Life at HackerEarth — 3 years, 3 cultures and 3x
HE: Knock, Knock!
me: Who’s there?
HE: I am there, here, and everywhere…
me: What are you? A hacker?
HE: HackerEarth
me: Who HackerEarth?
HE: One who hacks your life and makes it worth a lifetime….
My Life at HackerEarth (HE) and the journey so far…
My crew and onboarding
The journey at HackerEarth has been nothing less than an adventure. When I joined, I was the oldest member and the only member in my team gunning for a 3x growth year- on-year; something I wouldn’t have dreamed of.
Fun fact: When I joined 3 years ago, I was just past 30, and I was probably the thirtieth employee, and today we have a 30-member team just for of International Sales!
Battling rough waters
The cultural imbalance and coping with a young generation can be tough. I, an 8- to-5, old school chap was caught completely off guard getting into a flexible working environment. Nevertheless, we had one thing in common: getting the job done no matter what.
The maturity that these young people had also took me by surprise. The energy these kids had was infectious, and it made up for every other shortcoming. The market was like choppy seas, hard to navigate and all we had was our grit to sail through.
Cruising for opportunities
Every challenge is an opportunity and this journey was full of rising and ebbing tides. Thank you HackerEarth for giving me the opportunity to experience them. I enjoyed tackling every one of them — developer behaviors, market maturity, market prediction, and more.
How amazingly creative we were in dealing with those and sometimes patience was the only thing I could depend on. But then again, I had the best crew by my side. A startup is incomplete without the ability to take risks and this team is never scared of one. I am meant to be here :)
Sugar and spice, and all things nice
You can call them captains or mentors, the co-founders are the right mix of both. And they turned us interns and noobs into the powerpuff girls! Though I had 11 years of experience, I was a noob when it came to tech and in the Hacker world, it’s all about technology.
This place smells happy just because of the people around and the love they give you. The place is a literally a family, and I haven’t even considered what work-life balance means because I have never felt the difference myself.
Harbors and destiny
On this journey I have lost a lot of crewmen, some got seasick, some found their ports, and some arrived at their stations. But when I flip through my logbook, going back in time, I only see beautiful memories, memories that would last a lifetime. Thanks so much all of you for making this journey worthwhile.
My Millenium Falcon
Never did I have a moment to rethink why have I boarded this ship. It has been an adventure without parallel. The spaceship that I boarded has a lot more galaxies to unravel, a lot more battles to be won. My captain has a fleet and I have my Millenium Falcon to crack open the universe. I am no Skywalker. I am no Hans Solo. I am the old-school Darth Vader who was accepted by the New Republic and is now off to change the world.
Little did I realize that this ship I boarded would become my world, the earth that I belong to, the place I call HackerEarth.
Me: Knock Knock
You: …………….