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Pros and Cons of Working in a Start-up

Its been more than one year now working for Vegayan Systems, a start-up in IIT B, Mumbai.

Some times, One Year seems to be very big, but some times, I feel, its OK. Here, are two sides of working in a startup company.

Pros

1. Scope to learn/work (as much as you can – there is no question that, you are not given any work, especially in product development companies)

2. Chance to learn about Resource Management. Team will be small, so you see how they are handled.

3. Growth factor - Here also, willing to learn plays major role.

4. Ownership of module – You are given a module, You are sole proprietor of module. You are free to design in whichever way you like, as long as you are good enough to make people to buy your design.

5. You develop more than one skill in a start up and you become master in your specialization.

6. Better rapport with team members as team is small.

Cons

1. Getting a Leave every now and then is Tough.

2. Have to Google for many things. ( Train yourself )

3. Some times, get bugged with work.

I am both In (70%) and Out (30%) for working for a start up.

Relevant to the above is this blog post by Kamla bhatt. Make sure you do read the comments too.

MySQL Error 2013

Of all MySQL errors, Error Number 2013 is most frustrating and annoying.

MySQL Errors like 1062(Duplicate Entry), 2002(Server is not started), 2006(Server has gone away) are easy to identify and solve. 2013 signifies lost connection to server in midst of query execution.

2013 is frustrating because, you can’t produce it again for same sequence of actions. So you never know when it will come or when it won’t.

Finally, I have come up with few points to look for when MySQL Error 2013 occurs.

1. check for MySQL Status
shell> mysql -u root -p -e “\s” | grep Uptime

It will give uptime of MySQL Server. If it is less than 1 min, then server must have gone down and started again. So, you have look for Status Variable wait_timeout. By default, wait-timeout will be 28800 sec (8 Hours). Developer can change it while starting a server(change has to be done in my.cnf file) or by setting parameter “CLIENT_INTERACTIVE” in “mysql_real_connect()”. If Uptime is not less than a min, then there is a problem with Query.

Query can be too long or it is syntactically correct but not semantically.

Example: I am running a stored procedure spLogin(uname, pword, status). Here uname and pword are input parameters and status output parameter. To supply input to this stored procedure, I use user defined variables.

So, order of queries will be
mysql > SET @user = ’sarma’, @passwd = ’sarma’;
mysql > call spLogin(@username, @password, @status);
There is a chance that it will give an error 2013, as query is syntactically correct, but values passed to query are garbage.

Remedy will be
mysql> call spLogin(@user, @passwd, @status);
query Success(if stored procedure is correct).

But as I said earlier, it is tough to reproduce Error 2013. Care should be taken in passing inputs to either Queries or Stored Procedures and wait_timeout should be atleast 4 Hrs.

Why Startup ?

Many of my friends ask me why Did you choose a start up when you have offers from some other MNCs.

I question them what is the advantage of working in a MNC which is not in a start-up. They told me that when you are swicthing from one job to other job, there will be less risk and you need not to advertize about your company, you carry a brand name, if you work in a MNC. My reasoning to them is, Why should I think of swicthing my job before joining in that? If I am not satisfied with the work I am doing or If I am not fit into the team , then only I think of swicthing job. So doing work is my priority, which I certainly get in a start-up. I am not sure whether I’ll be assigned work from Day 1, if I join in a MNC. I am not against working in MNCs, they have their own headaches. Its true that Resource Management is the toughest thing. The reason, I opted for start-up is if I work for some time, then I can get job in MNC at any time. But if join in a MNC and happened to be on bench (or member of Freepool), then it would be tough.

Working in a start-up gives you the next best chance to see how a company shapes up.(Best chance to see is to start a company). Working in a start-up has other advantage, you can watch the building process of a company very closely,you know ups and downs in making it Big. More importantly, every one’s voice is heard in a start-up, so u can raise your voice, you can take part in design discussions, brain storming sessions. This is all happens in MNCs also, but you need to gain some experience, before raising your voice.

Two Days at MTNL Training Centre

Some of us (Amit, Dakshina, Prashant and Vijay ) from Vegayan attended the two days sessions on MPLS Technology at MTNL, Training Centre in Hiranandani, Powai. Prof. Girish Saraph was the speaker in those sessions. The sessions were attended by high ranking officials from MTNL. I must say it was very good experience to know about the latest in MPLS Technology tracing through earlier connection oriented technologies like X.25, frame relay and ATM. I am eagerly looking forward to gain from similar events in future.

7 Habits of Most Effective People

We have a series of talks at Vegayan on “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Prof Kulkarni, IITB. He brings with him experience of training Executives and Foremen at Crompton Greaves. These talks are based on the book with the same title. The book teachings are nothing but bare common sense. The seven habits provide a framework for understanding personal development.

The Seven Habits

• Be Proactive
• Begin with the End in Mind
• Put First Things First
• Think Win Win
• Seek First to Understand, Then be Understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the Saw

We thank Prof. Kulkarni for the insight into these seven habits.

World Telecom and Information Society Day

” World Telecommunication Day, now called World Telecom & Information Society Day is the single most significant day in the life of Communication celebrated at international level everywhere in the objective to enhance public’s awareness of the important roles played by telecommunication in the social welfare and the socio-economic development of a country. “

Source: http://worldtelecomday.com

As part of World Telecom and Information Society Day celebration MTNL (CETTM) invited Dr. Girish Saraph of Vegayan Systems and IIT Bombay to deliver an invited seminar. Myself (Amit ) and Zaid, both from Vegayan, attended the event. It was a fairly good size and well-managed event with over fifty high-ranking officers from MTNL (mostly from Mumbai region) attending it.

Mr. M.K. Shedha (GM, MTNL) inaugurated the event with a brief history of the Day. It commemmorates signing of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865. He then welcomed the guests for the invited seminar.

Professor Girish P. Saraph spoke on

Connecting the Young-Opportunities of ICT – How ICT has empowered todays youth, be it education, entertainment, social networking, employment or entrepreneurship.

Enabling QoS and Network Optimization on IP/MPLS Networks “ This talk focused on QoS mechanisms, QoS aware routing schemes and an overlay solution for enabling QoS on MPLS networks.

Thank Mr. Shedha for inviting Vegayan to be part of this \n celebration. Thank Mr. Shedha for inviting Vegayan to be part of this celebration.

The Obligatory “Hello World” Post

We are Vegayan Systems, You could know more about us here. This blog is by “us” the employees of Vegayan Systems. Expect to hear about our opinions, feeling, occasional rambling on subject matter technical and otherwise.