Working in America

Many graduates today come to America either on assignment or for careers. What does it feel like to land on those shores? The author, Mr. Suseendran (Hari) recounts how his story of finding his way through an enormous economy, and indeed finding a place in dynamic Wall Street.

Mr. Suseendran (1986, Production Engineering)

Introduction

Like all of my classmates from the class of 1986, I emerged with an undergraduate degree from the PSG College of Technology, with a major in Production Engineering. I was a budding engineer, eager to take on the world with all the knowledge gained from the four precious years at one of the best colleges in India.

For this twenty one year old fresher, the term ‘production’ meant any or all of the processes that began as a requirement, brainstorming of ideas to cater to that requirement, transforming those ideas into a blueprint, developing a model or prototype, testing and finally rolling out the finished product, which was typically something that could be perceived by the five human senses.

True to that perception, when Ashok Leyland - then the second largest automobile manufacturer in India, offered me the position of an Executive Trainee, I lapped up that opportunity with great enthusiasm. Soon, we 'engineers' would be rotated around various departments as part of the Induction Training. We took pride in learning about thousands of components in a chassis and their manufacturing processes. We also used to quiz each other on these details, deriving petty pleasures.

From Axles to Pixels

As part of the Training, we also had a 3-day visit to systems department - the only 'clean' environment where everything was in immaculate condition, thanks to the needy computers that always required air-conditioners in operation. Back in those days, some companies used to refer to these departments as MIS (Management Information Systems) or EDP (Electronic Data Processing).

Every one of us was drawn towards working in that atmosphere, where the folks seemed pretty cool, cranking out reams and reams of COBOL code and talking in buzzwords - none of which made any sense!

There was an announcement for one vacant position and they had all of us (trainees) appear for an aptitude test for the selection process. With my measly knowledge of computers or programming languages, I had every reason not to take the test - but I did! The even more surprising part is that I got selected! Moral: Be careful what you wish for.

Thus began my accidental journey of Application Software Development, that started with a manufacturing company and has been navigating through various interesting stops along the way like banks, brokerage firms, media, entertainment and healthcare industries.

Which boat are you in?

The general trend of Indians coming over to the US as students underwent a significant change in the early 1990s with the government starting to shift focus on 'Specialty Occupation' Visas - in which people with development skills in the latest software were mostly sought after. Towards end of 1993, this demand escalated to such an extent that companies were training people rigorously with the intent of meeting the software development requirements of the US companies.

The events that unfolded during the mad rush were spectacular! As with any other phenomenon, it created a situation whereby screening became essential at every stage to weed out candidates with fake credentials and dubious claims.

The consular officers at Chennai were rejecting the H1B Work permit applicants at random - pushing everyone to the edge. I recall an experience undergone by one of the female applicants from the company I worked for during her Consulate Interview, a process that was never considered to be technical.

The officer looked at her application and asked her ‘What is this - Sybase?’. The girl said that it was a relational database and went about explaining it in detail. The officer wouldn't budge. He slipped a post-stick note across the counter and asked her to write a program right on the spot, asking her to explain the various functions! She had such a harrowing ordeal. 

My interview, in comparison was a non-event and within a couple of days, I found myself boarding my flight to the US for the first time. 


Glimpses into the early stages

New York's winter greeted me on the morning of March 6th, 1994 at John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport, as the North East United States was recovering from the repeated assaults of seventeen snow storms.

Just as in movies, I was expecting someone with a placard to get me to my company guesthouse but there was no such thing. Nobody bothered or solicited me for a cab ride. Everybody was minding their own business - making no eye contact!

One of the Human Relations personnel from my company in India had given me a fax number, insisting that it was a phone number and that was all I had - not even the address to my destination! Being Sunday, the company address was useless. Here I was, with two suitcases, with all the energy and enthusiasm suddenly snuffed out of my body, feeling like a complete fool in a strange place. Welcome to New York!

After subjecting me to a decent lesson on patience, my ride came in a human form around night with a panic ridden face, profusely apologizing to me. En route the 75-mile ride to my place of stay in New Jersey, it felt surreal taking in the view of the Statue of Liberty and the spectacular Manhattan skyline.  I was exhausted but greatly relieved, as I had to report to my client the next morning at 8 AM at the famed Wall Street!

Ain't over...yet. It has just begun!

The next morning, I reported to my client - Bankers Trust, in Manhattan, NY. With the frustration of the previous day and sleep deprivation pushed aside, my thoughts were swirling around the prospects of working in one of the skyscrapers alongside the wizards of the financial district.

The west's recognition of the talent pool from India has come a long way over the last twenty years. Folks that came from Asian countries had to get established themselves culturally and emotionally in order to get acceptance into the mainstream American system, and this process could take anywhere from a few months to years, depending upon the individual.

For the past several years, companies in India have been indoctrinating US-bound employees with everything they need to know regarding the work and culture right down to intricate details, including the slangs and accents. This has helped bridge the gap to a great extent.

My client manager - a petite woman, received me with a smile, and asked where I had been (I later learnt that my company had given her the notion that I was already living in the US for some time). When I replied 'India', I saw the look on her face change abruptly. I would've said the same even if my company had asked me to tell a lie. She immediately gave me an impromptu written test in 'C' programming language, hoping to see me fail so that she could get rid of me. I passed the test but failed to erase her prejudice.

A little commentary on prejudice. In the globalized workforce, many cultures and traditions are mixing. What corporations are recognizing is that we may all carry ‘unconscious bias.’ That is those exhibiting the bias are not aware that they are exhibiting the bias. Thus, there are corporate programs being put into place for managers in particular to be trained to detect in themselves and in their colleagues, propensities for such behavior and take corrective action. This is indeed a welcome development.

In any case, I started my work at Banker’s Trust, in spite of the prejudice exhibited by my hiring manager. I took a deep dive into getting to know the processes and applying my knowledge. Two weeks later, I was shown the door anyway - no reasons!

Clients enjoyed the try-before-hire privilege on people similar to products. The timing (and not the episode) bothered me a bit since my wife and 5-month old daughter had just joined me then. However, this initial failure only increased my resolve to be honest, although I realized that it may not act in your favor always! Being honest may have initial setbacks but eventually it wins.

Moving on...

Within a couple of weeks, I cleared up a round of interviews and landed as a consultant with Merrill Lynch, Somerset, NJ where I had my first taste of Corporate America.

I would like to mention some noteworthy facts - bound to make today's IT person chuckle: Windows 3.1 with 8 MB RAM was the prevailing operating system on the PC that I got at first, which was eventually upgraded to 16 megabyte Windows-95 was still being developed at Microsoft! One of my colleagues was bragging about his computer working on a Pentium processor with 640 megabyte hard disk space!

Other than the humble beginnings in technology, the work in itself was engaging and despite being a so-called ‘fresh-off-the-boat’ immigrant, I had excellent relationship with every one of my colleagues who belonged to a culture quite different from my Indian roots.

They would drive me on numerous occasions to the train station (as I didn't have a car in the beginning), accompanied me on afternoon walks in the beautiful woods in the company campus, and took me out to occasional luncheons. These are all some of my most cherished memories from my early days at work.

New York Bound (Again)

After nearly a year, one of my contacts kept pursuing me to join his company to work for a media conglomerate - Viacom Inc., in Midtown Manhattan. With that began my tenure in New York City that would last over eighteen years in various spheres of applications development using a wide range of software technologies, serving Media/Entertainment companies and theme parks. I witnessed several mergers and acquisitions, floating of an independent Information Technology company and also company splits! 

Similar to Lower Manhattan's popularity as the financial hub, Midtown has its own share of stately high-rise buildings with the added charm as the center of entertainment, always teeming with tourists.  Broadway shows are popular year round. The Empire State Building with its observation deck atop its 102nd floor, offers amazing views of the city and the neighboring states. During fall and winter, the whole city comes aglow with a festive atmosphere, offering a welcome break from the depressing short days. Rockefeller Center has a tradition of Christmas tree lighting every year where in a crew is engaged in selecting the best Norway Spruce that meets their dimension specifications. Central Park is an oasis of greenery set amid the concrete jungle. 

For nearly two decades, Paramount Plaza and Rockefeller Center were my prime places of work, the former, located near Times Square. But I was not crazy enough to visit the area on New Year's Eve!

A lot of interesting, life changing events happened during this time and I would like to list five among them. I relate to them as part and parcel of my working in this country - by being directly involved or as an observer.

1. Y2K Readiness and Preparation - It all boiled down to the early stage programmers (perhaps in the 1960s and 1970s) trying to save 'precious' disk space by opting to store year in two digits as opposed to four. Sure they might have had brainstorming sessions on “What happens when the year becomes 2000?”  But I'm guessing that those who raised that question were 'shot' down with the message "Let's deal with it when it comes!"

And when it did, what a phenomenon it created in terms of a glut of resources pouring in from all over the world! Some people believe that the Y2K bug was a hype but I subscribe to the belief that we averted major issues due to our preparedness.

2. Dot com Explosion and Stock Market crash - How could anyone forget about the Information Technology bubble that burnt investors when it popped during March 2000? Established IT personnel were jumping ships at a moment's notice to join technology start-ups with grand 'promises' of stock options and several got burnt. The US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan probably had a premonition when he gave that speech about three years before the bubble burst with his famous quote on “Irrational exuberance.

If only they had heeded his words!

3. September 11, 2001 - Just a short distance from my office in midtown Manhattan, on that morning, the whole world was witnessing the best and worst acts of mankind and the fragility of human life all at once. The world changed forever!

I recall the words of our CEO in his calm voice: “Today is a sad day for America. I request you to evacuate the building. I don't know what else to say but wherever you go, be safe.”

But the city's resilience was evident when the trains started operating within less than four hours following the indescribable tragedy. I boarded the second train home. It was packed but there was deafening silence in the train, a mental state I would like to call as 'Controlled chaos'.

People were looking towards the direction of the smoke from where the twin towers stood only a couple of hours ago, wondering but not daring to ask "That's my place. Where do I go to work tomorrow?"  - still coming to terms with why/how they survived. 

Over the next decade, like a Phoenix from the ashes, from the place close to where the Twin Towers stood the Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center) would soar 1776 feet into the sky - the number symbolizing the year of US Declaration of Independence.

4. Pagers - Mobiles - Smart phones - What's next? - Picture a few people conversing with each other at work, when one person suddenly reaches out to her pocket as though an ant bit her. She takes a quick look at that thing she gets from her pocket and scrambles to a nearby phone to call that number. That seems so ancient! Yes, these conversation distracters have come a long way from the pagers of the early 90s to the Smart phones of today!

5. Security and Preventive Measures - With problems associated with viruses, hacking, and system crashes, major headway is being made in the areas of Security, Disaster Recovery and Information Protection.

What do Americans look for in the Information Technology work force?

Technical knowledge is a given for an IT professional. Although it helps to be a specialist in a certain area, it is more important to be adaptable to new set of software and methodologies, sometimes, to the extent of foregoing one's expertise to learn a whole new tool, as dictated by factors such as market demand and company policy changes. Here are three things I list which Americans look for at any time in a Technology specialist.

Bang for the buck

In general, Corporate America has become highly value-conscious in terms of spending money on their human resources. A lot of emphasis is given to the concept of Return on Investment (ROI).

Gone are the days of reckless spending and jet-set lifestyle of executives, thanks to the waves of recessions the country has undergone and the increasing scrutiny by investors. While every effort is made to select the right candidate or a contracting company for an Information Technology project without compromising on quality, the odds generally seem to work in favor of the lowest bidder. Significant time and money is invested in writing up the SOW (Statement of Work) with the participation of heavyweight lawyers to safeguard the company interests from Contractors with poor standards. Hourly contracts have been gradually taken over by fixed price projects.

Trustworthiness

During the transition period between Merrill Lynch and Viacom back in January 1995, I had to work in both places for a few months. I used to get back home from my work in New York City and drive to my old client in New Jersey - about 50 miles apart. It was exhausting to do it every day and logging in remotely was not prevalent in those days.

My client manager at Merrill rented out a laptop and had me work from home at my own time. Not only that, he took the responsibility of filling out my consulting time sheet hours and submitting it to payroll solely based on my verbal input, just to make sure that my pay was not interrupted. He relied on my words and had no way of monitoring my work. I'm still grateful for the tremendous trust that he placed in me that made him go out of the way to help me.

Communication

Indians have a distinct advantage over other nationalities, thanks to their English proficiency, but that's not the only aspect I'm referring to. It's important to use discretion in communication. Nothing can put off a business manager than a list of technical jargons that a programmer uses in his conversation. Additionally, succinct exchanges are quite common in a fast paced environment. Therefore, the challenge for the IT professional is to know to speak the right language in the applicable forum.

The Globalized worker

As the world is getting smaller by the day, the working nature of a typical Information Technologist has undergone a major change. Virtual Private Networks have pervaded the work atmosphere, bridging not only the distance gap but also the time gap. Gone are the typical 9-5 work days.

Everyone is now equipped with the extended leash to their office so that they are able to stay in touch with their peers or managers whenever needed. As the layer between personal time and work time has started becoming more of a blur, it has become increasingly important for the IT worker to maintain a work-life balance. I see this pattern only continuing in the foreseeable future and therefore, I list the following traits that would effectively define a Globalized worker:

1.      Cross Trained - to be able to support multiple areas rather than one.

2.      Dispensable - so that another person could fulfill his role when he takes off on vacation or quits the job.

3.      Multitasking - Seriously? Isn't multitasking just for computers? Sadly, this commonplace term has enveloped today's IT worker as they are expected to juggle between conference calls, emails and chats - all at once! While some people claim to be good at that, it compromises to a great extent on efficiency. How about adopting Mindfulness instead?

4.      Readiness to share knowledge - People would agree with me that not everyone in this field is forthcoming, 'job security' being mentioned as one obvious excuse. The global worker has everything to gain by realizing that no one can operate in vacuum and by demonstrating the eagerness to help.

5.      Short learning curve - be able to get up to speed quickly.

What happened to the Production Engineer?

In Information Technology terminology, production is a common usage to denote an active or live environment. Going back to a generic software development life cycle, a requirement is conceived, a system proposal is made, which in turn is accompanied by analysis, design, and construction, before it is subject to QA, culminating in implementation whereby the program is released to the live environment.

While comparing this with the life cycle in my Introduction section, strangely enough, I do see a parallel existing between them. The finished product in this case is not something perceived necessarily by the five senses, rather mostly by the mind playing a crucial role.


Summary

I have recounted my personal journey making my way to the United States and my career and lessons learned along the way. New York should be counted as one of the greatest cities in the world. It is a dynamic, multi-cultural melting pot. Indeed one can even say that the culture and dynamism of New York is distinct from the state of which it is a part and even the rest of the country. The pop music singer Billy Joel sang it best when he crooned ‘The New York State of mind.” A stint in New York will give the global professional a taste for capitalism unleashed and meritocracy valued.

Likewise, every city in the US has got its unique flavor that symbolizes its character, as defined by its history, local food, sports teams, points of interest and landmarks, giving its inhabitants their own bragging rights.

From the day the pilgrims landed centuries ago, this country has come a long way in terms of its culture, rights and religious freedom. Living and working in the land of the free, one gets to appreciate in the truest sense the three inalienable rights namely life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - which together form the essence of why this country was born.

About the author
Suseendran (Hari) works in Software Stewardship and Asset Management division of a Health Care company in Philadelphia. He was a hosteler at PSG College of Technology, graduating in Production Engineering. He lives with his family in Columbus, New Jersey.


2 comments:

  1. Nice article.. Please increase the font size.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well written.. An excellent walk down the memory lane..

    ReplyDelete