I started my career as a “developer” in a software company (CSC India). After working for 2-3 years in different roles that involved developing, testing, client interactions and solution architecting, I realized that I lack the disciplinary rigor to see forest for trees. So I was like the construction worker who knew that he was building something but was disconnected from the vision, the temple. Likewise, I was able to see what our goal was but was unable to appreciate the beauty.
More soul searching and few more weeks of abstraction revealed that it is the applications of the technology rather than the technology itself, which is the key. Technology is great thing to know but more important was to know what makes solutions, solutions that work for consumers. “Whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, which, later was discussed on several occasions during my MBA, was in fact driving me to know more about the other areas of business. I, by that time had enough experience working in pure technical roles and that was the time, I felt, I needed to equip myself with not just technical know-how but also with a strong knowledge of business dynamics and no casual reading would do that. I needed to go through the best formal education.
With this understandings and expectations of learning, I took up the Executive MBA course from XLRI. While I was in the first year of the course, I left the software company to join a start-up business school. I traded off my salary for the challenges ahead. This job (of 2 years duration) gave me an immense understanding of setting up a business, problems inherent in maintaining the resources, plans and execution of growth. I could actually find an application of knowledge and instantly visualize the contexts in which theory can merge with practice.
Currently, I am working as Product Specialist in a software company in SanFransisco, USA.
MBA has given me the confidence and versatility to perform beyond the IT sector, where I had started my career first, at my free will. I am happy that I have the required foundation to be construction worker who not only is aware that he is building temple and but also one who knows his temple.
1 comment:
That made for interesting reading. I can completely relate to what made you do an MBA. I was planning to go for an MBA after completing my engineering. But when I was selected in a software company off campus, I decided to give it a shot- and I do not regret that decision at all. I have been working as a "developer" for around two years and I realized that it would have been a mistake had I chosen to do an MBA fresh out of college. The posts that you and others have written on this blog make sense to me just because of my limited experience in the industry doing more or less technical work. I can appreciate the importance of the various frameworks and ways of management only because I can understand their application and their right value thanks to being in a field which usually turns up its nose at the mention of management. So essentially- one first needs to be a worker in order to be a builder. Being a "developer" I am laying bricks and cementing them so that later when I build the temple I know everything right from what material to use for the foundation, to what media to advertise the inauguration in!
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