Learn, Unlearn & Relearn - Journey of an Engineer to Leader !

Your career path took a few unusual twists and turns, this line pushed me to read about your story Daniel F. Ritch . I can resonate well with so?many things. Thanks again to Mr. Dan so i am able write a summary of my story.

My Journey from Civil Engineering to UI Developer to Full Stack Freelancer to Engineering Leader + Design Thinker

I am a Civil Engineering Graduate 2000 pass-out from premier institute (NITK) with No computer knowledge, started with passion & became a successful software engineer within 1 year with day & night hard work. Thanks to Mr. Navneet Sahni who gave me a chance in his organisation?National?Micro where I learnt so much & my cousins helped me study basics of different techs. Technology was never?a constraint, you need to have right?problem solving skill. You show me something I will make it, else it keep coming in my dreams to solve it.

Also i would like to Thank?my RECK friends, Seniors who were in IIT Delhi that time for M Tech to extend their help to learn fast & depth of computer engineering.

After 1 year i got in touch with Prof. J K Jain (IIT Delhi), who used to teach C++ & Computer languages during evening classes. I was fortunate enough to get in touch with him. He became my real mentor for long time. He guided me through different phases & made a lot of difference in me. I learnt his learning & training skills, humbleness & honesty towards students.

Later I joined GE Capital. The stint was a very small 3 months but I have seen a big corporate life full of luxury & great corporate learning, Thanks to Mr.?Ravindranath who selected me. I have to leave that as I was meant to work on startups & hot stuff. I can't afford luxury at time as i belong to avg. earning family, I need to learn so much in a short period.

Later I moved to MindSpring Digital, a start up owned by 60+ year old Keshav Pathak, the first time I have seen such an energetic person at that age. He gets the person's value in the first meeting itself. Credit goes to Manik Chauhan who was moving to the UK so referred me. I worked in this startup for 6 months. I felt like I worked for 2 years, I remember every sat, sun in the office working late to make sure none of the deliveries slipped, we?did a lot of different projects. Sleepless night but we was paid for it.?I was the only developer in that company so I have done everything in different technologies. “It was so hard! There were many nights where I didn’t do the job correctly and had to stay there until I got it done. I remember I worked overnight a few times,”

Here my career took a great turn when I thought about leaving this company.

Last day I visited Mr. Keshav home for the first time, he called me personally as he was unwell (back pain) - he said Jolly, I don't want to lose you but don't want to stop too, I can see you can do wonders in life, you deserve a bigger place.?

He proposed to me, If I give you the same salary to just consult us on weekends but every project design, delivery is your responsibility, you need to find your successor too.

I did my best to bring my cousin who helped me with my 1st job & next day the successor was ready with?that company. We did really great things in the company for almost 1 year. Later some leaders moved from here & invited me to their startup for consulting on weekends & my consultant career kicked-off.

I joined the Solutions Inc company referred by my friend Arpit Jain who moved to the UK that time. I was super excited to join and luckily I got it. This company really changed my career to a whole new level.

I would like to thank the CEO of Company Mr. Anil Baid who was always inspiring & my college senior, who gives some great connections for some reasons (RECKER).

Within a year I got the opportunity to go for my first international conference of Macromedia at Salt Lake City UTAH. I used to go to local conferences & spark come in for learning & become a speaker 1 day.

Solutions Inc really helped me through everything, I put more than 120% always to make sure I keep the bar high for me. I did training on UI Technologies being so junior but I loved it. Solutions Inc sponsored my M S Degree in computer science, i was eagerly waiting to learn all about Software systems from an academic point of view so I got the opportunity & i did it. I love to do courses for some reasons i feel after job ...you know the real value of course & teacher. Thanks to my official mentors from Solutions Inc. Mr. Tushar Bhatkar & Vikas Hazrati.

You can't imagine what I was going through during Master's Degree

1. Job was hectic but due to my speed & quality of work it never hampered me. Colleagues were very helpful teaching me :) CS.
2. Consulting over the weekends, that starts hitting a bit. I have to take off during exams and all. I was consulting 2 firms together on an hourly basis on weekends. Weekdays were chill for me. Some how i managed as i hired right team leads in all companies.
3. Great thing, Later I joined a startup for Saturday only full time, where I created a new product where I fitted my few cousin, friends so they ran the show behind me. I have designed & developed the product so they had great dependency on me. I was getting a royalty kind of compensation for 4-5 years for it. It's like I grew a plant & it starts to give fruits.

I was young & not well aware that it could be like my own startup. We belong to a family where human values are more than anything. I never repent as God gives me best every next day.

Frankly speaking, this Consulting mode sparked me to learn something new & challenging every time, I keep implementing good ideas in my full time company so they were happy too. Great minds I got in Solutions Inc, IIT(s), REC(s), IIM(s), I got to know the real value of Tier-1 folks where i belonged too.

Nowadays almost all of them are really doing great in their careers. Some have big companies too. Again in touch with almost everyone, i am known as linkedIn in my friend circle from early days of linkedIn.

Solutions Inc were the best days where I travelled for great projects & conferences, made best friends for life like Kaushik Das, Barun Mishra, Ankur Khetarpal & Arpit Mathur. We had great culture of party hard & work hard.

While consulting to one firm in Delhi which was for a Singapore firm, so after 6 months accidentally they called me via consultant & hired me.

It was time to leave India, the best company & my best friends, it was really hard but I have to move-on...

I joined BNT Asia, Singapore which later became Life Fitness (R & D Center) a Brunswick Company, I got the Contributor of Year 2017 Award by VP for making a great impact on an innovative product. I made really good friends who are again doing really good nowadays & Everyone is just a call away. Sudhir Menon, Rajeev Pranjapee were my mentors during that time.

I was doing consulting even in Singapore so that thing were even increased so being internationally located i keep getting more projects from referrals, I always worked only for referrals. Imagine I found like minded people in India to do work for me, delegate work to small companies etc.?I called them weekend warriors ...who wanted a salary of a month in a few hot weekends working only. BUT it became very hectic for me as I was working hands-on 1 project & handling multiple developers in India?+ customers.

Learning Technology was a weekend affair for me, give me a project, I will crack it, become expert & propose great learning in my company. That's how I have grown to a different level.

I started a startup in Singapore too that was in the medical domain where we were planning to integrate Apollo India software along with Cady Singapore medical equipment to automise the Malaysian hospitals but due to unforeseen circumstances, I needed to move back to India in Oct 2008. My partner?lost his wife within 6 months due to blood cancer which shattered us as she was like my sister only. Life has to go on...

I got married in 2009 in India. I thought I would spend my time with family & only do one job with 150% enthu, NO EXTRA WORK. Needed a break, it's starting to impact my health if I keep running for money. I put a stop. I will not do freelancing now. Break for a few years.

You won't not believe, for 1-2 year every weekend my connections get me a new project, I need to request & route them to my other connections or consult them for free so they don't push me. I got really great connections in industry, it's all because of honesty, keep my words at any cost & keep helping people. Sometimes I have to say No which was out of my dictionary word. Learn to say No.

Learnt the importance to say No as a Leader, it helps everywhere

I joined Guavus Inc (Big Data company in telecom space) 1 Nov 2008, it was a new domain for me so thought to give it a try, I love doing new things. Again they hire only people with good pedigree. It was a startup with 20+ folks. I need to create a team from scratch & take UI to next level to their vision.

I had a really hard time in my first year to prove myself due to some internal indain politics & biasing. Everyday I thought about leaving but my wife said - how come you cross so many hurdles this is simple company giving you so much trouble, learn about people, prove yourself to them then you can leave. I will be happy if you leave after that.

?Again a turning point came in life, Jaskaran joined the company as VP Engineering & he got the review done for the UI team by some external architect Mr. Yash Mody, Luckily similar stuff I did when i joined Guavus within 1st 10 days but none took it seriously. After paying him for that consulting job, he referred me - Mr. Jolly is the right guy to do this job. Jaskaran called me that day & said - i will give you free hand whatever you do, I need results.

You have 6 months to make a new team, deliver one crucial project in hand - you will become manager or move out of the company.

I loved the challenge, never looked back, worked day and night. Hired a small team, did really great in 6 months & earned the Manager position.

Now i feel i am well settled & become father of daughter, she came like an angel in my life. Again everything starts running as great, we become the highest paying company in NCR with the best pedigree?people. Big data, Machine learning, AI were the buzzword of industry when we were working on it hands-on.

Jaskaran became my inspiration to learn his leadership tactics by having lunch with him everyday, keeping my eyes & ears open for some learnings from him.

Key Learnings: What i learnt, how to take bold decision try & fail, learn from it. Empower people to do things, support them so they become bold too. Create relationship with people & communicate well. Hire right people for the Job to be a successful leader & grow them

We did Friday lunches with Leadership given a different perspective as a leader. I was asked to create a new platform Team, I felt a little uncomfortable as i was leaving my team but That's new turning point to create Tier-1 team best of people, we defined a great UI platform & so many products. During that time I got?in touch with some great minds like Sanjay Kalra, Eric Carr different Leaders etc.

Along with it I got one UX mentor in Guavus Mr. Craig Runyan who really worked as colleague with me for 2 hrs ..literally everyday that ignited my passion for UX a little.

In 2012 i went to UX-India conference where i learnt the human touching aspects of UX by Prof. Kirti Trivedi, Pad-man of India & Mr. Kaladar Bapu that touched me so badly that my love for UX started. I wanted to become a Design Thinker who can solve great problems.

?Along with Mr. Craig Runyan I started taking extra interest in Product, UX, I was a ninja for UI development that time. That time Anurag, our UX guy (x-Google) with an amazing experience where I learnt a different angle from him for UX, how google-ux works.

That created a killer version of the UX team at Guavus UX, UI & Product. I thank a lot of our product people who taught me throughly different telecom & network domain aspects without that we can't do this great job. Mr. Aseem Parik, Murugan Pareek, Aditya Rathore, Chris Menier, Bhanu etc..

I would like to Thank Anukool Founder who was always great support for new ideas & throughly helped me. Fail fast was our mantra, still my tag line is

?Learn, UnLearn & ReLearn?

There was a time in Guavus when I was inviting people to 5 stars hotel for lunch & our pitch so we?hire them for our vision. Amazing experience, great ideas from Jaskaran we tried.

I thank a lot of leaders in Guavus as every 2-3 years we have changes in Top leadership, Product strategy, CEO changes, sometimes my boss changes. Imagine in 14 years at Guavus (becoming Thales in 2017) I got more than 12+ bosses changed so I feel it's a new company every 2 years. We need to re-prove to all leaders once our capabilities. Luckily I protected my team from all this so they stayed so long with me which I really feel proud of.

In 2018 I got a new Boss from US which was again the twister in my life, initially i thought it was bad for me. Thanks God there is a hidden surprise from God when you honestly do your 100%, I applied for my first speaker opportunity at UX-India, I got selected. Thanks to our CEO Mr. Faizel & Mr. Vijay who were really helpful to motivate me.?

Despite so many hurdles in this period, I kept myself calm, honest & kept working steadily.

Key Learnings: Keep every communication documented, be honest, stay firm on your words, be positive, Talk to Topmost leadership with facts on right time. Data speaks but you need to talk to right people with right time. It turns the tables upside down. Leadership has to be really honest & people caring then only it works.

I am proud that my team was one of the best in our company who stayed so long together, i created a great working relationship with Canada team which was great issue in our company but we proved human can solve anything. It was like an Indian arranged marriage where you need to act with xtra care, support, compromise, and the feeling of one team. If two leaders are in syc - nothing can break the relationship. We did wonders after that. Sergey were my boss during this stint & really very supportive.?

We created a culture of outings (bonding & gelling) which started from 2 hrs outing to full weekend outing. We paid from our pockets too. That's how we created a great collaborative, well gelling team who works like a family & slowly cross teams started joining us. No barriers left in the team, everyone was approachable. This culture started a spark in the whole organisation & other teams started working hard and partying hard. Great momentum started. Leadership started realising the difference in collaboration & commitment after this change so were very supportive.

Key Learning: People & Culture are the backbone so invest on them.

?Now I have multiple speaker opportunities & i got a chance to speak at Apache, Berlin Germany world biggest conference. My leadership always supported me for that.?Thanks to Mr. Faizel, Vijay. During preparation of this i learnt different aspects of preparing content, speaking skills, so much more about my domain which i never learnt if i ever applied for this presentation. Your Practical experience blend is key in every presentation.

Also I ignited a spark in my team - to become speakers as well as other company folks, i am proud to say ...few of them selected & spoke at a few conferences.

Gentlemen creating speakers was?4x more difficult than making yourself a speaker, you need to constantly motivate, you need to help prepare content,?prepare their preparation & correct them as needed. You need to act like a 5 year kid parent during the 1st presentation of your team member but that gives a different achievement feeling.

Key Learning: Anyone can become speaker but you need to have inner voice calling you to become it. Initially you need to put lots of efforts, learning the art of making content, understanding audiences, speaking etc. Blend your practical experience that brings the real value, why people listen you.

?Apart from this I created new leaders in my team. Various Leadership training at Thales really helped me to think differently, Thanks Shekar for arranging & inviting for them. I started focusing on the growth of each team member. Everyone grew to different levels, few moved to different teams as they realised they are meant for something big. I never stopped anyone, my goal was to see them growing, get new people & grown them. Hiring was one of key skills i learnt in my 14 years at Thales, What should be right fit for your culture & company.

Recently I got?an opportunity?to Mentor (volunteer) a Chinese?design college students to?define an innovative product (Mask-IT),?I was not well at that time, but I kept talking to them, assigning them?work, and reviewing. It was a very honest effort. God always looks at hard work, the team got the Best Design Award, I got the Best Mentor Award. I proudly feel I become a good Design Thinker & Mentor apart from Engineering Leader.

?Design Thinking become my hobby !

?If I look back I just say the high level of my journey i putted here there are many more detailed twists & turns which makes a real industry leader. May be some day I will write details of everything which give light to people on dealing with different problems in last 22 years. Be it consulting, learning, conferences, customers, leadership issues, team issues, hiring & firing, mentoring managers, growth plans, how to retain people, let go people, being laid off, creating strong bonded teams, create a culture of positivity, Culture of Fun & learn, UX Lead product development etc..

?I would like to say to all aspiring students, developers, leaders :-

1. Be honest & loyal to your employer
2. Do your best and you will see the results sooner or later.
3. My Mom says - Hard work never passes by
4. Keep learning new things, keep up with future techs
5. Do read & write articles, great leadership need
6. Connect with your team & guide them to right path
7. Do Presentations in industry, it teaches you all aspects of that topic
8. Join conferences you will get different exposure which can ignite something in you some day

There is a time to contribute back.....to community ?so ...start one day.

Try new things, fail fast - you will innovate for sure.

Lastly

Always help everyone near you, ask them to help at least one more needy person, You never know when it is your turn.

In this layoff era - Anyone can be next !! No wonders.

Be Confident, Steady, be Positive, Keep learning you will find the destination or someone will ping you. It can be a great turn in your life.

Strong mentors and the determination to keep going were essential to my success in learning a new and unfamiliar fields. “I had a lot of great mentors – some I didn’t even realize were mentors at the time".

Humble thanks to all leaders, colleagues & team mates which make me learn so much...must forgot to mention too many folks ...list is so ...long...