Finally had some time to scribble a new post. This is all about my experience with MELSS.Why MELSS after a long time? Read further.
It was in 1998 timeframe, when my first placement was at MELSS - a company known for punctuality and discipline; apart from manufacturing Board-Wizards. It all went fine for the first few days - just looking around, amazing what an "industry" would look like. More feel-good was the thought about the Rs.810/- stipend that's going to be in my hands at the end of the month. First professional salary, isnt it?
Not even a week passed, I was called-in by my mentor for a discussion. Okay; its really not a discussion, but a informal call (thambi inga vaapa) to inform me the work that I need to do for the next 6 months. MELSS as a product company had different sections - Production, R&D, Testing, Inspection, Documentation and other supporting functions. As an Electronics student, I was expecting me to be placed in Production - where soldering is the primary work. That could give me some chance to improve my soldering skills, learn some ICs and their numbers, and of course, interact with Kanaga madam.
Well, it didnt happen the way I thought. I was placed in Documentation section and my work was to draw professional diagrams for the components/accessories used in Board-Wizard like Cable assemblies, guiding rails, chassey, connectors etc etc in trace papers. To be exact, its like the work of a civil engineer. One other Civil engineering student from MPT who was placed along with me was put in library to take care of book Inventory. I was in a better ship compared to him, but still civil is not my work. But first job and no courage to say a NO.
I was allotted a biiig table, biig board, sliding scale attached to the board, variety of stencils, marker pens, trace paper roll, erasers and hell a lot of other tools for which I don't know the names still. A good civil guy might know their names atleast.
I was then given a crimped FRC (Flat Ribbon Cable) cable and asked to replicate that on a trace paper with exact dimensions. I really even don't know how to use the pen (its a special drawing pen), ruler and stencil, but no way out. Even after wasting few trace sheets, the cable remained cable still. It did turn up as drawing. Even the little guidance from my civil colleague didn't help. He just smiled and went away. I gladly understood the meaning of that smile.
I couldn't do anything much till that evening, the productivity was zero, wastage was high; but the heavy concentration on staring at the cable, trying to draw with absolutely no interest gave me an immense head-ache. Luckily my drawing took-kit has an dragon liquid balm already, but that was no match for my pain.
It was at that moment, I really broke-down, felt like my future got dark and had no hope to live. Will the so called "industry" be like this? Giving tool-kit along with dragon liquid balm? Which company will recruit me in campus, if i say that I'm experienced in drawing? Will my complete life go in drawing, since I'm getting trained in that? Am I not fit to do soldering? Is my career starting with a bad luck? How many CLs are allowed per month? Lot of such thoughts - and they all said the same thing "you are screwed". Adding fuel to the fire was that my other three classmates were placed in soldering section.
I was close to tears, and when the pain finally went beyond control, it turned out as courage. I walked directly to my mentor and said "I want to be in soldering and I don't want to do a Civil work". I thought he would understand my situation, but he didnt even show a simple reaction on his face. He coolly said "Do this for one or two days and then lets see how it goes". Though I didn't win, his words gave me some hope at that moment. If i report him a NO for the next 2 days, I can surely get into soldering. Bell rang and day was over.
Next day, I again started staring at the cable, but this time my head-ache was not that intense. After learning the tips and tricks of using the pen, stencil and the ruler - the cable began to take shape on the paper. I also need to mark the component name, company name, "drawn-by", date and other proprietary information as part of every artifact. After the final touch-up is done and the finished drawing was in my hand, I really felt the first taste of success. After a real hard-work, whatever the result it makes - its a pride to enjoy. And if the result is encouraging, joy knew no bounds. My mentor and even the civil guy appreciated my work, since it was out of my domain.
Believe me or not, in the next 6 months, I did drawing for close to 80 accessories for board-wizard. I somehow developed a love towards that job. Complex cable assemblies to simple electromagnetic pen traces - all had my signature. Even now, I believe they will have those originals. They later took a real blueprint of all my drawings and showed me a copy. I till now couldn't believe I did that. Later I was also involved in soldering for few complex FRC assemblies, testing board wizard and helping out QA, but all that became a side-work. I didn't give up the drawing till my last day in MELSS.
Overall, MELSS taught me a very valuable lesson - "You can master any skill in the world - just that you need to love it"..
So, why am I writing this now?.. Simple. Few days back, the situation presented me an opportunity to recall this incident. The first week of my Extreme Networks experience was nothing different than MELSS. Though I could now proudly claim "Iam 11 years experienced in industry", butterflies still fly in stomach when changing to a new role. Adapting to the current environment is always a challenge; as we cannot expect anything around us to change, except us.
Two weeks passed with a mix of boring, interesting, disappointing and many times lonely feeling. Felt like thrown out of a comfortable to uncomfortable zone. Strangely, I even thought once "Did I make a wrong move?". But then I realized, "I haven't started loving my job yet". It might take some more time to for me to adapt to the new environment, people and the culture there, but once that happens, its going to be a smooth ride. That's when I say "MELSS experience is yielding its results"...
