Its been well over a year! I had to read the earlier posts myself to remember where i left off.. A lot has happened since of course, like it always does! A change of job as well as location. Time has the ability to make things happen, that you've never expected.
There are multiple reasons an employee chooses to leave a company. In the Indian scenario more often than not it is about the pay. On the other side, for people (like me) who care about the quality of work than the compensation, the reasons range from the boss, to the team, to the actual work, the morale, the product, the company philosophy, work culture and what not..
So this time the reasons have been most of these. Considering this is the first job switch I've done since I started working (after 5.5 years to be precise).
The product I was working on was bought out by another company which is based in another city that is not quite as, so to say, glamorous or conducive to making a home out of, as my place of residence at that time. So, initially when they offered a position at the new company, thought i loved the work and did and the project, i refused purely on these grounds. There was also a sense of losing security (i don't know which) by moving base to some other city altogether.
The project eventually moved out and i was transitioned to another project internally. However, I had this nagging feeling that something was not right. It could be the new product or the team or just the fact that i was not done with the earlier project. There was a lot that was still left to learn. The team dynamics were also conducive. I never really felt like a part of the new team, maybe somewhere cause i didn't take the efforts or maybe cause it just wasn't for me. So i contacted the managers from the older project- the onsite team remained the same. Regardless of which city or what other challenges i would possibly face, and against popular opinion of my close ones to not shift there, i went ahead. The desire to work for the project was way too strong. And so here i am, 8 months down the line and thriving!
The work is as expected but the team is a little more than expected- which is good. There are cultural differences obviously and some team dynamics issues- more about that in a later post, but it is great working here!
Somewhere i wonder if i was a coward to not try newer waters in a different project but then i did have a big change in life- i uprooted myself from a place i've lived all my life in to someplace else which isn't even supposed to be a great place to live in! I'm learning a lot now- at work and outside of it. I struggle at times but i find ways to overcome it. There is no one to molly coddle here, not that there was earlier, but now people have bigger expectation (Given that come with experience now- I'm still grappling with accepting that though, since i still consider myself as a little thing trying to learning as much as possible, haha!).
So the gist of the thing being- Change is important. It is scary to think of, but once you make the decision and take the plunge you will learn to swim! The trigger can be anything as said earlier, if something is nagging you while working- take a step back and introspect- look at it from the outside and then take measure.
When you do decide to embrace the change- Keep the focus on learning, put your head down and work- an advice i was given by my mentor 7 years back, when i was first contemplating a real life job- still holds true! :) Change always brings learning and learning is synonymous to growth.
So thats about the year that has been. More to come along, along the lines of analysis and team dynamics!
