My Tryst With GrabOn
What Is The Shortest Time It Takes to Turn Colleagues to Friends?
In my experience, the answer is four months.
Words. That is the only language I understand. In my head, when I hear of Java, I think of the volcano-studded island in Indonesia. And the first time I heard of Python, my heart almost skipped a beat as the image of a man-devouring reptile crossed my mind! I have a laptop primarily because notepads are too cumbersome to carry around. But the writer in me still believes that ‘the pen is mightier than the keypad’. In short, I am the walking, talking example of ‘ignorance is bliss’, when it comes to all things tech.
But then, I joined GrabOn.
After a 7 years long stint with the world’s leading KPO, Thomson Reuters, I was equal parts skeptical and excited about it. And just a few days into my new job, I realized that this part of the world communicated in a language I did not completely comprehend. I was suddenly surrounded by the most hardcore techies, designers and market experts.. well, they are, at least in my opinion. My colleague, now a dear friend even tried to hide my notepad in an attempt to get me to start using the laptop more often.
In meetings, when they would discuss new features for the website, I fervently would start penning those terminologies down for my “research”. I started taking classes on digital marketing and SEO. And spent all of my free time consuming gallons of green tea while learning the nuances of the startup world. It sure was an interesting space for me to be in. And with every day, I felt a little bit more, a part of their world.
This whole paradigm shift in the work culture was infectious. I soon found myself admiring all the things that my colleagues did. Often when my curiosity got the better of me, I asked them what all that meant. Of course, after they explain, my eyes would glaze over, and I would go back to my ‘ignorance is bliss’ state.
But that was not all. To nobody’s surprise, I figured I sucked at table tennis and foosball too, among others! But the boys took it upon themselves to patiently teach me things I was not quite adept at, not even remotely.
Dinners, drives and conversations. Colleagues became friends, so quick that it could give the likes of Taylor Swift, some major #squadgoals. A place where learning never stopped. Heck, it didn’t even pause to catch a breath. From brushing up my linguistic skills and becoming the reigning champion of foosball (I played and won three consecutive matches and decided to not jinx it by playing any more) to knowing all about link juice and other link building techniques, I have come a long way in a short span of time. And the people around me, that’s who I have got to thank for.
But considering the fact that even after four months in their company, I don’t completely understand a lot of what was happening around, makes me wonder what they thought about working with this goofball!
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