Five years is a decent chunk of time. Long enough to see platforms evolve, codebases expand, and your first-ever bug-fix get completely refactored.
This year, Sonalika, Basant, and Akhil each crossed that 5-year milestone with INTEGRTR. They joined during lockdown as freshers, but what they’ve built alongside us has shaped much of what INTEGRTR is today.
We asked them a few questions. This is not an interview. Not a tribute post either. Somewhere in between.
1. Origin Stories
Sonalika was hopping cities long before she was shipping code, growing up across Lucknow, Vadodara, Jalandhar, and Chennai. A college hackathon unlocked her inner coder, and the rest was a caffeine-fueled blur of learning and building. When INTEGRTR came calling during campus placements, she was home in Pune (mid-lockdown), unsure of what came next, which makes her Taylor Swift quote all the more fitting:
“I don’t know what I want, so don’t ask me.”
– Taylor Swift, A Place in This World
Basant took a slightly more dramatic route — his tech awakening happened when he had to fix a PC he had accidentally broken. That moment sparked a journey that began in the Seven Sisters and wound its way through football courts, ABAP codebases, and the occasional potato chip break. “Something is better than nothing” he says and five years later, that mindset still drives his approach to learning.
Akhil, on the other hand, grew up in Vadodara with roots in Kerala and a childhood fueled by PC games and imaginary battles against evil (as a Power Ranger, of course). He found his way to tech through curiosity and… well, destruction.
“If I don’t know it, I’ll figure it out.”
– Akhil, (and every developer ever, really)
2. First Days, First Bugs, and Facepalm Moments
Getting started in a new company is always a leap. Doing it in the middle of a global lockdown? Even bigger.
Sonalika recalls being greeted by a warm, high-energy team — though explaining her “remote job” to her parents took a bit longer:
“They actually made a phone call to verify it! Still cracks me up.😅”
Basant’s onboarding included one of the most relatable ABAP intros ever:
“My first task was to create a random string generator in a language I had never heard of… ABAP (Yep, I was as clueless as some of you folks are).”
And then there’s Akhil, who made quite an impression when asked about the JavaScript Event Loop:
“I pulled out MS Paint and started writing code in it :)”
3. Growth, Mentors & Lessons You Don’t Learn in Class
Five years later, these once-green interns are now go-to pros.
Sonalika has gone from debugging her first app to leading frontend modules and mentoring new devs, crediting her growth to supportive mentors like Nitish and the simple but crucial lesson:
“Clean code and thoughtful UX go a long way. And breaking things is just part of the build cycle.”
Basant, now juggling multiple roles across dev, testing, documentation, and mentoring, says his biggest lesson is:
“Build better, fail better — and keep going.”
Akhil? He’s still asking questions — just better ones — and remains loyal to his trademark debugging mantra:
“Still building, still learning, — but now with fewer panic attacks.”
4. Working Across Timezones
Working with teams across India, Germany, and the US taught them more than just time-zone math.
Global teams bring flexibility—and a few quirks.
Sonalika:
“It made me more structured, mindful of different work styles, and better at async collaboration.”
Basant:
“One fun habit is that my colleague frequently has to remind me that I can reply to a text tomorrow instead of 9 PM IST because the time zones and work hours are different. And I always forget this 😑.”
Akhil:
“We once got into a long conversation explaining Onam traditions during a team meeting. Turned into a full cultural exchange.”
5. The Dev Digest 🧃
Small stuff that somehow says a lot.
| Sonalika | Basant | Akhil | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🧃 Go-to coding snack | Coffee + makhana | Potato chips | Coffee |
| 🛠️ Most-used command | VSCode & | SAP GUI | VSCode + |
| 🐞 Bug you hate most | Silent bindings | One that arises because of a data issue. | The “works-on-my-machine” bug. It’s humbling, every single time. |
| 🔍 Most-Googled | Date formatting in UI5 | String manipulation using offset specification | How can I rebase my branch to a specific commit? |
| 🤯 Most used Emoji | 😅 | 😎 | 👀 |
| 🎵 Debugging soundtrack | “Blank Space” | “Take Me Home, Country Roads” | “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend“ |
6. Thoughts After 5 Years
Looking back—just briefly.
Sonalika:
“It’s a proud milestone – a reminder of how much I have grown, adapted, and contributed over time.”
Basant:
“Personally, it is a great feeling to mark this milestone in a place where I started my career. And professionally, these 5 years are important because they shape my future path.”
Akhil:
“Personally, it means growth. Professionally, it means trust. I came in as a curious kid — I stayed because this place lets me build, break, and grow.”
Five years in. Still raising the bar.
Cheers to everything you’ve helped build—and everything that’s coming next.
👋 Looking to join a team that grows with you? Explore open roles →
