The career mantra of learn, leverage and lead will help professionals in all sectors to stand out of the clutter, says VINAY SOLANKI
The year 2020 will be remembered for many events from economic slowdown to President Trump’s defeat and from stock market crash to rumour of Kim Jong (North Korea leader) being dead. But one that leaves the mark in minds and impacted everyone is COVID-19, which has changed the way we work, live, communicate or think. Many technology professionals and enthusiasts lost their jobs during this pandemic and technology start-ups shut shop due to limited cash flows. 2020 college graduates faced difficulty to kick start their career and those graduating in 2021 are confused or stressed.
Not everything is gloomy though as COVID had few positive impacts such as corporates adopting work from home, professionals learning new skills and most important driving digital transformation adoption by 3x times for most of the businesses, governments and consumers across the globe.
A career mantra we recommend and which is applicable for any professional any time and more so for 2021 is 3L — Learn, Leverage and Lead to build “T-shape” profile.
Learn: 2020 taught us that we need to learn to adapt lifelong and not get in our comfort zones. Technology professionals should continue to re-skill or up skill themselves in the latest technologies and trends. Cloud architects and developers can learn new cloud platforms, mobile app developers can ensure to know a few competing languages or frameworks (ex: React, Android, Angular or Flutter) and so on. While I advise to build a deep expertise in one or two areas, at times it is good to have few breadths in other relevant technologies or functional domains. Someone with T-shape skill profile can always move to adjacent domains or expertise if their existing area becomes irrelevant or too competitive. Example would be embedded software programmer while having strength in C, Python or NodeJS should also build some understanding of hardware architecture, PCB designing, design optimisation and probably soft skills to build stronger EQ (Emotional Quotient).
Leverage: Technology professionals at times ignore power of building wider and stronger network but in situationsahead of us it becomes important to not only have technology skills but people skills and relationship building attitude. Finding the right job or career path can be easier if you learn how to leverage your network. If you know how to give back to your network you will always find someone referring you for an excellent job or position. One can build network within their organisation, online on LinkedIn, participating in communities, attending focus groups or simply following people. Mentor who can guide you closely can also play a critical role in your career decisions.
Lead: Technology professionals with experience of 8+ years usually find it boring or stagnating if they continue to work in the same area or domain for long. Some opt for management programs in order to move up the career chain and others shift domain or skills.
I strongly advise that in addition to building technology skills to focus on functional and soft skills. Take initiatives at your work place by teaching, building focus groups or simply ideating on the project at hand and show you can drive a project, a team or open to take more responsibilities. Future is unpredictable hence it is critical you build leadership skills to differentiate in a hyper competitive environment.
The economic growth moves in cycles so there will be uptime and again downward trends hence it's key to use the time you have in 2021 to follow my 3L strategy and strive to have a “T-shape” career or skill profile.
The writer is Head — Digital Solutions at Napino
