Me and my Work

In this post, I would like to draw you into yet another sphere of my life. This part of my life is kinda responsible for building up my character and making me into the person that I am today. I am talking about my professional life that’s been with me for the past 7 years. I was working as a lecturer (*Ahem, Ahem*) for the first one and half year. And all though I loved teaching, it was not the kind of job that I was aspiring to do. Most of my friends were in IT, and it was my dream to become an IT professional.

My dream came true on 13th February, 2006 when I joined a small start-up IT Company called Invenger in my hometown, Mangalore. I started off with a paltry salary of 6k per month. But it was a hell of an experience working in this company; I learnt a lot, made huge mistakes but overall fine-tuned my IT skills here. I owe a lot to the people who worked with me in Invenger. I joined as a software tester and today I work in Dell as an “Application Management Advisor”. Funny thing is, my designation has nothing to do with my job. I am still a software tester. What exactly software testers do? We test software applications and raise defects against any anomaly we find, and once we are satisfied that the product is relatively bug-free (duh! There is nothing like 100% defect free products), we give a green signal that the product can be released in the market. Now before you call your lawyers with plans to sue me for all the flawed software you use, let me clarify that I test software that only our Dell Customer Representatives use. I am safe (Phew!)

This leads me into another realization that I have on myself. Have you noticed how your professional attitude often defines your character? For example, as testers we need to be excessively pessimistic. When we get software to test, our main goal is to find many defects in it so as to break the system completely. We are trained to think negatively in our domain. And that attitude kind of spills out into my life too. Given any situation my first thought is, ‘Naaah, it will not work’ or ‘This thing will never happen in my life’. NO, NEVER, CANNOT are the testing mantras. Also, most testers have an aggressively defensive attitude. This is because when we raise bugs, most of the developers do not agree that their code can be defective. So more than often, we testers need to argue our case and provide ample proof to validate the issues we raise. In fact, I have thought up of an alternative career choice for myself, if ever I require it. Lawyer! I have considerable skills in arguing my case and proving my point. Don’t believe? Talk to my husband :-)

Like most typical people, I crib a lot about my job. The stressful hours, the practically nonexistent hikes in salaries, the inconsiderate managers, the manipulative co-workers, the unbelievable deadlines and the late night meetings/conference calls, everything makes my miserable life more miserable.

 I am grateful that I have always shared good rapports with my managers, but I have also had a fair amount of exposure to extremely rude and manipulative co-workers. These people think nothing of trampling on others to work their way up in the corporate ladder, and I have learnt to be extremely wary and cautious of such people. Despite all this what is it that makes me get up every day and punctually let myself into my air-conditioned cramped cubicle (Apart from the paycheck at the end of the month, I mean)? The adrenaline rush when I am on the verge of finding a potential issue that others may have missed is a thrill like none other. My heart beats a wee bit faster and my brain goes dizzy due to overload in cerebrum activity. That’s what keeps me going and all though I have thought like zillion times of quitting my job, I don’t think I can do it cause I love my job too much.

 

I am a sucker for praise and appreciation and if I have to cite one day in my professional life that I’ll always remember, then it will be the day I received the “Most Valuable Player” award in my first company Invenger. It was a great honor for me. Your first job and your first love will always remain unforgettable and for me, my job in Invenger will always remain a golden memory to be cherished forever.

I'm signing off with few Dilbert strips. It says all :-)