4th Reading Log: Fill & Download for Free

It's a long answer, so for the ones who lack time and/or patience I've written a tl;dr at the bottom.(Also my answer is biased because I had a bad time there; and I accept in advance that not all of the issues were entirely the company's fault, I was partly responsible too - in some cases; but then again I am just jotting down my experience.)First the salient features of a job/company:Work: It's bad. There is no research. Hardly any coding, mostly log analysis, bug fixing, and dirty work of HQ - certifications, test cases running etc, some little implementation what they ask here and there.Work life balance: It's so bad that I must not get started on it. (Anyway other answers have covered it well). In some aspect it's worse than services companies. Work culture is too bad to even discuss it.Pay: It's good if not bad. But when I say good I am comparing the pay with services companies and other product development companies, because SRI-B is actually not worthy of being compared to software development companies like MSFT, AMZN (I won't even mention few other big names in the same line as Samsung just out of respect), or , Intel etc.HR Policies: Shit.Amenities: Except the newly introduces buses (which they say is the one thing new MD has improved; but they also add that's only thing he improved, he screwed everything else for the bad) people say, who are there, everything has gone to become shittier from shit. Yes, toilets still leak and overflow frequently. Food is as bad as it was earlier.Now I'll try to explain, with examples, in bullet points.It's a shit-hole for anyone who wants to:actually write some code, especially good code. Anyway avoid Android application team if you want to be even close to writing (even) basic algos (you'll mostly access SDK APIs and write silly apps for HQ whims) . (That is the team I was in).enjoy flexible hours. (I could have mentioned "work from home" too, but trust me on this, you'll later realise what a blessing not having that would be).be treated with respect as engineers (and you are not from an IIT).not to do officio-political manoeuvres with acceptable finesse.not earn (close to) half the salary of your college juniors after you passed from that same college 3-4 years ago and have been working with at least good or good+ rating in SISO (err SRI-B).not to be treated as modern-day slaves by Korean (HQ) managers (sometimes even HQ engineers with similar years of experience as yours). Yes, the employee guidelines says: "You are expected to obey your seniors (and HQ)" - yes, this explicit "obey" part is actually mentioned.go on-site and have fun and earn lots of money. (Fun part was never the truth, money part was there but it's gone now - I took many trips). Besides it's an illegal activity - you are going on business visa to work (but who doesn't like some extra dollars, I did too).want to work in a specific topic/field/domain (or is interested in research). No sir, stay away. You'll be pushed in a team and then you'll be locked for 2 years and even after that if you want to change you might be screwed anyway (but hey, don't ever stay in SRI-B for more than a year. Honest and good advice, trust me. My 5 year's experience speaking here :P. Yeah, get the f** out! After some time they will stop treating you as human resource, not even resource)not have a salary structure which can be modified to decrease or kept same even though you were technically given a raise. (HR department is bad, then finance is worse here).not pee and take dumps in smelly, frequently clogging toilets and urinals. Yes, hygiene is beyond questionable standards in SRI-B. If you go to the toilet on cafeteria floor and exit w/o vomiting I may actually offer you some kind of reward. It's been close to three years in the new building and I've heard the situation has only worsened. Overflowing toilets and urinals and jammed commodes are still a norm here.It's a heaven for those who:deal with the points above mentioned.have no problem in sticking around even with repeated mass-humiliation and various cues that you are not needed here any more - even though it's just the top management screwing up, or trying out one of its "experiment" (I shamelessly did this and after some time started to enjoy it, till I started my HS recently).would not see anything ironic or hilariously unsettling in the word "research" when "SRI-B" is expanded.who are good at numbers game: i.e., Idea submission drive? Great, I'll deliver 10 of them in one day - (1.) stand on your two feet and touch the ceiling, (2.) stand on your one foot and touch the ceiling, now for 3rd and 4th just change the 1st and 2nd to make it "touching the ceiling with two hands instead of one". Make sure to log all of these, even though these will be rejected in first go. And note everything in that excel sheet where you wrote: "Team Contribution #721: I took KT session for that fresher to teach how to insert RJ45 in wall socket"can sit at the desk the whole day even though all the work that was done were reading blogs and manga for example (some even finish TV serials - entire bloody seasons I tell you!) and farting at regular intervals along with sending status report throughout the week for the same work (if at all; or "create" it) in different tones and language.has skills of writing long weekly reports as his/her USP. e.g., Let's say you made 2-10 lines change in code (well, comments and logs included), you should be able to make it look like you changed the entire damn architecture and that it might actually be the best thing humanity has ever known only next to the fire or invention of a wheel (yes, you've got to sell your weekly report irrespective of the work done).can actually believe that "changing work culture" is all about pasting stupid posters all over the office, having interior walls painted with silly, bright (eye-hurting bright) colours w/o any consistency and while ending up shooting aesthetics in testicles.is fine getting a hefty raise or offer CTC at the time of joining and then getting screwed from next appraisal cycle. (Or great if you want to jump to some other firm and just want to utilise SRI-B salary offer to negotiate in that other company).is fine with IITian colleagues are rated 1 or 2 (good rating) and you were rated 3-4 (even if all they did was prepare for GMAT/CAT, or if juniors then you actually did their work). But hey, for what it's worth their presence graces the meetings and adds to the oomph factor of team atmosphere.who is fine with earning 1/3rd of what an IITian is earning even though you both joined on the same day as freshers and will be doing same works, at times in the same team, side by side.believes that HR mails are actually blessings in disguise: Sample this - "For the benefit of SRI-B employees we have come up with some facilities that we believe will greatly help our engineers: (1.) Facility X scrapped, (2.) Facility Y scrapped, (3.) Facility Z scrapped. Please feel good!", or here - sample this: "To keep all Asian offices in sync we are happy to announce that we'll have similar leave structure - so, we're doing away with the 2 RH leaves every year that you had. Have fun!" Yes, the leaves that were not in other nations were removed but their extra leave days were not incorporated in SRI-B (in case someone was looking to get the pun). In a nutshell - one of the worst HR policies around.is ready to be fired by reasons unknown to him/her and not given any compensation and asked to leave ASAP. (Yes, like any other company when the HRs told you Samsung never lays off, they were lying - but it's okay, this lie is a a truth everywhere). Naah, I wasn't fired - I wouldn't blame them if I were.is ready to fight for seats during lunch (the ones who travelled in crowded trains and buses wouldn't have a problem - I didn't have a problem). Shitty food (I mean it, ask anyone) adds to the joy of struggle.are ready to read logs and slowly over the months/years convince themselves that 'yeah. that's the highest form of coding genius - reading logs' (yeah, just read logs and then create bug explanations out of thin air) and then one day there would be "the coding test" and you are fine with the expectation of excelling in it. Well, if that happens take the opportunity to prepare and leave.is fine with voice of employees being suppressed at every level. Now, you can't send mail organization, or team wide w/o system approval. Every single comment in the internal forum is posted after explicit HR/IT approval (forum software seems to have been written by drunks and imbeciles). Yes, every single comment! And when you are speaking/commenting in critical tone, those are just rejected w/o an explanation. This is like how the Korean corporate set-up works and they have kept it subtly alive in India too.enjoys harassment by security, HR, finance, GA combined. (There are benefits like you can take a smart phone with SD card and all inside, but not an iPod that might actually be more difficult to steal code on - I've a theory on SRI-B's data/code theft paranoia - I don't think they are worried that they will lose business if code leak happens, but the world will realise how bad their code is and how blatant copy-pastas have been done).(/START update)Job Security?Really? This is a famous myth about Samsung. It fires madly, and at random and they do so every year. Many of you must have heard about this year's blood bath at Samsung India (SRI-B) and how floors are lying vacant after people were fired (errr.. "asked to leave" and "let go"). Yes, if my previous team mates and friends are to be believed they have fired ~30% of the work force (including those who are still service notice period). Yes, my previous manager told me (when we last met) that the early plan was to fire 10-15% but in one meeting the number was upped to ~25-30% and we all had to rush to change the ratings and make adjustments. He said the worst hit is "Android Upgrade" group - or anyone who ever worked for at least 6 months in one of the upgrade projects which mostly involves bug-fixing (well, that's the story of all SRI-B but still Android Upgrade was really pathetic in this context - both the work and work life balance). So first they make you work on shitty projects and when they have squeezed you enough, you are discarded like the fly in the butter.You hear about firings at other companies because they do it in proper and open manner (at least US/EU ones do) with compensation and counselling and extension if an employee badly needs this. Here at Samsung it's done typical Mafia style - "you'll never know what hit you". HR is a joke at Samsung anyway so you have no real remedy if your head came under the axe because two "big" executives at the top are engaged in a power struggle. So one day the HR tells you to leave and that no there won't be any compensation other than the fact that you'll be paid 2 months' salary if you choose to serve those two months. That's it. Your rating was rigged (in most cases) so you can really not do much inside the company and outside the company one must not hope anything from the India courts and labour laws.Also there have been recent suicides at SRI-B and rumours are abuzz there might be more to come (which can just be crap as one cannot predict such things). I do not know much about these as these happened after I left. Maybe someone who is working there can shed some light on it.(/END update)tl;dr: Don't join if you have any other option even though they are offering a little lesser. Join if all you want is to use SRI-B's salary structure to make another jump (but don't get stuck here). It has one of the shittiest work-life balance you might have heard of, and you are not at all respected if you are not an IITian or a boy-scout employee. I've written everything bad, because pretty much that's how it is.Disclaimer: You must have noticed it's mostly negatives (all, I guess). So, yeah butt-hurt has a lot to do with it and so is the fact that this is how my experience with SISO (SRI-B) was till I left.PS. Nothing against IITians, fellows. I am not one and I know that's just my shortcoming. And anyway it's not their fault if a company wants to pay insane salaries to them just to have them grace its office and play TT and make internal "heavily moderated" office discussion forum alive with their interesting quips and demands; especially when the salary is based on GPA and not the interview.

I shall show few steps of working with exponents here… You will comprehend the necessity of logs then…We know, 3^5 = 243[1]: 3 raised to which power = 243 ? We can easily give its answer . Ans is 5.[2]: Or, how many times should 3 be multiplied by itself to get 243 ?We can easily answer 5 times.[3]: Similarly, 2^a = 8 , Then a = ?We can answer a = 3But can we answer the same questions while dealing with large figures or decimal figures?[4]: For example 10^(7.5) = ?[5]: Or 10^(?) = 28Here we need to use laws of logarithmsLike in 4th example: 10^(7.5) = a=> log a = 7.5+> a = antilog 7.5 ( which can be read either from the log tables) or from scientific calculator.Similarly, 3^(a) = 28=> log 28 = aThen read log 28 by using table. & replace this value with 'a'So for such questions logarithms are required..Also, Using logs we can convert multiplication & division operations to addition & subtraction respectively…Like 343 x 526 x 72 / 26If this is converted into log form, operators would be + & - , which are easier to perform…

But you can get AIR 1 in the next attempt. I know few of my friends who could not clear prelims even in their 6th attempt. I myself cleared IFoS prelims in 6th attempt only. When I started my UPSC journey in 2012, I got only 06 marks in my first prelims. But consecutively I kept improving and cleared prelims in 3rd attempt, mains in 4th attempt, got 832nd rank in 5th attempt and getting into IAS in 6th attempt. So I suggest If you still have age/attempts left, then do the following.Try to find out what differentiates between a topper and those who are failing in it.Go through upsc syllabus and past years papers again.Read NCERT books and few selected books. Revise them again and again.Eliminate every distraction. E.g.Whatsapp, Social media, friends(?)…Read newspaper daily. Make your own notes.Learn how to attempt an objective exam.Have faith in you.What differentiates between successful and unsuccessful candidates:Toppers go through CSE Syllabus and question papers to understand the pattern and demand of the examination.They read newspaper religiously every single day without fail.They know what to read and what not to read. Minimum resources and maximum revision is the mantra for success in CSE.They never ignore basic resources such as NCERT books, Laxmikanth, PIB, PRS etc.Toppers solve test papers before actual exam. Be it Prelims or Mains.Toppers do answer writing practice for GS Mains and Essay.Toppers usually attempt all questions (even with average answers).They don’t do PhD on one topic. Toppers try to touch all topic but not too deep.They chose their optional based on their interest and not based on what popular wave or scoring pattern.Most toppers mode of preparation is Self Study. They don’t depend too much on coaching institutes. In reality, we have at least 1000 IAS coaching institutes but only 180 people can become IAS.They don’t compare their marks with others. They compete with themselves and not with others.Toppers do better time management. Their unit of time is minute unlike days or hours in case of less serious candidates.Toppers log off from social media, avoid going to parties too often. They avoid all distractions which come in preparation.Toppers focus on their work i.e. preparation rather than results, cut off, number of seats, optional removal and so on.Toppers get motivated by inside rather than outside.All the Best. Keep learning.