Kickstarting a Career...

I have had the opportunity to interview thousands of candidates for various positions in the Organizations I have been associated with in my career.

I have not seen many people who know exactly what they want to do in their careers. Most people have goals, that very generic like "settling down abroad" or "be a project manager in 5 years" and sometimes even "I need to buy and SUV next year!". That's not bad. A career does not depend on whether one has goal or not, what one needs is an opportunity!. My Blog Post on Opportunity explains what one needs to do to encash an opportunity. 

When I interview candidates (I am referring to young Job Seekers, who are looking forward to their first job!), I get to hear the following expectations from their jobs;

• No more than 8 hours at work
• Assignments abroad, frequent trips to different countries
• Working on New Technologies
• Change of Projects every 6 months to handle boredom
• Want to work on only X Technology and not on A, B or C
• Will work on Programming only, will not do any support activity
• Willing to work for a max of 2 years in this company
• No Work on Weekends 
• Work-life balance
• Flexible Work Hours 
• Lots of Training and Learning
• Vacation Time
• Free Transportation
• Free Food
• Recreation facilities at office
• Growth in their careers
• Good Salary to start with and raises of 30% year on year
• Loans for buying Vehicles and Home Appliances
• Sponsored Courses in Institutes of repute
• Time off to do a Post Graduate Course

When I ask them what they can contribute to this company at this point in time, they unabashedly say, "I don't know much now, you Train me and I will perform!".

I can go on and on. I have met very few people who have said, "I need this job and give me any work, I will do it". People come to interviews with closed mindsets, they come with a lot of expectations without willingness or intentions of earning any of it. Some candidates are so arrogant that they were not willing to work for less than "N" in salary as it is "Too Less", they did not even see, that their earning is 0 now, and that something is better than nothing...

Not one realizes, that the first step in one's career is To Secure the First Job. What assignments one works on, the career path, the technology, salaries offered, facilities provided in office are all immaterial. 

There is so much of competition now. The loss of one candidate is the gain for another one. If one candidate refuses an offer, there will be 100 candidates who will be willing to accept the offer. It's time that the Job Seekers change their mind sets, set low expectations and grab any opportunity that comes their way. Career Management can happen later and there will be a lot of time for that...

Working for a Tyrant Boss!

My 1st Boss was a Tyrant, 2nd one was Friendly Back Stabber, 3rd one was Heartless Task Master, 4th one Hands off Delegator and I don't want to talk about my 5th and current boss for obvious reasons!.

1st Boss: Very loud, everything he says has to be done or someone gets yelled at. He gives me my first assignment and asks me how I will to go about it!, I had no idea where to start, no idea what I should do, people tell me that I will be torn apart. I sat thinking how I will solve it for about 30 mins, could not find the answer, had to close the task on the same day, so I mustered up courage, accepted martyrdom and walked into the Lion's den, I said, "Sir, I don't know how to solve this problem". Boss smiles, sits me down, explains step by step from fundamentals... a lesson I have not forgotten till date. From then on, he was my favorite. I was awed by his practical knowledge. No one dared to challenge him, because, he was never afraid to roll up his sleeve and complete the task without any help. He was fearless and would never buckle under pressure, because he had "been there and done that".

Lesson:

• Knowledge is power!. 
• Never show resistance to do what you expect from your team members, when you lead, you lead from the front. If you expect your team to put in 16 hours to complete a task, you be ready to put 20 hours, be available to them, just in case they need anything.
• When team members come to you for help, spend time to mentor them, if you are able to help them, they will be independent soon, which will give you some spare time to add another skill and grow.
• Never be afraid of approaching your boss and saying you don't know or I need help, he cannot take your life, worst case, he can fire you, but you can always find another job...

2nd Boss: Young, soft spoken, diplomatic, understanding, he was a role model to me. I liked working for him from day 1. He made me feel comfortable, he said I have great potential!, he allowed me to fail, there was always someone else who would pitch in to help me complete my task because he could not afford a delay, don't worry he said, all is well, you'll learn to get the tasks done faster as you spend more time. When the time of the appraisal came, his rating for me was "Below Expectations", when I asked why?, he said, you are not up to the mark, there is a lot of scope for improvement!, I said, "you said it was ok!, you said, I will learn in time". I was quite surprised with his behavior, but I had no one but myself to blame, I had failed, and I was foolish to take his re-assurances literally and take it easy.

Lesson: 

• I failed because I did not work hard enough and took it easy.
• It is not ok to fail, never be carried away with re-assurances that tomorrow will be a better day, there is no tomorrow if you don't make the best use of today. Don't go to bed if you know that you are going to fail tomorrow.
• You get paid for performance, not potential.

3rd Boss: Middle aged, assertive, tough task master, very aggressive. He was an expert at delegation and empowerment. He was teaching me and throwing responsibilities at me, one at a time, watching me, when I was getting a reasonable handle of the task, he would throw one more at me. Each responsibility was adding an hour or two extra to my work hours, but I did not break. When I went to him with my problems, I always came back with solutions to my problems and a few of his problems to solve. He knew how to make people work, he was a master at chess!. One day, one of my Technical Leaders came to me with a complaint on an under-performing Team Member and that he needed a replacement. I took this matter up to my boss, he calmly said, "I don't have more people to give you, your performance appraisal depends on this Team Member's success, now go and get to work". I had no choice but to make this guy work out, I was able to turn this guy around.

Lesson:

• I learned to find my own solutions to my problems, not go running to my boss for solutions, I learned that by owning up the problem, by thinking hard and trying really hard, we can find solutions to any problem. 
• I learned multi-tasking. 
• I learned to prioritize. 
• I learned to observe how my Boss thinks and be prepared with answers ahead of time. I was careful not to make assumptions using "my bosses' thought process" as a shield.
• Learnt the difference between Aggression and Assertiveness and when to use each.
• To win, you need to set a target better than the current record.

4th Boss: Middle aged, very easy going, not quick to take decisions, was ok with whatever I said or did, never directed me. I went with my proposals for improvements, he agreed, he never challenged me. I liked this person. He was responsible for the department, but I was doing all the work, taking decisions, choosing directions and strategy. There was no real contribution from him. He used to proudly mention that he had "empowered" me, while he had actually "delegated" all tasks to me.

Lesson:

• I did not grow in this set up, I was contributing all my knowledge from my previous jobs into this one, and was not adding any more.
• I was working very hard to ensure that all was well, while someone else was walking away with the credit, it's glory and the accolades.

~o~o~o~

From my experience with all the bosses I have worked for, I hated the demanding bosses the most, but I got to learn a lot from them. They challenged me to do more, and do better, they were never satisfied with what I said or what I did. All suggestions I made were "wrong" and there was always a better "solution" that I was not aware of. Result was that, I was getting better and better and I was growing.

I have also had the opportunity to work for very capable and demanding bosses who used to insult, humiliate and waste time by conducting 8 hour meetings to punch holes in a 5 slide presentation just to demonstrate their power. I got a lot to learn from this type too, but what I learned was what "Not To Do".

Under the "not so demanding" bosses, life was stagnant, I never grew, I never learnt and I failed.

I have realized the value of my demanding bosses long after I left them, but deep inside my heart, I am grateful to all my bosses who pushed me hard, demanded more than I could deliver, it is because of them I am where I am and I do what I do...

Thank you my Tyrant Boss!.

How to destroy a Career!

This is a story about a young professional, a star performer, a potential future leader and how he destroyed his career...

He joined the company when he was fresh out of college. He was enthusiastic, quick witted, lively and knowledgeable. He joined the company with 14 others, within a week, they voted for him to be their representative, they gave him a nickname "Captain". This incident was noticed by the company management.

Captain topped in all assignments during the Induction Program and quickly grew in popularity. All the Project Managers wanted Captain in their teams. At the time of Project Assignments, the Resource Allocation Team gave him the option of choosing his own project, a rare distinction. Captain evaluated all available projects and chose his project.

Quickly Captain won accolades from other team members, he was faster than most others, would take just about 60% of the allocated time to complete an assignment, would move on to the next one as soon as he would finish his current task. The Project Manager was having a tough time keeping Captain "busy" with interesting assignments.

The next 3 years went by quickly, Captain was promoted to be a Team Leader.

One fine day, a senior in the team asked Captain, "why are you working so hard? Are they paying you too much?" --- this got Captain thinking. He was flabbergasted. The question made a lot of sense. He starting seeing other people around him, they were leaving at 6:30 PM, they were enjoying their lives, he realized that he was one of the first to come in to office, and the last to leave. He was doing almost 40% of the project all by himself, while people who were senior to him and who were getting better salaries than him, were getting away by contributing much lesser.

Captain started losing interest, his work hours were getting lesser and lesser, his efficiency suffered, he would come in at 9:30 AM and would be out the door at 6:30 PM. He was only doing what was being assigned. He was able to finish the assignment in 60% of the time, but never reported the completion of the task to the Manager before the deadline. In the spare time, Captain would chat with friends, browse the internet and while away time in the cafeteria. The story does not end here. Captain's interest fell further and his tasks were averaging a delay of 25% each time.

The Manager stopped giving interesting assignments to Captain, he stopped relying on him for delivery, his team was now reporting to someone else, Captain was reduced to a team member's role.

Captain started bad mouthing the company policies, he said that the Management does not know how to take care of loyal employees and his "own version" of the story of why he was demoted to a team member's role, he said it was because, his Manager was considering him a threat and so on.

Captain was fired after 4 years of service with the company.

Summarizing Captain's story;

Step 1: Captain listened to and more importantly, believed a manipulative senior, 
Step 2: compared his contributions and salary with others', then lost interest in the work, 
Step 3: started wasting time and subsequently introducing unnecessary delays in the task, 
Step 4: lost out to others in the team for being more reliable, was demoted, 
Step 5: then he started bad mouthing the Manager, the Management and the Company Policies. 

This is how Captain initiated and architected his own downfall, but somehow, it was the Manager's fault.... he did not realize that his career was his responsibility and not his Manager's or the Organization's.

What captain did not realize is that;

• A negative talker has a ulterior, sinister and selfish motives. He should have reported the incident to the Management immediately.
• By working harder, he was the one who was amassing experience, what others taking 1 year to achieve, Captain was achieving in 0.6 years.
• It is unfair to compare one's salary to some one else's in the company. What one gets is what he/she deserves. One who is "underpaid and more productive" has a better chance to survive a layoff than the one who is "overpaid and under-productive". The same applies to getting a new job as well.
• Wasting time and introducing un-necessary delays on a task is a sin!, it is our duty to report the completion of a task as soon as it is done and move on to the next task.
• Bad mouthing the Management and Company policies is a crime. If one has a problem with a policy, then one should contact the Human Resources Department Representative or the Project Manager and not vent "feelings" in the Cafeteria with other employees. 

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.