This is the story of a programmer at Clarion, a place where we are joined by the love of programming.
I don’t know when I fell in love with programming. I know that I just did. Maybe it was when I went to college and started participating in the coding events. Maybe it was before. But even before I had given my 12th board exams, I knew that I wanted to be a programmer.Engineering college opened up a whole new world for me. When I was writing code, I realized I was happiest, strong, I could even call myself invincible. Unlike school, it was here that my academic performance improved dramatically and most of my professors were not even surprised when a large multinational firm offered me my first job. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
The first couple of years in my big organization were almost like a movie. I worked on some very exciting projects, developed some great applications, got recognition, earned good money, got to travel overseas. Life, as you could imagine, was perfect. But since the only thing constant in life is change, things changed for me too. I got a promotion. I had a team who started reporting to me. I had to start looking at project management, revenues and lifecycles. I got more money, more opportunities to travel overseas. I found myself interacting with clients and developing strategies. Now all this sounds exciting, doesn’t it? I will be lying if I said that I did not enjoy this, I did. At first. Until I realized that, for me, I was gradually just becoming a paper pusher…a facilitator…an administrator. But I also wanted to code.
I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I say no one at work or in my friends circle understood the reason behind my unhappiness. All I had was everything and yet, I was not happy. Some even called me unrealistic and ungrateful. But how could I make someone understand that the only way that I knew I could become a successful professional, was if I could code? I just HAD to do coding. I missed the incessant clacking of the keyboard. I missed the rows and rows of code, I missed everything so much that I gradually started to drift at work. I was a disengaged employee, enough to want to throw away the cushy job, the money, the perks…but what would I do after that?
Some said, join a startup. That sounded like a good idea. My experience could come to good use. I could code and grow within the company. But what about the infrastructure then? What about training and courses that I needed to attend (and that my present company offered) to make sure that I was in sync with technological growth? At some level, I do acknowledge, that my MNC had spoilt me. I wanted to work in a company that gave me all the benefits and perks of an MNC and also allow me to follow my passion of coding. Sounds impossible? I thought so too.
Then one day I heard that Clarion Technologies was looking at hiring highly skilled programmers. I prepared for the interview and was very surprised at what followed after. Unlike the other interviews that I had given, this one did not begin with a slew of technical questions. The interview felt more like a discussion, one that was not about ‘a’ particular technology but was also about the approach, the technical aspects, the methodology, application methods and the other overall aspects. Instead of feeling nervous, I was more excited and charged up than I had felt in a long time.
What really impressed me about Clarion was the opportunities that this company provides to coders. Very much like the US, this company gives programmers the opportunity to choose a technology career path where we, the coders, can grow professionally without compromising on our love for programming. I was told that at Clarion the teams follow AGILE methodology making it a great place for programmers. The company also makes it a programmer's paradise with the use of a variety of tools like JIRA for project management, Chatter for internal communication, etc. Along with this, the programmers have access to several training programs that help them with both personal and professional development. Programmers also get to collaborate with clients and treat the project that they work on as their own... You have a great idea to do a project better? You know you can do that here. Have a great line of code? Share it with your colleagues. Need help with a piece of code, you’ve got seniors to guide you.
For me, I felt that my search for programmers’ utopia had finally come to an end. All I needed now was an entry into this utopia.
Soon enough, I got a call from the company and was asked to join the programmer’s team. It’s been five years and I still feel as excited and as charged up about my work as I did when I had just started working. After all, it’s the love for programming that brings us Clarionites together.