Thanks for the advice. I am currently looking into it. The back end development seems to be in demand right now, I am focusing my effort on Python with Django. In the meanwhile, if I do not pay the bond straight away, I will incur an interest of prime lending rate + 3%, which turns out to be about 15% the last I checked. Thank you for the advice anyway.
Sir, I am not cribbing. Rather asking for help to focus my effort in more fruitful direction, the foresight of which I lack, so that at the end of it, I have a reasonable chance of coming out on the top.
I cannot get them to fire unless on disciplinary grounds. Under performing would just get me humiliated. And my place of work is a facility where I am not allowed to carry my personal belongings such as my laptop and as such, I can not work my personal projects in the mean time either.
In case, I quit without notice, my bond surety would have to pay for the bond amount.
Before doing that, read the paperwork carefully. It may have the standard clause "All your work are belong to us". So the side project you do in your free time is also property of the agency even if it's only tangentially related to your work there.
Perhaps you may get an exception to contribute to a big open source project. You will not get money, but you will get more experience and things to put in your CV.
As a matter of fact, I am not allowed to contribute to open source projects if not officially approved (read : simply not allowed) and whatever I contribute will remain with the agency I am working for and would be classified.
Getting fired on disciplinary grounds would sum up to physical or sexual assault or smuggling components or something of that order. Not very advisable for somebody just starting his carrier, I think.
I intend to continue with my education and as such, banks are not willing to finance my bond which would effectively leave me with no further source of income. My pay scale is non-negotiable and my first review for appraisal would be at the end of 2017.
I tried finding alternate job opportunities but my particular set of skills does not have a requirement in the current Indian industry as of now, but I am still looking.
If you have a decent programming foundation, I'd look into Android programming or other reasonably-paying skillset that you could use after hours.
One of my classmates started doing Android apps, the first year she ended up earning close to U$ 600/month extra, but now she makes U$ 2000/month extra, for 20 hours of work each week or so. (I'm in Uruguay, U$ 2000 monthly is more than a junior dev's salary).
I took the Coursera classes, and I'm going to release my first app sometime next month :)
There used to be plenty of "income reports" here on Hacker News from people that launch their own apps, it's certainly not overnight success, but the timeframe is significantly lower than 45 months :) . Plus, if you get good at it, you can do freelancing.
No, actually, I am from India. I have checked with lawyers and the agreement may actually not be legal, but I do not want to get into a legal mess, given the current state of Indian judiciary along the lawyer's expenses, it may get stretched for years. In the mean while, my prospects for higher education are at stake as I have to save for it as well. Right now, I am looking for somebody who could possibly guide me through a project, website or application that I can possibly develop in the mean while and pay my bond in a year or two.
Hmm, well I'm not familiar with India and it's government. Are there any "watchdog" government agencies that handle violations of labor laws? If you can get the government on your side you might be able to avoid lawyer's fees.
Have you already completed the Bachelor's program? What happens if you just leave the agency and move somewhere else?
> Are there any "watchdog" government agencies that handle violations of labor laws?
No.
> If you can get the government on your side...
This is possible, public prosecutor will be assigned. But the case will take easily 4-5 years to come to a conclusion.
> What happens if you just leave the agency and move somewhere else?
Highly unlikely that agency may sue OP.
6 of my friends were working some companys and had signed 3 years bond. or would have to pay about $5000. Four of them just left the company, no notification or official resignation. Just, said goodbye. Other two cited health reasons and said they cannot work for next 6-7 months etc. They were let go.
I don't know for which agency OP works for. But I am yet to see/read someone paying up for breaking the agreement/bond in India. Companies also wouldn't want to pursue the matter further, cos it will cost them more anyways and courts will drag the cases for years. So they simply let people go, atleast in 99% of cases. That's how it is in India.
Well, the government agency involved here is the Department of Space, Government of India. I am currently working for Indian Space Research Organization and did my Bachelor of Technology from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India. My certificates and transcripts are still held up and would not be released unless I clear my bond or complete my tenure. If I leave without notification, the money would be demanded from my surety, followed by legal prosecution if not produced. No health excuses here either. And yes, the department will and has in the past pursued such cases in the court of law and as far as I know, all of them are pending so far.
As far as my experience is concerned, the graphics card drivers tend to give problems, irrespective of nVidia or AMD. The Intel solutions are stable, heat up a lot less and get the job done, in case you are not into some serious graphics processing.
The wireless card may be another issue, Broadcom support has recently been built in into the kernel, but out of box support is still not there(you need to download the firmware, which is proprietary). Rather, go for an Atheros card, which has much better support.
The rest of the hardware should not be an issue.
Had experience with a lot of machines, including Dell, Acer, HP, Asus, MacBooks as well. Have found the systems with Intel graphics to be most stable and usable. One particular system you may want to look into is Dell Vostro, though am not sure of the Wireless Card in it.
