The Bright Onboarding Experience

Covid-19 was a ‘black swan event’ because nobody saw it coming. It has taken a toll on many industries and their processes, but at Bright, we have been finding innovative ways to work with what we have. 

The HR team has continued to work with zeal towards our goal of accelerated growth. We have made a lot of hiring decisions and welcomed new employees with open arms. Though the onboarding process has been tweaked to suit the needs of this hour, our employees have enjoyed the process and got to know Bright.

We interviewed Piyush and Atul - two new members of our Front-end Technology and Data Sciences teams about how they have experienced getting started at Bright in this remote-working world.

Piyush previously worked at PhonePe in the Front-end engineering team dealing mostly with consumer-facing payments. He is very passionate about coding and enjoys spending his free time baking and cooking. He also is interested in video games, reading blogs and watching shows on Netflix.

So what was it like joining a team completely remotely?

“The team kept in touch with me constantly, to give confidence as I joined Bright during the time of a global crisis - Coronavirus. The crisis did not decrease the fun of joining a new organization as I got to know the amazing people here through virtual work meetings and ‘Coffee Catch-ups’ (a Covid-induced event at Bright wherein folks meet for a casual zoom meeting to talk non-work and socialize).”

What happened in the first week?

“My first week also brought about a ton of learnings as I got more insights into the Products that Bright offers and a deep dive into the codebases where we learn about some amazing patterns, find faults and have technical debates.”

What did you learn about Bright in the first week and month?

“Another amazing part of Bright is the sense of ownership that people have for their products/ codebases, and it's not something that only old folks would feel; you will feel it in the first week. You will feel an integral part of the team, and you will start owning parts of Bright, and be responsible for them”.

How have you personally managed working remotely?

“Bright made me realise that work/life balance need not necessarily be measured in hours of work and leisure, but many other factors - work satisfaction, making work enjoyable, playing games over zoom, bonding with your team, and of course - taking complete time off when you need it.”

Atul, who is now a member of the Bright Data sciences and Machine Learning team, joined us in May.

Atul previously worked as a Research Scientist at Arya.ai with a major focus on computer vision and handwriting recognition. Atul completed his post-graduation from IIIT Bangalore. He likes reading about current affairs and tech-related developments in the world and listening to shayari, which is a form of poetry.

So what was it like joining a team completely remotely?

“This is my experience of job change and onboarding at Bright during the Covid-Lockdown crisis. I got the offer from Bright just a week before the lockdown was announced. I was naturally very anxious about how things would go. Since travel was not an option for me as I am located in Pune and the cases were at an all-time high, I requested remote onboarding and the HR team at Bright happily complied. The company seemed to be aware that this could be the new normal and had a plan to tackle the situation, which I found promising.”

What happened in the first week?

“I joined Bright as a Machine Learning Engineer and Data Scientist. On Day 1, you are introduced to different teams, and you have scheduled one-on-ones with different team members. On Day 1 itself, I had a crystal clear idea about how things work and what the ultimate product will be. So, in the onboarding week itself, I was given access to the complete code base and also the development environment was ready for me to get started with.”

What did you learn about Bright in your early weeks?

“The onboarding experience was so efficient that I never felt like I’m new or there is still time for me to get the ropes. When I needed help, the great problem-solvers in the company were there for me at any time. I have learned a lot about products, engineering, data sciences, and the learning never stops.”