Its been almost 3 months since I joined the new company which is a global BFSI shared service center.
Here is my take on some of the new experiences :
- Lots of transformation in IT, resulting in loads of processes and online documentation that needs to be prepared, submitted, verified and approved.
- Implementation of Agile is uneven in certain teams and some teams are not solely focused on one product (can be multiple products).
- Culture and working hours can be hit and run. Responses and helpfulness mostly based on recognition of experienced and non-experienced people. The hours in such a global center that relies heavily on IST time zone means that most meetings are only effective in afternoons local time zone. Hence, meetings can sometimes run till 8pm at nights.
- Inter-team spirit and working togetherness is all based on man day charges and resource cost, making this an everyday ordeal especially when you require integration help with other teams outside your current group such as mobile app, websites and such.
- Facilities in the local building housing a headcount of more than a few thousands employees is sparse to say the least. Yes, the usual amenities are there e.g. coffee machine, water dispenser etc but it just doesn’t feel as homely as a modern office. Somehow the cubicles still retain a flavor of the old. As the building is located in a technology park, there are plenty of facilities that can be used and should be offered to employees. Food is very limited selection (3-4 shops), luckily there is Starbucks as well. Parking for vehicles are divided into 3 sections; non-covered open space parking, season parking and in-building covered parking.
- Technology and software used is up to par to market but is very much dependent on the lifecycle that is being invested or discontinued. Full IT infrastructure automation is coming soon, marked by a major project next year to move all existing applications to a new data center. This makes any new and existing projects to rely very much on next year data center migration success.
- My current roles plays multiple hats which can be intense at times. This includes being a technical lead as well as a scrum master, and then being a project manager and people manager. Aside from that, there is also being a vendor liaison, handling invoices and payments as well as being a coach and motivator to my own squad.
- Lastly, for this post, its not always a great ride but I guess will have to see how it goes in the next few weeks by end of the year.
