Coding, Compassion & Colours: Decoding Our Full Stack Developer Komal Bansal

Skuad's Full Stack Developer Komal Bansal is a brilliant combination of coding, colors, and creativity. A resolute artist and a passionate social worker, who always carries her laptop and paintbrushes, Komal is very health-conscious but loves spicy food. Ever-ready to work and paint, she shares her experience with Skuad in the last five months. She talks about remote working, work-life balance, color psychology, and more!

Is this your first remote working experience? How has it impacted your life, and what are your takeaways from it?

Umm…I did freelancing for six months before joining Skuad. But yes, this is my first time as a full-time remote worker. I had a topsy-turvy start, trying to strike a work-life balance. There is a closure at the end of the day when we close our laptops in the office. All these things are difficult to balance in a remote working setup. One takes time in understanding, planning, and getting used to the remote work style. Now that I have gotten familiar with it, I see the benefits of working remotely. For starters, I save so much time on travel! This gives me more hours of play and paint. I get to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. And the best part, I don’t have to get ready before starting work. Such a win-win situation!

I understand that everyone is trying to figure out how to maneuver around this pandemic. I think everyone should take care of their health and build immunity. Another thing is maintaining a work-life balance. Earlier, I used to work for 15-16 hours a day that would leave me with minimum time to just catch on my sleep. Slowly, I am trying to change that.

Popular media projects how 'technology' remains a male-dominated field. Is that a myth or a reality?

Popular media does portray a male majority in the IT sector and tech field, but domination by a certain gender is a myth. From my experience as a full-stack developer, I can vouch that there is an equal representation. As long as a person is driven to excel in any field, they will do great. In my college also, most of the top coders were females. I am a woman, and I prefer the backend over the frontend. So yeah, times have changed, people have more will to succeed, invent and explore, hence gender stands irrelevant.

How have your interactions with the team been so far? Are you waiting to get back to the office and meet them?

My experience with the team at Skuad is nothing short of amazing. Special kudos to my Team Lead, Akul. He is someone I look up to. With handsome experience in the field of full-stack development, he has a lot to offer. In fact, the entire team comes with an "It's okay to not know things" attitude. This motivates me to learn more and give my best. Whenever I come across an unfamiliar tech stack, they say, "You don’t know it now, you’ll learn it later." And honestly, I have learned more technologies in these five months than I did in 2 years. Now I can flaunt my learnings of Kafka, Docker, Pipeline, JS Frameworks like Nift.js, and experience in Microservices. I am hell excited to meet everyone in person!

Considering you are an artist, what is your favorite color, and how does that make you feel?

As an artist, I can't pick a favorite color. It's like every color brings me joy. I see beauty as browns and greys when most people associate them with dullness and isolation, so it's all psychological. Shades of colors don't define my happiness quotient but how they blend to give shape to an eye-soothing art.

How do your friends and family describe you? Is it very different from what your peers perceive you to be?

I am very uptight when it comes to completing my work. If I have a deadline to meet, I kind of get into a mode as if I am about to enter into a war zone – focused and determined to finish it off in record time. I like to deliver things as per the plan that I layout. Even in my me-time, I get into the DND zone, especially when I am painting. In those hours, I'm not too fond of interventions from family, friends, or anyone.

Professionally I appear to be a calm, shy, and introverted kind of person. In my personal life, I am the exact opposite. I am loud, and I want things to be "my way." And I don’t have to do anything to maintain the two facets; the modes switch ON-OFF quite naturally.

Glad to have you in our 'Skuad.'

Komal, we are sure that an enthusiastic and artistic Full Stack Developer like you will definitely bring some new experiences and will bill perfectly in our Backend team. It's great to have you with us. Cheers!