New Year New Life.

This is undoubtedly one of the best known Portuguese sayings. This year it was me, with the beginning of the year (well, in fact it was in December) I started a new professional challenge. Until November 2017, I was working in a medium-sized company, as a developer. I spent about 9 years (rounded up) there, when I went there I started working on a project to develop a WMS (Warehouse Management System) as a junior developer in php and when I finished functions in November I was was the group’s application manager, main programmer DBA , release manager, among other functions.

When I accepted this new challenge in September, to change job, I knew that it would be very difficult and also I would meet very talented and knowledgeable people. The challenge also involves sharing the knowledge I also have (I’m not sure which yet, but I’ll find out). Today I work as a senior technical consultant for Altran, it is a very interesting work and requires all my attention, where I have to apply all my knowledge, obtained over the last years.

The exit process

This is a long and complex process. If on the one hand it is necessary to have the insight and overview of the projects/software, that we leave behind, on the other hand, we have to identify very well all the software and all the processes. It was a very focused period in the documentation and the closing of bugs and minor problems, so that they were corrected in time to leave. It was a complex period of 2 months, in which we internalize our departure from the project. Fairly focused on documentation (in my case in particular, it was hours spent in front of OneNote and Visio) to document all the processes and software that were under my responsibility.

The Team

The team that we are going to leave also needs our attention, we have to pass the message that they are a fundamental part of the project/company. Without them nothing would be possible and it is they who will be responsible for the projects from now on. We have to spend a good deal of optimism and confidence in everyone’s work!

The last day

The last day always seems the most difficult, and it is! In my case was the most difficult, I was there almost 9 years, so it had a lot of impact. It was difficult to leave the company and the team behind…

The first day

The first day is also complex, getting to know the new colleagues, the new team, getting into the circuit of routines, understanding the complexity of the environments, analyzing the architecture of the software(s) that we are going to develop. The installation of tools, access requests (get ready in the banking sector it is not easy), documentation (especially when it is not in our mother language)… all this is a complex and intense process.

Balance

I am still in my first month, but the balance is possitive, the conditions are different, the team is bigger, diversified and international. The project is quite demanding and important, it is a great challenge. I’m closer to home, now I can use the subway, I take less time to travel, I have more free time. I do not have as much availability for other stuff as I do at work, but I’m more focused on development tasks. The balance is being very positive and I have much more free time for what really matters, which is my family! I can summarize that when you take the initiative to change, it is because we want to try new things and new areas of work! We must do it from time to time, everyone will win! I, for various reasons, the company that I leave, because it ends up having the hypothesis of “recycling” people and processes and vices, the company where I go, who saw in me quite potential! We also use it to broaden our network of knowledge and contacts and this is very important in the area of ​​IT.

(Source: BBC.)