After about 3 years with my soon-to-be former company, I’m finally taking my talents (or lack thereof) to “South Beach”.
It’s not entirely easy. It feels like breaking up with your first true love. (Ugh. Cheesy alert.)
It’s an uncommon scenario for me because I practically started my “career” with them ever since I graduated. I can still remember my first few days as an “R&D Engineer” there. I was part of their Mobile Team and as a programmer for the VAS and SMS-related services. It was all procedural programming using PHP. No frameworks. No CSS. Pure back-end coding from the user-sent SMS to the SMS –gateway and telcos. Two years of those things– promos, VAS, SMS stuff, etc.
There were a lot of flowcharts, OTs, code reviews, deployment and hardwork.
As a noob back then, I learned quite a lot here. SQL queries, PHP standards, code optimization, etc. My codes were always reviewed by my team lead — a very patient and meticulous TL, if I may say. She was my favorite. (Oops!) If not for her, my codes will be all hodgepodge until now. I seriously need to give her a cookie or something before I actually leave. I wasn’t able to work directly with my manager here but she was one of the few bosses who will make sure that her people are happy. She makes sure everyone is emotionally and mentally stable (haha!). Her management skills are pretty darn good. The team was always intact.
After a few years, I started writing codes for RESTful web services to be used by some projects. I enjoyed it so much. At one point, I worked with our director, who happens to be one of the most omniscient (you know, that god-like skill that enables you to know everything? He has that. Seriously.) people that I have encountered. He’s too awesome! He’s the coolest boss ever. When you ask him about something, he’ll give you an answer that will make your jaw fall to the floor. He’s not your ordinary highly technical boss because he’s good at management too.
Anyway, eventually, I became a member of a new team. A 3-man team that focuses on the web stuff of our products and services. I learned new things here. From Jquery to MVC to CMS and many other web stuff. I was able to try PHPUnit, Yii, Drupal, Moodle and so much more. I attended a lot of trainings and conferences while I was here as well. Oh, did I forget to mention that my manager here is very smart and hardworking? His work ethics are really admirable. Apart from his tremendous patience (especially with me!), the thing that I liked about him is his being open to new things and technology. It’s an attitude that every leader must possess. (You know, learning never stops.) Overall, it was a fun and challenging experience that I will cherish forever. (Naks!)
This blog is meant for happy logs and not the emo ones. I prefer to write down happy memories because I can say that 90% of my stay there was really all about HAPPY things. It was a happy organization. There were lots of games, sports, parties, food and of course friends. Along with the knowledge, I gained a lot of friends here as well.
I won’t name them all but you get my point. It wasn’t just a workplace, it was a “home”. They taught me so many things both in LIFE and WORK.
I started with them as clueless fresh grad “programmer” and now I am… well, at least I can say that I am not clueless anymore. I learned A LOT and by a lot, I mean literally so MANY things. To say “A LOT” would be an understatement.