How Avantel Changed My World...

Started in 1995 with some 50-odd people it has grown into a very big cooperation with a branch in US. It is a product-based company whose clients are ECIL, DRDL, Indian Army, Indian Navy, Nokia etc.

Located right opposite to BSNL office in Madhapur, it is in the midst of fields located at least half a kilometer from the main road. It is a four-storied building with every floor dedicated to a particular aspect of the designing of the project – R&D, Production, Software Development, Marketing, Testing (in the basement). Cool breeze welcomes you when you enter into the lobby through the stairs immaterial of the time. It’s because it looks a bit isolated with no buildings on any sides giving free access to unpolluted air. My mom keeps stressing about having NATURAL AIR and my reply would always be what’s the difference? I mean with fans, air coolers, and conditioners etc. where does natural air stand a chance? Trust me friends I was so wrong in assuming that. Man can never conquer nature as the eternal debate continues. The floor I was assigned to is R&D as I was given a decoding project essentially based on C.

It has first class canteen with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. A coupon system is in place and the food is at subsidized rate. All the floors are air-conditioned. Everyone there dresses up in formals. The timings are very flexible i.e. no rigid timings till you get your job done. Special attention is given to the newcomers and a formal training is given to them for at least one month before assigning them to a project. There is so much of nice camaraderie around the workplace that you feel completely at ease. Everyone there identifies with the company motives and put in their best efforts to the development of the company. One is awarded impartially the hikes based solely on performance.

Sounds too good to be true isn’t it? Well it isn’t. I take back all I said (3rd para). If you are one of those trying to practice negations for CAT or just for fun can experiment on the above paragraph to get the actual picture. Still didn’t get it?? In the words of Mr. DP “ All you have to do here is pretend that you are busy…”. It is one company where I found so much of discontent. Everyone there has an account in Naukri or Monster or any placement websites looking for better avenues outside. The common refrain apart from the TIMINGS ( Monday – Sunday) is that one is not treated well with respect. “ Dabbudi emundi, adi pakkanapettu. Mammalnu koncham engineers ga respect cheste chalu. Ante gani edo salary istunnam kada veelu manam emi cheppina chestarle ante… eveadiki kaladu…” echoes one absolute gem of person in whom I saw a man to admire and respect with his abundant knowledge and commitment to work. Other thing that really puts off many is the lack of guidance or support from the senior staff. Excepting few many have large ego problems there. One month into the project, one is still at square one not knowing how to proceed. The matters doesn’t end with you doing your part. Being put in R&D makes you responsible for the overall design of the circuit and testing it. But that’s not the case. Right from the job assigned to ordering materials, software developing, production everything has to be taken care of that individual/group. Before you want to say anything I want to clarify that when I mean taken care of is you have to monitor all the processes. Literal monitoring i.e. just make sure that guy is fitting it well, making sure all the components needed are entered and ordered. Making sure the software guy has given you right GUI. It just puts off people. I mean as person assigned to particular department you are expected to harness most of your energy in there. Hence it is not unusual to find many a people in this floor at least idling away most of their time either because materials are not yet ordered or because the testing is still being done or something or the other.

Coming to my case, I had a blast in the first week since I joined. It was exciting to be addressed informally. The hourly journeys to and fro form the company to the home was very tiring but I found myself liking it thinking this is what hard work is all about. I was asked to try to understand a code in C. The person who is in charge of me was little busy at that moment to tell me the EXACT DETAILS of the project and asked me to continue on my own. At the end of the week knowing how completely idiotic I was in trying to write code for such a complex program I started surfing for clues. I found something to verify with. BAM….a much sought after breakthrough. Tested it on microcontroller. Found it working fine. I was given another higher security module to be debugged. A week passed with again GOOGLE coming to my rescue for some code to verify with. It was then I knew something is really wrong here. No one was interested in this project of mine. I mean it was said that it wasn’t going to work as it was tested already. I failed to understand what my position is in this regard. The days of frustration began. As usual I reach the company an hour before. Making some itsy-bitsy changes I was supposed to get it worked on the controller. There is some technical talk between sir and me which is completely opposite to OTHER sir (the next in order of in-charge for me…) and me and my job was to validate that. Some days I tolerated with me having company and soon even they were so-called engrossed and I was left all alone brooding my fate.

The last week of my stay was by far the most irritating and the worst form of torture I could ever endure. From 9 to 1 i.e. till lunch my work was to sit. That’s all. To sit and stare at the computer waiting, WAITING for something to happen. Something that would change the world. From then again I was to sit. Oh ya, in between I have the absolute rubbish talk between one sir and other sir. I was going completely mad sitting there. It is from the people there I understand I was not alone. I was literally breaking down, unable to think in any manner and losing interest in everything. I tell you the absolute euphoric feeling I got when I could convince my parents my decision to quit was something I hadn’t even experienced when I got selected in SATYAM. I was in such a deplorable state.

Thankfully everything is over for now and I am back doing what I like enjoying what I like. Those are the most unforgettable 30 days ever in my life.