Based on the little data I have, it seems I start writing around January and stop before March. I am hoping this will be different because this time I am taking a break from my job.
It’s been a fantastic ride at Coinbase and I am leaving with some amazing memories and even more amazing lifelong friends. It’s a bittersweet moment for me. On one hand, I will miss talking to my teammates everyday while on the other I will be spending more time focussing on some personal projects.
Here, I am sharing three incidents of these past four years that came with massive learnings for me.
Obtaining honest feedback and working on oneself is the simplest way to grow.
I once found myself in the depths of self doubt. I had botched a simple project, my team mates were unhappy with my work and everyone had lost confidence in my ability to deliver. I wondered, and not for the first time in my life, if I had peaked as an engineer. I had a one on one conversation with a colleague, and after an awkward start, I received some honest feedback. What I heard was heart breaking and I was about to instinctively reject it. But I held back. I heard it all out and decided to sleep over it.
I took a few days off from work and spent time doing other things to get my mind off this situation. When I returned to work, I went through the feedback again. I realized that my initial reaction was wrong and now I agreed with most of the feedback. It helped that I trusted the colleague who provided the feedback. I knew they had the best of intentions.
I forged a plan of action and put it into motion. I pushed the self doubt aside and simply focused on the plan. Fast forward a few months, I had delivered on my projects, won back everyone’s confidence in me and had rid myself of all self doubt.
All this happened, because my colleague shared honest feedback and I worked on it.
Honest conversations can be extremely difficult but contribute immensely towards success.
I was riding a success wave at work after having delivered multiple projects and was on the top of my game. I started working with someone new and quickly ran into problems. After a week or two of working together, I knew I could not work with this person for long. I went to my manager with this and was advised to try and talk to the person directly.
I knew from previous experiences that negative feedback (even if provided constructively) can really hamper one’s confidence. I was always averse to hard conversations and did not want to go out of my comfort zone to add negativity into this person’s life. However my manager rightfully pointed out that if my feedback is intended to help the other person succeed, it is not really negative. That did not mean it could not have a negative impact. Intent and impact are separate things. It was important to ensure that I focus both on the intent and the impact of my words and actions.
I drafted a small feedback document so as to ensure that I do not mess things up while conveying my thoughts. I started with a small prelude explaining my intentions and the outcome I was hoping for. I verified with the person that they were willing to listen to me. Then I went over two recent incidents and articulated exactly what happened, what I felt and what I thought needed to be done. During all this time, I was immensely tensed and feared the worst. Instead, the person heard me out, shared their own thoughts and we ended the conversation with a laugh and a commitment to doing better. From that day onwards, I never struggled to work with them and we continue to have a great bond till date.
Now with the advantage of hindsight, I can confidently say that it was a great talk and contributed to both our successes. For me, it became the first step on how to improve relations with coworkers I am having trouble working with. So far, I have never needed a second step.
Consider all possible outcomes and then take a chance.
I moved to San Francisco in 2013 and it was not easy or simple. For anyone unfamiliar with the immigration process, it involves multiple steps including a lottery which as the name suggests is chance based. Fortune really favored me during that time and brought me to America.
In 2020, when I decided to move back to India, a lot of people were confused and wondering what was going in my head. I had a lot of conversations with close friends and once they realized that I had thought this through they were all extremely supportive.
However, it was not an easy decision to make. In the middle of 2020, the pandemic was in full swing and I had been socially isolated for a few months. As I contemplated the future, I realized that there was no way to be sure of when this pandemic will end. I had always thought of returning to India some day and started giving it serious thought during this time. I started listing options for what I would do after I move back. Even though my odds were good, I knew it would not be easy to find and get a good job. Doing some freelance work for a while was an option and I had previously done that with limited success. I even considered just taking a break for a few months. There was also the possibility, that I would regret my choice soon and would want to move back again. But I knew getting to America again would be near impossible due to the difficulties associated immigration process.
After I had gathered all the alternatives, I realized that I would be extremely happy with the best outcome while the worst one is still doable in the short term. In total, I figured this whole idea was worth doing.
And so I set things in motion. Once again, fortune decided to favor me and Coinbase opened up an office in India around the same time that I moved here. I was able to continue with the same company that I had enjoyed for the previous few years. Now as I say goodbye, I can confidently say it turned out to be a great decision and I am really glad I took the chance.
There is the possibility that I would have ended up in India anyways after the India office opened up. But it would have been a year later and given the different circumstances, I might have made a different choice.
To sum up, I am a big fan of considering alternatives and taking a chance. And that is exactly what I am doing now, taking a chance!
Stay tuned
That was a small albeit important subset of all the things I learnt in the past few years. Now it is time to put my head down, and see what I can do with all these learnings. If you would like to be part of my journey, follow me on medium and stay tuned for my next post.