86 days to go..
November 2014, when I was stringing through the Statement of
Purpose to apply for universities, Siemens Industry Software Limited made a
quick round of Internship recruitment in the college. I don’t know if it was
the lack of choices or luck, I was one of them selected (which I got to know a
month later. A month, at that point of time, felt like a lot of time). To get
at least an internship, after interviewing with 7 companies and writing
numerous first rounds felt good.
Add to it a 3 month training program in the college to ‘groom’
me to be an intern-recruit in Siemens and weeks of straggling with the final
year project and not knowing if I’ll be allowed to go ahead with the intern,
there I was, in Bangalore in the first week of March.
By that time, I had got a few admits from universities and
was naturally inclined to tread the software-job without much seriousness (even
otherwise, I was lazy). On the first day of the internship, after the boss
walked me through the project assigned to me, I wondered how it would be to
finish the project and walk away with a spring in the step. The amazement didn’t
last long. I was given the task of configuring and introducing a new module
into the software- a cakewalk for the techies in the office, a walk on the bed
set on fire for me. When I tried to install the software, I bumped into a lot
of problems with the computer throwing new cards stating ‘I simply won’t let
you get along with me so quickly, dude’ every now and then. By the time I
courted the software into submission and figured out that installing a piece of
software with license was an ‘Achievement Unlocked’ moment, it was already a
month and my team was behind the schedule like North Indian trains during
winters.
That’s when I learnt the power of connections and networking
the ‘Ouch, it hurts’ way. Having stayed in office the entire day, I would still
be lost for ideas. That’s when some programmers who simply didn’t find reason
to go home would oblige to my SOS calls and stay around to help me make some
headway. During the times when I was a few hours away from a solution for the
project, the ‘Project presentations’ in the college would be rescheduled at the
last moment. I would run around like a hare trying to get a train ticket back
to Coimbatore and all the momentum would get washed away.
My team reached a dead end at the end of the first month,
the half way stage. That’s when we decided to abandon the sinking ship and take
a different route. Within 2 weeks, we had one module of the project up and
running, thanks to the gracious amounts of help from our mentor and the
innumerable trips to the pantry to refill the hot-chocolate cups. I spent a few
nights in the office too, pushing myself home after sunrise and catching up on
long lost sleep. The software-bull was well and truly tamed by then.
The last two weeks were spent making mad runs between
Coimbatore and Bangalore trying to douse the fire in the final year project and
the Internship project. By the time the third review in the company- a
conference call review with 16 people on the phone and my PC shared across
cities- was over, the college project was over too. When the fire was doused and
the haze surrounding it cleared, I had no doubt that I learned a lot in terms
of work ethics, what I should do (from others) and what I shouldn’t do (from
me) and having ‘that’ corporate air. And the people in charge of the pantry had
learnt their lessons too- stacking up a lot more sachets of Hot Chocolate and
Lemon Tea.
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