Senior Manager, Digital

App developer folks here: question for you

Is there any way, an app on Android can know which are the other apps in the same device? Next logical extension of this is, therefore can we use this information to target communication?

Recent interview experiences for dev role

Interview experience and unfair practices If luck is not in your favour, you might do everything right and still not get selected. Here's my experience so far with a few companies I had bad experience with : #Nielsen - Did not revert back to me for almost a month. When they did, they kept another round of interview as my final round and communicated that I was selected. After taking all the documents, they scheduled yet another round with the director and said it will be the final round. Then again, they reached out to me saying we need to keep another round for formality and would not be technical. To my surprise, it was indeed a technical discussion that I was completely unprepared for. The last communication came from them that they CANNOT match my expectations on the compensation as the last round didn't go well. #UIPath All my interview rounds went really well and in fact in one of the rounds the manager gave me an informal confirmation that I will be hired. But then, HR reached out to me that one of the rounds didn't go well and hence they will need to reschedule it. I was okay with that and prepared really well, but during the interview the interviewer did not ask much of technical questions. It was a design round and he was not even interested in the question or my solution. I had to ask him explicitly if he wants me to go through the solution. As a result, the decision was negative. #Twilio Same story as UIPath #Rakuten The interview process took 1 month. I finished all the rounds and HR communicated that the result was positive and asked to submit the documents. HR ghosted me for a week and then informed me that the last round didn't have a positive feedback and hence can't proceed with my position. When I asked her why it was communicated positively earlier, she simply denied it. #F5 Networks They took all my rounds, including the cultural fitment. The director told me during his discussion that he is looking forward to me joining the team. HR expedited the process to finish all my rounds early as the position was urgent and said she will rollout the offer soon. Then, two weeks passed and no response from them. Later, she informed me that they decided to go against other candidate as he came through some referrals. # HPE It has happened twiced that the HR called saying my profile is shortlisted and was behind me to submit the application so that they can schedule the interview. After submitting the application, I got a rejection mail within a week. #Infracloud I went till the last round. It was taken by a female lead who was extremely unprofessional, and asked questions about the keywords that she knew. If I answered with the correct explanation and theory, she would only see if the keyword matches else reject my answers. These experiences shatters a person's confidence completely. And makes you wonder, even with right skills, amazing interview feedbacks, things can still go wrong and you have no control over it. But I wish the interview processes are fair, and one gets what they struggle for.

India's education system is failing techies; my opinion

First off, the curriculum is outdated. We're still being taught programming languages and technologies that are no longer relevant in the industry. When I was in college, we spent so much time on C and C++ but barely touched on Python or JavaScript, which are in high demand right now. The industry moves fast, but our education system doesn't keep up. Another big issue is the lack of practical experience. Most of our education is theory-based. We memorize algorithms and data structures but don't get enough hands-on experience to understand how to apply them in real-world scenarios. I remember cramming for exams and then forgetting everything a week later because I never actually used that knowledge in a practical setting. The focus on rote learning is another problem. We're trained to score high marks in exams rather than to understand and innovate. This creates a mindset where students are more concerned about grades than actually learning something useful. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people with excellent academic records struggle to solve basic problems at work because they never learned to think critically. Also, there's a huge gap between academia and industry. Professors often have little to no industry experience, so they can't provide insights into what skills are actually needed in the job market. When I started my first job, I felt like I was starting from scratch because so much of what I learned in college was irrelevant. Lastly, there's the issue of soft skills. Our education system doesn't emphasize communication, teamwork, or problem-solving skills, which are crucial in the tech industry. I had to learn these on the job, and it was a steep learning curve. So, in my opinion, yes, India's education system is failing tech professionals. We need a complete overhaul to make it more relevant, practical, and aligned with industry needs. Until that happens, we'll continue to see a gap between what students learn and what they need to succeed in their careers.