Life of a Systems Engineer

 

Hello, my dear readers. ✌😀✋

I'm talking to you after a very long time. And I am thrilled to talk-to and hear-from you after all this time. 

Today is the 22nd of October 2023. I started this blog as an Engineering undergraduate at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) in 2016. 

As I remember my last post was published in 2018 about an Arduino GSM Module. I started this blog as a self-learning experience for myself as well as for the purpose of teaching you all about programming languages in relation to the programming modules we had at KDU.

In this blog, we talked about Fundamentals of Computer Programming using C++ language. Also, we talked about bigger programming paradigms such as Object Oriented Programming as well. I really enjoyed teaching you about these subjects. I hope you all enjoyed my posts as well. 

I am writing to you after 5 long years of silence. What happened during the past 5 years? I am eager to know how it went for you all. 

Here I will talk to you about what happened in my life during the past 5 years! 

#LIFE_UPDATES_FROM_YOURS_TRULY

First of all, Whew! 😅 What an Interesting set of years (Half a decade) we passed, Right?

We faced a Global Pandemic for the first time in our lives. We had to wear face masks for more than a Year. Most of the Human population was vaccinated. Then came a recession. Sri Lanka had a Power crisis, a Fuel Crisis as well, and a Lack of essential items. Political crisis and government changes.  Another side of the world they started a world war.

Whew! 😅 What a roller coaster ride are we going through am I right? More like Aaahhhhgggg!!! (Imitation of the Noise that I make when riding an actual roller coaster xD) 

Anyways, among all these unprecedented times, regardless of the difficulties we faced as a species, we moved forward as the Human race. 

Similarly in my life, I moved forward as well.

Let's start from where we ended.

So In 2018 - I started my Internship at Sri Lanka Telecom.  There I learned a lot about the Telecommunication Industry in Sri Lanka.

Also in 2018, We the students of the Electrical and Electronics Departments of the Engineering Faculty of KDU started one of our Dream projects since 2016.  

Electronics Robotics and Innovation Club or in short ERIC-KDU was created. Vimukthi Senarathne Founding President, Secretary - Kalana Gunasekara and the Founding Vice President Yours Truly with the help of literally all the brothers and sisters of our faculty we were able to create this amazing community for innovative brains of KDU. Not only that we were able to hold the 1st ever Robotic competition inside the KDU. As a person who would love to inspire people, this was one of the proudest moments in my life.

Conducting Workshops for Club Members

Conducting Workshops for Club Members

Conducting Workshops for Club Members

 In 2019 I was in the Final year and my team and I completed a Final year project related to Image processing and Machine learning to reduce the traffic congestion at a Pedestrian Crossing. This project was so successful that it was able to take place in the FYP exhibition at KDU as well and we were able to publish a paper at the KDU International Research Conference. (Our annual Symposium)  

Presenting the Paper at Virtual Symposium

In 2020 just when the pandemic struck, I started my first job as Associate Systems Engineer at hSenid Mobile Solutions. There I learned a lot about the field of system Engineering. Linux Commands, Bash Scripts, SQL, No-SQL etc. Also for the 1st time ever, I learned about how to work in a corporate environment. Unfortunately (or fortunately) almost all the days during those 1 and half years I had to work from home.

Doing a Night Shift at hSenid Mobile on December 31

During this time I became a Rotarator at the Kadawatha Rotaract Club. Despite the love of charity my main goal of joining Rotaract was Just so that I could keep in touch with real human beings other than computers. I was the Sergeant at Arms for the year 2020/21 and the treasurer for 2021.

In 2021 many of the good things happened. After delaying for more than a year we had our convocation in January 2021. 🎓 I was able to buy my 1st car in the same month. 🚗 🤩 I started a new job at an Indian company. There I learned to use Microsoft systems such as Azure and Active Directory as well as the skill of working under stressful situations. 

BSc (Hons) In Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

AT KDU CONVOCATION IN 2021

Babe 🚗

In 2022 I joined IFS Sri Lanka as a Systems Engineer ( Site Reliability Engineer ). Here I am a part of a Global team where my manager and most of the team members are from the United Kingdom. Here I learned a lot about System engineering and was able to complete some exams related to cloud computing as well. In 2022 I joined the Siyane Toastmasters club. I am learning this new world of public speaking even though I always loved speaking to y'all through this blog, after joining this club I realized how much there is for me to improve as a public speaker. 

IFS People

At Siyane Toastmasters Club Doing a Role Play

In 2023 I became the Vice President of Public Relations of Siyane Toastmasters club. I started my MBA as well as started following Project Management Certification. Also, I became 30 Years old 🥺. 

Those were the updates in brief. I am planning to talk to you about more technical things related to my career that might be helpful to you. Since this blog is more related to computer science and programming, I will be talking about Linux Scripting and Azure cloud technologies. Meanwhile, I will be talking about other areas related to career development as well. Such as Business Management, Project Management, Leadership qualities, Public Speaking, and everything in between. 

I hope y'all will join my journey of exploring life by living it while being a lifelong nerd. No matter what challenging time comes to your life always remember, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, a silver lining in every dark cloud, and always always always keep this Mantra whenever at the tip of your tongue whenever you are going through a difficult time, "This Shall too Pass" ✌😇