CDF is looking for passionate engineers in Pakistan

[Start HR message]

Core Digital Frameworks is working on a high-value project for a strategic customer, and is currently looking to assemble a dream team of engineers in Islamabad to create the technology needed. We have 6 immediate openings for the best engineers in Pakistan.

CDF is the right place for you if are looking for a work environment that

• incubates good ideas,
• encourages entreprenurial passion,
• believes in the highest standards of professionalism and operational excellence,
• and if you have an unending interest in creating breakthroughs in any of the following :

Apply to CDF now if you are passionate about any of the following : compilers ; OS and application middlewares ; Event Processing Engines ; System firmware design ; distributed systems ; integration middleware - messaging ; high-throughput system reliability ; load balancing ; dynamic virtual server clusters ; heat-flow simulation ; hardware interfacing and digital logic design ; system bus architectures ; Layout Management and Automation ; User Experience and Ergonomics Design ;

How to Apply:

All of the following are strict requirements.

1. Send a 1-2 page resume and cover letter to jobs@coreframeworks.com
2. Complete the CDF Engineering Recruitment Test in a Word document and email that to jobs@coreframeworks.com.

We also recommend you read all three pages of posts at the Green&White Professionalism Category to get an appreciation of the CDF Work Ethics and culture.

Look out for our job posts on Rozee.pk. We will have more details about the posts there.

As a reminder, there are a total of 6 openings.

[End HR message]

The CDF Engineer Recruitment Test

Instructions for attempting Test:Please follow the following instructions explicitly.

1- Copy and paste the entire test to MS Word

2- Write answers below each question. You have until the deadline below to work on this test freely.

3- Section 0 is mandatory to attempt

4- From Section 1 - 5, you will only be graded against the best two sections answered. The rest will not be considered in the evaluation.

5- We suggest you attempt all questions

6- You are encouraged to use online materials, textbooks and other reference guides to answer

6- When finished, email the completed document to jobs@coreframeworks.com.

7- Based on the results of the test, we will get back to you within a few days.

Also, please note the following:

• Test can be submitted only once

• Please Attach your NIC copy (or number) with the test

• Explicitly mention the job position in the email subject

The CDF Core Recruitment Test

Instructions for attempting Test:

Please follow the following instructions explicitly.

1- Copy and paste the entire test to MS Word

2- Write answers below each question. You have until the deadline below to work on this test freely.

3- You will be evaluated only based on the best 50% of your answers. The rest of the answers will not be considered for evaluation.

4- We suggest you attempt all questions

5- You are encouraged to use online materials, textbooks and other reference guides to answer

6- When finished, email the completed document to jobs@coreframeworks.com.

7- Based on the results of the test, we will get back to you within a few days.

Also, please note the following:

• Test can be submitted only once

• Please Attach your NIC copy (or number) with the test

• Explicitly mention the job position in the email subject

Priceless! Interesting read

From the metroblogging Lahore website I found a link to a UK Guardian story from 15 August 1947 regarding the formation of the new nations of Pakistan and India

 

It is very interesting to read this and compare it with the relations of current-day Pakistan and India.

Ebay leaving China? Some related thoughts on PK

Not much to add of my own on this one, but Ebay has agreed to sell of Ebay China to tom.com

Here is the bit I found very interesting.

Two reasons are cited. First, eBay, which had as much as 90% market share in China for C2C transactions, has lost significant market share to upstart (and free) rival Taobao. eBay is now left with just less than 30% market share for C2C transactions, even after moving to eliminate transaction fees in China a few months ago.

The above would now be my response to every “bozo” I have met who thinks its impossible to sit in PK and compete against ‘the giant companies with more than 2000 engineers working on the problem’.

Three sentence answer to them:

• The market always accepts new value creation.
• Take the right product to the right people with the right message (the “story” from anyone who has taken my professionalism course)
• Focus on surviving through the long uptake cycle — i.e. keep your cash flows balanced.

So, does that mean that there is an opportunity for a local Ebay version to be successful? No. Not unless you deliver a solution relevant to Pakistan built around Pakistanis.

 

On a related but different stream of thought — there is one possible reason this would be happening.

See I have heard this briefly from some PK firms as well. Coming in to this country as a foreign investor is still difficult in some ways — if in nothing else, than because you have some more regulations, and have to be governed by the local embassy. (Side note : ofcourse foreign firms continue to pour money in Pakistan because there is so much growth and almost no initiative fails).

Some firms counter this by wrapping up the ‘PK branch of foreign company’ and register a new ‘local company’.

Maybe Ebay is doing something similar? Who knows.

…break continues…

Well my blogging break continues….

It’s great to have 10 things to do in the day… not so fun when that becomes 30… and a downright pain when you add scope creep to it.

Unfortunately I dont have the luxury of a weekend these days in which to plan G&W posts.

 

I will still be posting things to G&W but it will be a bit sporadic. I thank the patient audience in advance.

 

In Supply Mgmt terms: I have a situtation where I have oversold (time) and thus now have limited supply (of time) to actually deliver to the distribution channels.

The pop-quiz question is : Why am I choosing G&W as the delivery channel which gets less-than-expect delivery of goods? 

Kudos Series - 3: A requiem for Cressoft, and tipped hats to PSEB

The Pakistan Software Export Board grew into a mature professional organization under the leadership of Dr. Aamir Matin. A quick thank you from the nation to the former MD (who is now heading up Cisco Pakistan).

Recently, however, Mr Yusuf Hussain took helm of the organization, and I couldn’t feel more comfortable in the choice.

Mr. Hussain is the former head of Cressoft, one of the highlights of the Glory Days of the Pakistani IT Industry 1.0.

 

Although I was not in Pakistan at that time, everything I have heard about Cressoft tells me that it was perhaps the one company in the history of IT companies in Pakistan that was getting it right. Unfortunately, it collapsed in the dot bust.

As an example of the quality of the leadership from Cressoft: When Cressoft collapsed, the leadership all created their own companies which are now Streaming Networks, Care, (and perhaps also LMKR and Netsol? Someone correct me here) — all of which are strong companies in their own merits.

As another example, every average engineer that got out of the Cressoft experience is still considered one of the most valuable managers at any company they are working for. The most important value seen in those engineers is that ‘they understand business operations’.

 

Cressoft is still the only company that I have heard of in PK (not counting CDF) that actually had the following (these are just the basics, but you’d be surprised how many companies do not do these):

• Constant recruitment of fresh graduates regardless of demand — and the placement of the recruits into a training boot camp to shape them into final professionals by the time demand ramps up
• 6 months extensive training on well-planned training tracks within the company — with intensive training on culture, ethics and professionalism
• An appraisal process that was fair and considered employee ambition and potential in addition to achievements.
• Project Lifecycles that were created as gated pipelines — strictly disallowing the project to move into another stage until all “advancement criteria” were met
• High-level research, and design work on Computer Architecture (processor design), Embedded Systems, Video Alogirthms etc. outsourced to a team of about 600 engineers.

I have been evangelising similar internal environments for a good while now. So, why can’t the rest of the firms just learn from Cressoft? Is it a case of ‘ lack of vision in management’ ? Tell me your thoughts.

 

I can already see some positive changes on PSEB — the most useful one being the bulletin. It is always great to see good corporate social responsibility, and most appreciated when seeing it from the facilitator to the IT industry.

 

Welcome, Mr. Hussain. Good luck, and looking forward to another good leadership term at PSEB

Kudos Series - 2 : On ROZEE

Rozee underwent a silent facelift some …

Update 2:  You can view some updated posts on Rozee on the blog. The company has recoverd maturely and is getting better time. Their business model is still too traditional for rapid growth, and I keep pointing this out to them.

Update: Scratch all I said about Rozee. It is one of the worst companies I have had to deal with.

To be honest, Rozee support makes PTCL look like Micronet.

From:

• Delayed posting jobs by 5 Days which essentially killed our hiring deadlines ;
• to absurd approval processes ;
• randomly disappearing job posts, where only one post appears at a time;
• to even putting an invalid address for our company without asking,

Rozee now tops my list of impulsive non-professional companies. Believe me, I had a long list before Rozee.

They have an elaborate system of control built around their job posting process, which they claim they are doing to “protect applicants”. From what? Applying to companies? Well they succeed in that. In everything else, their control system makes the USA Patriot Act look like a blood test in comparison.

So in short — bad product ; bad business strategy (see below) ; terrible customer support == silicon valley hotshot starts company

months ago along with their promotions of their professional networking services.

I found myself recently wading through their complex, unintuitive and somewhat intrusive registration process (Rozee — please fix it), but I happened to land in their “virtual contact card” area.

That is actually nice — they have used a nice CMS because the interface is intuitive and supports professional networking.

It is good to see that they have made an honest good-quality attempt at creating a conducive professional community.
It certainly empowers the little guy in a country like Pakistan the network is such an essential asset to business.

So kudos for the effort.

The good thing is, that there is one particular way of making this much more successful, if Rozee focuses on creating values on the edge based on local market insight. The trouble is, Rozee hasn’t found that model yet.

In pure strategy terms, they picked a terrible business model. A traditional online professional network is least aligned with the benefit of edge competencies. It is one of the reasons LinkedIn is struggling with returns or ROI.

A professional network in Pakistan can only be monetized by focusing on the edge considering our specific local dynamics.

So, lets see how Rozee plans to monetize the data — and lets hope they dont repeat classic mistakes like charging for the right to get business contact information.

Professionalism Series 4.4 : Pop-Quiz

What is the difference between making a PPT presentation that you will actually be presenting on stage, and making a PPT presentation that you will be emailing to someone?

How is the structure and text of it different?

What about presenting on stage VS presenting over an online (webex-like) session

Blogging break…

It is great to wake up every day and have 10 different things to achieve in the day. Not so fun when it becomes 30.

This could be a great chance to catch up to some of the posts if you are an occaisional reader.