After having introduced to you my team, I now give you an insight into the first six months of my actual work experience, starting as an ‘Analyst Programmer’.
Everyday travel went on usual – getting up almost at the same time, leaving home almost at the same time, reaching office almost at the same time but never leaving office at any regular time.
Don’t be surprised – this is what everyone expects in the life of a person who starts in the IT industry: work, work and work – be it 8, 10 or 12 hours, sometimes even more.
FD and I were going quite well along in the initial days in the project – learning and adapting quickly. We were assigned to different projects within GMAPS with FD getting some other work and some routine stuff coming in from impact requests of an upstream team, etc. I really don’t remember much of his initial work now but he was always occupied.
We often left office together – be it the 7:30 pm bus or the late 9:30 pm bus. Travelling back in these timings was painful for the mind more than the body as we were exhausted mentally by the work done in the day. People said initial days would be tough and yes, this was the live-in experience – saying it is much, much easier than experiencing it, people.
I was primarily assigned to a project named HIRST (don’t ask me anything more about it, as it is something internal to AMEX) – mentioning it here purely for referencing as a name. This project was expected to complete somewhere in the summer season and so, I was going to work on it full-time. Any additional work that came to me was also unofficially taken up in my job description (actually, there was no job description for a starter; the more you take up and deliver with quality, the more you learn and make a name for yourself). So, I was having my hands full but I loved the work which is why I never got bored with the project.
For project HIRST, the onshore contact was VSP. She was so intelligent that even before I could ask any question to her about this project (or the system in general), she would know what concerns I had and she replied with her answers or views on it. It was always tough when it came to working with VSP because she was on this higher level of knowledge which you have to reach and sustain. Tough but worth a challenge! She was very helpful to me and she explained to me in finer detail, knowing very well that I needed some time to raise my level, to come up to speed. Her support encouraged me to put in that extra effort needed. I was also learning this new system (new for me) called GMAPS which had many batch jobs (mainframe jobs) interconnected with each other, each job processing some part of the overall business flow. ROC, SOC, MNA, PNL, LTP, ECR – God knows how many sub-systems existed in the web of jobs.
The most vital documentation in those days which was handy to me was a job flow diagram prepared by VD. It was so instrumental in building my knowledge that I kept it with me until my last day in Syntel. I made sure that I would share it with each new person on the team to help that person realize the amount of intricacy that our system has – thus ensuring that person’s commitment and respect towards the system. GMAPS became like a temple of knowledge for me – one time, I was so much involved in it that one of our team mates said “Rohan lives, eats and breathes GMAPS”.
Conference calls happened occasionally with the onshore team, in which we had to report whatever work has been going on – primarily to PK who kept a keen eye on proceedings in the teams (he was always in the thick of action). I learnt many new things here such as speaking etiquettes on the conference call, how to dial in and how to conduct an effective conference call with the help of some moderator.
Project HIRST was going on fine with some changes here and there to the daily work, sometimes to the requirements – nothing dramatic if I remember it right now. Change is inevitable in the IT industry and managing this change is the key to success – as I learned this from VSP, PK and SG.
SG was always there in the middle of all team meetings at offshore and was constantly keeping an eye on how FD and I are performing. After all, he is the boss and he has to report to his boss too. But he was never too strict and rather he was helpful, jovial and constantly motivating us.
2 people in the team moved on to other avenues in their careers. Interactions continued with NC and PP as they became friendlier and started guiding us in whatever smaller ways that they could. But the major role in grooming me was coming “across the seven seas, from the other corner of the Earth” (VSP straight from Phoenix, Arizona, USA).
Very few team parties happened – mostly because of some occasions – either someone left the team, when PS got married, etc. There was hardly time from work to go and hang out together, have fun. Even if there was time, it never came across any of our minds to chill out and have a ball – we just wanted to rest, have a sound sleep at home and come back the next day to office.
My personal life was changed now with very less time devoted to family and friends on weekdays, if ever. Weekends were much better as I rarely had to go to office on the weekend; this was one of the good parts in our team which was lacking in other teams.
As time progressed by, the regular onshore call with VSP was one thing that I looked forward to – not only because she would tell me about the work for that day and discuss the project, but also because we both had started talking in general too like how was she doing out there, she asked me about the people I knew, I asked her what she did in her free time after work, etc. I remember that one particular day when I was talking on the phone with VSP for around 1 hour or more. Suddenly SG came behind and patted me on my back, I looked back in surprise but before I could say anything, he signed to me to carry on – the smiling expression clearly saying “Lage Raho Guru”. It was such a hilarious incident. After that call, when I looked at SG throughtout that day, he was constantly smiling at me and I was surprised that here is a boss who is so fun-loving that even he has started pulling my leg now.
Project HIRST made sure that I analyzed few streams of jobs right from the upstream team’s input coming into our system right upto the jobs which provide final output either in DB2 tables or on the front-end application designed in VB.
Speaking of front-end, I now remember that we regularly consulted a guy named MK for any front-end issues. I don’t remember now whether he was originally in our team or not but he was very helpful when it came to anything related to front-end. He was close to NC and they regularly sat together, joking around between themselves. This guy was really knowledgeable when it came to his domain and at that time, had got some certification from Microsoft (don’t remember exact details of this). But, to sum it up, he was a constant source of assistance to our team. Sorry for missing out on this guy in the previous post.
Six months flew quickly with FD and me learning each day about the system – analyzing many jobs, flows and programs. We were gathering useful knowledge and by the end of these six months, we had commanded some respect and acknowledgement from our team mates (offshore as well as onshore). Trust me, being recognized for your efforts works wonders for your motivation (I’d only heard about this in books but experienced it firsthand that day) – so what if the appreciation is a brief line or two in an e-mail or a word or two on the conference / onshore individual call.
I end the post now having recollected as much as I could from these six months. I won’t go too much in detail about the HIRST project as I feel it is inappropriate to discuss it in a blog. Time to move on to the next post where the first surprise for FD and me is awaiting from SG and then a dilemma begins in my mind on my future career path. It would cover a period from June to November 2006 as it is during the month of November 2006 that a HUGE, MAJOR TURNAROUND point comes straight ahead in my life. My life takes a surprising direction that I had never anticipated would come so soon.
If you feel that I’ve missed out on anything in this post, kindly provide your feedback and I’ll make sure I’ll write it in my next post.
Signing off now. See ya, friends!
