February 28, 2024
Today was a long and exhausting day.
Yesterday, there was an APIsec event, basically an event focused on API security. After that, there was a CTF (Capture The Flag) challenge for the same. Since I’m an APIsec University Ambassador, I had to attend the event. The event ended at 2 AM, and right after that, the CTF started. Since I was already exhausted, I went to bed around 2 AM and woke up at 7:30 AM—a short sleep.
In the morning, I had to join company work, but there was no actual work today, so I didn’t do much. But here’s something interesting—since it was the last day of February, I had to send my weekly & monthly report to my RM. Now, you already know how I work (I’d say exceptionally), but still, my RM emailed me asking to add each week’s findings with severity. That really annoyed me, and out of frustration, I drafted an email to my Director, calling out the politics happening on the ground.
To explain—my friend and I handle security testing for the company, and we provide the best quality work. However, the full-time employees often take credit for our work. They pretend to work but are just managing Excel sheets. I sent a long email to the Director about this issue. After sending it, I knew I had written it out of frustration, and I felt kind of bad, but I was waiting for the Director’s response.
Later, I started the CTF, and for god’s sake, it was way too complicated. I tried, but I could only capture one flag.
In the afternoon, I continued watching the remaining part of Notting Hill. And honestly, this is one of the best movies I’ve seen so far! The love story was so beautiful and emotional. Tbh, everyone wants that kind of love, right?
After that, I took a short nap and then re-tested the bugs that had been mitigated by the developers.
Later, I finally got a call from the Director. He said he had read my email and understood what I was trying to say. He acknowledged that corporate politics exists and that it happens at the ground level. He also said that while it’s hard to 100% remove it, we had two options:
- 1st - Confront the employees who are taking credit for our work.
- 2nd - Leave it for now, and he’ll observe their behavior. If they repeat the same mistake, he’ll personally confront them.
We also discussed the ground reality of how full-time employees actually work.
Later, I went for my daily walk and completed 5,243 steps. With that, my total steps for February reached 156,785.
