[BangPypers] Python at Comat

[Anand Balachandran Pillai]

Hi Kiran,

  That was a very well written post and the most "non-recruiting" sounding
recruitment post yet in this list. Though a tard too long perhaps.

  Well written it may be, though I like to remind you that the policy
of the list is
to make concise posts regarding any kind of job postings and then provide
links to websites where one can learn more. Isn't some of this information
available at the website of comat ?

 Wish you the very best.

Thanks

--Anand


On Feb 5, 2008 9:47 PM, Kiran Jonnalagadda <jace at pobox.com> wrote:
> Hello. This is yet another recruitment notice, though one that will
> hopefully not pass for being just Yet Another. I'm posting this to a
> few lists. For those subscribed to them, I hope you don't mind the
> repeat posts. If you think this is worth forwarding elsewhere, please
> do.
>
> I represent a small team at Comat Technologies (www.comat.com). We're
> seven people, with two joining later this month, which will take us to
> nine. We're looking for a tenth person to round off our skills and
> take us into double digit team size. Maybe even a eleventh and twelfth.
>
> But before I describe the job, let me describe what we do.
>
> Comat is a ten year old born-again startup that operates in rural
> India. You've no doubt heard the rhetoric of the digital divide and
> how it needs more attention. We operate in that space. We're not a
> charity. We're a proper business that pays competitive salaries and
> believes there's a genuine opportunity that may not be easily
> accessible, but is very real.
>
> In real terms, what we do is setup and operate computer telecentres in
> villages across the country. Our first project was in Karnataka, where
> we operate the 800 telecentres that you've probably heard of as the
> government's Nemmadi project.
>
> These telecentres are basically a shop on the main street of the main
> village in each cluster of villages (aka a "hobli") containing two
> computers, a printer, scanner, webcam, UPS, satellite internet
> connection, and a human operator who talks to customers. The services
> offered include getting a copy of one's land ownership certificate and
> recharging a pre-paid mobile phone.
>
> Does this sound exciting? Perhaps as much as the rundown neighbourhood
> DTP shop where the fellow who once must have been a glorious computer
> professional now appears a lowly typist, augmenting his income with a
> Real Estate desk that finds you local Paying Guest accommodation? What
> would you want to be doing in there?
>
> Consider this: the average village that we operate in receives four
> hours of power supply a day. The supply is often at 150V, far too low
> to power a computer or charge a UPS battery. The place is also a good
> four hours from the nearest urban centre, and given the state of roads
> in much of the country, that's four agonising hours for anyone who
> must go attend a support call because the operator complained that his
> web browser is saying "Page Not Loading" and he's got a long queue of
> agitated customers who are threatening a riot because that printer is
> not producing the document that will determine their livelihood.
>
> You, the hotshot Web 2.0 and assorted buzzword compliant web
> developer, must produce an app that will keep that crowd happy. You're
> not going to get away by telling them that your JSON-spewing Ajax
> application requires a low latency internet connection. You're going
> to have think this through very carefully.
>
> If your family is from a village that you visit on vacation once a
> year, you've probably fantasised having to explain to your
> grandfather's neighbour what Python is and why it's not a snake, and
> what the heck a programming language is if it's not a snake.
>
> What we're offering you is a telecentre that is already in your
> village (if that village is in Karnataka), where folks will directly
> or indirectly use the code you write. That's a guarantee.
>
> The trick, and the challenge, is to do this in a manner that's
> applicable across the country. A field trip to one location that's
> reporting weird behaviour is probably an adventure. You'll pack for a
> day trip, leave early in the morning to avoid the rush, drive till the
> road turns bad, grit and bear the next two hours to the location,
> break for lunch, have a nice chat with the operator, take some
> pictures of the neighbourhood, and maybe even figure out that his
> problem is that his browser somehow got set to cache too aggressively.
> Someone must have told him it was good strategy given the low quality
> connection. Maybe you'll make a new note for the helpdesk people to
> check before they ask you go to have a look next time. And then it'll
> be evening and time for a ride back, shower, dinner and a good night's
> sleep. A day well spent.
>
> But do this five times, and it no longer seems an adventure. You want
> to write code, not be trapped in this debugging nightmare.
>
> We're not supporting five or fifty or 500 centres. We're currently
> close to a thousand operational centres, scaling up to six in the next
> six months and aiming for ten thousand by the end of the year.
> Operations on this scale require a wholly different thought process,
> for both software development and support.
>
> I'd like to tell you that our little team of seven does all this, that
> we're superhuman ninjas who write code so great, it never fails, who
> oversee operations for thousands of centres, who uphold peace and
> harmony everywhere, and still go home at 6 PM.
>
> But you know better. An operation at this scale literally requires
> thousands of people. There are all the telecentre operators, at least
> one in each location, their supervisors, people who specialise in
> various forms of support, people who talk to other people to introduce
> new services, people who count even when they're sleeping, and people
> who think deeply about the larger purpose of all this.
>
> We're the little team in the middle of the operation that provides and
> supports the technology everyone depends on, and that is constantly in
> pursuit of greater automation to enable larger scale.
>
> We bear a great deal of responsibility for such a small team and it
> shows in the way we're structured. We have no patience for
> bureaucratic approvals and hierarchies. Everyone is their own manager
> and must see their project through its entire life cycle. In return,
> everyone gets to decide how they want to work, when they want to work,
> and what they want to work with.
>
> Since the company has an overall HR policy, we fit our team structure
> within it. We recognise the notion of people working On Site (ie,
> home) and offer compensatory leave if someone works through a holiday.
>
> We meet once a day to catch up on what we've been up to and determine
> if someone needs help or could do with the experience of another.
> Actually, calling that a "meeting" makes that sound more formal than
> it really is, because we also sit close to each other and talk
> throughout the day (with the more discreet types using IM with the
> chap three feet away).
>
> We don't follow any formal methodology as we're making it up as we go
> along. Two standard features so far are the daily stand up meeting and
> two week iterations for the folks whose primary contribution is in
> code. Our next iteration starts on Feb 18.
>
> Several of us hang out together after work. We share hobbies and
> intellectual pursuits, we blog, we organise events, we superpoke each
> other on Facebook, and we go to conferences (even the un- variety) to
> talk about our work. We do not de-bar the personal from the workplace.
> We believe in taking personal pride in what we do.
>
> We are, however, not superhuman or all knowing. We lack certain
> crucial skills, and where we do have them, there are just too many
> things to be done. It would be nice to actually go home at 6 PM every
> day. It would help to be working with people who can round off our
> skills. In particular:
>
> * Python (but of course!)
> * Ubuntu/Debian Linux admin (both servers and user desktops)
> * Windows desktop admin (the uncomfortable reality of working in the
> space we do)
> * Windows/Linux network management (thousands of machines, remember?)
> * Project management (people who know what a gantt chart is and why
> it's useful, or not)
> * Process observation, documentation and automation (let's see you
> repeat that complicated setup again)
> * Technical documentation (for interface with external entities)
>
> Any combination of these skills is useful, interesting combinations
> better. An advanced ability with at least one is needed.
>
> If interested, send your resume to my work id (kiran dot j at comat
> dot com) with a note on why you're interested. Or if you're just
> curious and have a question or a comment, I'm 'jace' on
> irc.freenode.net, usually in ##linux-india, and 'jackerhack' on most
> IM networks. You could also call me during a reasonable hour. My phone
> number is easy to find.
>
> --
> Kiran Jonnalagadda
> http://jace.seacrow.com/
> http://jace.livejournal.com/
>
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>



-- 
-Anand