20 lessons in 20 years

Twenty years ago, IT happened to me. IT "happened", as it was never "planned". On 9th August 2004, I joined Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd, thus beginning my journey in the IT industry. Albeit deficiencies in education and lot of detours during the early years of work, serendipity landed me at the right place at the right time.

IT has been exciting, enriching and fulfilling so far. Lessons from a lot of people, situations and circumstances ensured I aged well in IT. This is my attempt to express my gratitude to all those Samaritans, by paying it forward to those who might benefit from what I learnt so far. Here are some lessons I learned spending 2 decades in IT service industry.

1. Credentials beyond academic qualifications

Qualifications might help secure a job, but what floats the boat further are skills beyond academic credentials. I do not opine to undermine or trivialize formal education, however, from my observations, in most of the roles, if not all, soft skills play a bigger role in determining professional success than technical skills.

2. Keep Absorbing

From explicitly demonstrated technical skills to implicit personal traits, there is lot to absorb around us. Some of the best management and interpersonal lessons are learnt by being mere observers. Tune the senses to catch the right wave to evolve as better selves every day.

3. There is something to gain from everything

In general, Software Engineers have an anathema towards support roles. However, apart from being better in debugging and problem solving, Support Engineers are seen to empathize with customer needs better than others. Every role has something to offer to learn, a shift in perspective is all it demands.

4. Visibility matters

Out of sight is out of mind. It's essential to make one's presence felt through activities that go beyond the assigned tasks. Be it sharing your knowledge proactively, volunteering for a cause or thought leadership, every form of contribution adds to the credit side of personal visibility.

5. Rapport matters

Ever observed the traits of executives who occupy the upper echelons in corporate world? One of striking traits is that they network well. Rapport building reaps perennial benefits.

6. Learn to live with uncertainties

Uncertainties may surface in any form, in the most unexpected times and uncertain measures. Software services' delivery mostly struggles with uncertain requirements and unexpected situations. Acceptance and learning to handle such situations skillfully, ensures an easy sail through.

7. Tame your expectations

Not every day welcomes us with challenges, mandating us to wield a sword in a fray. It's better to spread out energies through multiple channels to stay motivated, as most professional days might be "business-as-usual", at times filled with mundane and unexciting work.

8. Shifting the goalposts

Rapid expansion in IT landscape leads to faster obsolescence of existing skills, demanding faster adoption of newer ones. Embracing newer and completely tangential roles, gracefully learning, unlearning and re-learning while adapting to shifted goalposts will decide professional success in coming years. Staying "relevant" enough to be useful for our organization (read "billable" in orthodox service industry) is a survival need.

9. Shaking off the comfort zone

Comfort zone can be like a black hole, it's quick to pull us in and doesn't let us out easily. Be it shouldering additional responsibilities or committing to something that forces off procrastination, any conscious act to shake off lethargy can make us professionally healthier.

10. Ask for help

When in doubt, ask. It's that simple. Although it's important to ask Google (and ChatGPT these days) first and complete your "homework" before we ask smartly to a human. That ensures we respect others' time and capabilities.

11. Multi-tasking does NOT work

Human brain can only focus on one task at any given time. What we call as multi-tasking is rather accelerated "context switching" which is taxing on the brain. It's better to plan the time & tasks wisely to ensure better cognitive and mental health.

12. Man Proposes, Manager disposes

I got this lesson from my Manager at Persistent Systems who once told me- "Don't fall in love with your documents. Don't hesitate to put forth your thoughts, but be ready to be let them down by others". Without reacting emotionally to defend, it's essential to be mindful and respond cleverly. These are opportunities to grow our patience and broaden our perspectives.

13. Emotional Intelligence (EI)

In various experiments conducted globally, Emotional Quotient (EQ) is seen to surpass Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in corporate success. People with higher Emotional Intelligence tend to handle people (both employees and clients) and situations better than others. It's about recognizing you emotions, handling and expressing them well that defines our EQ.

14. Communication

If I were to statistically study the root cause of most official escalations and disputes I've seen over years, I would observe "lack of communication" to be top contributor. "Communication" can be a cause, as well as a remedy for disputes. Clear, unbiased messages, communicated proactively at the right time, to the right audience and through the right channels, can iron out most of the wrangles.

15. Presentation skills

How you speak, speaks a lot about you. Succinct articulation that is succulent on substance and engaging in expression makes a good presentation. Presentation skills, I feel, is one of the most essential of all skills that one must strive to acquire.

16. Honour the time

A famous Radio Jockey who wakes Pune up every morning on Radio City, recites a beautiful line in Marathi which means- One who treats everyone equally, be it of any religion, caste, creed, region or colour, is time. Everyone has equal share over it and yet everyone has it less. Time Management might sound an oxymoron to many, but not unless we consciously treat that as our scarcest resource and work it out wisely.

17. Knowing is important, but applying is more important

Knowledge is like potential energy, unless put to use to make it kinetic. Wisdom is in applying right knowledge in right situation. Better to be wise, than merely knowledgeable.

18. Groom the next line

Grooming someone proactively whom we can pass the baton to, relieves us of work we might've already mastered, allowing time to try something new with additional responsibilities. Apart from leaving our subordinate feel valuable, we offer a chance to elevate ourselves to next level.

19. All that matters is the experience you deliver

People might forget what we said or did, but they won't forget how we made them feel. Products and services that deliver a "feel good" experience strike a chord with customers, thus ensuring longevity of business.

20. Ideation & Innovation

Steve Jobs is said to have based his business on his thought that he voiced out quite often- "Your customers don't know what they want unless you show it to them". Innovation breeds an "inside-out" approach where you translate your ideas into value additions for your customers. More than market research, Jobs relied on a "customer-zero" approach where his own reflection in the mirror would be his first customer.

Above all, the biggest lesson I've learnt is that our academic success may not necessarily define our professional success, and professional success doesn't always translate to life success. All efforts and learnings must ultimately target "Life Success".