My amazing time at Vi Micro :). Review on Vi Microsystems Pvt Ltd

I've worked in Vi Microsystems, Chennai for 3 years, and would like to tell the people reviewing here with their silly issues, what they had missed in that company.

I've worked in embedded software development, and have worked in technologies which can give some MNCs a run for their money. Apart from the routine embedded C development, I've got opportunities to work in assembly programming, boot loaders, even analyzed and decoded machine data for supporting application development for firmware upgrade. The wide array of technical possibilities in this company is amazing, but you have to exhibit your technical capabilities. You cannot loiter in the office corridors, chat with your colleagues most of the time, spend lots of time in the canteen and expected to get'paid' here! Your technical competence will tested rigorously here, and every penny you get in a month is earned. Their Chennai office is small, employs only around 100 employees and consequently the expectations from each one are sky high. The work is usually tailor-made to meet the lab syllabus demands of electronics and electrical depts. of various technical institutes in South India - Mainly Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra.

If you are good in specific technology, they usually give you an opportunity to do that, and that's what I did. I developed embedded code, engaged in R&D for implementing algorithms, trained fellow engineers, analyzed microcontroller board design for V&V, and in addition to all this got an opportunity to travel to some engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu. Those travels were a welcome change as most of the colleges were in remote locales, situated amidst picturesque scenery.:) Sometimes I traveled alone, sometimes with couple of other engineers, and we carried microcontroller boards with us. Those travels were either for demonstrating a new technology to an institute or installation of pre-delivered boards. They have a small service wing with a small group of engineers to do the travels, but as a developer I actually looked forward to those occasional trips. Traveling in a remote village in Salem or Madurai, in a local bus with a dozen local tamilians, with awesome green scenery on both sides:)(The company wont be able to afford you elite travel, of course:) Now isn't that a welcome change from our desk-bound jobs in MNCs sometimes?:)

You are not paid much, I agree, in comparison with the rest of the industry.(That was many years back, I don't know present situation) But that's probably because of cost of securing their inventory, among other factors. They do everything from hand-soldering microcontroller boards, embedded software and hardware design in electronics and electrical areas, to front end application software development, all under one roof! So, going into this company and expecting to get insanely paid, is definitely out of question. You are going to go there if you enjoy working in a high pressure technically competitive environ,  where you don't get much free time in office to loiter, (its a very small campus) and where you get to work in many existing and emerging technologies. I never faced trouble from the management there, and never went about finding faults, instead I tried to convert the opportunities I got there.

I left Vi Micro more than 5 years back, and now working in an MNC in Bangalore, and think back gratefully to those years in Vi Micro which gave me multiple opportunities as a fresher in the electronics field.