Welcome back to the Beyond The Data blog series! This month, we’re highlighting a longtime member of our Bangalore team. Gaurav is a senior DevOps engineer who brings big data experience and a passion for mentorship to the phData community.
Tell us where you’re from and a little about you.
My name is Gaurav Gupta, hailing from the city that is popular for its enriched culture and heritage – Delhi, India. Currently, I live in Bangalore and have been living here for the past few years.
I completed my post-graduate degree in Computer Applications from NIT Kurukshetra. After this, I worked for L&T InfoTech for nearly 3.5 years and then joined the phData team.
What does 'Senior DevOps Engineer' mean? What do you actually do on any given day?
Tell us about the Data and Machine Learning Managed Services team. What is it like working with them every day?
How long have you been with phData? What past experiences have prepared you for your job at phData?
I joined phData in February 2018. Prior to that, I was working with L&T Infotech as a Hadoop platform administrator. However, I am always indebted to my alma mater, NIT Kurukshetra, which helped me evolve by providing me opportunities in various student administrative bodies and extracurricular activities.
I’d like to point out that the job screening and interview process of phData is one of the smoothest I have attended so far. The process is practical and project-based with no-nonsense questions, making it easier and exciting, not only for the candidates but also for the interview panel.
A team outing in September 2018.
How have you seen the company change since you joined in February 2018?
You are known amongst team members as a great mentor and friend to new employees! Why is mentoring important to you?
I like to share my experiences with others who I think can benefit from hearing about them. I would not want others to face any of the hurdles that I have already faced and overcome with time. At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure that the new team members have ample experience when they start to work in a client environment for the first time by helping them feel prepared and confident enough to face any situation.
It’s important to mention that over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing people from whom I have learned so much. I think mentoring is a way of giving it back to the community. It’s a continuous process in itself and I hope the chain continues.
A spontaneous outing with Team Delta.
What is the one thing you want customers to know about phData?
phData is a very carefully curated and crafted team of very talented technologists and enthusiasts. It is led by the very brightest minds in the industry, tied together by core values that truly everyone believes in. And thus, we work as a great team, own customer problems, and resolve them end to end.
What are the most exciting things you’re working on and how do you see them positively impacting our customers?
OS Patching via Ansible is one of the activities we took up as a challenge to automate a repeated manual process that can typically take up to 1-2 days on a fairly large cluster. Now it’s reduced to just a few hours while keeping accuracy intact and reducing the downtime of the cluster a considerable amount.
phData Platform Best practices is another continuous effort by the team to gather issues and resolutions across our customers and compile them as a set of best practices. We use these to bring clusters to a stable state very quickly.
What do you do for fun when you’re not working?
When I’m not working, I love to spend time with my wife, Ankita. Occasionally, we enjoy being couch potatoes and binge-watching TV series and movies. However, if there is a cricket match, that’s my priority.
I also try to engage in cooking, along with some slow music. It’s an absolute stress buster for me. It was once my dream to become a chef and now I enjoy myself trying various new recipes at least once a week.
Gaurav with his wife, Ankita.
