Welcome to USA

I am seeing a lot of my collegues interested in coming and working here in United States. Everyone is running behind companies who can sponsor their H1-B’s and are really excited to come here and work in US.

 

Here are my personal suggestions and tips before you start this process and come here.

1. Choose the right employer.

In my opinion, this is the MOST important step. Choose the right employer who gives value to your experience, expertise. Never PAY any money to any consultancy in India for getting your H1B. The best option is if your current employer with whom you are working in India is sponsoring your petition. If you are approaching a consultancy, donot pay any money and especially donot pay any cash in India. Also ensure the employer participates in E-Verify and negotiate all terms before you make a decision. Keep in mind that a employer who also has a services is best to choose. They will be able to support you with all letters of support from existing clients. Also talk and find out about their clients. You may also look out for their reviews in Glassdoor.com

2. Getting your Documents – The right way.  

Assemble all your documents which includes your educational certificates, experience letters, payslips (last 3 months) a good copy of your resume and other documents. Scan them all, convert them into PDF and send them to your employer. Also ensure that you have a valid passport which is valid for atleast 2 years. (You will apply H1 in March which will be approved in October and you will be travelling somewhere in Jan next year. So its better you have a valid passport atleast for the next 2 years.) If you have a passport that is due renewal, please start the process and my advice is to ensure you apply with the new passport.

3. Driving

If you are not familiar with driving, ensure you learn and master driving in India itself. In recent times, I knew a lot of people who never drove a 4 wheeler and had really tough time (atleast for 4 months) before they became independent. And before you travel to US (Assuming your H1 is approved and you have a visa) ensure you apply for an International Driving License (From your local RTA Office) and also keep original license with you. Some states in US allow international drivers to drive for 30 Days with a Valid Indian license accompanied by a valid international license. This will be give you lot of freedom and independence.

4. Your H1B Petition.

The first step in the process is filing LCA (Labour condition Application). Your employer will file this application and it should be approved in a week. Based on the LCA your employer will create your H1B petetion and will file this application on April 1st. (Usually drop in post office on March 31st). There will be a cap of 60K applications each year and you must be lucky to get picked up in the lottery.

If you are lucky and your application is picked up for further processing, you will receive I-797C (Notice of Action) This will contain a receipt number which you must always keep with you to track your application status.

The decision of your application will usually be available by May/June and you will get 1-797B (Notice of Approval) once your H1 is approved.

That concludes your H1 Petition process.

5. Visa.

After your H1 is approved, you can schedule an appointment with local consulate any time after October 1st. Take your offer letter, client letters all H1B documents and your visa should not be a problem if you take the interview with confidence.

To Apply for a Visa, the first step is to fill out DS-160 Form and submit it. The Link to submit the DS-160 form is available here: https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/. After you fill out the DS-160 form you will get a DS-160 Confirmation number. Using this number, you can schedule an appointment.

To schedule an appointment visit https://cgifederal.secure.force.com/ and register an account with your mail id. Provide all your details along with your DS-160 confirmation number. Then you will get an option to pay the fees. I prefer paying the fee at the bank counter. Once you pay your fees at the counter, the next step is to schedule your Visa and OFC appointments.

6. After Coming to US.

Social Security Number

Immediately after coming to US, ensure you apply your SSN. You may want to give it around 5 days to get your I94 updated at your local SSN office. You can get your I94 online at this link. https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/request.html

If your I94 is not available, then there might be a problem while entering your data. You can call CBP Deferring offices and get it corrected. If they cannot do it over phone, you may have to schedule a visit to the nearest office.

Driving License

As soon as you receive your SSN, get your DL Permit at the nearest DDS. And as soon as possible, try and get your driving license. Believe me Driving here in US is faaar easier than driving in India.

As I help other friends coming to US for the first time, I will keep updating this post with new experiences. Till then. “Welcome to USA”

iPhone Calls Going Straight to Voice Mail when phone is locked – iOS 7 Wiered Setting

For some strange reason, after my iPhone got updated, it started behaving abnormally. All calls to my phone while my phone is locked go straight to voicemail and I had a tough time with my friends and colleagues explaining why I could not take their calls.

Then I realised a Moon Symbol on the top. Curious to know what this symbol means and if it has anything to do with my missing calls, I started digging.

To Disable this setting, Go to Settings and Select Do Not Disturb.

If the Manual setting is ON, turn it off. The Moon Symbol on your phone is not visible now and you can start receiving calls when when your phone is locked.

I dont remember setting this option before in my Phone and after forcefully switching myself from Android to iPhone, I am looking at ways to move back to Android.

App App Everywhere

I dont know how may of you know Logo. When I was around 9, I first drew squares, circles, rectangles etc using Logo. Then I moved on to BASIC and then wrote a number of so called computer programs to perform a number of tasks, solve number of problems and address different requirements. I wrote Programs, modules, components, applications, libraries, web applications, scripts and so many different things which normal people cannot associate with. 

Fast forward time and over the past few years, everyone can easily associate themselves with “apps”. Apps are easy to download on their device and they perform some function that satisfy and meet their requirements. Simple it is. 

4 Yr Old kids who live across my house also know “Apps”. They even know how to download them and install them. This is just awesome !! Apps to update facebook, tweet on your twitter, write a blog, read a book, reserve a hotel, book a cab, connect with people and what not !! People today install apps on PC, on Phone and even on Gaming devices and different consoles. There are just endless ‘app’ortunities out there. 

Over the past few years, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) started playing a key role. Everything is now offered as a service and apps help these services reach the audience. This is the time when we just think of two things while designing any solution. What are the services that needs to be exposed and what apps should be build for the audience. Simple. !! 

 

Life is getting easy folks !! Lets chill !! 

 

The Evolution of Idea into a Product

Most of us have great ideas. Ideas we believe will change and impact the world where we live. Ideas that will make a good fortune for us and which give us name, fame, money and glory. And we think this is the time to jump and start productising this idea and build it as quickly as possible and take it to market before anyone else.

In a country like ours, we want more and more entrepreneurs who can build great products and solutions that make world a better place to live. But everything has to start with one “Idea”. And thanks to our country, we have great ideas and more and more entrepreneurs are working hard, day and night to evolve these ideas into great products. But still, we have very few products that are successful. In my opinion a successful product is one which is usable. We all can build a useful product, but what is the point if it is not usable. So the crux of a successful product is it should be usable not just useful. 

If you have to really make a great product, in my opinion, dont just jump and start building it in hurry. There is a sequence of process that should be followed to ensure this product is usable.

Importance of Science

When you have an idea, the first most important thing is to research and apply principles of Science. This is where you develop that unique algorithms, equations, graphs, data structures and everything that is required. You then validate these algorithms, equations etc on sample data and if possible publish papers, file patents and protect your IP. This is the first important step.

Then Comes Engineering

This is where you develop prototypes of your product using the algorithms, equations, data structures etc that you developed and validate these prototypes with sample users. You may have to assemble all your prototypes together and bring it to a usable shape for user validation. This is also a step where we identify all the different components or parts that are essential to build this product.

Then Comes Technology

This is where you improve your engineered prototype to be more scalable, usable and robust. Technology is the art of how you use engineered prototypes and use them.

Let me illustrate this process in a different way. My idea is to build a product that can be used to finely cut, chop, dice, slice anything and everything. (I am referring to building a nice Knife)

Science will help us define various structures of knives. Their widths required, sharpness needed, weight of knife, metals to be used, grip and much more.

Engineering will design the knives, prototype them and test them on sample objects. Different prototypes of knives will now be ready.

Technology is an art of using the engineered knives to perform cutting, slicing, dicing, chopping operations efficiently.

All I want to say is, dont just jump into building something. Apply the 3 principles of Science, Engineering & Technology and I am sure you will build great usable products that will be successful.

 

“I thank Prof Raghavan, Scientific Secretary to Principal Scientific Advisor, Govt of India who helped me understand the importance and difference between Science, Engineering & technology. Sir, you have greatly influenced that way I think, act and respond”

 

 

Day-5: Happy Teachers Day

This teachers day, I have a new teacher to guide me become a master for building awesome apps on SAP. This teacher is a close friends of mine who has very good experience on SAP Basis Administration. He choose to be anonymous and I respect his choice. He is joining my journey in exploring the SAP Mobile Platform.

Just In time, openSAP also has a new course starting September 9. The course titled “Introduction to Mobile Solution Development” by Craig Haworth is going to give me a deep inside on SAP mobile platform. This is a 6 week course and I expect to graduate by end of october. If you are interested in attending this course, please register yourself at http://open.sap.com

There is also a wealth of information available in SCN. This is an awesome place where there are active group of users collaborating and exchanging knowledge on SAP. Excited to be part of the community.

Day-4: Mission Accomplished

In my SAP Journey, I have yet another milestone. I broke my Windows Laptop. I tried to install SAP Netweaver and I was successful in breaking my laptop. 

Learning: Never try a complex task without proper guidance. So I am going to take help from Ravi (My SAP Guru) to help me setup on my new VM. 

 

Sasken Days

This was an amazing video created by Sudha Kini while I was leaving Sasken. It feels so nostalgic when I see this video. The time I spent in Sasken was the best in my entire career. The team was awesome, so much to learn from and I really feel proud of the work I did. I worked with some of the greatest minds in Sasken & in Nokia.

This was when we were working for FlashLIte team in Nokia from Sasken ODC. Those Nokia days were amazing. Will never forget working with people like Raji, Murali, Chetan and Alaka. Except Raji, I dont think any one is still with Nokia.

The Cockroach Theory

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a  lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and  trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately  trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.
The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but it landed on another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.
In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.
The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.
Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind  picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach  responsible for their histrionic behavior? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?
He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle  the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my  wife that disturbs me, but it’s my inability to handle the disturbances  caused by their shouting that disturbs me. It’s not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my  inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that  disturbs me.

More than the problem, it’s my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.

Lessons learned from the story:

I understood, I should not react in life.
I should always respond. The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.
Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well  thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands,  to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger,  anxiety, stress or hurry.

This is yet another learning from my entrepreneurship journey. Don’t React, respond when it is right.

The Boiling Frog Syndrome

Let me explain you in detail about “The Boiling Frog Syndrome”

Human Beings and frogs are the two creatures in nature who have tremendous power to adjust. Put a frog in a vessel of water and start heating the water. As the temperature of the water rises, the frog is able to adjust its body temperature accordingly. The frog keeps on adjusting with increase in temperature. Just when the water is about to reach boiling point, the frog is not able to adjust anymore. At that point the frog decides to jump out. The frog tries to jump but is unable to do so, because it lost all its strength in adjusting with the water temperature. Very soon the frog dies.

What killed the frog? Many of us would say the boiling water. But the truth is what killed the frog was its own inability to decide when it had to jump out.

We all need to adjust with people and situations, but we need to be sure when we need to adjust and when we need to face. There are times when we need to face the situation and take the appropriate action. If we allow people to exploit us physically, emotionally or financially, they will continue to do so. We have to decide when to jump. Let us jump while we still have the strength.

This is one of my BEST learnings I have with Zytrix.  What we “know”  does not necessarily mean what we will be able to do/execute. You should be able to rally the whole team along with you too.

I have been reading a mail chain When one of my fellow entrepreneurs from Hyderabad, Mr Akki, founder of makemydabba.com announced himself as turning himself as an employee from am entrepreneur. Admire him for his decision and his courage to accept his failure. Great Going !!

Mobile Virtualization – Is this a solution for BYOD ?

I love VMWare products, its virtualization has helped enterprises setup and manage several virtual boxes in the same machine. This is definitely thinking Out of the Box !!

I am following VMWare Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) for quiet some time. Way back in 2008/9, when they announced acquisition of Trango and announced first Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP) I thought it would be cool to run both Android and Windows on same phone, kudos VMWare. But within minutes I got disappointed. This platform was made to run the same OS on different hardware. I dont know if this acquisition had any ROI for VMWare. Few months later, Citrix announced similar investment in OK Labs for bulding a mobile hypervisior.

In 2010, when Google Voice was available and when Blackberry was fading, enterprises started offering Exchange Active Sync to its employees on Android and iOS. Organizations started moving out of Blackberry. Now users have just 1 device which also has full access to professional mails, contacts and calendar. And users started using Google Voice. Their google voice number was given for official use which will forward to their personal number and they always had their own personal number. It is like 2 numbers, all the functionality, just one phone.

The major challenge was, both the personal and corporate data was in the same phone and there was absolutely no separation. Then came Mobile Application Management platforms in 2012. These platforms started wide appreciation by large organizations and were used to separate personal & corporate apps & data. Mobile Device Management platforms were used to manage the devices. A perfect combination of MDM and MAM platforms with Google Voice helped a user manage just 1 phone in his hand and easily separate personal and professional usage.

Now that we have good solutions for BYOD, I am not able to understand how VMWare’s Horizon Mobile (Launched May) will solve BYOD problem. Horizon Mobile for Android is a Virtualization platform that consists of a guest virtual machine that separates corporate apps and data from personal apps and data on the host. This has a problem, it needs a specially modified Android OS to act as host. This means it wont work on all Android devices and as of now only two devices (Motorola Droid Razr and LG Intuition) support this Android OS.

Given that the technology is Android-only, and applicable to a subset of devices and carriers, organizations will still need enterprise mobility solutions to manage their non-virtualized devices (iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Android), so that means an enterprise would need to bring on a second solution to manage their virtualized devices.

Read this week’s release from VMWare with latest updates to Horizon Mobile here: http://cto.vmware.com/new-vmware-ready-devices/