During my last few moments in the office, my manager said an interesting anecdote. He mentioned that we as employees are all passengers going on a long train journey...Some get down... others continue... only to get down at some destination later...And so life moves on...truly!!!
September 4, 2006 - Flashback to the days when I was just out of my MCA internship training at Philips, done with the viva voce for the same at Goa University and all set to join Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) - the company where I was campus placed at during the term. We were some 7-8 GUMCAites who were to join CTS, Pune. Four of us girls (were classmates then, now best of pals) stayed in a rented accomodation. Pune was a nice city to get adjusted to... And thus began our journey of corporate life, fresh out of college and embarking on a headstart for our careers... far away from the carefree, streamlined schedules of academic curriculum and the comfortable cocoon-like existence of our homes. Just like all others, we had our bouts of anxieties of performance and the so-called rat race! After a initial training period of two months, we were placed in different teams. I landed up in a unit called as JavaCoE, a team which is into R&D of Java and J2EE technologies and have been there ever since... till I decided to part ways... the fateful day being Jan 22, 2010.
What followed in this period of 3.5 years constitutes my journey in CTS and the lessons learnt at every new milestone in my career. Be it training programs, workshops, projects or absolute no-work days, there was a sense of belonging in all that it was. Hectic schedules, 12+ or 6- hours in office, glued to monitors or frequent breaks, team lunches, etc. etc were just some epithets to describe the fast-pace or leisure mode we went through intermittently. Ideally, a typical ITian goes through a so-called bell curve in his/her career and we were no different. It starts with a steep growth - As freshers with new ideas, we were put in projects which were like in complete 'Red' and which needed hardworking (working hard and not smart since we were new...) folks like us... So it was a constant struggle, firstly to learn new technologies, processes and then to adapt and excel in the same. Time moved on... and we learned the tricks of the trade...How to be more efficient at tasks in less time and manage personal "me" time as well...
Shades of continuous learning, team interactions, meeting deadlines, coming across new people at varying hierachy levels became a way of life. I must say, on the professional front, I came across some great minds at work. Seniors and peers alike, their level of expertise and knowledge is something I will take back with me wherever I go. CTS was a good start for learning a whole platter of new technologies and implementing the same at workplace. Meanwhile, we classmates who had moved to become flatmates graduated to become good friends and eventually best of friends sharing more than a part of our lives with each other. Somewhere in between, I moved to Bengaluru and started a new chapter with a new set of colleagues... It was an intra-department transfer, so the team was the same. Bengaluru office was a more relaxed one in comparison to Pune's; or so I felt till mid-2009. I had spoken too soon when I was put in a project with US client. Finally, I too had my share of late eveneings, weekend working from home and phew!!! complete exhaustion... Looking back, it was a good working experience although. However, on the downside there were many objectives which were not met. Finally, its how you take it and prioritise... By now, the curve (remember I mentioned initially!) had reached its plateau and it was time for me to move on...before it could drop further...
September 4, 2006 - Flashback to the days when I was just out of my MCA internship training at Philips, done with the viva voce for the same at Goa University and all set to join Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) - the company where I was campus placed at during the term. We were some 7-8 GUMCAites who were to join CTS, Pune. Four of us girls (were classmates then, now best of pals) stayed in a rented accomodation. Pune was a nice city to get adjusted to... And thus began our journey of corporate life, fresh out of college and embarking on a headstart for our careers... far away from the carefree, streamlined schedules of academic curriculum and the comfortable cocoon-like existence of our homes. Just like all others, we had our bouts of anxieties of performance and the so-called rat race! After a initial training period of two months, we were placed in different teams. I landed up in a unit called as JavaCoE, a team which is into R&D of Java and J2EE technologies and have been there ever since... till I decided to part ways... the fateful day being Jan 22, 2010.
What followed in this period of 3.5 years constitutes my journey in CTS and the lessons learnt at every new milestone in my career. Be it training programs, workshops, projects or absolute no-work days, there was a sense of belonging in all that it was. Hectic schedules, 12+ or 6- hours in office, glued to monitors or frequent breaks, team lunches, etc. etc were just some epithets to describe the fast-pace or leisure mode we went through intermittently. Ideally, a typical ITian goes through a so-called bell curve in his/her career and we were no different. It starts with a steep growth - As freshers with new ideas, we were put in projects which were like in complete 'Red' and which needed hardworking (working hard and not smart since we were new...) folks like us... So it was a constant struggle, firstly to learn new technologies, processes and then to adapt and excel in the same. Time moved on... and we learned the tricks of the trade...How to be more efficient at tasks in less time and manage personal "me" time as well...
Shades of continuous learning, team interactions, meeting deadlines, coming across new people at varying hierachy levels became a way of life. I must say, on the professional front, I came across some great minds at work. Seniors and peers alike, their level of expertise and knowledge is something I will take back with me wherever I go. CTS was a good start for learning a whole platter of new technologies and implementing the same at workplace. Meanwhile, we classmates who had moved to become flatmates graduated to become good friends and eventually best of friends sharing more than a part of our lives with each other. Somewhere in between, I moved to Bengaluru and started a new chapter with a new set of colleagues... It was an intra-department transfer, so the team was the same. Bengaluru office was a more relaxed one in comparison to Pune's; or so I felt till mid-2009. I had spoken too soon when I was put in a project with US client. Finally, I too had my share of late eveneings, weekend working from home and phew!!! complete exhaustion... Looking back, it was a good working experience although. However, on the downside there were many objectives which were not met. Finally, its how you take it and prioritise... By now, the curve (remember I mentioned initially!) had reached its plateau and it was time for me to move on...before it could drop further...
Being my first company, I do have some emotional attachment to it and take back with me a whole bunch of memories associated with it. I will definetely feel the void created by the people I have met during my stint here...But as we all know, we have a connected world out there...and geographical distance and time has shrunk within accessible limits...I know I can reach out to them whenever I want to!
So this is it... Yet another chapter ends and a new one begins...Lets see where it takes me! Or rather where I take it... I would like to believe so!!!
nice one pradnya!
ReplyDeletei am still with Cognizant and though it is my second company i do understand all that you mentioned about the company :)
So where are you now?
Nice blog, i shall visit often.
Thanks seets!
ReplyDeleteGood to find that someone shares similar views on it :)
I happened to read your blog posts too... they are nice free-form musings.... liked them... why have you discontinued? do write often... they are a vent of our expressions and a big relief!