My skill set became outdated in a year

I joined LinkedIn in October 2016, and have recently passed the one-year mark. Looking back, it was amazing how much things have changed. I expected a fast pace of change when I joined the tech industry, but even so, I was surprised at how 'fast' fast can get.

Half my team have changed roles, with more headcount added beyond that. Multiple projects were started, iterated on, abandoned, or pivoted into something else. Countless new product features or updates have been released and the assorted pre- and post-sales narratives changed and iterated upon. My business line itself has launched into a new narrative.

Most importantly, the skill set I joined LinkedIn with had become hopelessly outdated.

I spent my first couple of weeks in LinkedIn furiously trying to pick up SQL. But soon after I found myself picking up Tableau and rebuilding an automated internal dashboard for our sales teams, learning not just about building a dashboard but also about how to scale up data processing and analysis.

Recently, Presto was introduced and it is expected to become the mainstay for my team moving forward. With the coming enforcement of a new EU data protection regulation, GDPR, I find myself needing to learn some Pig/Hive to plug some of the back-end compliance requirements. These aside, I have recently picked up Python for a project, learning how to code as I went along.

I can hardly believe that just a year ago, the only data processing/ analysis I did professionally was with Excel (I learned a bit of R but never got to use it in my job). Perhaps it was just my timing that coincided with internal upgrades and external regulatory changes. But I have a feeling that such rapid changes is more of the norm rather than the exception.

Technical skills aside, I find myself challenged as well in terms of mindset and thinking.

Scale is a highly valued attribute in the company and my team; one of the first piece of constructive feedback I received from my manager was that I wasn't thinking big enough. I want you to think bigger, to think bolder, he said.

To think that before I joined LinkedIn, I used to be told that I was too ambitious, that I bite off more than I can chew. And yet here I was, being told that I wasn't ambitious enough. That was a rather surreal day that made me realise how differently things work in a tech company.

I won't lie and say that I am not intimidated. I am intimidated - by the sheer speed and scale of how fast things change, and by the endless list of things I need to learn to keep up.

But I am also thrilled. Thrilled that I am learning so many new things in such a short period of time; that I am challenged to deploy new tools and techniques to drive the biggest possible impact on the business; that the organization is flat and open enough that innovation is not confined to HQ but rather demanded of in all parts of the world, and if your idea works, it will go global. It was hard to imagine driving global impact from Asia in many other companies, but here I was given that opportunity.

It also helps tremendously that as an organization, there are plenty of resources to learn new things - we have full access to LinkedIn Learning, which has a rich library of courses on a wide variety of subjects; there are internal wikis, mailing lists, office hours, learning sessions over VCs, weekly tips, etc. Sitting next to very talented folks also help a whole lot.

Looking back, it has been quite a year. There were many moments of self-doubt, incredulity, and frustration, but just as many moments of pride, sense of accomplishment and pleasure at learning something new. The wonderful people I work with are worth another post by itself, but suffice to say that they make coming to work every day fun and inviting.

In the end, I am happy that my skill set became outdated, and that I acquired another new set of skills in the same year. I wonder what things will look like, a year from now?