It’s not enough to be against something. You have to be for something better.
That’s always what motivates an individual — To do something, be part of something that brings an impact to make things better.
Ever since I joined my college my passion for technology and having an uncomplicated way of working always motivated me. My love of technology springs from improving a situation or making things that have an impact. I always try to explore the underlying science in everything and in between, a.k.a like Jarvis. I am a big Marvel fan.
During my college years, I created a passion for programming and solving problems with programming. That passion drives me to learn new technologies and their applications. So my goal is to join a company where I can solve real-world problems with new technologies that create an impact.
Over the years we all get an idea of some of the big names in the tech industry and the impact it brings along with it the work culture. To sit in a briefing of Sahaj when they visited my college for campus placements was very different. Like all other companies, they did speak a lot about the culture, work, projects etc. But the first hint that they have so much fun is when they start talking about CSK, Movies, Thala, Thalapathy etc. Apart from breaking the ice and putting all the final-year aspirants at ease, it did bring a small facet out. Here is an organization that likes to work hard to make an impact and have fun along the way.
I will not get into too many details about the interview process, there are enough materials about the process on the internet. But what I can tell you is that it was super fun having those conversations with Sahaj and I never felt I was being interviewed. Just to summarize, there are 4 rounds, starting with a technical quiz, a coding problem with the extension, a technical round and a Final round of conversations. The whole process though is slightly long challenging, fun and keeps you on the edge.
I started my Internship in the final semester. In many ways, it’s like a dress rehearsal for my full-time employment. With a lot of thought and after preparing myself to behave professionally I set foot in the office, only to be invited to play cricket. That’s when all my apprehensions and my careful game plan of how to behave etc went out of the door. What happened after that has been a fun journey, never mind COVID and the lockdown.
It may be common in the IT industry to play games in the office, but for a fresher that too on the first day playing cricket with colleagues clears a lot of hesitation and also allows me to settle in the new environment. I would say this will be one of the best onboarding experiences for anyone.
My internship lasted Six months and then I got into a full-time role. Even during the internship, I worked on different domains like data science, backend engineering, MLOps and DevOps and different frameworks and technologies like PyTorch, TensorFlow, MlFlow, DVC, docker, GitLab CI, AWS, terraform and ansible. I was able to work end to end from training the model to continuously deploying them to different environments. This is one of the critical factors for me to join Sahaj — complex projects, different technologies and the ability to make an impact in the shortest time possible. The biggest learning for me in Sahaj is how important the coding practices are and how easy it makes the life of programmers.
Sahaj doesn’t have roles, grades or hierarchy. Everyone from a fresh grad to an experienced Architect is a Solution consultant. This is a key aspect of our culture — flat, open and transparent and to do the right thing for colleagues and customers equally with courage and conviction.
I have never seen so many experienced and knowledgeable people in a single place who are always accessible and ready to help. What I have learnt in the last 2 years is something I have never imagined. Talk about impact, making things better, no better place than here. Some of our customers whom we work with are on their most ambitious growth plan where technology brings a huge impact. Being part of a Sahaj team to bring that impact is double satisfying.
So what enables this impact:
To start, everyone is a Solution consultant with no hierarchies on projects and the focus is on continuous learning. We get to be part of frequent Knowledge sharing sessions by our colleagues. I have run a few based on what I learnt in my project stints.
There are different roles in the project but everyone is responsible for their work and the project equally. Project teams are built around motivated individuals with environmental support and trust to get the job done.
There is much more to add like open salaries, open hikes, unlimited leaves, and work from home options. Overall Sahaj is like an all-rounder in this T20 world. Sorry I couldn’t hide my other passion, which is Cricket.
