My life has been awesome since September ‘12 - when I got placed in Sokrati. Reading news articles about the startups at Silicon Valley or seeing The Social Network made me think it is not possible to have a company with such culture here in India, but when I stepped into Sokrati, my thoughts changed.
The first experience in a company comes from the interview process - which itself was very amazing and breathtaking. The level of the interview questions was amazing, and there were no stereotypical questions that you would see on thousands of interview websites. The questions were based on practical scenarios and fundamentals. It was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot even from the interviews.
Once I was inside the company, it was very nice to feel the startup culture all around me. The whole company sits in one office - and that amazed me because I was from Cognizant. As I spent more time in Sokrati - I came to understand one thing - unlike other places where office politics, stabbing in the back - such practices are common, people here had only one fundamental ideology - learn, code, help and enjoy. Everyone was full of energy, so ready to help others, so focused on work, and so full of life. This was so different from people in ties and formal shirts, this was the t-shirt culture. I had a feeling that my life was going to be awesome here.
That was my first impression about the company. As I’ve been around for 6 months now, I have observed many such awesome things here, and I would be talking about few which I love the most.
First and foremost, people believe in you. Any senior guy (not Team Lead, not Manager, more on that later) is always pushing you to take the leap of faith, whether its trying out a new technology, deployments on production, debugging a hard and frustrating piece of code, organizing an event, people put their faith in you. At first, I got scared when someone gave me a hard task, as I didn’t whether I was upto it, but then as I started doing things, it turned out that because they expect, I can deliver. Its that push that matters. Thats how you grow. Thats how I’ve grown, just in these 6 months.
Another thing, there is no corporate ladder, no team leads, no managers, only Leaders. Everyone matters. Even a fresher has a say in the architecture of a new product if he has something interesting to share. As you continue to be in Sokrati, as and when you can handle people along with code, you are put into a leadership position, but it is unlike other companies where Team Lead or Manager has very little to say in the Technical domain. Here at Sokrati, our leaders are awesome technocrats and even more awesome people managers. Thats how we define Leadership in Sokrati.
The last, but not the least thing, the openness and frankness within the company. Every month we have a Gupshup Meeting where everyone in the company gathers and discusses their project, findings, any fun things to share and brings out any concerns out in the public. This gives every employee a clear vision what is happening inside the company. Everything is transparent. Every quarter, the company goal is shared with everyone, so that everyone in the company knows what he/she has to work for. Personally, this gives me not only a short term goal but a long term vision of where I see myself with the company growing.
This is all I have to say about (briefly) my first impression of Sokrati. Life is awesome here, and I am enjoying the work. Proud to say - I am a Sokratian.
The first experience in a company comes from the interview process - which itself was very amazing and breathtaking. The level of the interview questions was amazing, and there were no stereotypical questions that you would see on thousands of interview websites. The questions were based on practical scenarios and fundamentals. It was an amazing experience, and I learned a lot even from the interviews.
Once I was inside the company, it was very nice to feel the startup culture all around me. The whole company sits in one office - and that amazed me because I was from Cognizant. As I spent more time in Sokrati - I came to understand one thing - unlike other places where office politics, stabbing in the back - such practices are common, people here had only one fundamental ideology - learn, code, help and enjoy. Everyone was full of energy, so ready to help others, so focused on work, and so full of life. This was so different from people in ties and formal shirts, this was the t-shirt culture. I had a feeling that my life was going to be awesome here.
That was my first impression about the company. As I’ve been around for 6 months now, I have observed many such awesome things here, and I would be talking about few which I love the most.
First and foremost, people believe in you. Any senior guy (not Team Lead, not Manager, more on that later) is always pushing you to take the leap of faith, whether its trying out a new technology, deployments on production, debugging a hard and frustrating piece of code, organizing an event, people put their faith in you. At first, I got scared when someone gave me a hard task, as I didn’t whether I was upto it, but then as I started doing things, it turned out that because they expect, I can deliver. Its that push that matters. Thats how you grow. Thats how I’ve grown, just in these 6 months.
Another thing, there is no corporate ladder, no team leads, no managers, only Leaders. Everyone matters. Even a fresher has a say in the architecture of a new product if he has something interesting to share. As you continue to be in Sokrati, as and when you can handle people along with code, you are put into a leadership position, but it is unlike other companies where Team Lead or Manager has very little to say in the Technical domain. Here at Sokrati, our leaders are awesome technocrats and even more awesome people managers. Thats how we define Leadership in Sokrati.
The last, but not the least thing, the openness and frankness within the company. Every month we have a Gupshup Meeting where everyone in the company gathers and discusses their project, findings, any fun things to share and brings out any concerns out in the public. This gives every employee a clear vision what is happening inside the company. Everything is transparent. Every quarter, the company goal is shared with everyone, so that everyone in the company knows what he/she has to work for. Personally, this gives me not only a short term goal but a long term vision of where I see myself with the company growing.
This is all I have to say about (briefly) my first impression of Sokrati. Life is awesome here, and I am enjoying the work. Proud to say - I am a Sokratian.
