In this instalment of Shortlister Spotlights (a Q&A series to get to know some of our team members) meet Himan Reddy, our Tech Lead from Hyderabad office!
At Shortlist, we love building our team almost as much as we love building yours!
We have some pretty amazing people across our three offices who have a real passion for what they do and for the Shortlist mission.
Himan is so many things – Shortlist’s resident memelord, Netflix binge-watcher, One Punch Man, Rick and Morty hardcore fan. When he is not exploring new technologies or annoying his manager and teammates, he loves taking vacations and visiting beaches.
Read to know more about Himan’s Shortlist journey.
Tell us about your life at Shortlist.
At Shortlist, I started off as a UI Engineer with so many new things to learn, from technology stack to company culture and a dance-off on my second day! My day-to-day work involves annoying my peers, making memes, and annoying my manager. 😎
I work with new technologies like Typescript, Docker, Jenkins, AWS and have dabbled in the backend using NodeJS. All of these in a span of 6 months!
After about a year, I got promoted to Tech Lead where I have to manage my team (it’s half byte-sized). I spend about 20% of my time in management, and the rest of 80% I spend on technical aspects.
If you’ve heard of the phrase “Same stuff, different day”, at Shortlist, it’ is – “Same day, different stuff”. You get to do a lot of different things from coding to dancing to karaoke to plank challenge.
When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
There’s this typical Indian family phrase that goes on “Mere bacche Engineer aur Doctor banenge” which translates to “My children will become Engineer and Doctor”. Well, that didn’t turn out so well, since I was supposed to become a doctor but instead turned out to be an engineer.
So what led you to a career in technology, and what were you looking for in your next career step when you found Shortlist?
Since my school days, I was interested in learning more about computers. I browsed job descriptions that would suggest what you need to know to become a Software Engineer, explored different types of coding websites, practised on them.
I was looking for a place where I would have exposure to new technologies, have the liberty to suggest new technologies (as a Tech Lead I do exactly that!), work in my own style, and have an open space to talk to anyone about anything.
Shortlist gave me precisely what I was looking for.
How has your current role impacted you?
If you think writing documents is easy, I kid you not; it is tougher than solving a complicated algorithmic problem (T_T).
That being said, it’s not an easy task being a manager. All those assumptions about managers – that they do nothing but sit in their chair and order people around are so wrong!
The manager must make their reportees career a successful one, and it’s not an easy task. Motivating, communicating, setting the right expectations, understanding their problems and guiding them, although these sound trivial, they are not easy tasks to accomplish.
What’s your favourite Shortlist memory?
At the retreat, having an open heart-to-heart conversation with other teams whom we had just met, and it never really felt like we were strangers.
What are three words or phrases you would use to describe Team Shortlist?
Collaborative. Fun. Supportive.
What’s your favourite Shortlist value? (Learn more about our values here!)
One team!! 🙌
I have never seen someone at Shortlist say “Its’ his(or her) fault.” Instead, they listen to whatever the issue is and work together to get it resolved.
Why is the Shortlist mission important to you?
Looking for jobs is never an easy task. Most of the times, candidates don’t even receive responses from companies. As someone who lost his job and had similar trouble when looking for new opportunities, I can understand and identify with that pain.
Shortlist believes that candidates should receive timely updates on their application process, which I think is very important.
So Himan, tell us about your life outside of Shortlist.
I like staying home, and binge-watching Netflix or One Punch Man, Rick and Morty. I have trained professionally in tabla for eight years (here’s a link to something funny). I picked up learning guitar, ukulele, and piano—Jack of all trades, master of none. Right now, I’m exploring new technology and learning Japanese. And when I’m bored, I like taking a vacation and going to the beach.
What are you currently reading, watching, or listening to?
I’m watching this anime on Netflix – Hunter X Hunter.
We like to give (virtual) high fives to recognise our team members when they do something awesome. Now is your chance to make a public high five to a fellow Shortlister:
First, a high-five to Sudheer Bandaru, my manager, who continually believes I can unlock my potential in different aspects of my professional work. Next high-five is to the entire tech team who takes my annoying nature in their stride and are never really offended. Another high-five to the leadership team who takes my memes on them so coolly and encourage me to do some more 😀
Thank you, Himan! We’re so glad to hear your experiences on Team Shortlist.
Did reading about Himan’s experiences make you want to join our squad? Check out the rest of our crew here.
We’re hiring…Follow this link and stay up to date on job openings! We have more openings at Shortlist.
Apply today – we’re excited to hear from you. If you would like help building your team, let us help you. Shortlist offers a wide range of recruitment solutions that help companies build great teams.
