Deokant- The First Ellician

Deokant was the first Ellician to join Ellicium. Ellicium celebrates its 5th anniversary today, and so is Deokant. Celebrating Ellicium and his half-decade journey, I conversed with him. Even when congratulatory messages were pouring in on Ellicium’s internal WhatsApp group, Deokant was busy sailing through Pentaho, his favorite BI tool. But somehow, I managed to sneak in and get his time.

Here is a detailed account of our discussion.

K: Congratulations! So, how does it feel to celebrate half a decade at Ellicium?

D: Haha…that makes me feel old. And thank you! This might sound like cliched, but these five years went so fast. I feel great!

K: How were the initial days? You must have faced many challenges; how did you tackle them?

D: I remember May 1, 2012, when I joined Ellicium as a Software Developer. I was happiest as I got my first job. However, I had concerns as Ellicium was just starting, and I was the only member who needed prior experience. But I trusted my instincts and started working.

I was trained in BI and deployed on a client site. Our client just started using Pentaho, and I was the only person who knew a bit about it. The Pentaho version at that time was 4.0; it is now 7.0. I struggled a lot to find relevant guidance – and support, as usage and information were limited then. But Kuldeep pushed me to learn by doing. Eventually, I got hands-on. Those were the days when I developed my own learning approach. I could build a solid base for myself. That was an amazing time of discovering and trying out things.

K: I can imagine how hard it must have been to work on Pentaho 4.0 then. Now I know why everyone calls you Pentaho master! Tell me about your first Big Data project.

D: Eventfully, we got Big Data work from India’s leading IoT company. It was a machine-to-machine project. That is when I got introduced to Big Data technologies. Being a fresher, I was fortunate to get to work on such a big project.

K: I heard you are a BI guy.

D: I have always enjoyed learning and executing BI. I live in the world of Data Visualisation. Since the beginning, I have always interacted with business owners. It has been oddly satisfying for me to aid business owners with the useful visualization of critical data.

K: Great to hear that! As we are talking about, what skills did you develop while being a BI guy?

D: You should be skilled in UI to be a useful BI person. I started learning JavaScript and PHP. I love PHP! The same happened with PHP as Pentaho when I started learning it by discovering it 5 years back. I got a chance to work on BI and UI since day one.

K: You love teaching. Would you like to talk more about it?

D: I have always been a natural teacher. I enjoy it! I don’t know how, but it is intrinsic. It is fun to work with those to whom you have taught.

K: Can you recall one challenging day?

D: It is on top of my head! One of the clients wanted an analyzer report, which is nothing but a drill-down report. Pentaho was not equipped to do it at that time. But the client desperately needed that and wanted it as soon as possible. I requested for one day. That day they were turned out to be the longest day! At the end of it, I could find the solution. The client was happy. They appreciated me a lot and requested to conduct a session on it for their employees. What a day it was! It was a great achievement for me.

K: How do you think these 5 years have shaped you?

D: From day one, I was working at the client site. It took time to understand client requirements shared in their standard language. As requested, the only way to deliver work was to study client processes and terminologies. During the day, I used to work, and during the night, I used to study. That grilling developed many skills in me. I have had the opportunity to work on all advanced technologies. Ellicium always allowed me to excel. This place has shaped me into a team player, a teacher, and a fighter!

K: You have worked with Kuldeep more than anyone else.

D: He has been a great mentor! I have learned the most important thing from him: to ‘Stay cool, stay calm.’ I have never seen him running out of patience for me. He always supported me to succeed. I have shared many fond memories with him since my joining. I still crave those long drives we used to have for client demos.

K: You develop great friendships when you work so long in one place. Everyone at Ellicium is fond of you.

D: I started working in a team with Vaidehi, Ashish, and Onkar, who were early team members. It was an amazing experience. I have learned a lot from them. They have become my family! I cherish all those crazy days working with them as a small team.

K: What helped you the most when it comes to Ellicium culture?

D: Friendly environment! You can share anything and everything with everyone. It makes working easy. There are no barriers. This has helped me a lot. It is one big family!

K: Where do you see yourself in the future?

D: Ellicium is my home. I, with Ellicium, have come a long way. It has been a fascinating journey from 1 Ellician to 40 Ellicians. I want to work more. My dream is to see Ellcium succeed more and become a global organization. I want to see the name of Ellicium be taken in synonym with Big Data and BI. The way we are growing and working, I foresee that it will happen soon.

K: What is your advice to the new members of the Ellicium family?

D: The message I want to share with new members is to trust themselves and have patience. There is a solution for everything; just look around and find it.

Thank you very much, Deokant, for sharing your journey! You are an inspiration!

(Deokant is our BI lead. You can connect with him here: http://bit.ly/2piSbpN)