Lessons Learnt from my Professional Life

Being a software professional/consultant in IT Services/consultancy industry, I learnt significantly the following lessons. I hope these lessons might helpful to others.

• Should have clear career goal - Analyze and make appropriate decisions at right time – For many situations the consultants are not given right vision or appropriate options. They are forced to take what is available. Sometimes this is OK, but not always. If you accept what ever that are forced to you that are not in your career plan then you are not going away from your plan – Be careful! The career plan either could be in technical, functional or managerial.
• Unplanned Performance Review – You should know your performance indicators in which you are going to be evaluated in advance – during review period itself. Most cases the manager fails to define performance indicators and their expected values in advance, but they do try to do performance appraisal after the review period. This is not at all accepted! – Suffering party is always the subordinates – NOT SUPERVISORS!
• Be clear with organization’s Standards, Policies, and Procedures, at least from quality perspective, if you are in delivery side.
• Big Picture - Understand the organization strategy/objective and find out how you are contributing to achieve that objective.
• Have good network of relationships with others in the project/organization – will learn so many good things from others. Of course even negative lessons too!
• Enhance your knowledge always by learning – Sharpening the saw!
• Presentable – Make sure that you do enough marketing so that your boss (and other appropriate stockholders) knows what you have accomplished – Write somewhere in your scribble pad or maintain your own activity log. This will help you in many aspects. Like during review, this will serve as a tool to showcase your accomplishments.
• Build your soft skills as required – Oral and written communication, presentation skills, handing situations, facing customers, controlling your emotions, etc.
• Professional Environment – Try to maintain professional environment as much as you can that includes oral and verbal communication.
• Try to look for change in career at least once in a year – Or you will be locked in one production support project for YEARS! – Wherein the scope to learn new stuff is limited.
• When you shift projects – make sure that you know your complete roles and responsibilities
• Try to participate in professional level corporate activities – a way to build relationships with top management
• Be effective during office time; spend time for your personal side. Morning times are always efficient – Use efficiently!
• Always try to lead your leader, but at the same time make sure that you are not led by your subordinates!