This blog is from a guy who has been very fortunate to have such great mentors around him from the beginning of his career. You all must be wondering about the number 86.
Well, as of now, we have a total of 86 people who are part of the Fyle family. And I genuinely consider every one of them as a mentor. Thus, the title “86 Mentors”.
Hi, my name is Jatin. I started my career at Fyle as an engineering intern, in Feb of 2019. I started as a newbie and had my own set of apprehensions about my professional life.
During my stint here, I converted from an intern to a full-time employee. Along the way, Fyle helped me debunk some myths while also teaching me some vital life lessons. Here's everything about my journey.
Myths that Fyle helped me debunk
#1 Mentors have to fit a particular bill
What I learned: You can find a mentor in anyone - Yes, you heard that, right!
A mentor can be anyone. Even someone doing something as simple as:
Saving a spot for you in a foosball game in the office.
Recommending you lots of awesome movies, animes, songs, and more.
Ordering lunch for you because you are busy doing some other important task.
Teaching you to be patient in difficult times and to trust your instinct.
Taking out the time to solve your basic technical queries for hours and hours
Motivating you to run a 10km marathon
Introducing you to "curd-vada" (which is by the way, the best breakfast/lunch/dinner in the whole world!)
People find motivation and hope in unlikely places. Thus, even someone who does something as simple as - telling you it's okay to make mistakes can be teaching you a vital lesson in life, thereby becoming your mentor.
"Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up." - A must have Batman recall.
What matters most is learning from those mistakes and moving forward. So, chill maadi? (My time in Namma Bengaluru has helped me pick up on some local lingo. Here's me flaunting that ability!)
#2 Managers are mean humans
What I learned: Fyle's culture has no managers and only mentors. Also, they are not mean.
At Fyle, we rarely use the term "Manager." We instead refer to them as "Mentors" and call them by their names. Using "Ma'am" or "Sir" or abiding by any hierarchy is almost unknown to us. But this was something I learned only after joining Fyle.
Before Fyle, this was the perception I had about managers:
A manager is a person responsible for controlling or administering a group of staff.
A person who is just focussed and concerned about the tasks rather than the people.
The reason I had this perception was because of the multitudes of instances that my friends or family had brought up in the past about their experience with their managers.
A recent study shows, 60% of employees leave a company, not because of work but because of their managers. This sheds some light on the importance of work culture and ethics, irrespective of hierarchy.
After joining Fyle, I realized that:
A manager is more of a mentor, a leader, a friend who helps and guides others along the way to carry out tasks.
They are the ones who entrust their team members to do the right thing.
They are the ones who create an example for younger generations by their actions.
They are the ones who genuinely care about the people first, and then the tasks assigned to them.
My top lessons that I learned from my mentors
Help will always be provided to those who ask for it
It’s okay to be stuck on a problem. Everybody goes through this situation, one way or another. Asking for help might save you a lot of time and can help you get different perspectives to look at a problem, which in turn helps you in coming up with a viable solution.
Trust the people and the process
It’s quite normal to feel intimidated to try out new things. But trust me, there is no need to worry. There will always be people around you who will have your back. People who you can count on.
People can help you in unlikely ways. One such way can be: staying late in the office with you to help you to fix a high-level priority bug (which by the way, you are responsible for) and still not taking the credit for solving the issue.
Make the most out of your one-on-one sessions
Having one-on-one sessions with your mentor is honestly the most important thing for you as a mentee. It provides clarity on how both of you are doing as a mentor and mentee.
At Fyle, our one-on-one's are informal yet earnest. In these sessions, the main focus is if we are happy with what we are working on and if there are any roadblocks preventing us from achieving our goals.
Do not be insecure of your surroundings
When working with awesome people around you, it's quite normal to develop a feeling of insecurity and realize that you are in a room filled with better people than you. But it's a good sign since this becomes an excellent opportunity for you to learn from them and grow together.
"You have to work with people who make you feel insecure. Because you are working with people better than you. If you are comfortable with what you do, then you are not pushing yourself. It is an inherent part of learning." - Sundar Pichai
EGO - 404 Error: Word not found
Ever since I joined Fyle, I have never met anyone with an egoistic personality. And that is the reason we have a great culture here. Ego takes you nowhere. This is true. It's always nice to work in collaboration with others if you want to stay creative. But yeah, put ego aside.
Always be humble
This is just generic advice to myself and all. It would be best if we are always humble about our work because the work that we do is a result of contributions from a lot of people around us, sometimes directly or indirectly.
My take on "What does it mean to be a mentor"
Maybe I am not the right person to answer this question right now. I don’t have that much experience, to be honest. But what I do know is that I intend to impart the same knowledge and learnings I got from my mentors to the younger generations.
A snippet from my favorite anime series that sums it up for me:
If you are still curious about who my mentor (manager) is, go to our company’s team page, and you will find “a guy who likes to party, dance and travel. P.S: Bollywood is his groove!” :D
Every member at Fyle maintains this awesome culture that helps newbies like me that fly soaring high. So, I dedicate this blog to you all :)
CHEERS!!