Smarika Mahat

To begin with, I started my journey at Ericsson as a graduate in Feb 2021. For the first six months I was working as a RIC engineer in the remote Integration Centre for one of our major clients. This role was to be carried out from the client site which was even better because I had just started with my career and needed hands on and seniors around to help. The best part of this was that along with me three other grads started on the same role. We would come to the client office with our energy and focus towards learning everyday and helping each other out to reach there.

Then during my second rotation there was a drastic curve brought to my career where I was asked to do a project coordinator role by my line manager. When she offered me the role, I was equally excited and nervous as this was not something that was in my comfort zone, but I wanted to try it out. When I stepped into this role it was one big learning for me. The project was fast paced and there were a lot of tasks to be performed on a day-to-day basis.  I learnt what goes in the background of a technical project and how much effort goes for managing the project.

Then, after 5 months of the role when it was time to get into one respective department and come out of the graduate role, I talked to my line manager to get me into technical role again. Though the project coordinator role was quiet happening and a senior level position I understood that to excel that first I need to excel the technical side of the project. Moreover, without knowing the project’s technical side I felt that managing that project would be unfair. So, I was then hired as a network engineer in the RAN department and continued my role in the program. It’s been 5 months today and I am still learning and growing. 

7.00 AM 

I hit snooze on my alarm and sleep for another 30 mins. 7.30 AM I wake up and take a quick shower, get dressed and drink a cup of coffee. I pack my lunch and my essentials for work and catch a bus at 8.30 AM which takes me to the customer office by 8.45 AM.

8.45 AM

I make my way into the customer office which is huge and Is very beautiful. I walk towards ground floor of building A to the mobile innovation lab. By 9.00 AM I am all plugged in and ready to go. I open my emails and check if any emails need my attention. I open my to do task bar and start noting down the tasks for the day and start working on them one by one.

10.00 AM

This is coffee time. There are a number of kitchens in every floor of the office in each building which has coffee machines but today we choose to go and buy coffee form one of the cafes inside the premises (there are many). Me along with some of my colleagues go and buy coffee and sit in the sun sipping coffee for 10 mins and talk about the trainings that are coming up which we could sign up for.

Then we head back to our respective work desks.

10.20 AM

I have a feature to be tested today which requires some plumbing to be done from the shield room to the shield box in the lab. These plumbing’s are confusing at time s and needs lots of attention. Once I have the set up ready, I start doing the testing’s. There are new problems that arise which requires lots of troubleshooting.

11.30 AM

Meeting time. We have software and features meeting with the customer and stake holders. Important features and SW rollouts are discussed in this meeting so being attentive is necessary. Some of these might be assigned to you and you might me accountable to give answers to the questions asked.

12.40 PM

The meeting went a bit over time, but I get back to my set up to continue with the tests. At 1 PM I get pulled into an audit to be done before submitting the report on one of our other features by my teammates and the call gets going for another half an hour.

1.30 PM

The meeting gets over and we discuss how are we going to answer the questions asked by the customers. One of my teammates in the lab comes and reminds me that its lunch time.

I pick up my lunch and tag along with them to where we heat the food and go outside in the open air under the warm sun to eat lunch.  We discuss about our weekend plans and various other trending topics. We take this time to build up and network with our own team mates so that it is easier to work with them. If there are topics, we want to discuss with a senior this is the right time.

2.30 PM

I am back after lunch and seated Infront of my testing setup. I grab a senior from his seat to have a quick look at my results. He says its pretty good to go so now I start drafting my MS2 report. I tick all the tests that are done and start formatting it into a report with evidence of the platform and rrm tests. These results are to be submitted to the customer, so they have to be as perfect as possible.

3.30 PM

I go into a meeting room that I booked for today so that I can attend a NOCR meeting with the customers from there via teams. The customer will ask the needful questions related and the integration engineers will answer them all. These meeting get quite technical and I tend to learn quiet a lot form these meetings about different Ericsson hardware’s. 

4.30 PM

Time flies and I am back to my desk again. I try replying to some of the emails that are sent to me. There is a debate that I am organizing with some of the grads for the wider ANZA audience as a young professional activity, so I get a message from my team in this debate about an idea she came up with. I reply to her with some more of my thoughts and we plan to catch up quickly to discuss further on call. I call her and we format an email to send it to the wider audience about the topic and the rules. 

5.00 PM

It is 5 pm already. I pack my things up and get ready to go to the dinner which is organized by my previous grad cohort. It is someone’s birthday, so we decide to meet up and have dinner and drinks together. Its in CBD the venue to I leave with one of my previous grads cohorts who works in the same department as I do. We take the train to Townhall station from Macquarie Park.

6.00 PM

We are seated in the restraint. We are looking at the menu and chatting with each other. We are meeting for the first time after we got hired as permanent employees from graduates. We are talking about how everyone is doing in their respective roles and what they are expecting out of it. We are also talking about our next holiday plans and talking about our respective projects.

8.30 PM 

I am back home from the dinner. I am very exhausted but when I think about it, it was a productive day. I spend time with my family, talk to them about my day and ask about theirs. We watch some TV together and I feed my pets.

10.00 PM

I do my usual skin care. Drink my cup of green tea and prepare for the outfits for the next day, pack my bag and off to bed.