My Team mates in different projects |
Today I completed 5 years as a Software Engineer! I had a quick retrospect in my mind to see whether I'm on track to reach where I want to be. During the retrospective I was answering so many questions to do self-evaluation. I was also devising some new plans and strategy to achieve the goals that I missed.
Below is one such question that I had asked myself during the retrospect. I wanted to share the results with you all.
Question: 'What do I consider as the biggest gain in this 5 year?'
In order to figure out the answer, I quickly came up with the below choices to analyze.
- Is that the programming languages, tools and technologies that I learned and expertized working for 5 years?
- Is that the analytical and innovative thinking skills that I got working in multiple projects for multiple clients?
- Is that the communication skill and professional behavioral skills I developed over this years?
- Is that the mental maturity I got to treat the success and failure, to handle the expectations and disappointments?
- Is that the money I earned over this years? (My mind immediately reminded me about the pending bank loans and my outstanding credit card bill amount :P . I immediately identified this as a wrong answer but I'm keeping this just to increase the possible answers count :P)
- Is that the friends I gained and the wonderful people I worked/working with?
At this point #6, I remembered the events like Team outings, Birthday celebrations, the Treats, Conversations during lunch breaks and coffee breaks, Andhra mess lunch, chit chats and gossips during working hours, Movies watched together, Beer parties, Colleagues wedding, Colleagues farewell party, Long bike rides, Table tennis and cricket matches, Bay decorations, Pot lunch, Competitions won. When all those fun filled memories flashed in my mind, I immediately know that the answer to my question is 'The Wonderful friends and people I worked/working with'. Without this people in my professional life, I'm not sure whether I would have gained the above mentioned skills. At this moment, I would like to thank all those wonderful friends and people who made/making this journey awesome with full of sweet memories that I can cherish for my lifetime.
During the rest of my journey, I'm looking forward to gain more and more such wonderful friends across countries and cultures. Thank you!