11 Lessons from 11 Years of Career!
With a gray color heavy bag that has my best clothes, mostly formals including some ties and a laptop bag, I stand at the door of a red color train — waiting to depart this small town to the big metropoliton city almost across the country. I have been to this Metropolitan city just once, but I know very little about it. I don’t speak the language, I don’t know the routes and localities. I have no relative or family in this city but luckily a college friend had arrived in this City just a few months before my arrival on Jan 31st.
Today, I think of that day and my life since then. In short, I would say that I’ve been lucky. I have been very fortunate to meet some wonderful people at work and through work in my personal life. I have achieved a few major milestones of my life and I am proud of who I am today. But I am mostly gratefully to everyone that has helped me be here.
With the hope that someone might benefit from these 11 lessons that I learned from my professional life, I share this with you:
1. Learn
I come from a Hindi Medium School. It wasn’t until class third that I started learning basic English like spelling of numbers. I was fortunate to have an amazing tutor when I was in class 10. I could manage with English but still it was a fear. When I joined TCS, I met yet again another wonderful English Teacher, Elizabeth. It was in those classes that I really learned the English Grammar (https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/). It is never late to learn something. And, I’d say learn almost anything and excel at some of those things. At some point it is also important to get your knowledge and learning certified. Certification is a way to measure and grow. It makes your part of the bigger community.
2. Connect
My friend Thiyagu used to say to me that I am the bridge and I help people connect. I didn’t realize it until he said it. And, now when I think of it I can relate so well to this.
Once I was leaving the office after work and I saw there is a meetup about to start in the office. I stayed back and joined. I fell in love with the community then and there. I joined and helped them organize future events and eventually became one of the Board of Members for APLN. It is good to be passionate, and it is even better to connect people with same passion. I also helped my colleagues build the Agile Community of Practice. There are people who can use our help. If you are passionate or interested in something, very likely there are some others who’d like to join and have a chat with you on that topic. Be the bridge. Build the community. And, connect people. It won’t just help others but also you to be a leader.
3. Do more
At teen age, I’d use the computer at my uncles’ office and play with the MS Office tools. Slowly, I started designing invitation cards, guest lists and so on. This was an exciting time but this skill came very handy when I started my career. I was a sought after person by the leadership to make presentations. I also started some newsletters and became the assistant editor. There is no task small. Most of my rewards and recognitions have come from things that I was not expected to do but I did it any way. I have built some great relations by doing more than my ‘job’.
The CSR team that I was part of with more than 100 active volunteers even won the Prize. You’ll not even know but you might leave a legacy behind.
4. Change
One of the thing that I learned in Agile is to appreciate and accept Change. In our program we even had Change Agents. During my graduation, I was so in love with Microsoft’s Visual Basic and MS.Net. I thought this is it, this is my life and this is what I want to do always. I even helped my .Net Mentor and my colleagues during ILP. But, within 1 year of working as a .Net developer, I got curious about who are the people telling me to develop something. I started wondering on why is that they want what they want. And, in no time I asked for the change in role and I transitioned to Business Analyst. It wasn’t easy at first because I didn’t remove my glasses of Developer. But, now as a Product Owner, I love what I do and I am happy that I changed. Don’t wait for the change to happen. Don’t repel the change. Not only accept it, but invite it and adore it. If only I can change with the pace the world is changing.
5. Ask
Speaking of change, I cannot stress enough on Ask. This is as simple as ‘if you want something, ask it’. You may get it or you may not. If you don’t get it, understand why can’t you get it. Is there another way to get it? What if you proof your worth that you really deserve it. I won’t say it’d be easy but I am 100% certain it’d be worth it. During early days, one of the senior client representative and a senior TCS leader was visiting our office. I was amazed by their personality and achievements, I really wanted to meet them. I can still feel that moment when I met them. And, it happened because I worked hard for that client visit and asked my supervisor to be part of that gathering.
There are many incidents wherein I’ve got what I wanted and many where I didn’t ask and I didn’t get. There are people around you who care for you, your well-being, your goals. They are also willing to help you achieve this. Please use their help. And, ask what you desire — what you deserve.
6. Invest
While I regret some incidents where I didn’t ask something, not investing from early on in my career is the most I regret. There are tons of quotes and books on this. If you search for Warren Buffets or Investors, you might see this message to invest as early on as possible. However, it wasn’t until the pandemic hit the stock market and my dear friend suggested me to invest a little money in the stocks. I’ve had some financial gain, and some market knowledge — but mostly I learned a lesson. Invest as early as possible. Not just in Stock Market, but in yourself, in your career, in your dreams. One of the Agile Coach I met during Agile Certification, asked me about my dream and how am I working towards it. He said, that I should invest on my dream regularly — build up the idea, save some money for it, connect with like minded people and so on. This lesson is still valuable and precious to me.
7. Save
They say, best lessons are learned from mistakes. And, this is my lesson. I’d not say that I never saved, but I will admit that I enjoyed my youth more than I followed the discipline of saving. The most important aspect of saving is not the amount, but the consistency and discipline. One of the good thing I did was investing in LIC from the very year I started my career but I missed on other below aspects (which I am still catching up). I’d think there are four categories of savings and we should think of all.
- Short Term — These are mostly liquidable savings, like Recurring Deposit or short term FDs.
- Medium Term — These for specific financial goals like wedding, trip, and so on. Good idea can be FD, Stocks
- Long Term — These are for future readiness, savings in PF, Retirement Funds, LIC and likewise.
- Assets — And, finally build assets like Real Estate.
8. Be Honest, always
There is nothing to be afraid of if you are honest to yourself and to those around you. Life presents with situations, when are not our best not in the best situation. There will always be time when there is an easy way of lying and then there is a tough battle with honesty. In my childhood, I learned stories of power of honesty and they really stuck with me till date. I feel more confident speaking my supervisor about my situation and explanation and ask for his advice in the given situation. Again, I might have been lucky but I think it’s my honesty that helps me. People have empathy and no one wants to feel cheated. Be honest. Always. Period.
9. Be Humble, always
There is no alternative of good people. And, I think humility is the greatest of all virtues. From all these 11 years of my career, I remember and I am grateful to the people who have been kind to me of all. I remember my Client Manager who was kind enough to guide me through my transition to Business Analyst Role, my friends from CSR team who would always be there for each other, ice cream vendor uncle from the cafeteria and so on. Everyday, there are situations when we can be mad at someone or we can be kind. Choose kindness, always. That’ll make all the difference.
10. Appreciate
Appreciation can be tangible or intangible, but it can make a huge difference. Sometimes, people don’t necessarily appreciate you in writing or with rewards but their care speaks a lot. So much so that it gives you strength to go on and on, even through bad phase of project. We can relate that it feels so good to be appreciated but we seldom think of doing it. Never miss an opportunity to appreciate someone.
11. Preserve
Career is also like life, because it’s part of life. Not every project, not every assignment will always be in a happy state or worth fighting for. Do it anyway. Preserve through bad days of project. It’s not the end of the world. Try to bring as much change as possible, but if not — use the opportunity to learn — Learn what is wrong and what is that you absolutely don’t want in your future. Find out what you value the most. I’ve had a few years of preserving in a non progressing project and now I know asking the right questions, moving faster.
I feel very excited and optimistic about the generation that’s joining the workforce of today and changing the world so rapidly. If you are in the early lap of your career, I wish you all the success that you deserve and work for. Set your goal high and achieve even more than you thought you wanted.
I am curious to hear your stories. Share with me what do you find relatable and what would you like to add to this list?
