My clever clever IT peers

To the outside world, anyone who works with computers is "nerdy", "techie", "fundoo". Want to know the real picture? Read on:

Some folks from TCS had gone to the client site during an early phase in the project (client name not mentioned due to "dubious" reasons). The intent was to show some front-end screens to give an early feel for the way the final product will look. Each user from client side had a computer with a PowerPoint presentation of the screens. Mid-way through the walk through, one of the top-ranking client manager seemed pretty worked up and made a loud statement saying that the application had a bug. On asking what the bug was, here is what the user said - "When I click the 'Next' button on the screen, the next logical screen comes up. But even when I click the 'Back' button, the next screen comes up. This is not correct". The TCS team did not know what to say!

There was this time when a dynamic young individual was newly appointed as the project manager of an Oracle Applications implementation project at GE. He got stuck on a screen of the Application and called up the TCS team implementing the project about how to proceed. He was asked to press F12, which should resolve the issue. Some half an hour later, he called back saying that he was still stuck. So the team asked him to come over to the project room with the laptop. They asked him to show what he did. He proceeded to demo how he had followed the instructions to the 'T' - and started to press the 'F' key 12 times.

At another time, a lady who had no previous experience with IT joined TCS. She was trying to get some data from a software application, but was not successful even after a long while. So finally she asked one of the techies how to get the data, to which the techie said - why, check in the tables! An hour passed by and she came back saying that she still did not find the data. So the techie opened up a tool to query the database and found that data was in fact present in the tables. Now he inquired from the lady as to what tables she had checked, to which she said - she had checked the drawers only of her table!

In one project that I was on, a consultant was using both his laptop as well as a desktop for work. At one point, he became very agitated and banged his mouse repeatedly. (I would rather he banged his head considering the amount of ruckus he was creating). I asked him what was going on. He said he could not get his computer to do a simple "copy-paste". And then I saw what he was doing - 'Ctrl+C' on one keyboard and 'Ctrl+V' on the second one.

Another classic blooper comes from Sundesh, my colleague from Oracle. Mahesh mentioned that when he was shifting out of one of his projects in the United Kingdom, he clients had arranged for a "Dutch" dinner party for him. To which Sundesh asked - "Oh! So your clients took you to Netherlands for a dinner, eh? Pretty impressive!".

Here is a hilarious recording of the interaction between a first-time project manager and AVP of a company I previously worked with. But first a little background. The PM wanted a dishwasher at the onsite apartment he was put up at. He had contacted the local onsite administration staff to have this arranged. But things were not moving and he decided to contact the AVP (who was also the Delivery Head) located out of India over Gtalk. The AVP obviously had no inkling that the PM wanted a dishwasher and had requested for one since several days. The chat went like this:

PM: Hi, how are you?

AVP: Fine, thank you – how are things?

PM: Fine, but the dishwasher has not come yet.

AVP: I did not get you?

PM: A dishwasher is an electrical machine that automatically cleans dishes.

This brought the conversation to an abrupt end, as far as I am told.

And then this one is all about the post-modern times we live in:
A friend was speaking to another of her friend (face to face); she cracked a joke and the friend said "lol". That's right, he actually laughed as "lol"!

Not all apples are rotten! Here is an example of a nice and shiny apple ... a farewell email written by a colleague, which I think is one of the best framed ones that I have seen so far:

Hello,

Today I cast my mind back to just over 2 years ago when I walked into the door of XYZ Ltd. Back then I thought:

1.       “HR Maturity” has to do with how many wrinkles and grey hairs you had

2.       “True Positioning” was something you did on Google Maps when you got lost

3.       “Kronos” was a character in a Classical Greek play

4.       “HCS” apparently meant “Hot Chick Services” according to some conference

Boy how much I have learnt and grown since, given the brilliant learning curve I have experienced at this fantastic company. I look back and with all the earnestness in my heart, all I can say is WOW!

It has been such a fantastic journey where I have met the most incredible people and worked on some of the most complex and challenging clients that pushed my boundaries beyond my comfort zone. And best of all, I can honestly say I had the fun doing it.

Although I am terribly sad to be moving on to new adventures, I do so knowing that I walk away with a the XYZ Ltd. experience permanently a part of my professional anatomy.  I will be joining ABC Ltd. as a my_new_designation, continuing my work in the EFG space.

It has been a privilege working with and for all of you and I am certain our paths will cross in the future. But if you don’t want to leave things up to fate, here are my contact details:

abcxys@gmail.com

0999 999 999