Wizards of Extentia: Chetan Sawant

In a nutshell

I'm a fun-loving, badminton enthusiast, and a Senior Tech Lead who is now steering towards the realms of tech architecture at Extentia. I believe that the only route to success is constant learning.

Flashback…

It all started back in 2005 when I was looking for a job after completing engineering from Mumbai. I was working with a small-scale company at that time and was looking for a growth opportunity. I was suggested Extentia by a friend who was an Extentian at that time. Fortunately, after three rounds of interviews, I was selected and started my journey as a software engineer! Since then, there has been no looking back. We started with the strength of 80 employees, and now we are more than 700 – seems like a lifetime now!

Reminiscing…

It’s been 15 years since then! I still remember the initial days of my journey, when we were working on visual basics, and I was handling the maintenance pass. At that time, I fixed a couple of important issues which were not working correctly for Outlook. I solved some performance issues as well. My project manager was quite happy with me. We spent almost every night in the office working on the problems, but no one ever complained. Everyone was energetic and happy. Naazneen, who stayed right behind the office building, would often come and check on us, bringing tea and coffee – it was like a home and continues to remain so all these years later.

The Turning Points

• The turning points of my career have been many! The first breakthrough that I had was immediately after my first year at Extentia. After my performance in fixing the important issues and my involvement in another critical project, both the management and my project manager considered me for leading a new project that was completely based on a new technology we were soon going to adopt.

• The next turning point was when I got the opportunity to travel to the US for an enterprise project. This led me to travel abroad every year till 2019.

Work and Projects Successfully Completed:

• 15+ projects

• Enterprise projects with big clients

• High-impact emails

• Catered to UK-based clients

• Pertaining to several financial and e-commerce domains

At Present:

I am currently working as a Senior Tech Lead and still feel it’s a learning process for me even after 16 years in Extentia.

To the young professionals

“Always keep upgrading yourself; you would not want to be a bad influence for others. It’s always about learning and making your customers happy!”

Extentia for me

Extentia is a place where you can express yourself freely. Extentia is supportive, even at the personal level, which makes you grab many opportunities, always empowering you to learn and research.

Memorable moments

My first stage performance at the annual party is one of my most memorable moments where I got the chance to perform onstage for the first time in my life. It was fun and exciting. The other incident was when I led a team comprising members of different departments during X24, Extentia’s annual hackathon, back in 2016. We did great that year!

My lifelines

My biggest lifeline is my team here at Extentia; without them, I cannot do anything. Team bonding is essential for the success of any project or work. Next is my ‘Bun-Maska’ group; we often assemble during breaks for 10-15 minutes for refreshments – it revitalizes us, and we all get back to work happily. On a personal level, of course, my family!

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