Reflecting on my second year at General Motors as a Software Engineer
A lot has changed during the last year. Sometimes, changes were overwhelming. Either for good or bad. I thought this year the world will settle down after the COVID-19 rollercoaster. But then came the Russian-Ukrainian war which echoed through every system. Politically, economically and whatnot.
You may wonder, what it has to do with me. Well, here is where my story begins. General Motors decided to dedicate grand efforts to the energy market. That decision landed an offer on my table. For the stakeholders, it was an offer but for me, it was an opportunity. Soon enough, I fell in love with it.
In the workplace, whenever the management asks me to take an initiative, I always accept it. Some may see it as negative or overconfidence. For me, that is what defines me and I trust my subconscious mind to calculate that YES properly in the background before I give it away. Until now, it never fails me.
The offer was to transfer the primary owner of a service. Apparently, this service was complex and challenging. However, I was brave enough to jump on that train. After some sessions of knowledge sharing, I came to understand why it was declined by others before it landed on my table. Nevertheless, this fact didn’t affect my passion or enthusiasm. Quite the opposite.
The stakeholders were happy with the deal and I received a lot of credit to the point I decided to buy a Samsung tablet, something I would never do when I am in my senses. The management dopamine faded when I came up with my terms for the deal. These terms came to guarantee my success on the mission.
As you may read in my other posts, I’ve been many times into these muddy waters and I’ve learned how to navigate them and avoid the sand holes along the way of building and launching grand projects. Therefore, I was confident enough to stick to my guns. I request that it gets designed by me from the ground up.
My mileage at GM was low by then. Not enough trust was gained to pass those terms. I even was mocked when I suggested a design instead of hitting the keyboard instantly. However, working AGILE solved that conflict. I was able to come up with a design that guaranteed optimal maintenance and development estimations for the stream of business requirements and ambiguities along the way.
I met the deadlines and I succeeded with the design implementation and bringing that service into production. I wouldn’t say that my experience was enough factor for this fulfillment. However, I am a black hole that sucks every piece of knowledge or feedback around me and adjusts immediately. That is my secret on every journey.
The service was deployed into production. It was glorious to develop new features and maintenance is going flawlessly for now. I enjoyed every session when I presented my architecture document and demonstrated how the system works. I fell in love with the process. Then came the Russian-Ukrainian war that changed everything.
During my two years at GM, I noticed that this company grows even when the world undergoes hard times. I even joined GM when the pandemic started and the hi-tech market shut its doors. Miracles happen at this place. The company grew and new departments popped up due to the company’s dedication to the energy market. That resulted in new management requirements to expand the service responsibilities in some places and to move some capabilities to other services.
When I first got the news, I activated the superpowers of my design. It was sensed when I presented my plan for this milestone. Everyone was astonished by the low effort it required to be completed. This change also sailed into production and navigated peacefully through the tides.
That was my love story. I also had the opportunity to visit the site in Detroit. An amazing experience. I learned a lot on the market and got to know good folks.
I will write another post on my method of designing grand new systems from the ground up. Stay tuned.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
