Joining a new team can be a nerve-wracking experience. It can take some time to adjust to new colleagues, new responsibilities, and new work dynamics. However, sometimes things just click, and you find yourself in the right place at the right time. That's exactly what happened to me when I joined the Vendor Management (VM) team almost 3years ago.

As the last person to join the team, I was excited and a little intimidated by the huge responsibility we had. We were managing millions of vendor-related data, from building backend services to providing a way for users to access it aka building UI application.

I consider myself lucky to have worked with such a fantastic team. My original teammates are irreplaceable, and I have big standards for managers I want to work with in the future. What made them so special was their empathy, open communication, lack of fear and judgement, and lots of respect and care(yes, can you imagine all of it together? exactly!!). They were a truly independent team, and I was lucky to have landed on it.

In the last three years, I've grown a lot as an engineer. I joined the team as a mid-level engineer and was later promoted to a senior software engineer. My manager presented me with numerous opportunities to lead initiatives on the front-end side and take tough decisions on projects.

One of the most memorable moments was when I had to make a difficult decision about a project in 2020. I was worried about the consequences if I failed, as it was a cross-team contribution and my opinion differed from others. I shared my thought to my manager, and he reminded me that we work as a team. If we fail, it's not just my failure, but the team's. That helped me remove the fear of "failure" from the equation, and I went on to make many more decisions without fear.

I've grown not only as an engineer but also as a colleague and a person. I am grateful for the opportunities I've had, and I want to thank everyone I've ever worked with. It was truly a pleasure.