communiK | May 2008

We sent out the 3rd issue last weekend.

We need authors. In case you feel like writing something useful, technical or non-technical, take time to visit us, and drop a line. We’ll be in touch.

Farewell guys

Yeah today we bid farewell to Umair, Ejaz & Rizwan. They are leaving for good.

For the farewell party, a lunch was arranged at a nearby restaurant.

Food was good, so was the service.Our tables were ready by the time we arrived. We started at sharp 1, and ended at sharp 2 The match, between India & Pakistan was on, and the guys sitting near to the screen were kind enough to share their expert-opinions on condition of the pitch.

Yet it was not all that was good. There was that blue-eyed security-gaurd filtering as to which cars should go to hotel parking and which should be parked on the pavement. Quite frustrating. And they had no washrooms available for Tai-Pan, amazing huh? You claim to be among the top brass hotels in Pakistan, and you don’t have a washroom available for the restaurant. And because of some bla-bla conference going on, you have to go all the way from outer gate to the lobby to see one. Also watch for that 2o Rs. charity that they include in your bill by default. If you are keen enough to have read those tiny cards placed on the tables mentioning about the charity, you can have it removed form the bill, they will charge you otherwise.

After lunch, we had three dozes of “Awaam-se-Khitaab” by each of the-leaving-guys. This is a centuries old tradition here, that we ask for a doze of this address. Although no sense-making-stuff is expected to be delivered, but just for the fun of it And not to mention, sometimes people really get emotional in their khitaabs.

And yes, after going through all this stuff, everybody came yelling, “Oey itney pese lagwa deye”, “aur koi jagah nahi thi farewell dene ke leye”, “aenda hum koi farewell nahi den ge” and the stuff:)

I think we are no more going to have parties at Tai-Pan, although we never had many, and the guys over there: you just lost a good lot of customers.

Get the smart guys in …

We are planning to organize a series of Talent Hunt shows at the universities of the capital. Yes, on the spot screening and interviews. Students will be short listed and somewhat graded, the shortlisted ones will be called for in-campus interview based on their grading. And we expect to get the best minds of graduating classes across the capital, even before they make it to the market

In Pakistan, in Software Development industry, there might be few, or none, companies who are actually and actively concerned about the quality of people they hire or they keep. Although every company scrutinize the candidates in interview, and filter out the best among the applicants, but what about the ones who were a lot better and they didn’t happen to apply for the post. Yes you have to go and get them from their doorsteps. Its seriously like this. If this seems crazy to you, you better spend sometime with Joel Spolsky. This talent hunt series is a doorstep project.

We’ll, probably start with Islamic, yeah my Alma Matter. And we’ll, probably, be there in next week. I will update this post, once we are decided on the calender.

I’ll really appreciate any feedback if you have been into such workshops before. As for us, this is first-time.