5 Years!!

Its an auspicious(??) day today. I completed 5 long years in the same company and become eligible for all those long service awards etc etc. Staying in the same company in IT is a very odd phenomenon these days and my Dad made no bones about it when he wished me last night ;).

Anyway, its still a wonderful feeling to have been for so long and to have achieved this in my first job... Too psenti eh?.. :). Well, part of this excitement is also because I am not sure if any of my future jobs will last this long :), so if i flit jobs like a butterfly then.. I can still tell them(who?) that I lasted for 5 years at one place!

Its been an enriching journey. I have had my share of criticism, scoldings, appreciation, achievements and respect from my peers and manager(s).

But the important learnings are,

- Honesty. Be honest to your work and do the best of your ability.

- Hard work. There is absolutely no substitute for hard work. You need to spend the time and energy to go through all that documentation/code and understand its working if you want to do well.

- Consistency - Work can/is routine at most times. You need to be consistent in your work and derive motivation to not commit avoidable mistakes at any time.

- Communication - Communication in all forms - Verbal/Written is of utmost importance in a global world. You must invest the time to learn and improve it on a day to day basis.

- Criticism - Be open to criticism and take them in the right manner. I have been criticized for my writing structure, not so palatable presentations ( If I were attending it, I would have called it boring! :(), time management etc. These are definite problems and I do try and account for these.

- Trust. It is important that you trust your team and they trust you with the work. Always give credit where its due.

I think I should stop here. Its difficult to condense learnings of years into a few points but these are I would say important for any professional to do well.

So thats about it :) for now. Bye!