Life on Srikanth Cherla

I'm a Dad!

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

My Experience in Applying for a Work Visa at the UK Home Office

Mon, 17 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I submitted my Tier 2 work visa application to the UK Home Office on May 9th, with a guaranteed 8-week processing time. Nearly 10 weeks later, with no decision and my passport still held, I contacted them.

The helpdesk was unhelpful — they offered to forward my details to a colleague and said I’d hear back in 3–5 working days. Holding your passport has real consequences: no travel, no financial transactions requiring ID. I contacted my local MP and filed a formal complaint.

Reflections on Three Months of Remote Work

Thu, 09 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

From October 2016 to January 2017, Nina and I were in Hyderabad, India — and I worked remotely for Jukedeck throughout. Here’s what I learned.

Setup

Before leaving London, my team lead Kevin and I agreed on IST working hours (11 AM–7 PM, giving five hours of overlap with London), daily standup updates via Slack, and asynchronous participation in planning via Google Docs and Skype.

Standups

We initially had a colleague hold a laptop during in-person standups, but audio quality was poor. We switched to asynchronous video messages via Skype — which had the unexpected benefit of keeping standups brief and concise.

Merry Christmas!

Sun, 25 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My lovely wife Nina and I recorded a little video where we play a cover of the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, to wish all our loved ones a merry Christmas. So here’s wishing everyone a merry Chirstmas and a very happy New Year from the both of us!