When I first thought of writing a blog article I wasn’t able to decide the topic for it. Then I thought writing about transition from university to work would be a good idea as every person has to go through this transition and experience the difference.

My University life was full of excitement and fun because of the friends I had. I am a people person and I absolutely loved surrounded by my friends. We used to have lunch and also do all our assignments together. Working as a group definitely increased my productivity and I graduated from The University of Melbourne with Honours. There was no time to sit idle which was the best part of being at university. I loved every bit of it….. However, I detested going to the lectures, working on projects on weekends and I absolutely disliked the swat vac period which was full of pressure and anxiety. 

My life changed significantly since I started working at PaperCut. I definitely live a more structured/balanced life. Moreover, it has made me a more organized, responsible and confident person. One of the requirements for the job was to start work at 6 am..I thought it would be impossible for me to wake up at 5 am. Now, I have finally managed to get it into the routine. I believe nothing is impossible in this world if you have the will to do it. (Impossible = I M POSSIBLE.  ). Now I have actually understood the meaning of the saying by Benjamin Franklin “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”  

When I started working at PaperCut I realized what you do at university is completely different to what you do at work. Real computing experience comes when you start working. Now, I implement features that are used all over the world by millions of customers. I really enjoy implementing them and learning from more experienced programmers – Chris, Matt and Tom who are very encouraging and inspiring people. Working on a printer counter software which has a cross-platform support has surely increased my knowledge on different kinds of networks and operating systems, data bases. I have been working on various technologies such as Java, Tapestry, CSS, HTML, HQL, Jasper Reports, Hibernate, DocBook and many others. I have even started drinking coffee in the hope of becoming a better programmer. (According to Chris, coffee is a performance enhancing drug for a programmer.)

Now I can spend more time cultivating my hobbies such as dancing, cooking and playing basketball and badminton.  Working full time has also given me the freedom to buy whatever I like unlike before when I had to think twice before spending my money. Furthermore, it’s such a relief to think that I don’t have to give exams ever again in my life.

One thing which really upsets me is that I don’t get to see all my university friends as often as I had thought.  Everyone seems to have gotten busy in their work and personal lives. In addition, I miss my family much more than before and now really can’t wait to meet them in December.