Career thoughts

Transitioning into new project …

1
1001 days
by in Career thoughts

Since a long time, I did not get time to put up a blog post but  have been twittering all this while on the internet with few updates on the progress on project and personal front ..

I am now moving into a different project within the same group. The role looks challenging and puts me into actual people management and hopefully would give me a chance to apply my own people / project management principles across the board.

Early days (rather weeks !) for me in here and still getting into the project and understanding the know-how’s. Good to know there are already capable people working on the project, but they need a little bit helping hand in streamlining the operations that hopefully I can provide in due course.

Unfortunately this project was perceived as an “untouchable” and “messy” project so looks like I have a big task on my hands to turn the tide ! I am very hopeful I could do it .. but lets wait for actual results over next few months !

Anyways, if you care a little, wish me luck by commenting on this blog post.

However if you are too lazy to leave a comment, just say “Best of luck” in your mind and it would reach me :-)

 

And whilst you are around, why not check my other posts on career management below,

Career progression guide – 3p process

Tips on getting things done!

Performance appraisals – Opportunities & Judgements

Tips on “Getting things done .. !”

0
1020 days
by in Career thoughts

While stumbling across on the Internet I came across a very useful blog post on Zen habits and I thought of mentioning it on my blog as well.

The author mentions really good and practical things to ensure you “get things done” without actually following the GTD matrix !

A quick summary of it is as follows,

  1. Create a “to stop” list
  2. Focus on short bursts
  3. Define your daily ass-kicking
  4. Allow yourself to suck
  5. Focus on the Three C’s
  6. Stop caring about things that don’t matter
  7. Make it stupidly simple

I recommend you guys to visit his blog post here and read the full post. Its interesting and worth reading !

Bye the way, for people who love the GTD matrix and like to follow the GTD principles to get things done, here is what I found (from the link in his blog post) as follows,

 

GTD Matrix

Career progression guide – 3p process

0
1070 days
by in Career thoughts

I thought it might be sensible to publish a post giving the links to all the four posts I put on my blog together so it would be easy for readers to track and view them properly.  So here you go,

Guide for career progression – 3Ps process is a series of FOUR posts.  Other posts on this could be found below.

Part ONE – Overview

Tells about what the process is all about and what are the important phases in the process.

Part TWO – Prepare yourself

Tells about how to prepare yourself and what are the important things that you should keep in mind.

Part THREE – Practice hard, become a key player

Tells about how to become a key player in the project and carry out important responsibilities and showing results on the job.

Part FOUR – Pass it on & progress

Finally, tells about how to move on and be ready for next step.

 

Thanks for reading.

Guide for career progression – 3Ps process – Part FOUR – Pass it on and progress

2
1070 days
by in Career thoughts

Pass it on and progress ahead

In the previous two posts I mentioned how to get into a project and become a real dependable and key project member. If you have not read them, I recommend you to check at the bottom of this post to get the links for them.

Assuming you have actually become the key player within the team and enjoyed your time at the top of your capabilities, for a good while, then you should really look forward to ‘start unlearning’ your knowledge in the project and start to build a back up for yourself so you could try and make yourself ready for next step.

When I essentially say ‘unlearn’, you need to ensure that following things are met,

  • Identify the person who could take your role within the project
  • Start personally training the person over the project
  • Ensure the knowledge you have gained on the project is shared / understood and practiced by the second level person you chose
  • Make yourself available to your manager for the work that he need to get done (After all, you are after his job, aren’t you?)
  • Start to make yourself redundant in the project

You might question me on the last point I wrote here, and ask me when the second phase tells me to be a key player in the project, why do you suggest to make yourself redundant in the project now?

Well, valid point but a very very important one. The answer is, unless you make yourself redundant to the work and make project work independent of you, how would you step up to the next role? Got the point !

It is essential to build a good team and good resources in the project when you leave it behind. It shows a good legacy and a good track record of yourself as a professional, manager and good leader. Another thing you need to do in this phase is to engage with your manager more often than you used to do in the earlier phase, see if you could try and understand what work he does, how he does and understand the job expectations.

Secret tip: Your manager also needs to move up the value chain, so help him do so and claim his throne. Give him space to move up and you could move up too !

If you get good luck along the way, you might see a good result in your next performance review, and then you can start applying the phase 1 to your role again ! As I said earlier in my first post, the entire cycle lasts for approx 2-3 years to you got to have patience during the process and show a good willingness to put hard work and show resilience.

Hope this series would have helped you the corporate cycle of career progression. All your comments are welcome as usual.

Cheerio and all the best

This is a series of FOUR posts on Guide for career progression – 3Ps process.  Other posts on this could be found below.

Part ONE – Overview
Part TWO – Prepare yourself
Part THREE – Practice hard, become a key player
Part FOUR – Pass it on & progress

Guide for career progression – 3Ps process – Part THREE – Practice hard

0
1072 days
by in Career thoughts

Practice hard – become a key player

In the last two posts about my guide to career progression, I wrote about how you can sense opportunities and prepare yourself for getting into grove.

The next step obviously is to get yourself involved in the project work and become a key player in the project. Now, understanding the term key player is very important to successfully complete this phase.

When I mention key player, I essentially mean that a person should be,

  • Self reliant on any project related work
  • Should be highly dependent & technically very very good on the job
  • Should be able to provide Solutions to the problems
  • Should have in-depth knowledge about the project & surroundings

Being self-reliant is achievable if you actually work really hard to understand the project, learn the project goals and start aligning your own short term goals according to the same. As I say,

Working hard is very very important, working smart is even more !

Becoming key player not only makes you an important person within the project but also makes you more dependable and reliable in terms of gaining the mileage out of your managers. I always emphasize on showing the results rather than just showing your work hours. Showing the work hours does not always help, unless your work demands so.

I expect a period of about 6-8 months again, for someone to become a key player in the project. Mind you, its not easy task to do so. You have to always show eagerness to learn new things, respond to changes & show your capabilities while on the road.

One thing I mentioned in my last post in this series (here) was to Show and prove  that you alone can carry on the project and make the project dependant on yourself. This is a very very important thing in this phase and important exit criteria. Unless you can show your worth to the project, there is a little chance that your work will be noticed and considered worth its efforts by your management. (Sorry to disclose this tip though !)

Some important tips you can remember on the way to become key player are,

  • Show your worth in the project and show results
  • Take initiatives, implement technical solutions to common problems
  • Work smarter and save efforts by automation of routine tasks
  • Keep in mind that results matter, not the hours you burn
  • Achieve efficiency in the process and show benefits to management & customers
  • Be noticed each time !

If you can achieve this and become a key player in the project, it makes things lot easier for making yourself ready for the next phase in your career. As I said earlier, its not easy and probably not achievable without frequent discussions and re-aligning the short term goals with your manager. It is important to keep your manager aware of your progress, your short term goals and how you are able to help the project by your work !

Will write about the final phase probably in next couple of days as and when I get time to put things together. Till then, cheerio !

This is a series of FOUR posts on Guide for career progression – 3Ps process.  Other posts on this could be found below.

Part ONE – Overview
Part TWO – Prepare yourself
Part THREE – Practice hard, become a key player
Part FOUR – Pass it on & progress

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