This is Airport Road, the main road outside the office. We have to cross this road one or more times per day, and the concept of crosswalk doesn’t seem to exist in India…
-
Independence Day
Today is Independence Day here in India. That means nobody goes to work, at least in the normal offices. (Restaurants and things tend to be open, I think.) So what does a group of weary foreign travellers do on a day off in India? Well, we go in to the office, of course. We have legitimate reason, of course. Most of us don’t have internet access in our apartments, so we have to feed our respective addictions to the ‘net. Either way, let me explain some things that are going on…
Yesterday we had our first day of training. This included an Introduction to the TWU program, a lecture about the history of ThoughtWorks and another about the TW India office, and finally we had a discussion about the cultural differences among the people in the program. At this point we’ve got people from the entire world. The TW offices represented are the US (SF and Chicago), UK, China, India, and Australia, but the people here are from a various assortment of other countries. It’s great to get to interact with all these people from so many different places, and our discussion helped to understand each others’ thoughts and ways of life.
But anyway…I’m sure the work part is less important to many of you. I think a lot of people would rather I discuss India and what’s going on here. So I’ll do that.
The first thing that I must say is that I have been shocked because I am yet to see a single Mosquito. Strange, no? I thought so. However, the monsoon season will soon be upon us, changing the current bugless state.
The other day I went shopping on M.G. Road and Brigade Road in Bangalore. There’s tons of shopping to be done there. I bought some beautiful (I think) curtains for the place in Chicago. I’m kind of excited about those. I also picked up some CDs to listen to since I don’t have any music on my work computer.
Here’s an interesting tidbit…the most exciting part of one’s day in Bangalore is when we cross the road to get a meal. I think I might have already said something about how crazy the driving is here. The honking is ridiculous, and constant. We can hear it from the office at all times. Anyway, the interesting part is when we try to cross the street. Basically, all you have to do is wait for a small gap in the traffic, then run with all your might to the middle of the road…then do it again to get all the way to the other side. Quite exciting…and a great replacement for a morning caffeine kick.
I’m trying to think of other things…but I can’t at the moment. The food here is fantastic, if you enjoy Indian…and cheap as well. A dish at a rather nice restaurant across the street costs 130-200 rupees…$1 = 46 rupees. Yum.
I’ll check in again when I think of more. Keep on keepin’ on.
-
TWU Expecations
What are your expectations for ThoughtWorks University, in 30 minutes or less?
The only reason for the time limit is the fact that my meeting with one of my coaches in about 30 minutes, so I better get to it. Here goes…
I’m just going to put my biggest expectation/goal out there right up front. My goal at TWU is to end the course with an understanding of how I will apply User-Centered Design practices with the methodologies currently used at ThoughtWorks. I think this is a somewhat ambitious goal, which will probably continue and develop throughout my work at TW, but I think this goal is at least partially attainable in the next few weeks. I’m in a somewhat unique position with my background in HCI. The path for me in this realm is somewhat uncharted, so at this point I don’t know what to expect.
In order to achieve my goal, I’ll first have to have some sort of understanding of Agile Methods, which I’m assuming we’ll learn right at the start. I hope to learn to use Agile to my advantage, but be able to tweak it enough so that truly great software can be created. To be honest, at this point I am unsure about the process, and uneasy about the idea that code may be written on day 1 of a project. This gives very little time to do the research needed in order to really understand the nature of user needs, right? How can people be interviewed, analysis made, and prototypes created in a matter of hours? Is this possible at all? I wonder.
Another big question: Do agile methods create software that regularly meets user demands? I don’t mean the (simple) explicit demands that a customer makes, but the implicit ones that come from really understanding the nature of the work at hand. Are these customers just appeased in the end…sufficiently happy with the software…or are the pleasanly delighted at the way their work practice is changed? At this point, I just don’t know.
Of course, there are other things that I want to practice. At the bar last night I had a discussion with a group of my peers who will be developers and realized that I have never really had to think deeply about implementation details in my projects. These people have a huge focus on implementation, so I really think I need practice working with them.
What else…oh! Life! I expect to be able to get outside and have a life. This should not be all about work, but the experience…both in and outside the classroom. I want to see India. Eat the food, smell the spices, do some shopping, go on hikes, see the sights, etc. I also think I’m the type of person who needs help practicing the whole “work/life balance” thing…so that’ll be much needed.
Mostly, I want to be challenged and prepared for my real work life. I know it won’t be exactly the same, but I want to be able to practice my job in a place where mistakes are acceptable, and learning is expected. I want to have fun and get to know my peers from around the world. I want to have it all. So let’s go get it.
-
Lunchtime @ TWI
Lunchtime at ThoughtWorks India is great. They have a small cafeteria with plenty of table space (if you’re willing to squish a little). The meal is an Indian Buffet with different choices each day. Then you sit down to eat and all of a sudden you’re next to a bunch of different people, some that work with you, others that you’ve never met. Everybody is relaxed, and ready to take a break.
I love it. I think in American society we’re much less likely to really take a break in the middle of the day. At my previous job we constantly had working lunches. It was a rare occasion that people took a nice 30-60 minute break to chat and eat. In grad school we went to lunch regularly, which was nice…but I thought that would end as soon as I entered the working world. Well, I guess I’m barely in the working world at this point, but at least I still get to take a lunch break. 🙂
-
TGIFridays? In India? Yep.
Where did I eat dinner yesterday? DAMN! Good guess! Oh, you saw the title…right. So yeah, a group of us went to the local TGIFridays for dinner last night. Immediately I felt like I was back in the US. Surreal. The food was mostly the same, but the happy hour was damn near all night long. Drinks were 2 for 1 so the beer flowed…It’s safer to drink that than water.
After that we went to the local resort hotel, Leela, for drinks at the bar. It was absolutely beautiful. We had a great discussion about our expectations here at TWU, which will be followed up by our first meeting with our coaches today.
I’m getting psyched for the University classes to start. The way things work here are great. I keep seen parallels with summer camp. Everything is really light and easy, but still you learn from your experiences.
Anyway, I’ll check in again later. Time to get a new mobile phone…
-
TWU Day 1: Slooooooooooooow
The first day of work in India is about to come to an end. For those not in the know, TWU stands for ThoughtWorks University, the training program I’m attending to start my job with a bang. They sent us to India, and now we’re ready to work…well, kinda.
To be honest, we’re all a little too jetlagged to get any real work done, but still we’ve been in the office all day. I think the trainers want us to get de-lagged as quickly as possible. Thus, we’ve been sent to the office to do “work,” though we don’t have any assignments as of yet. Needless to say, it’s been a slow day of surfing, installing, and getting to know the new coworkers.
Everybody here is awesome. Literally. I’m still quite surprised by this. Everybody I’ve met has been awesome, smart, and on their A Game, jet lag or no. We’ve connected with the crews from the UK (~7-8 people), Australia (1), and, of course, India (10-15). I can’t wait to get to work…isn’t that lame?
People have been really genuinely interested in my HCI rants, which is positive. I hope to influence a lot of the work I do with others via my User Centeredness…I’ll let you know how that goes.
Anyway, the workday seems to be ending, so I think I’ll head out. Peace out. 🙂
-
Welcome to India!
I made it here to Bangalore. It was quite a long journey: 2 nine hour flights, back to back. Craaazy. We went from Chicago to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Bangalore.
It’s nice here, and the office is really cool. Today we’re meeting people from different offices and just sort of settling in. Unfortunately I’m still quite jetlagged and feeling a bit out of it. Should get more sleep tonight…we’ll see.
We had dosa for breakfast…yum!
Alright, back to socializing. 🙂 Talk to you again soon.
-
Site update – new theme
Just a quick note. I’ve changed the look of the page now that I’m back. Let me know what you think…I’m gonna sleep on it, and perhaps change it back. We’ll see.
-
I’ve got some ‘splaining to do
Why hello there! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Why yes, yes it has. First off:
I’m sorry.
I’ve done this to my readership all too often in the past few months. I haven’t blogged in weeks, and I feel bad. But I think I know why it happened. I think.
It all started about 6 weeks ago… Cue dream sequence…Â
Just before I left “planet earth” (pseudo-home in Chicago) and headed off to New York with my mom. I blogged about 6 times in one day. You didn’t see it all at once though…all the entries were cued up days in advance, so that my blog stayed lively even as I traveled from NYC to Europe to California and beyond. And it worked! Everything was updating regularly…well nearly everything.
See, I got so used to my computer’s timer updating all my posts for me automatically, that I sort of fell out of sync with the blog. Sure, I made some posts here and there, but I wasn’t commited to being regular. I think this is a side effect of a lot of stuff going on with my life right now…but mainly it’s this:
I have no regular schedule at the moment.Â
I’m such a freebird at the moment. I’m not so great at unscheduled time. I, like most, am a creature of routine. This routine is in absentia at the time being. That’s soon to change though!
On Monday I start my new job at ThoughtWorks.
Here’s what’s gonna happen: On Monday morning I’ll head in to Corporate HQ (that title is all mine) and we’ll do the basic training stuff. I imagine they’ll collect my tax info, make me fill out direct deposit info, and do the other basic stuff. In the evening I’ll go home and pack. Then on Tuesday I’ll rinse and repeat, adding some special sauce to the lather. At 3 pm the company has arranged for the corporate limo to take me to the corporate jet. Wait…no…
At 3 a taxi will come pick me and my new coworkers up and take us to O’Hare Airport. Then for the next 16-20 hours I’ll be on planes en route to Bangalore, India. Hopefully my jet lag will wear off soon, and then I’ll start my REAL orientation for the next 6 weeks. I’ll be home on September 28th.
“But Josh, what does this mean for us, your readers?”Â
Well, it means that my schedule is due to become regular again soon! That means you’ll see more blogging!
“Yay!”Â
Well I’m glad you’re all excited, because I am too. Nobody likes a silent blogger, and I intend to end my recent stint as one.
I’ll be back…
