5 things I’ve learned during my first year working at Ascentic
A Swe-Lankan software company that is driven by Culture. People. Technology.
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, I have worked for big tech companies and a couple of startups. In the best of both worlds, I have learned more than I could possibly imagine, excellent exposure, hard-working culture, positive thought process, solve painful problems, and many more. Since the beginning of 2020, I have been working at Ascentic and the journey has been incredible. I thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect on my first year and write about five things I’ve learned during the first year working at Ascentic.
Culture plays a huge role in almost everything we do
Until now, I had no idea how company culture played a role in everything we do even though I’ve worked for similar companies before. Ascentic cultivates a culture where you can trust everybody to deliver, respect each other, be willing to help, transparency, open feedback loops and measure employee wellbeing using some of the cool tools.
Would you enjoy a party if you’re feeling left out? Probably not! Everyone feels less isolated when they are introduced to people. Ascentic has a welcoming culture even through challenging times when everybody is working from home.
I believe one of the ingredients to the invisible glue that holds us together is communication. May it be within the team, working at the office or from home, from company announcements to fun activities like Quizzes & Guess Who challenges or even having Fika coffee meetings, we have never failed to communicate with one another more often than not.
More importantly, I have seen people step up and look beyond their job titles to solve problems and help each other out. Even the college recruits get some of the best experience or a bit more with extra privileges. Every Ascender has a growth mindset and it’s accepted that screw-ups are okay and that It’s all a part of learning.
Working with awesome & talented people
One of the many reasons why I love working at Ascentic is that I’m surrounded by a lot of talented people. Ascentic hires people with various backgrounds and talents at the same time. People are humble, willing to help and we simply raise our hand when we need help.
Fostering employee development is important and only a handful of companies has adhered in doing so. This is really important as we all need guidance and support for both personal and professional growth. Every Ascender has a manager and a coach supporting us in our career development through one-on-one sessions. I have found this to be helpful and have always looked forward to continuing sessions from time to time.
Welcoming new Ascenders has never been this cooler and this is how our awesome Peoples Hub team that made it happen.
Work-life balance
The area of work-life balance has been another differentiating factor coming from both corporate and startup culture. We have always had the flexibility to work remotely and this was nothing new to Ascentic during the COVID-19 pandemic whilst some companies were new to managing people and adapting to tools in remote work culture.
The old-school scheduling working from 9 to 5 are long gone. Having the opportunity to pick a schedule best suited during difficult times or in an emergency situation has taken Ascentic a step further.
The key takeaway is, when you trust your employees the more happier they are and more likely to go above & beyond the expectations.
A wide variety of technologies & exposure
Sharing knowledge has never been more comfortable & cooler with interest groups a.k.a Tech Tribes and BrownBag Sessions. Whether it’d be about something new you learned recently or about something you’d like to openly discuss with everyone, sharing knowledge has been a part of most Ascenders. As I mentioned earlier, there are Ascenders with various backgrounds and talents from building enterprise applications, web to mobile apps, developing machine learning models to chatbots, and many more. This has allowed Ascenders to participate and share knowledge through various Tech Tribes. It helps all of us to learn new technologies, broaden knowledge, try out things, or work on R&D projects during our spare time.
Ascentic is an offshore software services company and serves numerous clients based in Sweden. Our projects may directly involve a product-based company or service-based like in my current assignment. When teaming up with resources from other teams we get direct exposure by working with some of the talented people and sometimes get to switch between different roles within the same project.
Events & activities keeping Ascenders engaged
I started the year by participating in a team-building activity at Che Adventure Park. It was lit 🔥 This was a good opportunity to meet new Ascenders and get to know each other.
We had numerous activities keeping the morale up during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Peoples Hub team came up with fun and creative activities that we enjoyed and participated from home.
It didn’t stop there! There were Guess Who challenges and Kahoot games with winning prizes too 🤩
Here is a snapshot of our virtual Christmas Carols event:
Finally, the year 2020 ended with a surprise gift hamper that made me feel special and proud to be working at Ascentic.
I could go on forever! But It’s no surprise that Ascentic has been recognized as a Great Place to Work® Sri Lanka in 2020.
And that sums up the top 5 things I’ve learned during my first year working at Ascentic. I’ve spent a wonderful year and I’m thankful for this opportunity.
