Porter: Of the People, by the People, for the People
A great boss hires talented people and then gets out of their way.
Scott Carbonara
Great companies are built on a foundation of impactful teams consisting of happy and productive employees in tally with each other. A good workplace encourages its employees to grow, learn and explore themselves creatively and intellectually. Such a healthy work environment attracts and sustains talented people.
At Porter, we have succeeded at not only disrupting the logistics business with our unique tech-enabled framework but are also taking big strides towards being a 360-degree employee-centric company. We believe in cultivating a work culture that encourages employees to work in an intellectual and qualitative environment to boost productivity and individuality. This helps employees achieve professional growth and henceforth promote the growth of the Organisation along the way.
Today we would like to share the unique stories of two of our youngest employees with very diverse backgrounds. Their stories make us proud and help us is substantiating our ideals of ‘walking the talk’!
Youth and Job Ownership: Talent begets Equal Opportunity
Akanksha Srivastava is a 23-year Gold Medalist from NIT, Durgapur. She is currently our youngest Software Engineer/Backend Developer and her youth only serves to make her more determined to succeed at what she does! During her hiring interview, she was given very pragmatic and practical pros and cons list. The honesty and candor displayed then were one of the things she immediately liked about Porter.
Akanksha shares “I wanted to work in a company where the talent pool is unique, there is a healthy work-life balance, good learning, the independence to own your work, choose your own product and get the opportunity to use the latest tech while working with a group of exceptional, committed and motivated individuals. I found all of these qualities in Porter and took the dive.”
Akanksha’s ongoing journey in Porter has been nothing short of memorable. Since her joining she has worked on serious projects such as wallet integration, SMS reduction, inconsistency handling etc. More importantly, she enjoys a wonderful camaraderie with everyone here! She adds, “the best thing about Porter is its people! Everyone is genuine and helpful. The work culture is amazing! I did not face any difficulties despite being a fresher as the people here are really co-operative! I especially enjoy working with Ambuj Singh (V.P Tech, Porter), Pawan Seerwani (Staff Engineer), and Mani.K (Senior Software Engineer), who are exceptional and help me every step of the way. The most momentous thing for me is to see my code regularly go into production! A good workplace indeed makes work equal workship.”
Turning a Job into a Career: Internal Job Posting At its Best!
Swapnil Kotian is a 24-year-old B.Com student from SDM College, Ujire Karnataka. He joined Porter’s Mumbai CC (Call Center) team directly after college and has been working for Porter for almost 4 years now. He joined Porter on 29th June 2015.
Swapnil vividly remembers his story and how he got to know about Porter. He shares “I got to know about Porter while having tea with my friends. They needed people fluent in Kannada at the Porter call center in Mumbai. I applied and got through. I was quickly promoted to the dispatch team due to my good relationship with our driver partners. I then moved to the resolution team because everyone liked my work. The entire process was constantly being upgraded and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about everything. I eventually became a Team Coach in this 2-year journey.
Through the Internal Job Posting (IJP) I got to know about a QA position in June 2017. They wanted to add someone with good product knowledge, from the CC Perspective to help tech have better visibility. With numerous doubts in my head, I filled up the form. Luckily I got great reviews from my team members and managers who encouraged me to pursue my interest. I was selected by Shubham Saluja (QA Lead, Porter) mainly due to my good product knowledge. I was highly apprehensive about my ability to move into a completely different field but joined because I had great faith in Shubham as a guide. He is instrumental in helping me rise to the position I am at today!
I learned the work quickly because of the enormous help and support I got from my wonderful team. I do CRM testing, web and mobile testing, hotfixes and now work in Putty commands for scheduling notifications and backend changes and writing queries in SQL. I am still a ‘work in progress’ but am enjoying it every step of the way!
I got promoted to a QA tester from Junior QA tester within a year with a great hike. I have been with Porter for 3.5 years now. My Future plans include learning app testing, automation, Java etc and to grow more in this field. I was never an Engineer but I have learned so much here which has redefined my career choices completely! Porter gave me the ability to do and learn so much more. I especially want to thank Shubham Saluja (QA Lead, Porter), Akshat Srivastav (Senior QA Engineer) and Pawan Seerwani (Staff Engineer) for teaching me all about QA! Porter brought maturity, learning, and growth in me. I have become a better version of myself. After so many good years here Porter has become my second home.
People often ask me how I work in a Tech team with a B.com background. It’s all about learning and dedication. I did this because I got ample opportunity, a will to evolve and a great team! Anything is indeed possible in a good workplace!”
Editor: Dr. Madhulika Dash
(Porter is India’s market leader in tech-enabled logistics with more than 10,000 driver partners, across 6 cities. Established in 2014, Porter plans to set golden standards not only for Indian logistics but also for employee centrality and 100% partner and customer compliance & satisfaction. We want our three pillars which are our customers, employees, and partners to find happiness and meaning in what they/we do together!
(Of the People, by the People, for the People is part of a continuing series in the Porter Blog where we will be sharing employee stories, engagement techniques, experiences, and practices. We strongly believe in being the change we want to see! Be a part of this change. To know more visit https://porter.in/ ).
