Greetings from Venkat to all readers. It is a good question to start with. Bear with me because of the lengthy answer.
I have done all my Academics in Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh State. It is the largest district of Andhra Pradesh and 7th largest district in India in area. On the negative side, Anantapur district is known as one of the poorer districts of Andhra Pradesh and also renowned for severe drought conditions.
Surprisingly, I have done all my Academics on NH7. Yes all my schools were in the place around NH7. So all my journey for both academics and job happened on NH7. I called this Destiny.
After my Post-Graduation in Computer Sciences, my career journey started with Hewlett Packard in Bangalore. In my career progression I worked in multiple organizations further in my total 15+years of Experience that I have now.
Thanks to my father who studied just 9th standard but always dreamt of giving a better education beyond his affordability. There is a quote "Vidya kante Vignanam Goppadi" in Telugu which is also my mother tongue. This quote meant Wisdom Is More Powerful Than Education.
My father is a good example for that. When I was Young, I did not realize much. But as I grow older, I am clearly getting aware of the difference between Education and Knowledge. My father may be less educated but more Wise. That Wisdom made him aware of the importance of Education and the impact of one's life on Education.
His commitment to make me cherish in education made me grow and become a Software Professional. Those non-social networking, non-internet days my father used to meet with known lecturers to understand the opportunities for the children with economically backward families.
Thanks to PV Narasimha Rao's Idea of starting Navodaya schools during the Rajiv Gandhi Prime Minister-ship. I cleared the entrance exam of Navodaya and joined for my 6th class. Navodaya schools are known for the best CBSE schools which achieved the highest pass percentage in India even now.
In the career front, I played various roles - Software Engineer, Team Lead and also as an Architect in various Software Organizations. The Proudest moment in my career was the time when I successfully filed 2 Patents. These Patents are targeted to serve Telecom Industries.
In the career front, I played various roles - Software Engineer, Team Lead and also as an Architect in various Software Organizations. The Proudest moment in my career was the time when I successfully filed 2 Patents. These Patents are targeted to serve Telecom Industries.
I cherished the opportunity when I wrote an article about 4G in the Annual Journal of L&T Technology Services. I recently moved to Ireland and I am currently employed here and exploring new Domains. Here I had also presented a session to share the learnings and experience to understand the procedures in searching for jobs targeted for Indians who are living in Ireland and searching for jobs.
2. How do you keep your technology skills current?
Referring to a quote “Change is Inevitable”. This quote is no exception for the IT Industry. Compared to other areas, Time to market and fierce competition made the processes and people involved in the Technological field to be easily adaptable.
IT industry demands constant update of skills. Textbooks play a comparatively less role once you are into the Professional Roles. So, the need of alternate resources arises to know about the latest industry standards. I use LinkedIn forums, Technical blogs, participate in meetup discussions to share mutual knowledge, etc., I also have a technical blog where I document the things which I feel would be helpful.
So, one should refer to the open forums which explains the latest trends. Fortunately, most people who are in the Technological Domain would like to share the knowledge through different sources like Video Streaming places like YouTube, Forums like Stack Exchange, LinkedIn, etc.
2. How do you keep your technology skills current?
Referring to a quote “Change is Inevitable”. This quote is no exception for the IT Industry. Compared to other areas, Time to market and fierce competition made the processes and people involved in the Technological field to be easily adaptable.
IT industry demands constant update of skills. Textbooks play a comparatively less role once you are into the Professional Roles. So, the need of alternate resources arises to know about the latest industry standards. I use LinkedIn forums, Technical blogs, participate in meetup discussions to share mutual knowledge, etc., I also have a technical blog where I document the things which I feel would be helpful.
So, one should refer to the open forums which explains the latest trends. Fortunately, most people who are in the Technological Domain would like to share the knowledge through different sources like Video Streaming places like YouTube, Forums like Stack Exchange, LinkedIn, etc.
There are few times where there is orthogonal shift in the Domains, then to learn I also take help of the online training courses like Udemy, Udacity, Coursera, etc.,
3. What led you to start writing your own blogs and what are your blogs about?
The Internet made 500 million kilometer square earth fitted into 5” X 5” inches Gadget. Through WWW one can reach and share his thoughts to the whole earth. Here opportunities to share thoughts and ideas are infinite. I owe to the Internet in building and correcting my thoughts to see the world.
It also helps to destroy some false assumptions that people live in because of the influence of paid media houses (includes Social Networking, News, etc.). Recently there was a huge debate about Ban china without understanding how much our country is deeply rooted with Chinese investments.
3. What led you to start writing your own blogs and what are your blogs about?
The Internet made 500 million kilometer square earth fitted into 5” X 5” inches Gadget. Through WWW one can reach and share his thoughts to the whole earth. Here opportunities to share thoughts and ideas are infinite. I owe to the Internet in building and correcting my thoughts to see the world.
It also helps to destroy some false assumptions that people live in because of the influence of paid media houses (includes Social Networking, News, etc.). Recently there was a huge debate about Ban china without understanding how much our country is deeply rooted with Chinese investments.
Social media made people to be in trance such that, just by uninstalling a few free Apps they are going to remove dependency over China. I felt this is a good point to open up and present the reality with different perceptions to present my idea about how much India is really ready to grab out of Dependency on China.
I explained in detail in my recent blog. India's Readiness to Facilitate Companies from China. I spent most weekends for 3 months collecting the details and also in discussing with like-minded people. For example one of my dear friends Srikanth who helped me while drafting all these blogs.
Similarly my recent previous posts are about a broken academic system in India. I have two blogs one is towards social issues another is towards Technology. I choose blogging as it has the opportunity to outreach to a wider audience and get feedback about presentation.
I also choose to express my personal opinions about Social issues and thoughts. It also helps to get feedback and suggestions from the people who are not in your known social and cultural circle. I personally encourage all to start their own blog and document the learnings.
This also helps in improving writing skills. This will help in growing in the profession as well. There is a significant contribution from these open forums to my career and thought processes. This also gives me responsibility and duty to contribute as well to the community.
4. What are your tips for people who want to build a career in the IT field?
IT Field has significantly changed when compared to the previous decade, before 10 years if your academics are good, then you are OK to get into Industry. Now the whole industry is facing different challenges as cost in providing services from Indian Organizations have grown significantly when we compare with earlier years.
Now a decent percentage is enough but not just enough. When I say not just enough because, organizations are looking for people who are ready to start work with less training. This can only happen when a student already got better exposure and is ready to understand industry needs.
For this, there are ample opportunities available now. The tips that I can provide with my knowledge is:
All the above mentioned will give the newcomers a great confidence and increase their scope of placing in a better organization with better work when recruiters see these strengths in CV.
5. What are your favorite and least favorite technology products, and why?
There is nothing called the Least favorite Technology product according to me as all of the products came up to make our life better. But many products won't come to lime-light because of various reasons. Few may fail to attract users’ attention because of failure at execution or planning or for no reason.
4. What are your tips for people who want to build a career in the IT field?
IT Field has significantly changed when compared to the previous decade, before 10 years if your academics are good, then you are OK to get into Industry. Now the whole industry is facing different challenges as cost in providing services from Indian Organizations have grown significantly when we compare with earlier years.
Now a decent percentage is enough but not just enough. When I say not just enough because, organizations are looking for people who are ready to start work with less training. This can only happen when a student already got better exposure and is ready to understand industry needs.
For this, there are ample opportunities available now. The tips that I can provide with my knowledge is:
- Students should start contributing to Open Sources. Having their own Git repo of the resources makes their opportunities wider and preferable
- Students can also become teams and can develop POCs and present them in Forums
- Participating in Hackathons and Symposiums. Presenting those outcomes in the profile
- There are websites for Freelancers to explore, experiment and showcase the strengths. Wipro recently acquired one such organization Topcoder
5. What are your favorite and least favorite technology products, and why?
There is nothing called the Least favorite Technology product according to me as all of the products came up to make our life better. But many products won't come to lime-light because of various reasons. Few may fail to attract users’ attention because of failure at execution or planning or for no reason.
Best example is Nokia lost their dominance in the Mobile Market. We all remember Nokia CEO ended his speech in tears saying “we didn't do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost” in 2016. That does not make the same reason applicable for all products which failed to conquer the market.
More than technology I get more inspired with people. There are many stalwarts in the Industry. But I get awestruck when I see Elon Musk. I always feel amazed with his marvelous thoughts.
More than technology I get more inspired with people. There are many stalwarts in the Industry. But I get awestruck when I see Elon Musk. I always feel amazed with his marvelous thoughts.
He is into all different scape like SpaceX - sends Astronauts to ISS, Tesla - Electric Cars, SolarCity - Solar panels, Starlink dreaming to provide Satellite Internet access, Hyperloop train, etc. The recent one is Neuralink - Device enables Brain/Machine interface. These are completely different thoughts which drives the world into a new era.
6. What are the benefits and the drawbacks of working in an agile environment?
I worked for a good number of years in the Agile Environment, including my current role. I am also a Certificated Scrum Master from Scrum Alliance. I also played the role of Scrum master for 3+ years.
I can call Agile a revolutionary process that changed the Software Industry. The major advantage that Agile provides is the flexibility. Unlike the previous process like Waterfall or Spiral processes Agile provides a greater advantage in reducing Time to market.
I worked for a good number of years in the Agile Environment, including my current role. I am also a Certificated Scrum Master from Scrum Alliance. I also played the role of Scrum master for 3+ years.
I can call Agile a revolutionary process that changed the Software Industry. The major advantage that Agile provides is the flexibility. Unlike the previous process like Waterfall or Spiral processes Agile provides a greater advantage in reducing Time to market.
The product companies are under great pressure because of the competition. Agile provides good support in the process to reduce time significantly to get into the market. With so many startups are budding all over the world, agile gives the Startup edge to bigger organizations through the process.
Agile also encourages flexibility, openness and constant feedback mechanism in shorter cycle times which are referred as Sprints. This opens early Inspect and Adapt in the product's Vision and Mission. Another is Transparency, which makes the product’s dashboard available to the whole team irrespective of role and seniority.
Agile also encourages flexibility, openness and constant feedback mechanism in shorter cycle times which are referred as Sprints. This opens early Inspect and Adapt in the product's Vision and Mission. Another is Transparency, which makes the product’s dashboard available to the whole team irrespective of role and seniority.
Agile is just a Framework. There are multiple techniques that are part of this Framework. Those are like TDD, Extreme Programming, FDD, Continuous Integration,etc., to mention a few. The challenge of the Agile process is, expecting every one as an Individual contributor.
The success of the team is directly proportional with the Motivation of the team because Agile decreases the burden of the Documentation and Supervision Management. Similarly Complication while estimating the work, Project easily falls off track, etc., are the drawbacks.
Another unforeseen challenge is attrition. The success of the product will have a direct impact on productivity if the members of the project change constantly as newcomers take time to understand the product and procedures. Fingers Crossed, now companies are talking about adapting SAFe, an enhanced Agile Framework.
7. What skills or characteristics make someone an effective remote worker?
“Remote Working” a buzz word during Covid Times. Effective remote worker needs good writing skills and communication skills on the communication front. A good setup in home with all required peripherals helps the member be equally productive.
“Remote Working” a buzz word during Covid Times. Effective remote worker needs good writing skills and communication skills on the communication front. A good setup in home with all required peripherals helps the member be equally productive.
One of the great advantages is if you are a music lover, we can use speakers instead of ear-phones and continue working. Team needs to restrict the meetings to particular times of a day, or adding few days a week as “No meeting” days. Unstructured meetings over Skype impacts productivity and adds stress to the team as this leads to frequent context switching. Need to Mind health.
We all should be aware that, No matter what is happening at work, life is happening outside of it at the same time. During this Pandemic time, the team should be able to understand and respect other team members’ priorities and concerns.
We all should be aware that, No matter what is happening at work, life is happening outside of it at the same time. During this Pandemic time, the team should be able to understand and respect other team members’ priorities and concerns.
Create work buddies to check in on each other and encourage video conferencing to ensure social interacting, particularly for colleagues who may be in self-isolation or cocooning whether they have contracted the virus or are classified as high risk or vulnerable at this time
8. How do you manage your work-life balance?
It has been 5 months since I started working from home. My body clock got changed. This saved a good amount of travelling time for each day. But, we have to honor the balance.
I ensured the same working hours which I used to follow during office days. Having prior experience of doing WFH in pre-covid days made me carry those learnings to the current situation. I will also do personal chat with my colleagues to continue personal connections.
As we are in closed spaces, engaged myself in activities like Yoga or spending time with family/children by getting into their world. This is a wonderful opportunity to see and understand the world of our partner or child of a day. A high time which proved that one’s safest place is the Home.
8. How do you manage your work-life balance?
It has been 5 months since I started working from home. My body clock got changed. This saved a good amount of travelling time for each day. But, we have to honor the balance.
I ensured the same working hours which I used to follow during office days. Having prior experience of doing WFH in pre-covid days made me carry those learnings to the current situation. I will also do personal chat with my colleagues to continue personal connections.
As we are in closed spaces, engaged myself in activities like Yoga or spending time with family/children by getting into their world. This is a wonderful opportunity to see and understand the world of our partner or child of a day. A high time which proved that one’s safest place is the Home.
- Interview by - Sanjana Jain
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