Posts tagged career
Back from a ‘thinking’ break & deciding on future ..
Oct 16th
Its been a fantastic break from work for me so far (gosh, its been 3 weeks with no work, no pay !!) and I had a chance to do quite a few things that were pending for me for a very long time.
The first and foremost, I did have a time to play with my little kid ‘Sharv’ and see him growing during his first month. He is one cute little prince for us !
Meanwhile, the furniture work that I had started to get done is complete today and I would soon be posting the photographs on this blog for you all to see and comment on. If you can’t wait until that time, then you might want to have a look at my previous post about my designs and imagine how it may look like 
So finally I have my work desk at home where I am sitting to write this blog !
More importantly, I had a great time thinking on what I should be doing as my next move. In my previous post where I mentioned that I have resigned from TechMahindra, I did mention that I had a job offer in my hand and I might join another organization in search of a better & a bigger challenge.
However, when I left TechMahindra, my primary objective was to take a break and think about future.
Amdocs offered me a chance to join their organization and offered me a real challenge that I was looking after. A completely new domain, a very different set of technology & processes & of course different set of people around, was a big challenge. I somehow liked it and finally decided to join the company and take up the new assignment.
I still have the thoughts of getting into entrepreneurship and would be attempting to do something along the way. Keep an eye on http://www.thirdbuttonred.com meanwhile .. !
However, hopefully the new assignment now will give me new chance to prove myself all over again..
I have resigned from TechMahindra ..
Sep 3rd
Yes, finally the truth is officially out and I admit, I had indeed resigned from TechMahindra few weeks ago !
The need to move out was primarily driven by few personal commitments as well as a very strong need for change in my professional lifestyle.
This company has a very very big influence in my career and helped me grow tremendously well in last 6+ years of association. So when I would leave finally, I would be leaving very strong bonds and relations behind which I would definitely cherish for rest of my life.
So the decision has nothing to do with my current projects, managers, role, teams, environment, customers, work, freedom or even the money ! Its purely a voluntary decision that I hope would do me well in long term.
I have spent more than 6 very good years in TechMahindra and it has contributed immensely in giving me quality experience, a sense of ownership in the work I do and privilege to work with few extremely talented individuals within the company. For me, TechMahindra has been a fantastic company and a great journey where I got to learn so many things.
Leaving has not definitely been an easy decision for me ! After all, why would you want to leave a company where the managers want you, give you good responsibility, pay you well and take care of your career growth ??
So what prompted me to leave?
As I mentioned earlier, one of the most important factor was a chance to rediscover myself and challenge myself to get to greater heights in my career. Other factor was a strong need of change in my professional work culture. There was nothing wrong with the current work or nature of work I was doing in TechMahindra, but I thought the things were getting too routine and too easy for me and I started to get an underwhelming feeling about myself.
Probably my ambitions were too high and stopping at one place or on one step for a longer time makes me feel uncomfortable. I want to feel challenged at all times where I get an opportunity to perform consistently at a higher level and eventually be rewarded for the work. Anyways, I would have plenty of time to do retrospective on why I left !!
I also thought the time was right for me to take a decision of moving out because I had right people doing right job in the projects and the project was in good hands. So I thought it would be a win-win situation for the project / company and myself to part ways in a silent way. Anyways, I would never have deserted the project or my managers or my team if I was not assured of success after me.
What would I do next now?
Well, I would hopefully join another company down the line which I feel would make me excited about the job again and challenge me enough to make me perform at higher level again.
I am also looking at few other ideas in the space of Web 2.0 and social networking that would help me put my first step in entrepreneurship. I have started some background work on writing concepts and business case as well. At the moment, it looks like a long shot though !
Anyways, as and when I have any good idea about any of these options, I would be very happy to post on my blog and let all of you know.
Till that time, I am sure you would wish me well in future !
A job hopper’s interview & an interesting perspective !
May 29th
This story was forwarded to me by one of my friends and I am unaware of the source of this story / article .. whatever !
However, its interesting one and here is how it goes ..
Some, rather most organizations reject his CV today because he has changed jobs frequently (10 in 14 years). My friend, the ‘job hopper’
(referred here as Mr. JH), does not mind it…. well he does not need to mind it at all. Having worked full-time with 10 employer companies in just 14 years gives Mr. JH the relaxing edge that most of the ‘company loyal’ employees are struggling for today. Today, Mr. JH too is laid off like some other 14-15 year experienced guys – the difference being the latter have just worked in 2-3 organizations in the same number of years. Here are the excerpts of an interview with Mr. JH:
Q: Why have you changed 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: To get financially sound and stable before getting laid off the second time.
Q: So you knew you would be laid off in the year 2009?
A: Well I was laid off first in the year 2002 due to the first global economic slowdown. I had not got a full-time job before January 2003 when the economy started looking up; so I had struggled for almost a year without job and with compromises.
Q: Which number of job was that?
A: That was my third job.
Q: So from Jan 2003 to Jan 2009, in 6 years, you have changed 8 jobs to make the count as 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: I had no other option. In my first 8 years of professional life, I had worked only for 2 organizations thinking that jobs are deserved after lot of hard work and one should stay with an employer company to justify the saying ‘employer loyalty’. But I was an idiot.
Q: Why do you say so?
A: My salary in the first 8 years went up only marginally. I could not save enough and also, I had thought that I had a ‘permanent’ job, so I need not worry about ‘what will I do if I lose my job’. I could never imagine losing a job because of economic slowdown and not because of my performance. That was January 2002.
Q: Can you brief on what happened between January 2003 and 2009.
A: Well, I had learnt my lessons of being ‘company loyal’ and not ‘money earning and saving loyal’. But then you can save enough only when you earn enough. So I shifted my loyalty towards money making and saving – I changed 8 jobs in 6 years assuring all my interviewers about my stability.
Q: So you lied to your interviewers; you had already planned to change the job for which you were being interviewed on a particular day?
A: Yes, you can change jobs only when the market is up and companies are hiring. You tell me – can I get a job now because of the slowdown? No.
So one should change jobs for higher salaries only when the market is up because that is the only time when companies hire and can afford the expected salaries.
Q: What have you gained by doing such things?
A: That’s the question I was waiting for. In Jan 2003, I had a fixed salary (without variables) of say Rs. X p.a. In January 2009, my salary was 8X. So assuming my salary was Rs.3 lakh p.a. in Jan 2003, my last drawn salary in Jan 2009 was Rs.24 lakh p.a. (without variable). I never bothered about variable as I had no intention to stay for 1 year and go through the appraisal process to wait for the company to give me a hike.
Q: So you decided on your own hike?
A: Yes, in 2003, I could see the slowdown coming again in future like it had happened in 2001-02. Though I was not sure by when the next slowdown would come, I was pretty sure I wanted a ‘debt-free’ life before being laid off again. So I planned my hike targets on a yearly basis without waiting for the year to complete.
Q: So are you debt-free now?
A: Yes, I earned so much by virtue of job changes for money and spent so little that today I have a loan free 2 BR flat (1200 sq. feet) plus a loan free big car without bothering about any EMIs. I am laid off too but I do not complain at all. If I have laid off companies for money, it is OK if a company lays me off because of lack of money.
Q: Who is complaining?
A: All those guys who are not getting a job to pay their EMIs off are complaining. They had made fun of me saying I am a job hopper and do not have any company loyalty. Now I ask them what they gained by their company loyalty; they too are laid off like me and pass comments to me – why will you bother about us, you are already debt-free. They were still in the bracket of 12-14 lakh p.a. when they were laid off.
Q: What is your advice to professionals?
A: Like Narayan Murthy had said – love your job and not your company because you never know when your company will stop loving you. In the same lines, love yourself and your family needs more than the company’s needs. Companies can keep coming and going; family will always remain the same. Make money for yourself first and simultaneously make money for the company, not the other way around.
Q: What is your biggest pain point with companies?
A: When a company does well, its CEO etc will address the entire company saying, ‘well done guys, it is YOUR company, keep up the hard work, I am with you.” But when the slowdown happens and the company does not do so well, the same CEO etc will say, “It is MY company and to save the company, I have to take tough decisions including asking people to go.”
So think about your financial stability first; when you get laid off, your kids will complain to you and not your boss.
Team work !
May 26th
Team work is an important aspect of high performing and successful teams and its all the more important to to achieve it consistently.
In my new project since I took over, I have been trying to instil the feeling of one team as a one large family. Prior to me taking over the project has been consisting of several teams bound by scope, processes & and more notably (in my view) the excuses!
Thus when I took over the project, one of the challenges that was put in front of me was to break the moulds and recede the boundaries to create a more cohesive unit and turn that unit into a high performing team.
I have taken the challenge and have started working towards it. How much success I would get, would really be visible in coming months but few visible differences have started to come along the way and most notably people have started to notice the difference in the team. Hopefully this is a good sign for coming times.
One of the very old videos that used to be on “Doordarshan” is very apt to display the power of togetherness & team work which I would like to embed here in my post.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK_TnmNJqao&hl=en]
Ek chidiya – Team work and togetherness !
The video was apparently created in 1985 when the colour television was relatively new in India.
The video is in Hindi language and it simply tells you how powerful the teamwork could be if all the team members have same heart beat !
HeartQuotes website mentions a very good collection of quotes on Team Work and few of my favourite quotes are as follows.
It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.
Teamwork: Simply stated, it is less me and more we.
Henry Ford
Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success.
For more such quotes, visit the reference site at HeartQuotes.
Into ‘people’ management .. or ‘project’ management?
May 15th
Last few weeks have been pretty exciting as well as busy for me as I was interacting with the new team and getting into the know how’s of the team structure and people within the team.
I felt good whilst doing so and certainly looking forward to be amongst them in next few weeks. The resources in the teams are good but felt like need a bit of hand holding and guidance to get them into a ‘Team’, which I will hopefully be able to do in next few weeks.
Had a good ‘briefing’ session with the team yesterday where I explained them my vision for the team and the key focus areas that I would like the team to work on. The discussion went well and was appreciated by the team members so I hope that was the first step in breaking the ice !
Also, whilst I was doing this, got the news of the changes in our top management. Fortunately the manager whom I have been working all the while in the project is our new head and I sincerely hope it turns out to be a good change.
Anyways, coming back to the subject of my post, as I am excited to be back to directly managing people & team, I am unsure how I think I would fare as a ‘pure project manager’. I, in all honesty, just hate the ‘book keeping’ work that is expected out of the project manager, so it would be interesting how I would be able to manage the ‘expectations of a project manager’ from my leaders and delivery through my ‘people’ management techniques.
Off topic, have been reading the article on Leadership vs Management and it gives a very neat distinctions between the two. Certainly worth a read for all you if you are into leading the team and want to build a high performance teams and be a ‘people’ oriented manager !