My experience working with a client in a land far, far away

My career at OPSPL took off with a 6 months internship. It was a great opportunity to get selected as a PHP developer. The first task that was assigned to me was development of a WordPress website. Initially, I had no knowledge about WordPress. But now, I consider myself lucky for that opportunity given to me.

As the days passed by, I developed a great interest in WordPress development. My skills were polished when I got the opportunity to develop a theme for the company’s website (www.opspl.com). I learnt about the template hierarchy, WordPress hooks, how to customize the plugins as per the requirements, etc.

After a year of working on WordPress websites, I got lucky to work with a client who is based in Sydney. It’s been more than a month now that I am working on their tasks.

At the initial phase of my career, I would hardly interact with the client directly. This golden chance was a major turning point in my career. My PHP background served as a plus point to fetch me this great opportunity.

I must say I was born under a lucky star. My client is very kind and helpful. I have learnt a lot about tools for project management which has in turn helped me to create a beautiful website with the themes and plugins they normally use.

Since we are both in different time zones, my client is available only during the first half of the day. It is very crucial to communicate with the team and comprehend the task to be taken up for the day in those few hours. The task boards are already filled with tasks before I report to work. So my day begins with going through the tasks list and then greeting the client, ‘Hi, How are you today?’. He always replies with a warm response which motivates me to do my tasks for the day.

Following are a few points that have to be taken care of when you are working for an overseas client:
– Clarify each and every task that is being assigned. There is no harm if you seek clarification but the task has to be completed and delivered on time as per the client’s requirements.
– If the client assigns a task that contains concepts and tools you have never worked with, put in extra time and effort to understand the same. It is very important to get clarity about the tasks before you dive into it.
– When you are taking a day off, make sure that the client is informed well in advance about the leave. It should preferably be one or two weeks prior so that if there is anything you need to deliver during those days, you are assigned the job with enough time to complete it before your day off.

My day ends by sending him a status update about the day’s tasks and bidding him goodbye.

Through this experience, I’m maturing into an all-round developer as I am able to work on multiple types of tasks. In the long run, I feel that I will become not just a programmer, but a solution provider!!

–Sweta Nagvenkar