Some bittersweet news about hmehta (me)
Hey Everyone,
After 8 exciting years of learning, growing and eating a lot of butter chicken with the Topcoder Community, I can proudly say I have learned and grown a lot being a part of this community. And with that I have a bittersweet news to share with you all - I've made one of the most difficult decisions in my life to take an exciting next step in my career. I will be leaving Topcoder as an admin, but continue being a contributor and member for life.
First of all, Thank You Topcoder!
I have worked with some of the amazing people in the past 8 years, and have endless gratitude for all of the challenges, opportunities, fun and learnings. I have always emphasised and would mention this again, you will only grow more within a community. There is no doubt I have been the biggest utilizer of that. Not only the amazing team, but the variety of great members who taught me and inspired me a lot. Topcoder as a community has nurtured so many of us in so many ways. I am just very thankful to have been introduced to it 13 years back.
There’s a lot we have accomplished and more to come:
8 years is a long time, in fact, 13 years, from knowing Topcoder, being a member, competitor, admin, and loving Topcoder, TCOs and the community day and night. A lot was accomplished, new things launched, a lot was fixed, and a lot of conversations, fun and growing relationships!
This is not the end, there are many more interesting changes coming up at Topcoder, more work and working styles suiting your needs, more learning opportunities and more opportunities to have fun and meet new people.
SRM, MM and now RDMs and Skill Builders as well are a big part of the future of Topcoder: You must have seen me and the team passionately loving and doing all that we can to keep competitive programming at Topcoder to its standards. And, I can proudly say and inform you, that the whole company leadership realizes this and competitive programming has a great future at Topcoder. A lot of new changes are coming with a great focus and future in mind to make competitive programming exciting like Topcoder did when it introduced SRMs 21 years ago. Checkout the calendar for the upcoming matches.
The leadership team has new focus areas under Subha (new interim CEO). There is a super solid strategy to make the member onboarding and experience something every developer would like. And the effort everyone in the team is putting into achieving it every day is inspiring. Jessie and I have discussed over a million amazing things over the years and we both know most of them would be possible to execute with the new focus the team has.
So what am I going to do and why…
I started at Topcoder as a Technology Evangelist and didn’t know anything about community building. In my time here at Topcoder, I learned a lot from mentors like Jessie, Adam, Mess, Sumit, Ritesh, Tony, Maryam, Greg, many more teammates and members who patiently provided their feedback helped me understand them and their needs. Big thanks to everyone for all the opportunities I got to support and grow the community. Major credit goes to Jessie as she helped me grow a lot in my career with all the support and opportunities.
Now to learn more and try new things, I am heading to manage a developer community as the Senior Community Manager, concentrating on initiatives such as user groups, building their local communities, and outreach.
Wait… again, I'm not leaving the Topcoder community and will stay on as a member and contribute in any way possible to the growth and success of the community that helped me be what I am today!
Will miss you all and thank you all for being a part of this journey and making it the one to remember!
Wish the best for everyone and hope to see you on the leaderboard! 
@hmehta
Comments
First off, 😭...
When @hmehta shared this news, I was grateful to have been wearing my TCO hat so I could hide the tears. To me, working at Topcoder and with all our members is not really a "job" to me. It's something I have the priviledge to do every day as part of my life. I am not able to find the end of work and beginning of home life and vice versa. It is all blurred together for me.
I consider many of my Topcoder team mates and community members as family - @hmehta included. I've called him my brother from another mother. Pretty much every time I'm eating butter chicken or any Indian food, I'm snapping a photo to send to him.
It has been really important to me to make sure the culture I'm creating within my own team and the community as a whole is one that is supportive and nurturing. I love watching folks grow and prosper because of all that we provide here at Topcoder. Harshit's journey is no different. Having started as a member and grown to become the respected admin he is today is something he has worked incredibly hard for. I'm so proud to see him spreading his wings and becomding a manager himself doing what he loves.
Though we're going to miss him terribly on a day to day basis for all that he brings to us, I'm really excited to watch him continue to grow and make the world a better place for the people he will be working for and with. He is and still will be a passionate member of our community and I expect him to be yelling at me any time there is an issue he finds. I don't think he'll ever be able to completely stop being an active part of this community for sure.
Please help me wish him farewell and wish him all the best in his new endeavors but also help me thank him for all the years of hard work and dedication to make our community and TCO what it is today.
My team and I have a special hangout planned in his honor on October 8 at 9:00 UTC-4. Please join us for his send off.
Thank you, @hmehta, you will be missed! 🤗
As one of the founders of the butter chicken squad, your place in our hearts will never be replaced neither forgotten my dear brother. You have made a difference in my life and - I'm 100% certain - of many other members who arrive to this community in search for help and they find the best possible response to that: you.
I wish you the effing best in your new endeavor. I know you'll nail it and succeed, whatever it is that you're doing.
Once a Topcoder, always a Topcoder. Love you brother.
See you around,
Luis
Congratulations on your new adventure! I must confess that I already knew that you were leaving as an employee. Why? Your message response time slowed down (you always answer members' questions promptly during the weekdays). I know that you will do a good job little brother!
@hmehta is amonst the favorites i enjoyed to interact with especially on how he made sure the skill builder challlenges are intact to make me active. Topcoder members always felt that warmth with your chat along Jessie, adam, Nick etc. I am sad at the moment(quite a surprise), but wish you success in your next phase. I had interacted much with you even via emails and your response is amazing and motivation. Even as a topcoder member, look forward for your interaction and contribution. Damn! Damn!Damn! Like a blackhole in the deep universe swallowed my heart.
Nice post. Enlightening.
Hello Harshit, I'll remember you as someone who used to respond at short notice whenever I sent you a DM to learn about anything regarding Topcoder, particularly during my initial years as a member.
We never did meet in Goa, like we had planned to do. But if you do visit sometime in the future, do catch up! All the very best for your future endeavours.
Hey Harshit, your new team is lucky to have you on board. Wishing you great success in your new role!
I hope your experience with your next employer is as fun as the time we had here. Best of luck and thank you for everything, brother!
Meeting you was like a gift, I never knew such a person might actually exist. Best of luck in any future directions. Maybe I'll have the privilege to see you sometimes around here as well.
It is very hard to digest this fact that a core member like you would be leaving TC.
I have known you all along and you'll be missed.
All the very best Harshit in your future endeavour.
take care bro...
Harshit,
Its hard to imagine the topcoder team without you. You have become an integral part of tc over the years. All the very best for your furure endeavors.
Working with you, Harshit was a pleasure and always so much fun! I admired how responsive you were all the times, how excited you were about bringing new member programs and how you were going to great lengths to help our community. I’ve learned so many things from you and will always be grateful for that. Thank you!
There’s no need to mention the great memories we created together when we saw each other at TCO or in the trips after it, from eating butter chicken in US with the squad and screaming like crazy on the Six Flags roller coasters, to having sushi in Tokyo. You will always be in my heart as a good friend and will miss you a lot.
Wish you good luck in your new adventure and never change your spirit!
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