A page from the forgotten past…
Hello! Ola! Namaste! Nǐn hǎo! Salve! Guten Tag! Hola! Salut! สวัสดี!
Phew! I guess those were Hellos in all the languages that ThoughtWorks has an office. Being relatively new in ThoughtWorks, I liked to read up about ThoughtWorks and stuff. I did not intend to start writing this post the way I started, but while writing I wondered how would I greet if I were at any other office in TW and there are almost 13 different regions where TW is present. I feel very good every time I think about our diversity in terms of location.
Anyway, I was a TWU grad. TWU is Thoughtworks University which is ~5 weeks program which is like a mini university aimed at teaching all the basics required to prepare new employees for the work. I started working in office like 7.5 years ago. Yeah, I’ve stuck around that long. And this writing too is from that time. I came across it recently and thought of sharing it:
Thinking about my time during TWU, I cannot help but think about the swimming lessons I took as a small kid. I wanted to learn swimming & signed up for the class. Come first day, I woke up early (it is a challenge for me) and went to the class — however I resisted jumping in the pool. So, what does the trainer do? Does he pacify me? Does he reason out with me? Nope. He picks me up and throws me in the pool. First comes the shock. Then the realisation that I have to do something. Then somehow my brain realises that I have to move my hands and legs and go in the direction of the pool wall — and that is my only focus and goal at that time. Did it work? Did I reach my goal? Not on my own. I remember feeling helpless — splashing my hands and kicking ferociously to keep my head above water — not for a long time though. Eventually the water got the better of me and all I thought was “That’s it”. And then I felt something picking me up dragging me telling me to splash and kick and taking me to the side railing which I held onto like my dear life. And the process continued until I learnt to grab the railing myself where I could get a breather.
This analogy best suits my ThoughtWorks journey so far where I am so excited to be joining TW; to be a part of TW especially after TWU — which btw was one of the best experiences of my life. I wanted to start working on a project soon and I wanted to learn step by step.. understand one thing then go on the other. Guess what happened? TW picked me up and threw me in a project. First excitement then shock that I am in a pool of chef, vagrant, java, spring mvc, keyboard shortcuts, project meetings, office meetings, I wanted to work on project, on anything else I could help with in office, organise stuff, participate in anything that came along and reading! oh my god.. the reading never ends. I went into the shock phase and didn’t know where to start until my brain finally signalled me that I need to do something to stay afloat. Like I splash my hands and kicked vigoursly, I started giving a shot at everything. I heard a technical word, I had to read up on it — and the reading never ends.. chef leads to vagrant leads to vas and not only that there is a branch on chef leads to puppet. I literally felt like there was so much and I extended my hand to reach out and grab whatever I could. However, as you can guess, I was overwhelmed, the pool got the better of me this time round too.
Thankfully though, there were not one but a few people who helped me by showing the direction, or by giving me a helping hand, or by simply reassuring me that I will reach the railing eventually on my own. Slowly, I realised that I didn’t need to know everything — at least not all together at this very moment. I need to choose what to read, which videos to watch. How to invest my time so that I can reach the railing on my own first and then proceed to learn to swim greater distances. And this is a very important thing I have learned in TW. To be able to make choices. I have lived in a society where I didn’t really have to make many choices. The format was pretty much set. When electing a subject to study in college I didn’t have to decide what to learn on that topic or not — it was pre decided. There were things I didn’t have a choice and had to do it. Well, I had to do it so I had to do it right — no option of not doing it. So I struggled at the start in making wise choices. There was a phase where I signed up for everything and then came a phase where I signed up for nothing and thought I should concentrate on my project work only. Both did not quite work out for me. Then I was in a phase where I think about what I need to know now vs. what is good to read for later vs. what I can give a pass to. I try to do the same now too and try not to get pulled by extremes. When you don’t have a choice, you are not responsible for anything. When you do have a choice you are responsible for everything and that can be daunting at the start.
I like the feeling of being totally responsible for myself and my learning. I have made my peace with the fact and I cannot participate in everything together or learn about everything right now. It will take time and I must be patient and have the trust that a helping hand will come along when I feel I might drown :)
