Stage 4 Solutions' September 2023 Newsletter: My Career Path: Interview with Tejas Vashi, Global Leader AWS re/Start Program, AWS

As we enter the last quarter of the year, we continue to remain optimistic about the overall job market. The unemployment rate has remained consistently low, fluctuating between 3.4% and 3.8% since February 2022. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ recent report, in August, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 187,000, slightly below the average monthly gain of 271,000 observed over the previous 12 months. Notably, employment continued to rise in sectors like healthcare, leisure and hospitality, social assistance, and construction, while the transportation and warehousing sector experienced a decline.

At Stage 4 Solutions, we continue to track toward our growth objectives. We understand that to stay competitive, it is essential to continue investing in our team and systems, with a commitment to putting our clients at the forefront. I am excited to announce that Stage 4 Solutions has earned recognition in the Silicon Valley Business Journal's lists of the largest Asian-owned businesses in Silicon Valley and the largest women-owned businesses in Silicon Valley. We extend our sincere appreciation to our highly skilled team, whose dedicated efforts consistently deliver value to our clients, and to our clients, who place their trust in us to address critical resource gaps to achieve their goals.

My Career Path: Interview with Tejas Vashi, Global Leader AWS re/Start Program, AWS

This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with Tejas Vashi, Global Leader, AWS re/Start Program, AWS, about his career path and the decisions that have contributed to his success. Here at Stage 4 Solutions, we are committed to supporting professionals’ career growth, and we believe that one way to enable success is by learning from leaders.

Tejas Vashi is a global product management and marketing executive as well as an industry thought leader with an extensive history of driving product strategy definition, innovative business model creation, strategic partnership development and highly effective marketing execution to dramatically increase business value for the company, partners, and our customers.

Tejas is an advocate for learning and its critical impact on business transformation. As a 30-year technology industry veteran and innovator, he has seen firsthand the effect that technology can have in driving business growth and is considered a thought leader in skills development and talent as they apply to business transformation.? He believes education is essential to activate new technologies and has built digital learning portfolios, virtual lab delivery businesses, certification programs and skills campaigns that generate recurring success in today’s digitized world. In his current role as the Global Leader of the AWS re/Start program, Tejas is responsible for launching, scaling and managing a global effort focused on developing future cloud talent, building AWS skills in traditionally under-represented populations, and connecting them to opportunities.

As you progressed through your career, how did you assess new opportunities?

Tejas: I think it was a mindset shift for me. In my earlier days, it was more about what was in it for me - if I took a role, would there be a salary increase, a better job opportunity, or a promotion tied to that role. So, everything I did, whether moving from a startup to an established company, or the other way around (because I have done both in my career), was all about what was in it for me.

As I matured through the years, my focus shifted more towards the impact I could drive. If you focus too much on monetary gains or personal growth aspects, you will only get so far. What I have seen is that success is really driven when you are actually solving problems. When you can help a customer with a need - especially a need that they didn't even know that they had, or help internal organizations and external organizations solve a problem to make them more efficient, reduce their costs and increase their productivity, there is a lot of value that you are bringing to these clients, and also you are helping yourself and your company. The personal growth actually happened faster when I was focused on solving somebody else's problems vs. trying to solve my own need to grow in my own career direction.

What is one of the biggest challenges you have faced in your career and how did you overcome it?

Tejas: One of the biggest challenges I have faced is about people. I was a front-line manager during the turn of the century, specifically in the early 2000s during the tech bubble,?a mid-level manager during the housing downturn in 2008, and a senior leader during the downturns in recent years, including the pandemic. It is never easy to deliver difficult messages, especially when people are involved. The way I handle it is by being transparent, understanding people's concerns and showing empathy. And when I say “showing empathy,” I mean being truly empathetic, understanding where they are coming from and seeing how else I can help them. Although, oftentimes, there are limited things that a manager can do.

I tell people who are just starting their careers to be prepared and be aware right up front that there will be ups and downs in the industry. And, some of them are vertical driven and some of them are industry-wide and others are based on geographies - certain countries or certain regions or they could be for all kinds of reasons, not just economic, but political and others. What I also do with my team is to try to focus on what we can do during those downtimes. This is a golden opportunity to focus on what we can do, how we can invest our time to improve our product lines, how we can solve more problems, and how can we help our customers because they are probably going through the same kind of issues as well at the same time, and see if we can ride out of this and can come out even stronger when there is return to normalcy.

What has surprised you the most in your career?

Tejas: What has surprised me the most is a shift in thinking. When I was growing up, I and many of the folks around us knew people working at Kodak, GE, IBM, and Nortel – big industry leaders. These were billion-dollar corporations that we all assumed knew exactly what the customers wanted with a strong customer-facing presence. The mindset I had while growing up was that you get a good job with one of these prestigious companies, do your job well, and you will progress through the ranks and be successful. I think the biggest surprise for me was to realize that it isn’t about the company helping you but it’s about you helping the company – helping determine what it is we can do next, what problems we can solve. So, it is you who joins the company to help the company. We see this in today’s companies, for example, small startups. The successful ones are out there solving a real world problem that the customers are facing.

To learn more and read the interview article, please click here.

AI and the Workforce: Perspectives on Job Impact

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has catalyzed transformative changes in nearly every area of our lives. Undoubtedly, one of the most profound impacts of AI is on the workforce and there are several perspectives on AI's impact on jobs and the workforce.? We wanted to understand what our network considers the most important aspect of AI on jobs, so we polled our community for their insights.?

In your opinion, what is the most important impact of AI on jobs? (single answer)

? Optimize Job Functions 43%

? Reshape Existing Positions 20%

? Eliminate Certain Roles 19%

? Create New Opportunities 18%

The majority, 43% of respondents, believe that the most significant impact of AI on jobs is its capacity to optimize job functions. This viewpoint underscores the potential of AI to enhance and streamline existing roles, equipping workers with the tools they need to perform their tasks more efficiently. Through real-time data analysis, predictive insights, content creation, process automation and many other possibilities, AI empowers employees to make more informed decisions and improve their overall performance. This optimization can lead to heightened productivity, reduced errors, and an overall improvement in job quality, which ultimately benefits both employers and employees.

20% of respondents believe that AI will reshape existing positions, emphasizing its transformative potential in augmenting human capabilities. AI can assist workers in their tasks, making them more productive and allowing them to focus on higher-value, creative, and strategic aspects of their jobs with the potential to enhance job satisfaction and lead to a more skilled and adaptable workforce.

Similarly, 19% of respondents foresee AI's role in eliminating certain roles as the primary impact on jobs. This acknowledges that automation and AI-driven systems will render specific job functions obsolete, particularly those that involve repetitive, rule-based tasks. While this may necessitate job transitions and upskilling for affected individuals, proponents of this perspective argue that the long-term benefits of increased efficiency and productivity outweigh the initial disruptions. In the past, employees were more concerned that AI might replace their jobs compared to now. As AI has become more prevalent, and as workers have become more familiar with its use, these concerns have lessened. While some concerns about job security still remain, people are becoming better at understanding what AI can achieve and are adopting a more optimistic outlook instead of feeling fearful about its impact on their careers.

Finally, 18% of respondents highlight the potential of AI to create new opportunities as the most critical impact on jobs. This perspective emphasizes the capacity of AI to stimulate innovation and the emergence of entirely new job roles and industries. Some newer roles that have already been created include deep learning engineers, AI chatbot developers, AI ethicists, prompters, prompt engineers, data annotators, Stable Diffusion and Dall-E artists, OpenAI Codex specialists and more.

In conclusion, AI's profound influence on the job landscape is multifaceted. While a significant portion believes that optimizing job functions is the most crucial impact, others anticipate job creation, role elimination, or role reshaping as dominant consequences of AI integration. The future of work will likely involve a combination of these factors, contingent upon industry-specific dynamics, technological advancements, and workforce adaptation. As we navigate this evolving landscape, it is imperative to consider the holistic picture of AI's impact on jobs and strive for a balanced approach that maximizes the benefits while addressing potential challenges.

In a rapidly evolving technological landscape where AI plays an increasingly pivotal role, Stage 4 Solutions stands as a trusted interim staffing partner to fill critical resource gaps within teams at high-tech companies, government agencies, aerospace/defense companies, healthcare and financial services organizations. With an extensive internal network of experienced professionals and a commitment to ensuring customer success, we are committed to assisting our clients in harnessing the full potential of AI to achieve project and business objectives. Please let us know your resourcing needs!

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