Wait, A year already?

27th June,2022. I joined Visa Inc., Bangalore as a Software Engineer on this very date and I’m posting this exactly a year after it. This has been a year of many firsts I’d say and there are certain parts I’d like to dwell upon as I complete 1 year as a working professional.

I have experienced the best moments of my life within the past 1 year and it has been a really blissful phase. Although it's been one of several existential crises and sleepless nights one after another. But the metamorphosis shall continue as it always has.

Several of my notions have changed and my perspective towards life in general has evolved and to a certain extent is still evolving.

1. Friends & Family:

If you’re not staying away from your family and your friends are in the same city you live in, you’re lucky to an extent you can’t imagine. A big part of your career is going to be spent away from home and you’ll need your parents much more than they need you. Fewer friends and even fewer conversations with them if they aren’t in the same city anymore. You’ll realize the true worth of those who chose to stick around you even after the college years have passed.

2. Flexibility:

Visa has a hybrid work policy which has provided me a very flexible environment to work with .I love to travel and I’ve tried to utilise this hybrid policy to travel a lot more places than I could have imagined. Have ticked off many of my bucket list in the past year and still have many more in the next. But this is only possible because I’m fortunate enough to be in a organization that allows hybrid and also pays pretty well.

3. Unrealistic expectations/benchmarks:

I’m nowhere close to what I had thought I would be one year down the line . Its primarily because of my misinterpretation of software engineering as a career path.What I have learned is to ignore bullshit advice from other people. People have their own biases and notions which are formed mainly because of their experiences. I prefer to have a view that is based on my understanding and experiences and it is suitable to act according to it rather than some pre-conceived notions.

4. Experiences matter ,not outcomes:

There is a big debate between being goal driven or process driven. I’ve always preferred the later. Based on my annual review by my manager, I’ve lacked a bit on the deliverables but one thing that even my manager has maintained is to have a process driven mindset. There are peers who would have achieved much more in this timeframe but experience-wise I feel I’m much better placed. Your career isn’t a race and stop thinking of it as a linear path.

5. Communication& Collaboration:

Software engineering isn’t just about coding. Can’t emphasize enough on the importance of communication.You’ll meet a lot of people who have different opinions than yours. Learning to work with them is something that I feel is very important. Also I don’t believe that you need to irreplacable to survive, I rather believe in doing my job in such a fashion that others can build on top of it.

6. Patience :

Every career path requires a certain level of patience which is hard to understand in the beginning. There will be plenty of moments when you hate your job and feel you’re not good enough , But i guess it is just part of the process where you learn and get better. The excitement does fade away after a point of time which is natural .But the more emphasis you lay on the journey the better it’s for yourself. This is something that took me a year to understand

7. Changing Interests :

A lot of what I wasn’t even aware of during my college days are my main interests now. Philosophy as a topic has been really appealing to me. My interest in finance and economics too has increased a lot over the last few years mainly because I also have been actively trading since 2.5 years now. Have been reading a lot more history and fiction too. So interests change a lot with time and it’s proof of the fact that you’re evolving as a person. A lot of my leisure time goes into reading, not just limited to books. It has actually helped me have a better understanding of life in general. One needs to have hobbies otherwise 9–5 job in a city away from home can become pretty lonely. And urban loneliness does hit you pretty hard. Hobbies are a pretty good way to beat it. I’ve started drumming, boxing,running, hiking all in the past 1 year to get over this feeling.

8. Cost of ambition:

I do have much bigger ambitions than just working as an engineer. And ambition comes at a cost.

1. Late nights, early mornings.

2. Lots of associates, very few friends.

3. You will be misunderstood.

4. You will be single unless you are lucky enough to find someone who understands your lifestyle.

5. People will want you to do good but never better.

9. Money:

If you’re getting paid above 15lpa in India as a fresher, I believe there’s no point in losing head over it.We focus a lot on what we get paid but its of no use if doesn’t enhance your life. Spend on things you care about,spend on experiences and spend on yourself.Another thing which i’ve observed is people valuing the bonuses and appraisals much more than they matter. An Example :

A 15% hike on 15LPA gives 2.2 lacs annualised -> 18k permonth

A 12% hike would still give 1.8 lac annualised -> 15K per month.

Now i’ve seen people losing their sleep over that 3K difference. If you’ve put in the efforts and gave your best this 2–3% shouldn’t really be mattering that much.

10. Having a good manager:

In every team there are ample opportunities that only the management knows about. You just need to be able to just ask your manager. I had been working on Python& BigData tools for 6 months and wanted to get experience of full stack dev so I had a conversation with manager after initially hesitating to do so. The response that I got was why didn’t I came up to him earlier. I’ve been super super lucky with my manager in every aspect. Be it working hours, taking leaves, project discussions or even general conversations about my career plans.

These were some of my learnings and things that I’ve been grateful for.

I still don't have an answer to what exactly is my end goal of staying away from my family and working in tech. It’s still something over which I can’t stop losing my sleep. But I can confidently say that this experience has made me better and I’d still want to continue for a year at least before I decide to venture out to something else. We anyways don’t have a say in what the future holds for us.

Again, I’m just a 22-year-old in the early phase of his career. there may be certain things I might’ve interpreted incorrectly. Would love to have your take on it. Please feel free to give feedback.