Time flies its my 20th Work Anniversary....

Dec 20th, 2024 marks my 20th year in the Rail industry. I have spent the past few days thinking a lot about what this means for me and my life arc in general. Although I haven't reached any earth-shattering conclusions, the word that keeps coming to my mind is "Fortunate".

When I look back at my career of 20 years, all I see is learnings. So, before I start counting my learnings, I would like to express my?#gratitude to all the employer organizations ( Cyient WSP in India , and 嘉科工程 )?I have worked with. It would not have been possible without the opportunity, guidance and support of the?management, leaders, colleagues and team members who became a part of my journey. And, of course, my family and friends who has always been my pillar of strength for everything.

Amazing journey so far..….. “20-12-04” was the date when I joined Cyient (Formerly Infotech Enterprises Limited) with an amazing feeling and excitement. I was fortunate to be hired in the first place. Cyient took a chance on me despite being objectively unqualified for a career in Rail. When I thought I started doing well as Rail Signalling designer, new challenges of learning about leading, managing and delivering projects (which includes Design Delivery Management, People Management, Client Management, Resource Management) in service industry opened new doors in my professional life.

After 13 amazing years with Cyient , I Joined WSP in India in Nov 2017 where I had remarkable work experience, and I could get wider and diverse experience in the field of Railways. I got new skills like multi-disciplinary Rail knowledge and team building in terms of recruitment, training, mentoring and competency development of team members.

My next move to 嘉科工程 in Nov 2020, unlocked many more challenging opportunities, and my professional career turned into different direction as I started to take additional bigger responsibilities like people leadership and operations roles. With initial struggle, I started getting better at leadership and enjoyed the empowerment, spiderman's uncle said something that was applicable to me also - "with great power comes great responsibility". New struggle and new challenges helped me grow and become a more matured individual.

I am truly fortunate to work for great companies Cyient , 科进 and now 嘉科工程 which treated me like family in ways that no one should realistically expect from an employer. I have been fortunate to work with/for many fantastic, inspiring, dedicated people over the years (past and present). Some of these people were (and still are) much smarter than I, but were willing to patiently share knowledge, guidance, and wisdom with me in order for me to be successful.

I got privilege of watching journey of and working with some of the world's best professionals in all 3 companies. I know I’ve been truly blessed in this regard. I have been fortunate to be around healthy, active people that have coaxed and inspired me to try and live the same way. I was able to complete two marathons, something I would've never even considered a possibility in my earlier life. It’s hard to overstate the importance of genuinely liking and respecting your co-workers.

I have been fortunate to forge lasting relationships with many present and ex-colleagues that go well beyond business pleasantries, some of whom I’ve known now for 19+ years. I have been fortunate to have the time to grow and mature as a person. My internal and external interactions have provided many lessons in persistence, humility, forgiveness, respect, and appreciation. I’m still a work in progress, but I feel like I’m a better person now at age 42 than I was at 22.

I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel internationally and live in some exceptionally cool places including England, Scotland, and Wales. I feel fortunate to be able to say that in 20 years of working that I have never been bored. I’ve been stressed many times, but never bored. There have always been plenty of opportunities to learn or do something new. I have been able to do interesting things with interesting people that have tangible value in the real world. I have always felt like my opinion has mattered, my voice has been heard, and my contributions were important even long ago as a new employee.

I am very thankful to everyone, who shared this adventurous journey with me; each one who I worked with, who I managed, who managed me, who interacted with me, who tolerated me, who taught me something new every day. I never thought I would, but I have survived 20 years. I don't know how many more are there and what turns they bring in my life, but I am all excited and ready to take on all new challenges that life will bring.

Bring it on !!

I would like to thank specially my seniors, colleagues, mentors and managers/leaders (Cyient - Venneti Jagan Mohan , Seshadri Srinivasan , Puneet Srivastava , AQEELUDDIN SAIYAD FIRSE, MBA (Project Management) , Ajay Kulshreshth, BE CEng Pankaj Dhakate, MIET MEngNZ Ex-IRSSE , Venkatesh Surabhi , Selvin Jacob Sunil Onteddu , Rama Mohan , Pradeep Ballal , Harihar Nath Dubey , Veera Venkata Nagaraju Duggirala , @Surender Dubey, Konaiyagarri Edwin Keerthi Bhasker , 西门子 (while working for Cyient in UK) – John Banks , anthony goatcher , Jason Ellis , James Riordan , Justin Dawson , WSP in India - AQEELUDDIN SAIYAD FIRSE, MBA (Project Management) , Stuart Oliver , Bob Paterson , Jon Yarker , Adam Whenman , 嘉科工程 - Brijesh Vats , AQEELUDDIN SAIYAD FIRSE, MBA (Project Management) , Nitin Kansal , Mukesh Garhwal , Tanya Elliott , Eur Ing Nigel Baskerville MAPM FIET FIRSE FPWI CEng Sinead Giblin ) who helped me shaping my career and made my journey quite successful.