Completed 8 years of professional experience!

Hey Readers — You will be happy to know that, Your this blog author has completed 8 years working in an industry! Yeap, this happened on 14th May. It really feels great!
To be honest, Haven’t realized. How these 8 years went! When you take a step back, sit quietly and think on it– Then it seems like all happened in a blink of an eye!
To check whether you are moving in right direction or not, It’s always good to check where you were and where you are! If you are in good position, you are happy then you are moving in to right direction!
8 Years is a big time, it means:

• 96 Months
• 417 Weeks
• 2921 Days

And luckily I found this article so long back, Which I tried to follow : http://programmer.97things.oreilly.com/wiki/index.php/Do_Lots_of_Deliberate_Practice
Now, When I look back, I feel happy and enjoyed and enjoying what I did and do. Because when you start your career. You are enthusiastic, You want to change  the world, And then after sometime you get carried away. For an instance, There were lot of good players in Cricket. But few of them had a great career as Sachin, Brian Lara, Sunil Gavaskar etc. Same as in film industry. You take any industry you will find the examples.
So, I was writing quick notes in my diary. What things I learnt in these 8 years. Good/Bad. And then I thought to share it with you. Especially folks who are young and starting their career or going to start their career or in between of their career. Might find it helpful. So, here we go:

1. Focus on your basics — Somehow I figured this out sooner. That focus on your basics skills. Whether it is in Technical, Communication or Soft. Because to be in this/any industry. You just can’t sustain on a single skill — e.g. If only your technical skills are good. But your communication is not good. Then you will survive. But not grow! At the same time, Based on your communication skills you will survive for a shorter time. But not for a long time
2. Be Technically Strong : At initial stage, Focus on your technical skills a lot. Because if you are technically not strong. Then it will be tough to sustain in a longer run! — Yes other skills matter for sure. But at initial stage this matters more as per my view! — Because once plant is a tree, you can’t mold it! Always be in sync with latest and greatest. Because technical industry changes over the night. And if you don’t upgrade your self. You will be dinosaur!
3. Read Read Read, Learn Learn Learn – Read as much as you can. Technical or Non Technical. But you must need to have reading habit! When I see my small library, It feels good. Because those books made me good programmer and good human being as well!
4. Keep Sharing your knowledge : If you learnt something, share it as soon as you can. Because when you share, you learn it better. Following are few of my ways to share:
   1. Blog : Every Developer must need to have blog — And so,as you!
   2. Have been visiting faculty — And was lucky to share my craft with great talented students!
   3. Mentor and Train : Have been luck to mentor and train — few young and great minds!
5. Communication :  Because communication is key. If you can talk to compilers, that’s good. But at the end of the day. Your software will be used by Humans! So, you need to understand what they need. And explain them how that works! I worked a lot on this, Because I was pass out from Local Indian language school. Where English was just one subject. I still remember, initially before sending an email and writing blogs. I was double checking my spelling and grammatical mistakes! 🙂 But that’s exercise helped a lot!
6. Soft Skills : As I said earlier, Along with Technical and Communication skills. Soft Skills are also interested. I am a big fan of this series : Driving Your Career – Soft Skills to Move You Forward
7. Keep your passion alive : What I’ve seen is, gradually people goes in to Comfort zone — The dangers zone in this world! Always be on your toes, Keep pushing your self. Find your big dream about life. And just keep working in that direction! Please remember, So fewer people in this world, get a chance to work on the stuff they love to do!
8. Work smart : Always keep looking for ways to improve – The biggest room in this world is room for improvement! Work smart, and get things done — Rather than complaining about anything!
9. Make good relations : Respect people, make good relations. That will help you as you grow in your career for sure! And it’s humanity right! We are humans!  “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
10. Be a good team player : Each company, and each team needs good team players. Be away from office politics, crab mentality. Help people grow, and then only you will grow!
11. Finally, Great lines from Harsha Bhogle “And I have seen too many outrageously talented, young Indian cricketers who chased the rupee and lost the runs. In essence, one must chase the performance goals and letting the results take care of itself.”

Links:

1. You are starting your career in IT Industry?  Here are my learnings for you!
2. Harsha Bhogle at IIM
3. Very Inspiring Speech by Navjot Singh Sidhu
4. Leadership Basics

You also completed long time with this industry? I missed to cover your point? Please do share with young folks. They will surely thank you for that!
Thanks for reading, Love what you do!