Life as a Software Engineer

It is a ‘cold’ call on a big-shot in a big MNC. Myself and a colleague – in an attire suitable for such call; are formally dressed. Suit, tie and laptops (loaded with presentations). We announce ourselves at the reception. The area is buzzing with lot of visitors – the company is big and so is the building. Along comes a young man – in his late twenties – askes “… are you ravi ? …”. My colleague who has a name that rhymes with Ravi – mistakenly - answers in affirmative. We think – this engineer has been sent on errand to fetch us to the boss – who must be busy squeezing in time to reply to just one more pending e-mail while we go from reception to his corner office – presumably located on some upper part of the building.

But we are stopped at the security gate – security officer points to the guy accompanying us that he is carrying his manager’s badge and that is KO as per the procedure – his manager needs to come down himself. So we are back to reception and wait – discussing the bureaucracy and ‘process orientation’ of the company. Three minutes down; we see a lady coming in our direction in a hurry – so the manager was lady – presumably the secretary to the big man – she was in a hurry so she pulls us along engaging us in small talk about weather and traffic.

We follow her to her office and find the usual setup – lot of cubicles with young men and women peering intently into the monitors or punching on the keyboards. The young man who first came down is also there. She motions to him for attention and then turning to us says “… I am really sorry for this .. but I need to get into a meeting. I will meet you later..” – we are surprised – why is she wanting to meet us when we really came to meet her boss ! But she was continuing – “… I just don’t know where to find you seats – but just manage till I come back in an hour – you know the interfaces – find more details from Wang ..” here she points to Young-man-who-came-down-etc.-etc. – so his name is Wang – “… and you can start coding!...”. That really rattled us. Then I realize what has happened.

“Maa’m, wait. I think there is some confusion…” – Its me in my feeble voice.
“I am not Ravi – neither is my colleague here …We came to meet so-and-so”.
“…Oh no ! So, where is Ravi?” – Exclaims lady – now in a very hassled state.
“We don’t know what are you talking about !!” – its my colleague – now finding voice.
“When is Ravi going to come? Why is this always a problem!!” – Lady – now very managerial etc. etc. and wanting to exert her authority.

“ Maa’m, there is a confusion. We really don’t know what you are talking about”… This has some force – both me and my colleague are now talking together. By now whole team also has stopped working and turned around – we become center of attraction.

At last the manager gets the gist. I must give her the credit – frustrated though she is – she askes us whom we wanted to meet – arranges for his real secretary to be contacted (again the young-man-who-came-to-etc.etc. is summoned for help! He must be the blue eyed boy of the manager) and makes sure that we are removed ‘safely’ to the desired destination without any more goof-ups.

While waiting (again!) in the corridor – we have a hearty laugh. With smile on lips – and more direct awareness of meaning of term “body-shopping”; we get on to our real call.