Costs by resource - Microsoft Azure:
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Thursday, February 10, 2011
Technical Architect vs. Senior Project Manager
Technical Architect vs. Senior Project Manager: "Technical Architect vs. Senior Project Manager"
Technical Architect vs. Senior Project Manager
I R2Ied in January. After talking to several companies and declining some low-ball offers, I now have two good offers. Both are from Indian Offshore Consulting companies (like TCS, Wipro, etc.). The money is not great, but not bad either.
One of the companies is giving a Senior Technical Architect Role with 50% focus on architecture across multiple projects and 50% focus on presales activities. Travel will be 40-50% so they say. This job has more technical activities. For now, there will be zero people reporting to me.
The other company is offering a Senior Project Manager position with Account Management for multiple projects. This is a pure PM role with 20% technical activities. There will be anywhere from 5 to 50 people in my team depending on the projects handled.
I have so far been involved more on the technical architecture side in the US. I am in that confused state on whether to continue on the technical side (which I like), or to switch over to Management (which I may not like that much).
Any suggestions from the group as to what may be better long term ? Are there career prospects if you stay technical for long ? What if I want to start something on my own, or be an Independent Contractor/Consultant later ? Would staying in the technical area be helpful, or would project mgmt be better ?
Any words of wisdom will be helpful.
Technical Architect vs. Senior Project Manager
I R2Ied in January. After talking to several companies and declining some low-ball offers, I now have two good offers. Both are from Indian Offshore Consulting companies (like TCS, Wipro, etc.). The money is not great, but not bad either.
One of the companies is giving a Senior Technical Architect Role with 50% focus on architecture across multiple projects and 50% focus on presales activities. Travel will be 40-50% so they say. This job has more technical activities. For now, there will be zero people reporting to me.
The other company is offering a Senior Project Manager position with Account Management for multiple projects. This is a pure PM role with 20% technical activities. There will be anywhere from 5 to 50 people in my team depending on the projects handled.
I have so far been involved more on the technical architecture side in the US. I am in that confused state on whether to continue on the technical side (which I like), or to switch over to Management (which I may not like that much).
Any suggestions from the group as to what may be better long term ? Are there career prospects if you stay technical for long ? What if I want to start something on my own, or be an Independent Contractor/Consultant later ? Would staying in the technical area be helpful, or would project mgmt be better ?
Any words of wisdom will be helpful.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Algorithms for Interviews
Algorithms for Interviews: "Algorithms For Interviews"
Summary
Algorithms For Interviews (AFI) is a book that aims to help engineers interviewing for software development positions as well as their interviewers. AFI consists of 174 solved algorithm design problems. It covers core material, such as searching and sorting; general design principles, such as graph modeling and dynamic programming; advanced topics, such as strings, parallelism and intractability. It also covers system design, problem solving, and interviewing techniques. AFI's authors are practicing algorithmists, with extensive academic and industrial experience. They have collectively published over 100 articles on applied algorithms, applied their skills at Google, Microsoft, IBM, Qualcomm, and a number of smaller software startups, and conducted many job interviews for various computer science jobs.
Example
Let's begin with the picture on the front cover of the book, reproduced on the right. You may have observed that the portrait of Alan Turing is constructed from a number of pictures ("tiles") of great computer scientists and mathematicians.
Suppose you were asked in an interview to design a program that takes an image and a collection of s X s-sized tiles and produce a mosaic from the tiles that resembles the image. A good way to begin may be to partition the image into s X s-sized squares, compute the average color of each such image square, and then find the tile that is closest to it in the color space. Here distance in color space can be the Euclidean distance over Red-Green-Blue (RGB) intensities for the color. As you look more carefully at the problem, you might conclude that it would be better to match each tile with an image square that has a similar structure. One way could be to perform a coarse pixelization (2 X 2 or 3 X 3) of each image square and finding the tile that is "closest" to the image square under a distance function defined over all pixel colors (for example, Euclidean Distance over RGB values for each pixel). Depending on how you represent the tiles, you end up with the problem of finding the closest point from a set of points in a k-dimensional space.
If there are m tiles and the image is partitioned into n squares, then a brute-force approach would have O(m n) time complexity. You could improve on this by first indexing the tiles using an appropriate search tree. A more detailed discussion on this approach is presented in the book.
If in a 45-60 minute interview, you can work through the above ideas, write some pseudocode for your algorithm, and analyze its complexity, you would have had a fairly successful interview. In particular, you would have demonstrated to your interviewer that you possess several key skills:
The ability to rigorously formulate and abstract a real-world problem.
The skills to solve problems and design algorithms.
The tools to go from an algorithm to a working program.
The analytical techniques required to determine the computational complexity of your solution.
Summary
Algorithms For Interviews (AFI) is a book that aims to help engineers interviewing for software development positions as well as their interviewers. AFI consists of 174 solved algorithm design problems. It covers core material, such as searching and sorting; general design principles, such as graph modeling and dynamic programming; advanced topics, such as strings, parallelism and intractability. It also covers system design, problem solving, and interviewing techniques. AFI's authors are practicing algorithmists, with extensive academic and industrial experience. They have collectively published over 100 articles on applied algorithms, applied their skills at Google, Microsoft, IBM, Qualcomm, and a number of smaller software startups, and conducted many job interviews for various computer science jobs.
Example
Let's begin with the picture on the front cover of the book, reproduced on the right. You may have observed that the portrait of Alan Turing is constructed from a number of pictures ("tiles") of great computer scientists and mathematicians.
Suppose you were asked in an interview to design a program that takes an image and a collection of s X s-sized tiles and produce a mosaic from the tiles that resembles the image. A good way to begin may be to partition the image into s X s-sized squares, compute the average color of each such image square, and then find the tile that is closest to it in the color space. Here distance in color space can be the Euclidean distance over Red-Green-Blue (RGB) intensities for the color. As you look more carefully at the problem, you might conclude that it would be better to match each tile with an image square that has a similar structure. One way could be to perform a coarse pixelization (2 X 2 or 3 X 3) of each image square and finding the tile that is "closest" to the image square under a distance function defined over all pixel colors (for example, Euclidean Distance over RGB values for each pixel). Depending on how you represent the tiles, you end up with the problem of finding the closest point from a set of points in a k-dimensional space.
If there are m tiles and the image is partitioned into n squares, then a brute-force approach would have O(m n) time complexity. You could improve on this by first indexing the tiles using an appropriate search tree. A more detailed discussion on this approach is presented in the book.
If in a 45-60 minute interview, you can work through the above ideas, write some pseudocode for your algorithm, and analyze its complexity, you would have had a fairly successful interview. In particular, you would have demonstrated to your interviewer that you possess several key skills:
The ability to rigorously formulate and abstract a real-world problem.
The skills to solve problems and design algorithms.
The tools to go from an algorithm to a working program.
The analytical techniques required to determine the computational complexity of your solution.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Recommendation Letter for a Promotion
Recommendation Letter for a Promotion - Sample Recommendation Letter for a Promotion: "Recommendation Letter for a Promotion"
Sample Recommendation Letter for a Promotion
Email Subject Line: John Smith - Recommendation for Promotion
I have worked closely with John Smith for the past several years while he has been employed as the Marketing Assistant in the Communications Office. I have been consistently impressed by both John's attitude towards his work and his performance on the job. His interpersonal and communication skills have allowed him to develop strong working relationships with both our clients and our staff.
John possesses solid writing skills which have enabled him to compose quality correspondence and publications. He also has the analytical skills to diagnose problems and devise viable solutions. His ability to remain calm during stressful periods like the end of the year proves his ability to work well under pressure.
Even though John is a tremendous asset to our office, his expertise, the experience he has gained on the job, and the continuing education classes he has participated him make him a prime candidate for promotion.
I recommend him for a promotion without reservation. Please let me know if you need further information.
Jane Doe
Title
Phone
Email
Sample Recommendation Letter for a Promotion
Email Subject Line: John Smith - Recommendation for Promotion
I have worked closely with John Smith for the past several years while he has been employed as the Marketing Assistant in the Communications Office. I have been consistently impressed by both John's attitude towards his work and his performance on the job. His interpersonal and communication skills have allowed him to develop strong working relationships with both our clients and our staff.
John possesses solid writing skills which have enabled him to compose quality correspondence and publications. He also has the analytical skills to diagnose problems and devise viable solutions. His ability to remain calm during stressful periods like the end of the year proves his ability to work well under pressure.
Even though John is a tremendous asset to our office, his expertise, the experience he has gained on the job, and the continuing education classes he has participated him make him a prime candidate for promotion.
I recommend him for a promotion without reservation. Please let me know if you need further information.
Jane Doe
Title
Phone
Monday, January 10, 2011
Free Sample Resignation Letter
Free Sample Resignation Letter: "Sample Resignation Letter"
Dear Ms Smith (or first name if you have an informal relationship),
Please accept this as formal notice of my resignation from the position of Accountant at XYZ Corporation, effective two weeks from today. My last working day will be April 4th 2008.
After much consideration I have decided to accept another job offer. I feel it is time for a new challenge and this is a good opportunity to further my career goals.
Working for this company has been a wonderful experience. I feel privileged to have been part of such a professional team and will miss all my colleagues.
I appreciate both the professional and personal growth opportunities that have been provided to me during my time with the company. I would like to thank you in particular for all your advice and support. I hope that we will stay in touch as I begin this new chapter in my career.
I wish you and XYZ Corporation continued success in the future.
Sincerely
Your signature
Dear Ms Smith (or first name if you have an informal relationship),
Please accept this as formal notice of my resignation from the position of Accountant at XYZ Corporation, effective two weeks from today. My last working day will be April 4th 2008.
After much consideration I have decided to accept another job offer. I feel it is time for a new challenge and this is a good opportunity to further my career goals.
Working for this company has been a wonderful experience. I feel privileged to have been part of such a professional team and will miss all my colleagues.
I appreciate both the professional and personal growth opportunities that have been provided to me during my time with the company. I would like to thank you in particular for all your advice and support. I hope that we will stay in touch as I begin this new chapter in my career.
I wish you and XYZ Corporation continued success in the future.
Sincerely
Your signature
Monday, December 13, 2010
Follow-Up Letter Sample
Follow-Up Letter Sample:
"Dear Mr. Gilhooley,
I submitted a letter of application and a resume earlier this month for the programmer position advertised in the Times Union. To date, I have not heard from your office. I would like to confirm receipt of my application and reiterate my interest in the job.
I am very interested in working at XYZ Company and I believe my skills and experience would be an ideal match for this position.
If necessary, I would be glad to resend my application materials or to provide any further information you might need regarding my candidacy. I can be reached at (555)555-5555 or jdoe@abcd.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for your consideration."
"Dear Mr. Gilhooley,
I submitted a letter of application and a resume earlier this month for the programmer position advertised in the Times Union. To date, I have not heard from your office. I would like to confirm receipt of my application and reiterate my interest in the job.
I am very interested in working at XYZ Company and I believe my skills and experience would be an ideal match for this position.
If necessary, I would be glad to resend my application materials or to provide any further information you might need regarding my candidacy. I can be reached at (555)555-5555 or jdoe@abcd.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for your consideration."
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