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-K.Sudharsan
Why there is a Bench in a company? Generally, the company will always hire more number of engineers than it requires to keep their workforce ready so that the company is ready to take up a new project. So, if you consider this aspect there will be some engineers employed but not allotted to any project in the company. Officially Benchers.
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for all the support you’ve shown for my first blog, “My first day @ Bench”. Thanks for spending your valuable time on it. Continuing that I would like to share some interesting facts that I had on the bench.
After the long queue of morning attendance, I grabbed a chair and switched on a pc and eagerly opened my e-mail. There was a mail with lots of information. Is all about the guidelines to the one who is been on Bench.
We have got our new Supervisor contact details, we have been asked to share the computers if the computers are not allocated to the individual, we have asked to check our mail every 1hr whether we have got any mail regarding projects, we have asked not to spend the whole day simply watching movies and shouting etc.,
I had a conversation with the women next to me about the procedure of changing the POCs name in web portals and after that, I started asking about her bench life and past projects in the Company. She shared her experience that she had for the past year.
I was in the state of dilemma and had a common confusion that most of the people would have, “will I get posted in my preferred Location??” I asked her. I was worried like “I brought up with my Kith and Kin, and I have not been lived in a hostel or been away from them”. Another thing is that we must spend some money on traveling, rooms, food if we have been assigned to other locations. Saving the money will be difficult one.
She told like, “go to different places if you got placed in any other location, go and have experience of different culture and different people, the world is so big yaar”. She also said that you can reject the offer if you are not willing to take up the project.
I thought like wow, I am going to reject all the offers and going to stay and spend complete life in Bench. She then puts the Disclaimer, you can reject offers for limited times. If you reject an offer you will get a mark or refusal tag which is not good for a long journey. It will be one of the things by which your promotion might get affected and so. She told me to get with the flow.
I would like to add up some points for the above question. Try to connect with your bench lead or supervisor and aware how many resources of your skill are still on the bench. If the number is high be ready to take any opportunity to any location. You can also do cross training in different skill which would increase the opportunities for you.
The bench is the place where you can meet various people with different experience. I would like to share a person whom I met. He is a Java Developer. We got a conversation with the charger cable, which is the mandatory item which no one should forget while he/she is coming to the bench.
I was very interested in listening after he said that he completed his graduation on Information Technology in MIT College. He was telling things right from the day he joined the project and until the final day of that project. He was also told that being on the bench for more than a month is not good for the employee.
Finally, he concluded with I am not interested in coding anymore I am going to switch my career in Administrative line. I was shocked. The person who is from a computer background and been a developer for past 2 years and decided not to code anymore. I was thinking like why he said like this. His answer made me surprised.
He told that if you have masters in Administrative line you can skip various levels and directly become Team leader or Associate Manager. If you go step by step improving it would take almost 8-10 years to reach that level. Also, he had shared some pits that he came across his roads. It was a great moment.
The productive way you can spend the Bench days:
You are having all the time in the world. So, you could start learning things you don’t know. Some of my suggestions are,
#1 Every computer in any organization will have a notepad. So, you could utilize the time to improve your Web Knowledge. Elaborating, you can learn Html, CSS and some theories about networking which are basics that everyone must know. I too started with this; the website you are looking at is created by me during my bench days.
#2 We are moving in the world of mobiles. Take a break from all these and start reading a book. Everyone would love to read, but if you’re a little afraid of reading a full-on novel, I will tell you one thing. The feel when you complete reading a book is awesome. It will become an addiction. Just try it. Start with any journal of books in any Language. The more you read more you will improve.
#3 Go to some play area or recreational area, learn some new games. I even don’t know the rules of Table tennis and snooker, during my bench days I learned. “New things right”. Ask you a question “When was the last time I did something for the first time?”
#4 You can even train your Brain by solving some Sudoku, or with some mind games. There are many apps through which you can learn a new Language. Adding, you can even solve some aptitude and logical questions.
#5 You can go to library take up some technology books and start reading. Anyone can learn any new technology at least the fundamental concepts of the technology within 10 days. So, try it.
#6 Learn to type if you don’t know. This would be useful.
#7 Finally, enjoy with friends, watch movies, Have fun!!
