Story of a professional
Disclaimer
Here, I am going to share with you my story, of being considered an IT professional. I had been thinking about sharing my story with you for a long time. And now I decide that it is time. Please share me your thoughts and feedback. That really matters a lot to me, you have no idea how much I love to hear from you.
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Let me introduce myself
In short, An engineer by profession and writer by passion. I have written close to 500 blogs on my blog. And I upload videos on my YouTube channels Njan Oru Malayali and Sibeesh Passion. I like photography and usually upload pictures on Unsplash. You can find my achievements here. You can always see my online resume here.
The professional cycle
Here I am going to say about each cycle that I have gone through in my life.
Childhood
There is a place called Trichur, a district of the state of Kerala in India (which is also known as “God’s own country”). That is where I was born. My childhood was not that good, as we didn’t have enough money for living. My mom struggled a lot to make each day liveable. But we were happy together. In our childhood, we played so many things, games which are unknown to the new generation.
In the year 2007, I passed my HSC from GHSS. My favorite subjects were Computer Science and Chemistry, yeah there is a reason behind it. The teachers of those two subjects were amazing, we were good friends in fact. Those two years (2005 to 2007) were beautiful.
Coming back to life. I have two elder sisters, as we were belonging to a poor class family, my parents were not able to make us graduate. Eventually, that chance came to me as I was born a boy. Yeah, that’s true, in India we had this comparison of boys and girls in that decade. So it was I chosen as a warrior, warrior to solve all of our financial crises and other problem, a wall, which acts as a barrier to the problems.
I usually go to work during my vacation time. Here in India, we get 2 months of leave every year. So, I utilize these two months for going to work and earn a bit amount of money so that I can help my family. Most of the time the daily payment was about 100 -150 INR (That’s 2 or 3 $). The time of the work was 8.00 am – 6.00 pm. The feeling of getting hard-earned money each day was amazing.
I bought my first favorite branded Jean with the amount I earned in my 10th class (SSLC) vacation. And I bought my first mobile (Nokia 111oi) with my 12th class vacation salary.
Finally, I joined Engineering with my friend Ajay, he is the one who boosted me to select engineering. Trust me, I would have chosen some coolie work, where we get paid around 200 – 300 INR (Now it is 8$) daily. Thank you, Ajay, you have put the first light on my career.
Engineering College
I was a backbencher (second last, most of the time). I still don’t know why I was not studying enough there, in every exam somehow managed only to get a pass mark, not less, not more. Please be noted that this is my story, there were students who were scoring 100 out of 100.
I must say that, apart from teaching, the college was fantastic, we had full freedom. What are all the things you will do when you get full freedom at that age? As a result, studies were postponed to just a day before the exam. I have got many friends there, we enjoyed ourselves a lot even if no one had money in our hands. How many of you wish to go back to your college life, where you don’t have as much money as you have now? I am sure, you still wish to go back. Again I must say thanks to all my friends to make those days wonderful. I wasn’t a dreamer in those days, I was not even having an aim, the only goal I set in mind was to get a job as soon as possible.
Finally, I got my engineering degree in the year 2011 (luckily with no arrears).
Internship at HCL CDC, a step towards a job
In a wink, four years passed. Finally, I was an Engineer (with no job). There was not even one campus recruitment in my college. How does it sound? After all, it doesn’t matter where your life takes you, what matters is how you are facing it.
What matters most is, how you see yourself.
Few days after I managed to get a job in a hotel as a receptionist, where the employees were forced to spend almost 15 hours a day. Even though it was not related to my degree, I continued to do that job, I hardly needed a job. The only thing I wanted was money, no matter how little it is.
Usually, the wok timing was 8.00 AM to 11 PM, in between we were allowed for a tea break and lunch break. Every night I was saying to my mind that this is not something that I need, but again in the morning I woke up and go to the hotel. A few days later I decided to quit that job. I could do that job only for two months. That was the moment I got such a huge amount of money in my hand (6200 Indian Rupees). My two months’ salary, felt really good.
I was almost running to catch my bus to go home, as it was hectic two months without seeing my parents. I bought an umbrella for myself before going home (a 3 fold one, that was the trend at that time), and I gave all the remaining money to my mom. Can you guess how would that moment be?
After a few days, back to coding, in my 12th class, I took Computer science, I must thank my computer science teacher Jisha here. She is the one who taught me coding. In my Engineering classes, coding was a rare thing. I joined a Dot Net course at HCL CDC Trichur, Kerala. We were a group of 5 people from college (Me, Ajay, Ansary, Murali, Aghil), who decided to join this course. And yeah, we were doing very well there, it was not the same as in college life, we become mature, we were paying attention to each class, we were doing demos. The best part is, we joined a mentorship program there and could teach a few students there while we were studying, my first mentoring program.
Yeah, I was continuing the internship program there in HCL CDC till my course ends (6 months). Thanks to all HCL CDC members for giving me that opportunity. I started my professional career there.
I got my first reward Certificate of excellence, my first professional award.
Moving to Chennai
Later in my career, I got a job in a small company as a software trainee. I still remember the day, how I went for the interview there, if I am right, I was ill with a high fever. But I had to make a move and attend the interview, so I and my friend Ansary boarded a local train to Chennai, Tamilnadu.
We passed the interview, and we joined that company, the salary was 5000 INR per month, living in Chennai with 5000 rupees was indeed a tough task. But luckily, we were able to sustain that. After a year, I got a salary increment of 12,000 rupees per month, which was a great relief. Finally, I was starting to have a relaxed life.
Joining in C# corner
In the year 2012, I came to know about the communities and how people are helping each other in our professional world. I joined C# corner, which was my first step toward community contribution. As you all know starting things are pretty much easy, continuing is not. There was no participation’s from my end for another two years, I got buried in my office work.
In the year 2014, I logged in to C# corner again and started contributing to the community. There I received a warm welcome from all the C# corner family members. I really appreciate that. Many thanks to C# corner. And from 2014, I was on the monthly winner’s list of C# corner several times, and my articles were selected in Asp.Net as the article of the day page. These things really motivated me to contribute more.
In Jan 2015, I was awarded as C# corner MVP, my first C# Corner MVP award. I was really happy that I was given a chance to be a part of the C# Corner annual conference as a result. That was the place where I got to know about the Microsoft MVP program. I had set my goal of becoming a Microsoft MVP there.
In the year 2015, I started my own blog and joined DZone, where I have been awarded MVB (Most Valuable Blogger).
In Jan 2016, I was awarded C# Corner MVP for the second time. I was super excited to see my contributions were recognized. Thanks much to all of my readers. I kept contributing to communities like C# corner, Code Project, DZone, MSDN, Asp.Net, Stack Overflow, Tech-Net, etc.
2016, April 1st was the day that I can never forget in my life. There is a saying “Patience pays off”. It is true, I got rewarded for my patience and hard work. I would treat this as one of the great achievements in my life. Feeling proud to be a part of such a great community. I was supercharged to read a mail received in my mailbox, saying that I had been selected as Microsoft MVP. I was screaming like anything, for a few minutes I forgot that I was in the office.
Effect of being a Microsoft MVP
After my first Microsoft MVP award, the following days were fantastic, each day my inbox was filled with appreciation emails and congratulations from my colleagues and friends. Many thanks to my Employer Customer Analytics India, the motivations you have shown were much appreciable. My image was published on my company website. I felt proud when I saw that. That was cool, right?
As an MVP, I was given the chance to be a part of Product Group Interaction (PGI) events organized by Microsoft. I met a lot of wonderful techie professionals, I learned a lot from them. I was recognized in the crowd, which was really new to me. And I enjoyed it, still enjoying it. It is a great feeling when people ask you for some suggestions or help, I really improved myself when giving suggestions or help. You will learn in that way a lot.
Back to Kerala
Though I had worked with many companies in my life, the one which I liked working with until this moment was, CA(Customer Analytics), which is where I started my community activities. The management was very friendly and supportive of my activities. But I had to leave that company as I thought of moving to my hometown, so I joined Cognizant Technology Solutions and applied for a transfer to Cochin. And it took over a year of a time span to get the transfer, and finally, I am back in Kerala in the year 2017.
It all went well, and now I am in a position to solve all of my financial crisis and other problems. I am doing that for almost 7 years now. The best part is, I started living with my own family, my world. Life is smooth now, and I could say that I have gained the capacity to make it straight and smooth no matter what the barrier is. Thanks a lot to my parents, for making me who I am today.
Moving to Germany
In September 2018 I moved to Germany as I had got a wonderful opportunity to work with medialesson GmbH, Germany. Life has its own Artificial Intelligence or Magic to surprise you in many ways, trust me, it does to me, so it will do to you the same. All you need is the patience to wait for your turn, always remember that the construction of a palace takes more time than an ordinary building.
I have this hobby of capturing the places I visit and always try to see the place through my camera. I have to admit that, I am not a great photographer, but it is something I love to do. I usually create a Facebook page for the cities I live. I did create one for Pforzheim, Germany, you can find it here. I would really appreciate your feedback on my Unsplash page here.
Joining LiveTiles and Move to Sligo, Ireland
It was one of the tough decisions in my career to move both from medialesson GmbH and Germany, and relocate to Sligo, Ireland. I joined LiveTiles as a Full Stack Developer Lead on March 8, 2021. I will be seeing Sligo through my camera and will be uploading the pictures here on the Facebook page.
Relieving from LiveTiles, Ireland
25/02/2022 was my last day at LiveTiles, was an incredible journey. I learned a lot from my time at LiveTiles. Below are some of the achievements.
- Chosen as one of the top 3 managers
- Promoted as a Product Director from Full Stack Developer Lead
- Received Get Shit Done award
- Selected as best beard once (laugh)
Thanks, LiveTiles for the opportunity.
Joining Microsoft – Dublin, Ireland
In April 2022, I joined Microsoft as a Software Engineer at the Dublin, Ireland location. It wasn’t easy to leave my previous employer, LiveTiles. I can’t wait to learn and explore more with Microsoft. I will keep you posted about my achievements.
Video version of this Post (Malayalam)
Career advice
I’m neither an expert nor a guru, but still, I would like to point out some do’s and don’ts which is a drop I learned from an ocean.
Do’s
- Try to be a master in at least one technology you love. Talk, write an answer about that technology
you love. - Always get to know what is happening in the industry, try to be aware of the technologies released
each month. - Be passionate about the technologies.
- Always participate in all the local user groups (Facebook, Linked In, Google Plus…)
- Whenever you are given an opportunity to work or experience, never miss that chance. It can be in your office or in any crowd. Be confident and take that chance, it will do magic.
- Last but not least always love your family and take care of their needs. This will give you the strength to move on.
- Adjust your time/calendar for your career and family, work-life balance is very important. Isn’t it?
Don’ts
- Never run behind awards or titles, those will automatically come to you but it may take little time. There is a quote “Never worry about the delay of your success compared to others. Because construction of a palace takes more time than an ordinary building”.
- Never do anything disrespectful to others, There are three things you cannot recover in life, the moment after it’s missed, the word after it’s said and the moment after it’s wasted.
- Be you, and maintain it. Never pilfer what others have done.
- We live in a society, and each people are different, so never criticize anyone, they have their own character like you do.
- And do not show off, I am not saying showing off is a bad thing. But if you do it every time, everywhere, then there are high chances, that people will judge your character in the wrong way. There is a saying ” The better you feel about yourself, the less you need to show off”
- Never miss the best of your life, FAMILY.
Conclusion
Did I miss anything that you may think is needed? I hope you liked this article. Without your help and feedback, I would haven’t reached where I am today. Thanks much. Please share with me your valuable suggestions and feedback.
I always love motivational words, and reading them is one of my hobbies. Trust, sometimes, some words can do miracles in your life. I would like to conclude this post with some of the quotes which I like most.
- Be yourself everyone else is already taken
- Today is the tomorrow of yesterday
- If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door
- To begin, Begin!
- If you expect the world to be fair with you because you are fair, you’re fooling yourself. That’s like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn’t eat him
- Never worry about the delay of your success compared to others. Because construction of a palace takes more time than an ordinary building
- I never lose. Either I win or I learn
- The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step!
- Being positive in a negative situation is a sign of wisdom and character!
- No matter how good a person you are, there will always be someone criticizing you
- Talk to yourself once a day, otherwise, you may miss meeting an excellent person in this world
- If you’re going through hell, keep going
- There are two ways of spreading light: be the candle or the mirror that reflects it
- Believe you can and you’re halfway there
- Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new
- Less me, more we
- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough
- “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
Your turn. What do you think?
Thanks a lot for giving me the most important thing in your life, your time, and for reading my story. I would really appreciate your feedback on anything I have shared here. I wish you all the very best. Below are the places I am active, let’s connect there.
Kindest Regards
Sibeesh Venu
