WordPress alerted me last week that I had completed 199 blogs.  At that moment, I thought I would wait for an interesting story and something worthwhile to write for my 200^th blog.  I woke up this morning and was greeted by hot chai which was handed over to me (a nice perk and pleasure of being at home, and in India), as I slouched on my sofa, and gave me right mood to begin my 200^th blog which is dedicated to Cigniti, a fantastic organization which truly allowed me to be me, and allows everyone to be ‘themselves’ (those who realize it, of course).   What else one want from their employer?

This weekend marks my 50^th month since I have joined Cigniti in March 2012, not that I am counting my days here @ Cigniti.  Everyday feels fantastic to me, as this is one of the places where everybody (well almost everybody) knows my name.  You will remember this theme song (if you are as old as I am) from Cheers TV serial, “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came”.  That’s how I feel when I walked into Cigniti, and around Cigniti, not just in Hyderabad, but anywhere our teams are present in 5 continents, and about dozen countries.

What makes everyday a great day @ Cigniti. Here are few reasons that I can think of:

• We have acquired over 195 new clients last year. It is like one new client, every working day of last fiscal year.   We want to acquire few clients that last year, but way bigger than last year.
• We get requests for potential new business from a few dozens SUSEPECTs spread across 5 continents and about dozen countries every week of the year. Every client or potential client approaches us for a different reason,  from a different city and domain, with a differing problem statement, and need. All of this keeps us on the edge, it keeps us active, and it keeps our life interesting than ever
• Great poet from our state wrote the great Telugu patriotic song Desamunu Preminchumanna in 1910. The following lines appears in his poetry Desamunu Preminchumanna – Desamante matti kaadoyi, desamante manushuloyi meaning, A country is not made of land; a country is made of its people.  Similarly, a Organization is not made of processes; An Organization is made of its people.   People of Cigniti what makes this organization makes it endearing and unique.
• Cigniti grew exponentially in last 4 ½ years. Obviously, this fantastic growth brought us lots of excitement and few challenges too.  Some of these challenges tested each everyone of us in last few months.  It made us introspect where we did great, and where we need to improve.  Now we do have corrective actions implemented in place, and back with a renewed vigor and energy.
• Veterans and brand ambassadors of Cigniti continue to stand with the organization, and continue to help our Clients deliver high quality products on-time, and under budget. Now I feel that we have a team and a right recipe to grow bigger than ever, and faster than earlier. Like they say, when going gets tough, tough gets going.
• Cigniti continues to be desired place for a career tester, who gets to build and leverage IP in Testing, experience all facets of testing across domains, technology and tool stack.    The passion with which the our team strives to excel in what they do, keep me and my clients excited to be part of Cigniti’s eco-system

Story to continue through the weekend..

Coincidentally, I took about 50 pics using my brand new 50mm lens on Canon 6D, which are collaged in beautiful motion pictorial video presented below.  These 50 smiles captured within few hours of few hundred sq ft of my office cabin. I am sure to find another 1000, if I had just explored just half of 200,000 sq ft infrastructure we have around the world in 5 continents, and dozen countries.  It was a great day to capture these moments, as it was Friday, last day of the month, and most importantly it was annual appraisal verdict day for few folks.