Life of An Incompetent Software Engineer

INTRODUCTION

Incompetent: Not having the necessary skills to do something successfully.

While sitting at my desk and going through the vocabulary pdf, I came across this word which grabbed my attention and made me think about it. It defines a lack of skills that helps one to stand out among a group of equally competing breeds. I wasn’t interested in the dictionary meaning of this word but the thing that rang the bell of my thought process was me. Every time I pronounced this word, I visualized myself standing submissively amongst some third world ghostly creatures. It seemed that I was their prey and they were waiting for their master’s order to attack me.

But a tap on my desk woke me up from my nightmare and it was my boss who was standing there asking for the update of the day. His fiery eyes were spilling blood and fire was gushing out his nostril. “How much of code is complete Rohan?” he again asked but I was deaf ears to his question and lost in my own wonderland full of angels and daemons.  I have been listening to this question for the last 3 years and 8 months but yet not been able to find the answer. “How much of code is complete?” I believe I won’t be able to answer this question in the next 38 years as I have never seen any code being developed here. 

3rd March 2009 is the date when I first walked into this dream job which I wish to get during my college days. Every engineering student wants to get associated with a reputed and famous IT company that pays a handsome salary and offers a great working environment. I also had the same wish and wanted to achieve something big in life. Every year when the seniors used to get placement, it filled me with a feeling of passion to accomplish my dream job. This desire helped me get that job and I got placed in the first company that visited our campus. I was overjoyed and satisfied to climb the first step of the corporate lifestyle.

But it is truly said that Reality is stranger than fiction. All the hope and expectations that I had before joining as a Software Engineer was an illusion in my subconscious mind.  The truth was bitter than it was expected. Rather it had some very unpleasant visuals to show that differentiates itself from delusion. My five-month stint at the Mysore campus where I met some true and everlasting friends and the love of my life played a crucial role in shaping the bitter part of reality. A single child, who has never been away from home, had to live independently on his own and look after himself. Over 12 hours a day of hardship in computer labs and completing the training and those endless moonlit nights having chit chats with my lady, left a memorable impression on my mind. Today also when I remember those days, I get nostalgic and wish it would come back again. Those bright days were a deception that hid the nightmarish life that was waiting outside that training campus. 

A very famous Bollywood dialogue says that ‘You never forget your first love’ and this applied in my case also. Only the difference, it wasn’t my first love but my first project in Pune. That was the second step to climb and I was now on a journey of corporate nirvana. I got ditched by my girlfriend and later was hospitalised which constituted my journey on this path. These were minor hiccups on the personal front but the real hurricane came when I was denied the opportunity that every software engineer work for and wanted to achieve earliest in his life.

In the forthcoming chapters, I have tried to give words to the life that I have lived since the day I was a part of this rat race running blindly to achieve nothing. I have tried my best to be humble and honest but if my writings have hurt anybody or are not according to the rule book, I apologize for the same.

However good or bad a situation is, it will change