This is what matters!

I forgot to mention in the last post that it was my close friend, Sameer, who inspired me to write about my PS..
Thanks buddy..

This post is all about what really matters to me the most..

TI life:
Morning 9 am, I enter TI , see people standing peacefully in the que for breakfast. Everybody selects his/her favourite food item. Cafeteria is clean, well decorated. The contractor respectfully treats you, remembers what's your favourite food. I have breakfast and start walking towards my cubicle. Everybody seems lazy and yawning. Nobody seems to care.

I reach my cubicle on the fourth floor, start my day looking at e-mails, occasionally check the results of the previous day's work and in a while, I am all geared up for work. Suddeny, I feel the floor getting crowded and everybody getting back to their respective cubicles, which they, mostly half heartedly, have left on the previous day. Cubicles are unique places that convey you a lotta information about the person. I see one cubicle filled with marrage photographs all around, another with couple of teddy bears. I start working and after a while, I feel the urge to go to the pantry. A couple of collegues and I go for a coffee. After chatting over myriad issues and reading newspapers, we come back. On our way back, we see people working, walking around to attend a meeting, talking over IP phones and discussing architectures inside well furnished team rooms. After the little break, I resume work. I talk to my mentors a couple of times over the phone, or go to their cubicles for the same. I find my mentors to be friendly people. They are really helpful and they tell me exactly what I need to know. I can argue with them without any inhibitions. My work requires a lot of research and in-depth knowledge of software tools. Most of the interns here are working in projects concerning R & D.

Afternoon generally the most difficult times. Heavy lunch worsens the situation. Afternoons are generally spent in chatting or in playing Table Tennis at Texins (club).

Evenings, for me , are the most pleasant times. They inspire creative work! They make ideas flow. So, generally I keep working till late evenings.

So this is my routine. You must be wondering, "huh.. how does this matter? Everybody does this".

I will come to the point.

Texas Instruments is one such company that keeps up the engineering spirit. I always wondered before PS how exactly can research work be done by working in companies. I never really believed that hardcore electronics work can be carried out in the professional environment of the semiconductor companies. And now, I am convinced to say "yes..this is possible. TI provides a research environment". I had always been unhappy with the facilities and infrastucture at BITS. But TI is different. It is a company which truly respects its engineers. Innovation is not just accepted, but also motivated. Innovation can only come through freedom, and I think people here know it well. People work with targets and not with time. Employees can have a vacation in between two pre-decided tasks. Work goes on smoothly. If a certain software tool is not capable to perform a task, TI guys would come up with their own scripts to overcome the difficulty. Engineers are just expected to Engineer...and the rest is taken care by TI.

Sometimes, I wonder what do I want from my life. I can become an investment banker, earn a heavy salary and do the work which I dislike (or maybe, which I hate). On the other hand, I can spend rest of my life working in a hardcore research and development environment and earn a lot less. I think I would choose the latter. It is the real engineering work which can actually satisfy my soul. That is something which can make and keep me happy.

This is what matters! Isn't it?