Bibek Lama, Senior DBA was looking for a job when he saw a vacancy in F1Soft Group of Companies in Merojob. He had heard about F1Soft and decided to apply. A few days later, when he was on New Road, he received a call back for an interview. He attended the interview and was selected for the job. Hence began his journey at F1Soft group of companies in March of 2014.
Before joining the company, he had tried eSewa a few times but was not a regular user. He started properly using eSewa with the encouragement from his senior. Remembering the incident, he shares “The senior even provided me with a small amount in eSewa to conduct test transactions, and since then I have been regularly using the app”.
Even when he was working at F1Soft, he used to keep track of eSewa’s data. This turned out to be very useful to him when he eventually shifted to eSewa as a Database Administrator. In fact, he is part of eSewa’s first Database Administrator team.
Over the years, eSewa has grown a lot with new customers and merchants joining every day. When Bibek first joined eSewa, people barely knew what the company did and when someone asked about work, in addition to saying he worked at eSewa, he had to explain what eSewa is as well. But today, when someone asks where he works and he answers with eSewa, people know what it is and have a very good impression about it. Taking into account the excessive growth in data, he says,
“When eSewa reached 50 Lakh transaction for the first time, we celebrated the achievement, today, eSewa completes the transaction in crore these days, and the data is growing every day!”
Then, he goes on to state, “When eSewa had a few customers and fewer merchants, managing data was easy. As the data is growing, it has become tougher to manage the system. But, instead of taking it as a challenge, the team looks at this as an opportunity to grow ourselves.” It is clear from his statements that he is continuously looking for ways to make eSewa’s system better.
His dedication towards work is clearly visible from his works at eSewa. Originally from Hetauda, he remembers one incident from 2017 when he had to stay in Kathmandu during Tihar. eSewa was undergoing a major version upgrade. At this time, some of the customers were facing eSewa related issues and the team worked tirelessly to solve those issues. Similarly, even when his marriage date was just one day away, he was in the office working late at night on a big project. Whether it was staying back in Kathmandu without going to his home in Hetauda during Tihar, or working till late night even when his marriage was just a day away, he doesn’t seem to regret any actions.
eSewa has not only grown as a company but has provided development platforms for individuals too. From the start of his career, to now, he believes eSewa has provided him with growth opportunities providing him to lead multiple teams: Database as well as the quick-fix team. In total, he leads a team of around 10 people. Talking about them, he says “I am fortunate enough to have found great team members. I find working with them very easy and hope to see them succeed”.
As for his life outside work, he loved playing football and fishing when he was at Hetauda. Then once he entered Kathmandu, his hobbies moved towards watching movies with friends and today his hobbies mostly consist of spending time with the family. He is fond of his kid and spends most parts of his weekend with his child. Happy that he currently has two days of the weekend, he devotes the weekends mostly to his family and research works. Work-life balance is hard, but he seems to manage it well.
Lastly, his future plan includes making the eSewa’s overall system more productive, finding ways to increase transactions per second and all in all improving eSewa’s operations. Praising Bibek, one of his colleagues Ashish Gautam says, “Bibek dai is a go-to person for each and every problem. He has proved himself capable of all the tasks that he undertakes. Working with him is always fun. Despite being the senior-most person of the team, he is the most easy-going person to work with. His hunger for knowledge and for empowering the juniors is truly commendable”.