Sighs!
Back then, on Friday, May 26, 2006, I was a final year undergrad student at CSE, BUET. I was looking for a part-time software dev job opportunity and found a little one page advert for a student job at asha-technologies (lately renamed as Code71). Visited their website and thought it might be worth giving a try!
As usual, I was interviewed over phone and enjoyed a long 2 hour interview on premise. I found it really inspiring and gained more interest towards the job after this session. I started waiting for a response… but was pretty certain about a positive one!
Good things happen in quick successions in our lives. Agree?
I agree. Because I just started a soul-journey with my soul-mate, Shahana, on the March of 2006. Then got the job offer on the 26th of May! Couldn’t be happier. A job for me during that time was just beyond its compensation, it was an inspiration, opportunity to see the real world and being part of something bigger than myself.
Photo taken at Chhera dip (The Torn Island), St. Martins, Bangladesh. The last photograph taken with my first digital camera bought from my first month’s Salary!
I started my job on the 1st of June, 2006 at Asha-technologies. Asha-tech was still to find an office and Omar asked to meet him at his home office! That’s how it all started. We met a few times a week at Omar’s home until we moved to our office at the green building of green square at green road, Dhaka on the first of July.
Asha-tech signed up a client before it was even formed! So, once we moved into the office, we were building our first asha-tech product, an online loan financing gateway. We were enthusiastic about agile scrum/xp practices from the first day at office. The result was found in just less than 3 months. We rolled out our first release of the product. It was really a happy start. A fantastic start for a start-up. The client started generating revenue in less than 3 months of project inception!
The office setup was a small but adequate enough for our team. We installed long backup UPS (2 hours * 5 computers), A/C, IPS and dedicated internet connection with Wi-Fi. The work environment was full of fun. We were going for an outing to a team event every month and even more often going to delicious buffet places. We played table football and bowling… every time had a record breaking score and a new winner. We went swimming and believe me, Omar is as good a swimmer as he is a master in software technology. He would go to swimming with a flipper and flip like professional swimmers. He can even swim without using his hands/legs at all, lying side-on and in all such actions… I learned swimming keeping heads down and the easy way of breathing from him! Thanks!
Technologically we were maturing as well. Started using XPlanner for managing our project, attended daily standup meetings and started doing TDD. I won’t claim we got everything right at the first try… but, we were trying consistently, improving bit by bit… to this day.
For the most part, I was enjoying my job and became used to the pressure of a job + undergraduate studies. I said, good things happen in close succession. Another proof here! My first term final result with this job was a 4.0/4.0. I never scored 4.0 in a term before this nor had a 20+ hour/week job alongside my studies.
I strongly believe, my job taught me the attitude towards work, “plan, act and retrospect”. After over three years, I would suggest any new entrant in the software industry to start a career with passion. Its fun with passion. Its a win everyday with passion.