Employee Diaries
My journey with Nouveau Labs
By Ujjvala Gonsalves
It’s not easy for a woman who was on her maternity break for almost two years to find a suitable job later. I had never thought I will be able to make it to the level I am right now, but it became possible at Nouveau Labs. As I recall my journey, I am filled with nostalgia and pure joy.
I have worked with an open-source ERP system throughout my career of 9 years and I was very confident and comfortable pursuing my career in that field. I knew it was always safe to look for a job in a field where I have already mastered. I was searching for a job to restart my career after my maternity break and that’s when I joined Nouveau Labs. To many of the people out there I just want to mention that it’s not an easy decision to work for 9 hours a day leaving a young kid at home, when you were on a break for almost 2 years and trying to understand what has happened in the industry while you were not working. However, at Nouveau Labs it was all possible. I joined as an expert of the open-source ERP system but after a while the project slowed down from client’s end. I was deeply concerned about my job wondering I might have to leave and search for another job due to uncertainty of the project, but to my surprise I was reassured by the management that my job is secure and if I am interested, I can participate in other projects that were going on in the company. Again, I had to decide as those projects were in a technology that I wasn’t familiar with. Neither I had any experience in it. It was tough for me to decide whether to look for a new job in the domain I had been working till date or to try something new. I felt I was standing on the crossroads. Sometimes it’s only a matter of opportunity that can change your whole life and I thought this is the one for me. I grabbed the opportunity and accepted the challenge to try my hands in a completely new technology. I was introduced to Drupal for the first time in my life. My manager, Satya Tummala, gave me the time, resources and support to learn Drupal and related technology needed for our in-house project AskAI. I was thrilled and excited to be the part of this project. It was a wonderful and unique experience I will always cherish. It gave me a boost and big leap in my career because I can now proudly mention it in my profile. The list goes on as I have never said NO to any project so far, no matter what the technology or concept. Nouveau Labs has turned out to be a land of opportunities to me during the last 3 years. From joining as an expert of just one domain to leading the projects I had never thought I could lead, all I can say is – If I can, then anyone can.
The company has gained my respect not only by providing opportunities but also by thinking and caring deeply about the employees. I can say this emphatically because during the times of Covid when many companies were forced to lay off employees, the management decided not to do so and instead worked extra hard to find new projects. Not only they made the promise, they were also successful in fulfilling it. They didn’t let go a single employee because of the Covid crisis. The most engaging factor of my journey with Nouveau Labs is the trust my superiors have placed on me. I came from a background where thinking of leading a project with a completely new dimension was almost impossible. However, I am so thankful to the management who trusted my talent, skills and capabilities to the extent that I have gained so much confidence and am ready to serve at the best of abilities. I do feel responsible towards my work and the company. None of this would have been possible without the support, trust and faith my managers have shown time and again.
At Nouveau Labs, I have not only got one of the most professional senior staff but all my subordinates and junior staff members have been so supportive and helpful all the while. In my journey of IT career, Nouveau Labs has and will always have a special place. I am really glad and find myself lucky to be a part of this company which is like a family and second home now. The company has a great vision and I am so sure it will be a huge success in the near future.
As I sign off this article, I can’t help remembering these lines from the Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Ujjvala Gonsalves, Senior Lead Engineer at Nouveau Labs
A technology & engineering leader with an extensive experience in developing products & systems in different domains and technologies such Opensource ERP, Python programming, PHP based system like Drupal, ReactJS, RDBMS such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, also having knowledge on REST APIs, Versioning systems like Git, Bitbucket, Project management tools like JIRA and Operating systems such as Ubuntu and Linux.