats new about this that made it click ? In my opinion, the simplicity of the movie worked in its favor greatly. The movie is never pretentious and doesn't take itself too seriously. Its like the director told the people, "hey, I'm gonna make a movie with a bare minimum story, over the top action, catchy songs and some humor thrown in to keep you from getting bored, I'm neither making it to get any awards, or put my name in the hall of fame. The only guarantee is that it'll be entertaining and not bore you".

I would take a movie like Dabangg anyday over the pretentious nonsense thats churned out by most of the high budget production houses. I would enjoy a movie with Indian characters, Indian cities, Indian setting dealing or showcasing Indian problems instead of showing us the false, bloated, stinky rich, ultra luxurious setting of the west. Don't take me wrong, I'm totally up for movies shot in the west, DDLJ did it, Kal ho na ho did it, and both managed to pull it off very well. But to make a movie in the western setting just for the sake of it is pretty annoying, more so, when every other movie tries to do the same stuff. An ultra rich swanky NRI hunk is sad because his marriage is in shambles or his love is lost. Booo and boring !

I'm sort of glad that Dabgangg was a hit. For one, it brought back the bollywood to its root - which is India. And two, it showed that you don't need a big banner or a controversial topic or in-your-face marketing to make a movie hit. All you need is to understand your audience and make movies for them.

Here's to wishing there comes a Dabgangg 2 , before I log off. Catch you later.