I sit past another cold icy day here in Atlanta. My thoughts linger over a very important decision I made exactly 2 weeks back from today. I dwell deep into my thoughts as decorated frames of memory flash by from the last five and a half years of my life. I now relive some of those moments and take you through the thick and thins my journey which has now taken a new course.
It all started sometime in TIME when <> decided to hold a campus interview in M.S.R.I.T, my Alma Mater. <> was the first company to visit the campus and all of us were excited with the build up. Finally the D-Day had arrived and we were all at our exam halls solving puzzles this time for a change instead of writing an exam. Yes, this was the first level of screening at <>. All those who made through the puzzles were shortlisted for an interview later in the day. I was a very proud Mechanical Engineer who knew nothing about computers except of course all the computer games like road rash, age of empires, commando, castle wolfenstien, super bike and brian lara cricket which we used to play, worship and live by during those days! So I was a little skeptical of making it through the interview. I was lucky not to be among the first few to be interviewed which helped me bite a few more nervous nails. I asked my friends who were interviewed before me as to how it went for them and was relieved to some extent on knowing that it is not a technical round. At least I got a break from biting my nails! It was my turn now, I went inside the room and was asked to sit on chair. I didn't know what to expect from the panel when it was all sinking in one of the interviewers broke the jinx by asking me to introduce myself. I finished my introduction as professionally as I could when I was asked my first real question. 'How would you design a watch for a person who is deaf, dumb and blind?'. I thought to myself was it really a question or was she just teasing with me. Why would a company like <> be interested in designing a watch! And what would a person who is deaf, dumb and blind do with a watch anyway! I just threw all the mechanics and ideas I could to her and tried not to sound dumb myself. She just nodded her head giving nothing away and then came my second question.'What do you think about Rahul Dravid's decision to declare in the last test match against Pakistan when Sachin Tendulkar was on 196 and could have easily got to another double?'. For a very big cricket fan and a cricket quizzer that I was all through my college days, I thought to myself that this was my best chance to hit a six and get my double! She silently nodded away to all that I had to say and my interview was over! I was one among the 136 students who got placed in COMPANY that year from my college.
I was a Mechanical Engineer who had solved puzzles and discussed about cricket during an interview to get placed as a Software Engineer in one of the most prestigious IT companies in the world!
Chapter 1: The Initiation
We were the first batch to have the ... which was a HUGE SUCCESS!, aaah... I am just being sarcastic! Some of our lecturers underwent training at COMPANY LOCATION so that they could train us later, he he yeah! ;). Basically the entire syllabus for the Generic course was be covered in the college and we would apparently have to write the generic compre in the college. Everyone was excited with the idea and the first week of classes were marked with full attendance. Nature over the years has learnt to adapt and evolve according to the circumstances and we were no different! We had one of the best of times in the college during campus connect from then onwards. We would meet up for campus connect only to decide which new place we would explore that day and 'BUNK' the classes. We went boating in Sankey Tank and Ulsoor Lake, watched every movie that released, played cricket and football, hung up at coffee shops and hostel rooms of friends to name a few things. It was eight weeks since campus connect had started and we had only attended the first week. It was time for the generic compre! To our astonishment only about 20 of the 136 wrote the compre and COMPANYdecided that all had to take up the generic course again at COMPANY LOCATION.
There was a gap after college and before I joined COMPANY NAME at XYZ for training during which I travelled the entire Konkan belt (South Canara) on my bike. It was a total of 2000 Km of unbelievable fun which is now permanently etched in my memory!
DATE, we were at the gates of <>. We were picked up on Tata Sumos and escorted to our respective rooms. I was lucky to have a very good friend of mine as my room mate. We settled down, freshened up and headed out for a stroll to see the campus. It was one of the most beautiful places that we had ever seen till then. We had a small dinner gathering at one of the PLACE the same evening. We were briefed about our purpose at the institute during the gathering. Officially from then on we were named the NAME training batch. It's another story that I got to know what NAME stands for only at the end of my training! My next four and a half months were spent learning finer aspects of programming, doing never ending assignments and writing tests every week. I will never forget XYZ, the classroom where I had my first part of training, the place where I made great friends for life and understood the ones I already had better. The second part of my training was in PLACE, it was the more hectic part with long nights spent in the classroom learning and doing assignments.
DATE, I was done writing my stream compre and in COMPANYterms i was now ' A Resource who was Production Ready'!
Chapter 2: My First Project
DATE, I was production ready and at gate 6 of TOTAL EXP. I had received an orientation email from one of the HRs which had the X and Y co-ordinates of the place in the campus where I was supposed to be and report. After walking down a few steps and encountering a beautiful fountain on my way, I finally found in building on my left. I entered the building and asked at the desk for the HR I was supposed to meet. I was asked to flash my id card and on confirming that I indeed was an employee I was shown my way to a cubical. This was the first time I met XYZ, one of the best HRs of DEPT that I have had the pleasure to work with. She asked about my where abouts and then escorted me to another cubical where I met my first manager. Mr. XYZ asked me to sit down on a chair and he started explaining about the Client, the application, overview of the project and my role. CLIENT was the name of the client. I first mistook the name for an abbreviation of something long and meaningful, something like UNESCO or UNICEF which is apparently wasn't. I am sure most of us in the account might have done that to start with. XYZ was the one who told me the meaning of the word. I still remember the initial KT and gyan that i got from XYZ on that day which i still use for training anyone who newly joins Bridge/Xpress. I was then deported to a hostel room as there was no space in Bldg and was given the task of doing a mock project, my first assignment. This Bridge/Xpress mock project has stayed evergreen since the idea was invented much before i joined and all 'New Entrants' to Bridge/Xpress have to go through the MOCK PROJECT even today!
'New Entrant' is another <> terminology. It is what you become after you are 'Production Ready' and have joined your first project!
Bridge Migration has been one of the best projects i have worked in till date. For me it has been essentially a great foundation to learn and understand the .Net architecture. It has also been the best managed project i have worked in. I also made a lot of new friends, very good ones for life in this project. I cherish every moment spent in this project and it was fun and a great learning both professionally and personally. Thanks to MANY PPL NAMES and all the others for making it so memorable. A special thanks to PPL for making the project colourful, at least the boys would agree with me!
Chapter 3: The Return of 'Bridge'
After migrating Bridge to .Net, <> briefly lost it's maintenance to a competitor and the team size was reduced to 4 from 60. Me, PPL NAMES were the rollout support team and it was all supposed to end in the coming two months and then something drastic happened! The bridge maintenance work was won back by <> and there was a sudden need to beef up the team size again. This resulted in more people, a pleasant mixture of new and experienced people joined the team and the team was big again, about 35 this time. With new people, came the 'New Entrant Training' and of course the MOCK PROJECT. The four of us were responsible to train all the new joinees and make them 'Development Ready'!
'Development Ready' is what you become after a specialty project training.
We also had a new manager this time. XYZ had joined the project as the manager. The entire team from top to bottom in the hierarchy was new except of course for the four of us and XYZ Sir. With the project being back with us there was a lot of work now. The TIME buses to back home were all taken off the schedule by the transport department. We started taking the TIME buses, then the TIME, then the TIME and then cabs. We then started spending most of our time at the office as there was so much work and all of us were new and only 'Development Ready' and not experts yet. But it was fun too. Working late nights, staying overnight at office with other colleagues, releases, it was all fun. A special thanks to XYZ sir for supporting us all throughout the tough phase in the project. In due course i also added to the list of my very good friends. It was only because of PPL and all the others that i have such unforgettable and brilliant memories of the project and all the fun that we had during the DEPT day, project parties, cubical decorations, treks and what not! Thank you so much all of you!
Chapter 4: My First Onsite Trip
I had got my US visa stamped by the end of YEAR. I was since then 'Onsite Ready'.
'Onsite Ready' is what you become after you hold a visa to any country of interest to COMPANY.
I had to wait for some time before i got my first onsite opportunity. Four of my close friends had already fled to different client locations in the early part of YEAR and i was getting a little restless. DATE, i was asked by my manager to fly to Madrid, Spain. I was very happy to have finally got an opportunity. I had to accompany Ajay and help him with gathering requirements. Ajay was my new manager. We had another person joining us from <> Mexico. His name was Edgar Martinez. Edgar had given us a map and directions to where we will be staying, a few useful Spanish sentences and their english translations which we could use and a note. The note read 'Take a taxi to Calle de Atocha....get down at Maestro Churrero.......ask for Sixto.....give him the money......and he will take you to your rooms' . It first sounded like some sort of Mafia but we didn't want to take a chance! We did exactly that and we indeed got to our rooms. Madrid is a very nice place to be and with very nice people and rich cultural heritage and history. A special thanks to MANY PPL without who it wouldn't have been possible. Thank you all!
I then travelled to Chicago on another assignment ( Advantages of being 'Onsite Ready').
DATE, i was back in PLACE from Chicago. I was now an 'Onsite Return'. A few of my close friends had left the organisation, some for higher studies and the rest for a better pay elsewhere. The people i used to go for lunch with, the ones i used to spend time in office with were all engaged with newer group of friends. The TIME bus gang of friends, there used to be 12 of us who would take the same bus who used to live in the same area had now reduced to just 4 including me. I felt it a little hard to identify myself at offshore for the first few days. This is when Car Pool happened. It was one of the best things that happened to me during the year YEAR. Me, PPL car pool to office. We were now free from the treacherous bus journey and could enjoy flexi timings to office. We would still clock the mandatory TIME hrs but life was much easier. Car pool got us even more closer as firends and we had the best of times commuting. We then started exploring a new place to eat on every friday on our way back home. We used to rate the place on 4 aspects as they do it on the popular show 'Highway On My Plate' HOMP. We then also made many memorable site seeing trips during holidays. Thank you all for making it precious!
But now there were a few irreversible changes that had happened with the organizational restructuring which had impacted me hard. And i was also an 'Onsite Return' which was far from being an 'Onsite Ready'. If you are an 'Onsite Return' and unless it's clearly written in your fate to travel it is very difficult to become 'Onsite Ready' again at least for a few years. A couple of my friends travelled and a couple got married, i had started to seriously think about other opportunities and then it happened again.
DATE, i travelled to Toronto and from there to Atlanta. I was lucky to get my third onsite trip. I thank all my managers for considering me as 'Onsite Ready' again or may be it was written in my fate too!
I then made new friends in Atlanta with whom i shared an apartment. We were the only bachelors here and were termed as the 'Alara Boys' initially by XYZ and then the term caught up with the others. 'Alara' was the name of the apartment complex where we were put up. We have since then had great times, travelling, playing, cooking and with anything that we did. Thank you PPL NAMES for everything. You guys are just great!
A special thanks to PPL for always being there and for always supporting me. You have influenced me in more than one way.
I would also like to thank PPL NAMES and all the others without who it wouldn't have been so memorable.
Chapter 6: The Bitter Sweet Symphony
The damage that was done in early 2009 could not be undone and it had started getting to my nerves now. Just being at onsite would not keep me happy and motivated anymore. I knew that i had to make up my mind now and make that decision to take the first step. It finally happened!
DATE, i was offered a job by a Product based IT company in the US which i accepted with both my hands. Yes, i put down my papers 2 weeks back on DATE. I am currently serving a notice period and DATE will be my last day in <> as an employee. It was a very tough decision for me to make after being in <> for about five and half years now. As i say this i get emotional and hear a thousand violins playing the 'bitter sweet symphony' in the background. I will be parting with <> in another 2 days but will be taking all the great times and memories i have had here with me. It has been a great learning curve and a great journey so far which will be taking a new course. Everyone i have met in this organisation have influenced me in some or the other way. I wish everyone a very bright future and thank you all, everyone i have met, know to me and not known to me for making my stay in <> so beautiful!
I have only one more thing to say, 'when it's tough for you, do not panic or get disturbed. have a plan, it will take some time but good things are bound to happen and when you know you are in the grove take the bull by it's horns and turn the tide in your favour, believe in yourself, believe in your well wishers and you will see good things coming your way'.
Thank you all for taking some time in reading about my journey from being a 'Mechanical Engineering Student' to a 'Trainee at <> ' to being 'Production Ready' to a 'New Entrant' to 'Devlopment Ready' to 'Onsite Ready' to 'Onsite Return' and now becomming a 'US Recruite'. I hope you have enjoyed it!
All of you please stay in touch. You can email me at EMAIL ID and be sure to expect a reply.
Take Care and All the Best!
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