My last professional working day.. atleast for now

It was Aug-2000, the penultimate year of our engineering. Many companies had come to our campus of our college Siddaganga Institute of Technology (SIT), starting from IBM, Wipro, Infosys and many more. But I could not get in any of those, from the beginning of the campus placements started. Then there came a company called Netkraft which was into networking domain. I got through after 3 weeks of campus placement started. I was delighted and on cloud nine.

Then was getting ready for final exams of my 8^th Sem in year Sept-2001. Then the 11^th-Sept attach happened on twin towers in US. Along with that all our job offers also went to tizzy.  Then after my professional degree only few went to their companies which had hired them in campus. But I did not. Our offers were withheld.

Then the frenzy search for the job started even though I had good score. I and my friend once I remember were wandering in MG road and many IT corridors giving our resumes. That much of job searching we had to do for around 8 months. Meanwhile we had prepared for GRE and I got 89percentile in that. I was ready to join for MTech in Surathkal. Then Honeywell came to our campus looking for 2001 passed out who are looking for job. I prepared extensively over that week. Then on a Saturday I gave interview. It was multiple rounds and I cleared finally and got offer at the end of the day around 7pm that day. Again delighted.

Then I and my father went to Bangalore the next Monday for joining. My dad had come with me on my first day. I was with full of energy and enthusiasm on my first today. Till today I remember sitting in the reception of Honeywell and waiting for HR to come and take me inside.

Then my professional journey started. Honeywell was a great company from the start. There was no looking back I worked through ~15 years in the company. Saw many ups and downs like many other professionals see. But when I quit Honeywell it was with very heavy heart. Then I joined company called Esterline, which was near to home ~8kms. Then I started there and completed ~ 3years here. Today I resigned here and is my last working day.

So many mixed emotions are running through my mind now. Have mixed feelings as before I started thinking of quitting, always I used to think why I started, how much struggle for starting this career. Then why did I decide to quit? May be various reasons – both professional and personal. But final I quit.

But when I look back there were many times throughout this time when intermittently I wanted to quit. But somehow I pushed through. When my husband went onsite for one year, when I had my first miscarriage, when my son was born, when I used to fall sick often and many more times. But again pushed through. Also sometimes I used to be super tired of office and home work without any support many times and used to feel exhausted in the mornings itself and rushing to office in the mornings.

But to come so far it would have been not possible if not because of my family and friends support.

1.       First and foremost my parents, who educated me and stood morally with me whenever needed or even whenever my son used to fall sick.

2.       My sister who is always with me morally whenever I used to call her. Before my marriage I used to stay at my uncle place at Rajajinagar(My mom’s brother).

3.       My aunty(My mom’s sister) used to cook for me in the morning. And both my uncle and my aunty had taken me personally to many interviews.

4.        My husband who did not force me to quit and come when he went onsite for long term and whenever I used to have long hours calls, he was managing at home. 

5.       Then my son, who since he was baby of 7 months he went to day care.

6.       And then my real friends who used to give me support many times at office whenever I used to feel down. Some of the strong friends I have made in my professional life, they are still in touch with me :)

But overall I feel I have fulfilled professional life. I am not sure whether this break is long one or a short one, or forever I want to make use of this to the fullest.

Once again a big  Thank you to all and above all the dear God!

   

With Best wishes It's TVR..