Megadeth..

Megadeth is probably the most agressive metal band in the world..!

It is difficult to fathom what level Metallica would have reached, had they not fired Dave Mustaine…

They had the killer combination of James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine which could have demolished the metal world.!

Dave Mustaine was fired for being an addict and being indisciplined… although he had amazing talent..

The fact that he was fired without a warning angered him so much that he started a band himsellf, called Megadeth.. and everyone knows how f#@$ing good Megadeth is.!

Dave Mustaine is probably the greatest guitarist alive.. he makes playing lightning fast riffs seem like a joke..

My personal favourite among his performances is SheWolf-Live at the Rude Awakening Concert..

He ripped killer solos back n forth in that concert and made it look ridiculously easy..

I am an ardent fan of Metallica, so would have loved to see Metallica scale new heights with Dave Mustaine..

but in a way.. Im glad that metallica threw mustaine out, coz the world wudn have witnessed something as brutal and agressive as Megadeth..

Also, we wouldn’t have had the gift of songs like Enter Sandman, One, Unforgiven etc, which were composed by Kirk Hammet, who was Dave Mustaines replacement..

My Job..

I work as a Customer Solutions Engineer at Akamai Technologies (www.akamai.com) in the Emerging Customers Group(ECG). My work revolves around Sales and involves presales, solution selling, integrating solutions, writing metadata(pseudocode) and lots more..

We, at Akamai, are responsible for kicking the shit out of the internet and making it reliable and secure. With Akamai, close to 3000 customers including MS, Adobe, Apple, Yahoo and any other big name you can think of (excluding Google, they are a DIY company..) enhance their online presence by leveraging Akamai’s global network of servers and complex set of algorithms and protocols that help accelerate just about any sort of content on the internet..

I like talking to customers and love the fact that customers look up to us as business partners who can work wonders for their business.. It is a great feeling to talk to different customers although I am still in the process of mastering it..

I work in the night as I interact with US customers on the phone.. I am used to it now and in fact prefer this, as I get to spend a lot of time with my family in the day..

Akamai is a very nice place to work.. Akamai has a nice culture and does not have the policy of making employees work like donkeys in return for peanuts.. They are pay masters of course and the nature of work is fun at the same time, is challenging..

One of the great things about Akamai is that you have complete freedom to become whatever you want if you have the stuff that the role requires.. You can hop into any division from Engineering to Product management to professional services to what not..

You get to learn a lot and at the same time you get to contribute to the company’s growth, which is a great feeling, especially when you work for Sales..

There are only about 200+ employees in the India office, so you dont feel like another brick in the wall..

You are special.. anything that you do gets everyone’s notice.. be it an achievement or a goof up.! :p

I work in the Emerging Customer Group(ECG) division of Akamai which deals with the Small and Medium group of Akamai Customers. Akamai’s customers are divided into 5 tiers based on the revenue that Akamai generates from them, as A to E, with A being the highest. ECG caters to tier D and E customers.. It is challenging to work for ECG as most of the business is done over the phone.. Some of the solutions are straight forward, but some of em are really challenging and its a rewarding experience to solve complex problems..

It has been a nice experience so far..

However, we too have felt a pinch of the economy meltdown, as we saw our stock prices crash to around $10 and we also had to part with almost 110 employees in Nov 08, including 3 people from the bangalore office. It was shocking to see really senior folks walk out of Akamai. Scary..!

We saw that with some of our customers as well. We were supposed to get into a meeting with some of the customers and they never turned up.. later we realized that the customers were fired..!

Hopefully things will improve and we will see happier times ahead..

And so it begins..

Been thinking of blogging for almost 2 yrs now.. Finally gave it a start.!

Better late than never