How I got here
I'm on a break - travelling, introspecting, retrospecting and future-specting (yes, it's a word for now!)
I have been having a blast in spending more time with the people I love and doing the things I have always wanted to do.
But I do realize that it's time for me to start looking at what's next - work and learn with a team I respect for a mission I believe in.
Head of Business
I took a 180-degree turn from DevOps to help build Netrin, a D2C 0-to-1 fitness-tech startup, from the ground up.
It was a 'get your hands dirty' masterclass in D2C business.
Dealing with impostor syndrome was part of the daily routine, but turns out the antidote is just doing the thing anyway, and discovering you're actually pretty decent at it.
Principal Engineer
The entire team from the previous startup moved on as a team here, a Danish hardware company, which was fantastic coz it's one of the best teams I've worked with.
The work-life balance was amazing but, the non-startup way of working just didn't work for me.
Stayed on for two years - the $$$ and work-life balance definitely helped but wasn't worth it.
Site Reliability Engineer
Had just gotten back from Germany after my Master's and rejoined VIMANA coz it felt like home and I knew we were building a kick-ass product.
Was a Scrum Master/Solutions Engineer for the first year - didn't love it nor did I hate it.
Since I had a penchant for solving problems but not for coding and really loved responsibility, became a Site Reliability Engineer and surprise surprise, absolutely slayed!
Master's student
Did my Master's in Communications Engineering in TU Munich and I'm gonna answer the 3 questions
Why Master's? Easiest way to get a visa.
Why Comm. Engg? Easiest branch to get into, given my Bachelor's degree.
Why Munich? 1. Tuition fee was almost next to nothing, thereby no Damocle's sword 2. Far enough from Chennai 3. Opportunity to check out Europe
Field Engineer
Major leap of faith I took by accepting this offer but man, did it pay off or did it pay off?
Worked with customer support, machine data pattern identification (was done on Excel in those days), wrote backend code and graduated to managing a very complex real-time rules engine in town!
Worked and learned with the best team and the best boss, who is now my mentor, friend and drinking buddy.
Software Engineer (duh!)
Sat for off-campus placements and got thru to Visteon, aka Core Job coz taking up that Master's in Purdue would have been really expensive.
Was known for my testing and debugging skills. People would literally borrow me from other teams to find a specific bug. Not a slight brag. A full one