Warm smiles, hot coffee & happy beginnings — My first two weeks at Freshworks!

I still remember walking into Freshworks on my first day. A breath of fresh air. I sort of understood why Freshworks got its name, at that point. Everything around the office resonated young, fun and vibrant.

There I was walking in slow-mo, carefully counting my steps into the next big phase of my life (too dramatic? I’m warning you, I watch way too many Tamil movies to have a normal life).

Anyway, I thought it’s high time I shared the story of my first two weeks at Freshworks.

I’m going to list down this story in different phases. Why? Pulp fiction, that’s why…

Phase 1 — Battle of thoughts

Young, fun and vibrant vs me? Well, lets put it this way, I was born 4 years before Nokia 1011 was released. Which conveniently proves that there is zero commonality between me and the adjective ‘young’. There is an old saying that goes ‘Old is gold’ (consoling myself without a hint of shame).

Contemplating if I would fit into being fun at the least, I thought of all the fun things I did in life till then. I counted down to exactly two events that could possibly be qualified. If I wrote a book about ‘Fun things I did in my life’, there would be no demarcation between the Introduction and the Conclusion chapters and a very short testimonial that says ‘I have no choice’, by my husband.

I imagine myself to be funny if not for fun. People sometimes feel bad for me and laugh at my jokes. Not sure if that counts.

Moving along… Answering the next big question of how vibrant I felt. Occasionally, in my head, a little. Ok, let me decently say that’s a 0/10 on vibrance (is this a legit word?).

Ergo, with a sudden outburst of who, what, when, where, why all of this is happening and how I landed here, my journey started.

Phase 2 — Hot Coffee & Honesty

I love the filter coffee we get at Freshworks so much that I had to dedicate a phase for that. Honestly!

Phase 3 — Onboarding, like a boss

Onboarding was definitely one of the best experiences at Freshworks. The onboarding team did a fantastic job in making sure we got accustomed to the culture of the company and also eased into our sloppy brains all those processes that we have to know and follow. The ID card photo session was great fun (if I choose to erase and ignore the 5 minute internal mockery of my non-existent charm, somehow). Rest of the sessions were great too. It was four days of fun, combined with interactive knowledge sharing.

On boarding was the time I got my first set of friends inside of the company. We had ice-breaker sessions, debates, story sharing and a lot of other things that we got to do together.

It’s always fun to travel on the same boat with a group of people (ship of friendship — sorry, I promise this is the last one). That is that.

Phase 4 — Warm smiles & Happy beginnings

I must say this. Freshworks is a place with great people. People who are willing to exchange million dollar smiles any number of times during the day. People who are ready to spare their time whenever you bug them with questions. People who care for you, in general.

I’m super grateful to have landed in one such team with some of the best and the most inspiring people. People who ardently crack jokes that are meant to make you question your existence sometimes, but laugh, mostly otherwise.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity or a better landing. It’s been a happy, chirpy beginning.

Phase 5 — More and more to come

Freshworks definitely exceeded my expectations within two weeks of having me here. Now it’s my turn to try and return the favour. Every great story (sorry for calling this a great story in the midst — cycle gap, they say) ends with a Thank you and every great relationship starts with a Hi.

A very big Thank You to each and every one of you for making this place great! An even bigger Hi — I’m Divya Murugesan(some of you know me as MD) and I have joined Freshchat’s product marketing team as a Content Specialist. There are two things that I’m known for. One is being forgetful. The other is… err sorry, I don’t seem to remember.

Cheers!