My First Experience of Onsite being a Fresher at Verinite!

Onsite!! The word in itself gives you a sudden tingle of excitement, doesn’t it?

Starting my career at Verinite was one of the crucial decisions of my life, leaving behind my family and walking into a new city with big dreams in my eyes and today I can proudly feel that it was the right one.

Most of us look at our very first job as a memorable milestone in our young lives. It is when we first experience some independence by earning our own money, entrusted with the adult responsibility of employment and held accountable not only to our family and friends but to project leads & colleagues at work.

After completion of 1 year here, I remember my project lead asking about my passport which gave me mixed feelings. You suddenly feel you are a star, the chosen one. I got my first on-site project and traveled to The Middle East. The duration was for 3 months. That was the first time in my life where I was responsible for successfully delivering the assigned part of the project. I had sound knowledge of the system I was working on, and good enough to implement and showcase it to the next level.

Verinite gave me a wonderful opportunity to travel abroad for my first onsite opportunity. They say firsts are always special, so was this trip for me. I still vividly remember the date i.e. 23rd February 2019, sealing this date forever. I was curious to this first experience.

“Everyone feels the butterflies and anxiety when starting first abroad trip “.

Unlike all the Indian families, my family didn’t come to drop me to the airport, as they reside in a different city. A sulking feeling dawned into me reaching to the airport while reminding that I have to be all by myself for the next 3 months. I was a little nervous about the security check at the airport for immigration clearance. Nudging myself of the experience that I had to go through during those securities checks.

Kicking away all the thoughts out of my head and looked at the new challenge that awaited for me.Reaching Bahrain & next morning reaching the client’s office location. I met the people with whom I was going to work for the next 3 months. The first day was quite hectic and tiresome as to get certain things done. Working at the client side is completely different than what we do at offshore. I realized this throughout my stay. Clients would often come and ask me about  the work progress, there would be adhoc requirements which you may not be able to avoid, you will be pulled into meetings/discussions which probably you would not attend if at offshore. This is a part and parcel of being there. I understood the requirements of the project and presented it to the different department heads and also attended meetings and discussions from the different business teams from time to time during the project execution. Clients  feels that you know everything about the project and they will come to you with questions from any work stream. Well, the clients are correct on their part because you are the face of the entire offshore team while at onsite. So one must  have a high-level view of the entire project. Not necessary that you must know everything but you must be able to redirect them to the right person. In any situation, if you are not confident about your answer, it is ok to tell them that you will find it out and get back.Its always better than providing incorrect information. Incorrect information can cause more damage than an unanswered question.

The working culture was a little different, as they prefer to start work early and finish early. One thing I realize at the client side – was that productivity increases when you start work early. The challenge was to co-ordinate with multiple teams in order get it aligned. Various tools, interfaces, timings, down time, so many things to be factored in! Another challenge was dependencies as it was not on their priority list but important to our project.

While at onsite , I felt the pressure of more responsibility, accuracy, and achieving the timelines. Even-though it was challenging,  I enjoyed the given responsibility and fulfilled my part.

Who doesn’t like or wait for a weekends?? 😉

After a whole week of challenging work at the office,I used to be very excited to visit Manama City on Friday. I visited the local places on the weekend and found a lot of differences in the traffic discipline of the people. It seems like everything was built to a plan. This trip gave me great a  exposure to one of my hobbies i.e cooking. I love experimenting with a variety of dishes and learning new food cuisine.

Following were the key takeaways for me from this onsite experience :

1. Dedicated work and getting expertise on the project —Well, I had to work on the project for the next three months and learn many new things about project development. This visit provided me a chance to understand the project from the client’s perspective. Their expectations, business goals, and objectives became crystal clear to me.
2. Clear communication — This was a huge revelation to me. Though communications happen effectively over emails and other online tools,  my learning was to communicate clear, crisp, to the point and outcome driven will give you the best results. Eliminate the communication gaps out of the picture.
3. Building a healthy and friendly client relationship —It was first time for me to  personally interact with client team members. During my onsite stay, thoughts were exchanged, interests were learned, not just professional but on a personal level. This turned us into ‘friends’ from just a ‘client’ and a ‘vendor’.

Overall, my onsite trip gave me a lot of exposure and made me a more confident person in dealing with clients. It was a great learning experience. This onsite experience definitely helped me grow a lot both personally and professionally .

Thanks Verinite 🙂 for such a great opportunity.