The 'FAST' lane of IT?

Every new day it’s a new story. It’s still a new adventure.
No matter how hard you try to settle down it doesn’t matter.
Whether you are 15 or 50.
Even then you cannot tell one day from another.
Being in an IT industry I work every day on diff problems.
But at the end of the day it’s still the same day as yesterday.
I am still down in the evening as usual.... more due to fatigue than work load.

The Inside Story
After having a hands on experience in here I ask myself ‘why? why the hell did I want to b an IT professional?
And which idiot says that IT is booming and that lots of jobs are available.
Even after being thru 3 months of training, I am not doing what I am trained to do. Rather I am doing something that did not require me to do a diploma and engineering in comp science.And then again my fellow batch mates have no work.

And this is not the story of my company. It’s everywhere. IT firms are recruiting people like never before.I mean in Pune one of the top IT company conducts campus interviews every Sunday.What’s amazing is that this particular company has highest bench count from what I have heard.... and I mean people actually sit around doing nothing for months and in some cases years. For those who are not so enlightened this particular situation is referred to as being 'on bench'.

Let me elaborate. Picture this. You have studied everything. You have appeared for all the tests. You have passed. The management has your scorecard. They know your skill set. They know you are available for allocation. They know you raring to go. What they don’t know is where to put you. Maybe they don’t have a place to settle you or just because the idiots that they are. So u just sit around all day wandering the campus or the few work areas where access is not restricted. You surf the net all day and your inbox never has unread mails. This means being 'on bench'. Putting it more professionally...it means that you are resource of your company which can be used whenever needed and which won’t probably be needed so soon.

Reality against Dreams
Then again people say that if u are good enough then you are sure to go places. What I am asking is 'how can every one b that good?' and if they cant b that good does it mean they are to b screwed for the rest of their sorry lives? Sounds unfair to me. If u ask why unfair let me tell you why. One of my friends had just completed training for a particular stream. But he was asked to work on a project as a tester ...that too the technology was miles away from what he was trained for. I mean I understand that in IT one never does anything they are trained for. But this was absolutely hilarious (when it should have been sad). What’s more.... he was asked to appear for 3 different interviews while on bench...and for all the 3 he was rejected because they said they needed people with experience.
Well hello!! Has the HR management gone nuts or something? Why do they send freshers for interviews where experienced guys are needed? Also how the hell do u think that guy is going to get experience unless you give some damn work. After staying like this for months and doing odd jobs here and there... when he gets some opportunity to do something he has already lost track of what his actual expertise was and has to waste more time training again. Now if this is not unfair, what is?

What I think...
Its not like I expect the company to give everyone good project experience, its not possible with so many people passing out as engineers every year (its also fascinating to know that students study civil, mechanical, electronics and other stuff like that for years, even considering the time between the years of engineering when one dropped the exams, but want to join the IT crowd). What I expect is that the company should make arrangements such that the knowledge gained during trainings must be kept alive and fresh in the minds of freshers.

But just like its not Sunday everyday you cannot expect the company to give you what you prefer everyday.
Although there are some ideas that have helped keep my knowledge fresh in my mind. I surfed the net for already written codes and studied them. This helped me to know more and also keep my stuff updated. Helping your fellow juniors in college also plays a major part in attaining a level of expertise for yourself and also the students get to know how things are in professional world. While
waiting for your time you can also go on to learn things that you won’t be doing actually but will help you in the future. These may be things like studying how company procedures work or how policies affect the organization. Now the last part may sound silly now but in the near future if you have a chance of getting promoted then you will definitely be luckier than others if you are well versed with the organizational know-how.

Afterword?
Just having written a piece after so long is a testament that how busy I was during training and how much free time I have now (by the way I am on bench while on a project! Go ponder). Just trying to give you an insight which might help in preparing yourself when you are ready to crossover from college student to a professional student. This I say to stress another point ... that you have to keep learning to survive in the so-called 'fast' lane of IT. Although life comes to standstill once get in the lane.

But hey, that’s just little old me, I am sure you'd do better.
So join me for the 'on bench' experience. Campus interviews next Sunday?!