Ahh... Movies

Lately I've been staying very late in office.

I'll go home at around 12-1 in the morning, then catch a movie in Zee Studio . ( I understand I have no life. You don't have to say it that loud :p )

 

Surprisingly, there were a lot of good movies!!!

 

OK let me first tell ya, my definition of good movie varies substantially from the general definition of "good movies".

 

I tend to like dark themed movies, mostly on death, troubled relationships, fear,war etc etc, AKA boring, You get the idea, right?

 

Here are few movies worth watching. Few of them are quite old movies and as I just observed, most of them won/nominated for Academy awards.

 

Disclaimer: These movies might disturb you very much. Watch at your own risk :)

 

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS : one hell of a movie, apparently inspired by a true story. Story of a young man who got caught in Turkey while trying to smuggle drug to US of A, then thrown in to Prison. Tag line says "Walk into the incredible true experience of Billy Hayes, and bring all the courage you can! ", which is pretty much true. You might actually cry. I didn't. Really.

 

The Squid and the Whale : Tag line of the movie - "Joint Custody Blows", so by now you know pretty much about the movie. Some scenes are very disturbing. Some great acting.

 

The Motorcycle Diaries : Story of Che Guevara . Most of the conversation was in Spanish, luckily movie had the subtitles. Simply put, Awesome!!!

 

The Killing Fields : Oh man, I was blown away. Story of Journalists who are in Cambodian war, their struggle to come back to their home country, and much more. You would probably feel happy for the "peace" that we have around us.

 

Okay, just one more.

 

K-PAX : Okay, the only movie that is on a lighter side. Kinda funny. This guy claims he is from a distant planet. This doctor tries to find what exactly went wrong with him. At one point of movie, I was literally cursing the doc for his questions. I was convinced that the guy is actually from a planet, far away!!!

 

That's it for now. If you can think of any other movies, in line with these kinda movies, let me know.

 

Oh I saw French Kiss. Again. I just love Meg Ryan in that movie. :)

Road to ThoughtWorks ...

** Warning: This is a long post :) **

 

All I did was to drop my resume to work@thoughtworks.com.

 

How did I know there was on opening?

 

I found the ad for job here, thanks to Joel's Job portal. I have subscribed to that job portal, through Google Reader. (By the way, if you don't use Google Reader, shame on you :P, same goes if you don't read Joel).

 

I never really thought they would respond back. Though my profile almost suits their job description, I didn't have complete 2 years of experience (still don't have, I will complete 2 years in IT in other 3 days!!!! )

 

For another 10 days, nothing happened.

 

Then one fine morning at around 10 AM, while I was still in bed (Blame it on night shifts :p), HR from ThoughtWorks called up.

She asked if I am actually interested in ThoughtWorks, my area of expertise, my current/expected CTC etc.

 

And if I was okay with a telephonic interview on the same day.

 

Same day,at around lunch time, I had a telephonic technical interview.

 

Most of the questions revolved around my current project, Test Automation, Testing Tools, different applications I worked etc. ( I applied for Test Automation job)

 

Overall it was all good.

 

Same day evening HR called up, asking if I could come to ThoughtWorks office. I was more than happy to say Okay :) AND she forewarned me that it will be quite a long process.

 

I had a gap of 3 days, 3 days in which I used Google more than ever in my life!!!

 

I came to know a lot about ThoughtWorks, Interview process, ThoughtWorks blogs, their OpenSource stuff etc etc.

 

Then the D-Day !!!

 

There were totally 4 rounds. The famous written rounds (two) and couple of face-to-face interviews.

 

Written rounds were okay, but interviews were not that easy (My big Mouth!!!).

 

Though they made me feel comfortable, the sight of ThoughtWorks office itself was kinda shock to me !!!!!  (Check this photo of ThoughtWorks Bangalore office!!!!! )

 

Oh how I can forget to mention!!! Free yummy Lunch!!!

 

The next day, HR called again. I had made it through!!!

 

No, I still haven't started working there. I will be joining ThoughtWorks on July.

 

Couple of things about the interview:

It was mostly on the Test Automation frameworks, Choice of tools etc. It seems they just ask anybody available at that time to take interviews. I am not really sure, I might be totally wrong.

In one of the rounds, they asked if I had any questions. Boy!! I asked around 10-12 questions I guess!! Mostly on their contributions to OSS, agile/XP methods etc. They were more than happy to explain all that to me.

 

Okay, If you have an interview at ThoughtWorks tomorrow, and you are looking for some clues about the written rounds and interview, here is a link in Joel's discussion forum. Read completely, you will get an idea about the process.

 

Right now, I am all excited about joining ThoughtWorks. I hope I get to learn a lot of stuff.  A LOT.

 

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When I actually decided about job change, I had no idea about the kind of company I was looking for.

 

I wasn't keen joining any other service based company. Not that I have anything against them, I have enough experience in that line of software development till now. But, my current work experience was not helping much either to look for any product based company.

 

I am just plain lucky that ThoughtWorks posted their ad in Joel's India Job Portal.

I am just plain lucky that I use Google Reader and subscribe to that portal.

I am just plain lucky that, that day I read that ad, instead of clicking on "mark all as read"

I am just plain lucky that I have a sensible Resume. Thanks to you Mart!!!

 

Hopefully, the Doc at the hospital where I need to go through a medical test, doesn't reject me saying I am anaemic !!!!!!!!!!

 

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But that Cat ...

You can't stop thinking about it, can Ya?

 

You somehow manage to ignore the cat and live with the notion that, cat will never be yours.

Then, Voila, Cat starts giving those looks which say "you are ignoring me, aren't ya?"

 

It tells you that it comes to you all time.

 

You can not argue with it that it came only for milk, never because you.

 

Then YOU say "sorry"...

 

Poor you ...

 

 

 

Trying

to blog from my cellphone...


AND it sucks ... :(