Startup, corporate and everything in between

Making tough decisions and what follows it

I did my Bachelors of Engineering in Computer Science at a university in Chennai, India. If you’ve studied Engineering in India, you know how much focus is given to “campus placements” and getting a job. You are wired by teachers, parents and everyone around you to study well and get a job.

I spend my first semester hating on everything and everyone around me mainly because of the restrictions imposed by the university. But I made some friends that helped me survive this. By second semester, I figured that I had to get out of the routine- Get ready, go attend class, come back to hostel. I knew I couldn’t mess with the first and the last part, so the one in the middle was an obvious choice.

I did everything to get access to the computer labs after college hours, this meant asking the Head of Department of Computer Science to give me permission to work on my final year project on “Reverse Engineering” in my second semester 😏! A little later, we had Student Clubs in our university. During one of the meetings of the Computer Science Club, we were asked to nominate people for the club leadership team. There was someone who was crazy enough to nominate me for President of the Club. To this very date, I’m not sure what Chintu saw in me. But then again, Donald Trump also got votes. I was selected as the Vice President and became the President of the club the following year.

University- Final year

This is that crazy time when you have lots of really important things to do but you choose to binge watch TV series. Among the routine of exams and classes, you had to focus on your final year project and campus placements. We had this rule where if you don’t sit for placement training, you have to pay a fine. I somehow had my reasons to skip the training and did my own stuff. I managed to get selected during college placements. This was also the time when the good folks at Scrollback reached out to me saying that they were hiring a Community Evangelist. The roles were totally different at both these companies. If I were to make a table weighing the two choices that I had, this is roughly what it would be like.

I still remember my first day at work- walking into the office at 11 AM, literally the first thing I saw was a bottle of Red Label(🥃).

My parents were surprised when I told them that I addressed my co-founders by their first names and not “Sir”. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. For a very long time they couldn’t comprehend the fact that I go to work wearing t-shirt and shorts. I mean, I went to a university where we had to wear formals along with shoes and an ID Card. So that explains.

What my friends think I do

Almost all my friends work at big corporate companies. Every single one of them is super talented. Almost every conversation of ours about work, end up on a similar note-

You’re enjoying dude. Look at us, slogging our ass off.

What I actually do

I probably work more than you guys do. Although I might not be doing the hours, my job doesn’t end the moment I walk out of office. Among all the other stuff, here’s a list of things.

• I come back home and connect to see what my community members are up to- ensuring things are on track, moderate discussions etc.
• Touch base with the community team to see if they need any help.
• Plan out social media updates
• Write blog posts & interview people
• Attend meetings & events that benefit us
• Connect with the marketing team to see if they’re planning any campaigns & help them with that
• Get on Skype/Hangout calls with other community managers to share notes and learn from them

So, what’s the difference?

Passion. Every time we get mentioned in an article or the newspaper, I beam with joy and brag about it because I know that my effort went into building that.

It’s an extended family. Your friends probably hear a lot about “This one time in our office…”.

Startup might not be your cup of tea

We have our own set of problems.

So, this 2016, here’s to all the amazing startups and the team that runs them.🍻 Happy New Year!

This blog is a part of “One blog per week”. Contains random rambling, learning and experience. If you have any inputs/thoughts, shout out to me at @dun3buggi3.