Career

One question I always ask myself when I think of my Title & my role in the company, "Why am I, where I am?"

The answer: my company hired me by evaluating my skills and my experience. They brought me onboard to execute some responsibilities and contribute to the organization's objectives. They brought me onboard because they felt I was the right choice for the role.

Now the ball is in my court, I must deliver what I was chosen for. This is the difficult part, but not impossible.

Primarily there are two types of companies that I have come across, a) those that have clearly defined goals for each role and b) those who don't have clearly defined goals for various roles.

The first type of company is more mature and their expectations from the employees are clear, example: established large organizations. The latter type are a little lower on maturity, example: start ups. When I say "maturity", I mean maturity of the organization and not of the people. The maturity of the people does not depend on the maturity of the organization and vice versa.

I have worked in both types of organizations and have had some difficulties in the latter type. The difficulties, more or less, were self created and not the fault of the company or it's management. It was I, who did not understand the expectations and was expecting the goals to be in black & white, where it was not possible.

Large organizations have most of the business processes streamlined and hence the exposure of the individual is more focussed and within his/her role. In start-ups, the business processes are not yet mature, hence the people are required to perform on a cross functional level rather than a focussed set of responsibilities, hence resulting in a much bigger exposure to the employees.

It is important to ascertain your strengths and weaknesses, identify what is important to you and what is not, from the career perspective. Example: in my case, my strengths are communication, process definition & implementation, team building and leadership. My weaknesses are software programming and software design. Things that are most important to me are "Planning and executing", "getting the job done with maximum efficiency", "learning", "application of knowledge", "finding new solutions to old problems" and "variety of tasks & multi-tasking" to name a few.

The key is to en-cash on your strengths, work on your weaknesses and get what you want in a career.

One mistake most people make is linking "the job" with "the compensation". The problem with this mistake is that it gives you the results (good or bad) after a long time.

For example, a programmer in Visual Basic decides SAP is the way ahead based on the money his friends are making by working on SAP. When one of my team members comes to me asking for a change in "platform", I acknowledge his/her request and the need for a change, but I also try and figure out why the person is asking for a change, most time, the reason is compensation. It is difficult to get this out of a person, but cross examination often gives me results. I don't try and change this person's mind, because there is not point, I would be "the enemy" in no time.

I always ask them one question, "if I buy a brand new car, and if you ask me to let you drive this new car, would I give it to you?" Most people say I would, then I ask them, "why would I give the car to you?", for this they reply, "because you trust me". Then I tell them my answer, "I won't let you drive my brand new car, because I don't trust your driving skills". By this time, the person is confused, and is wondering what point I am trying to make. I explain, "analogy of the car situation is the change of platform situation, I am not in a position to allow you to work on a new technology unless I am sure you are good at it".

This is how the people react:

a) Some people buy this thought, take it positively and work towards earning a change without compromising on their current responsibilities and become more efficient in the process. This improved efficiency gives them a lot of time to spend on learning a new skill.

b) A few others, think I am wrong and start seeking a new job just to show me that they were right and I was wrong. In this bargain, they start losing focus on their current assignments, lose interest and ultimately they become desperate and lose out finally.

c) Some give up, and get back to the job.

Building a career is not a joke, one must be careful, cautious and do some analysis before one makes up his/her mind. This may take time, be patient. I have taken almost 15 years to make my career. In these 15 years, I did not once compromise on my current job, I gave it my best each time, getting better at it and feeling good about it. I chose to do my job because it was earning my bread & butter.

A career is what you make of it. It is an individual's responsibility and not the organization's! The company has hired me to do a job and I must do it. My company will invest in a training for me if it enhances my skill and ability to perform my current tasks. For a C++ programmer, the company may invest in a OOAD course, as it is will add a design skill to the programmer, it will give him/her the ability to perform at a higher level. If this programmer, tells the company that he/she needs a training on Astrophysics because he/she loves the subject, will the company invest. The answer is "NO", it will not.

It is the individual's responsibility to build one's skill, ability and competitive advantage. Once you have these qualities, the boss will give your request an ear and try and do something for you because you are worth it. If you are the best in a skill, and continue to deliver consistently, the company will not think twice before giving you more responsibilities and investing in you, hence building your career, but you have to make that beginning.