My Stay at XYZ

First Crush.. First Love.. First Company..
We cherish the good moments of first crush and first love of our life which might have happened at our bachelor stage of life and I believe its true in case of the first company as well, that we have worked for.

I have had wonderful times during my engineering at PESCE (might start in my next blog about it). And in the final year, everyone were in the verge of fulfilling their dreams by getting selected to one or the other company through placements at our campus. But couple of them like me were finding difficult to get placed. At last was the XYZ (current employer) which made my dream come true on June 24th 2005.

Until then, I was not able to realize that it’s a matter of time to get placed but what next after graduation, was the question which was giving nightmares. I joined xyz on Aug 16th 2005 where my first 2 days was in Hotel Goldfinch, B’lore for the induction program. I still remember the day where I had been to Christ College to attend the interview with the IT giant in India started by NRN and others. We (I, Ajith - who was placed along with me to xyz and Praveen) were roaming around dairy circle as the results were not declared yet and we were day dreaming about getting into the 7storied building of xyz, so called the Bang 3 facility. Never thought that I will be spending two years in this facility. It’s a great feeling when I was able to make it to xyz after 2 weeks of this incident.

I personally feel that amongst the xyz facilities, Bang 3 and Bang 1 facilities are the coolest ones which are easily accessible, near to my home, near to malls, good restaurants around, etc.
My initial days with xyz was very tough, coming from E & C background and understanding Classes, Objects, Inheritance and many more, was a tough job during the training period where some of my peers were doing exceptionally good in this. Some how I managed to clear the test in all my training sessions and was on bench for couple of days.

My first project kicked off on Jan 21st 06, with huge expectation on me (in terms of staying at office after office hours, work during weekends, etc). Everyday I used to hear the words like stocks, shares, orders, quotes, etc in my bay as the project was on Stock Exchange, which annoyed me a lot. However, I established a good rapport with my TL and my peers. There was competition amongst our team members and anyone completes their part was awarded with a Champagne (as the client was very good when it comes to budget). As expected, I was the last to complete my task. But still, was given a champagne to celebrateJ . A funny incident happened that night at home, I went with the Champagne where my cousin was eagerly waiting for me (I already informed him). We waited until others at home fell asleep. The worst part was, we did not know how to open it. As soon as I opened the crown, our room got filled with Champagne and got busy cleaning the room until midnight.

My project completed within the schedule time and most of them were released from the project along with me. At the end of the project we had a wonderful party in Leela and Royal Orchid.
My second project was a memorable project for me in which I was sent to onsite for 2 months, made some good friends over the span of 2 years in this project, learnt the processes than the technology which I was trained in xyz. Team members were really good and enjoyed a lot during 1st year of this project. Every now and then we used to have team lunch or dinner (explored several restaurants in south of B’lore), outing to several resorts and hotels (Club Cabana, Golden Palms, Windsor Manor, The Grand Ashok, etc) and outing to Chikmagalur – which was an amazing experience where we had real good time for 2 days. In the course of time people changed due to different reasons, the environment slowly became bitter day by day. I had to voluntarily request my manager to release from the project. In terms of career/personal growth, nothing good happened for me during the period in this long journey. This lasted till Oct 31st, 2008.

My third project was again on shares/stocks, etc, but this time with better roles and responsibilities. I just knew about my arrival time to office but nothing could be assured on my return to home. I celebrated couple of festivals and weekends in front of the stupid box in the officeL . Bad part was my TL and managers were not liberal to allow their subordinates to enjoy the gift of time. I had to be in office by 11 AM everyday in spite of working till 5 AM carried from the previous day. This was our usual routine for about 3 months and rest 3 months were normal when we completed the release activity successfully. In this project, I was more satisfied with my work as compared to my previous projects. Even here I had good times when it comes to party/outing. This project was really helpful in terms of enhancing my skills and making me strong. But then again, my appraisal was not as I expected and swirled my mind to think different. I took a long vacation for about 3 weeks after this engagement, during which I spent my time to prepare for the 1st sem MS exams and fortunately completed it successfully.

My current project is a new one (just 4 months old) and the team is very enthusiastic. Now, I am quite relaxed when compared to my previous project. I also had an opportunity to go to Bheemeshwari in Mandya district as our team outing for the one last time.

As things did not turn up as with XYZ, I decide to move to out of XYZ, started circulating my resume for the better opportunity, for new challenges, for the unseen world of IT. After several attempts I succeeded in conquering the next step of my career ladder. It was not easy for me to quit my first company, my first bread earner initially but time has come to explore the world and accept new challenges. It has been amazing journey with XYZ teaching me some of the lessons of life. I feel little embarrassed for leaving XYZ but at the same time all the very excited to join ABC and see a fruitful career in ABC.