End of revolution...?

Last whole week I haven’t been doing anything much significant. The project status is pretty healthy. We have not had any slippages, all the modules have been delivered on time. There have been some small defects, but none of them have been major issues. We have quickly pinned the down and resolved them. I have set up a beautiful communication process between the onsite and offshore team and all the communication gaps have been filled. We have been successful in setting up the architecture at offshore and also the VSS connectivity. Previously the offshore team was sending in the source code in small modules and the integration was done onsite by me. But now they are working directly on the central code repository so the integration process has also been set up successfully and is efficiently operational.

I think I have displayed outstanding performance as an onsite coordinator. Initially we had some problems with resources. But I was successful in resolving them very quickly and efficiently too. Besides what’s a job without a couple of challenges.

But lately I have realized that my work as an onsite coordinator has been mostly accomplished. I am still involved in writing documents that are related to routine process compliance and code reviews and testing. But those are the things that are beyond my role as an onsite coordinator. Since the process has been set up so well, there is not much coordinating that I am required to do these days. But since I cannot sit around doing nothing, the engagement manager is keeping me busy by giving me this insignificant work, which even a fresher, would be able to do efficiently. In fact I think a fresher would be able to do this work much more efficiently than I can.

So I have started to think as to whether I am required here any more? Is there a point in sticking around doing nothing for another 4 and a half months or should I move? What are the options that I have in front of me? Wouldn’t it be better to get released from this project so I could be more productive somewhere else? Do something that is more significant than what I am doing? Well I could either join some other project in the US itself or I could move back to India.

Of course the down side is that if I move to India, I wouldn’t be able to save the money that I thought I would in the US… I would have to leave and I wouldn’t be paid in dollars. But is money that important that I linger around being managed by a junior just because he has more system knowledge? And for what? I do not mind doing it as long as I am doing something significant. But testing, code reviews and routine process compliance under a junior is not quite fascinating.

The up side is that I might not have to move back to India. After the Kanbay – Adjoined acquisition, there have been a lot of projects coming in and loads of onsite opportunities are there according to Henry (My manager). I had a talk with him and he was interested in keeping me here coordinating with off shore. But I haven’t talked formally about it. This just came up during a conversation I had with him once. He is pretty happy with my performance in my current project and the previous projects. It seems he has been monitoring me over the past few months.

As of now what I am thinking is that I am going to be a senior consultant very soon. And I should be doing things that designate me as a senior consultant. I went through an industry depression during the initial stages of my career and didn’t get enough significant work and every time I am wasting my time doing insignificant things, I remember how I wasted the initial stage of my career working on projects that either would never get implemented because of some reason like lack of funds or projects that didn’t have a good business model. I have to make up for that loss. And I think it is very important that I keep an eye on where I am going at all times.