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📍 Nov 2010 – Nov 2012 | Chennai
Fresh out of college, I began my career at Accel Frontline Ltd in Chennai.
It was my first step into the world of IT — and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to start.
I joined the Hosting Team , a small group of six, responsible for everything from email (qmail, sendmail, postfix, zimbra) and web hosting to VPC environments . It was a hands-on role in every sense — we managed not only the hosting but also the underlying infrastructure.
I learned to assemble servers from scratch — adding hard drives, configuring hardware RAID, setting up network switches, and mounting machines in racks at the data center. Sometimes we even had to ship hardware ourselves. There was no “this isn’t my job” mindset; we all pitched in and learned together.
What I loved most was the culture of curiosity . Everyone was willing to teach, help, and share. We often stayed late troubleshooting issues, laughing over snacks, and feeling that shared pride when everything finally worked.
💬 Below is a photo of me in the local data center after assembling one of our servers — Mission: Plug it in without breaking production 💪
💸 The Struggles Behind the Learning
I worked at Accel for almost two years , and while the learning was priceless, the financial side was quite the opposite.
My salary was ₹1.2 lakh per annum — which came to about ₹8,300 per month take-home. Out of that, I had to manage everything — shared rent (a 1BHK apartment with five others ), internet bills, mobile bills, food, and daily travel to the office. It was tough — every rupee mattered.
To make things trickier, we had a three-year contract , and breaking it meant paying a ₹1.5 lakh penalty — ironically, more than my annual salary.
On top of that, Accel was going through financial challenges at the time, as it was in the middle of an acquisition phase .
That meant salary delays — sometimes by two weeks , and occasionally, an entire month’s pay would be skipped and merged with the next one.
Imagine trying to stretch ₹8,000 while waiting for delayed pay — it taught me budgeting the hard way.
And as if that wasn’t enough, we also worked six days a week , including every Saturday.
So between work, travel, and managing expenses, there wasn’t really much of a “life outside work.”
Most weekends were spent either catching up on sleep or preparing for the next week — but in hindsight, it built discipline and endurance that would help me later in my career.
Despite the challenges, those years built my resilience . They made me appreciate the value of stability, planning, and knowing when to take the next step.
So, with a mix of anxiety and hope, I decided it was time to look for opportunities outside.
I had one clear goal in mind — to find a job with a salary good enough to help me break the contract and move forward.
✨ What I Learned at Accel Frontline
- Hands-on learning beats theory every single time.
- Teamwork matters more than titles.
- Financial struggles can become powerful motivation
- Curiosity and willingness to experiment build the strongest foundation.
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