I was asked to share my experiences from the IT industry with first year Telecom Management students. Following are some excerpts from the session.
- Blow your own trumpet but don’t go out of tune.
- Stick to your commitments and deadlines.
- Work smart and work hard.
- Have top management recall.
- Don’t stick by stated KRA’s only, explore other areas of work that you can do.
- Redefine you’re your job to suit your interest and organizations interest.
- Speak up and give feedback at Top Management meetings and interactions.
- Take up tough assignments at work which others won’t touch due to fear of failure.
- Be known for some key attributes.
- Establish mentors in the system.
- Bet on the right horses at work.
- Jo har kar bhi jite hai, unhe bazigar khete hai. (Those who win even when they loose are the ones who win battles).
- Network well in your organization.
- Don’t be a cribber. Management hates cribbers they like people who offer solutions for problems.
- Be part of the solution not the problem.
- To change the system you need to reach right at the top by using the system.
- Don’t be a Devdas (Brooding Romeo). Learn to get over things. There are no points for loosing.
- Join cash rich companies.
- Differentiate yourself from others as people and skills are commodities in today’s world.
- Get your boss his promotion. He will get yours.
- 90% of people end up in industries they started off their careers with.
- Get mechanisms in place to deal with stress at work.
- Define what success is to you early in life.
- Keep in touch with your books. Take up teaching at some point in time in your life.
- Don’t take things personally at a job.
- Keep checking your market value.
- Be a personality.
- Presentation skills and content are equally important.
- Keep yourself in great health both physical and mental.
- Maintain high energy levels.
- Attend as many training programs and seminars as possible. Keep learning constantly.
- Take jobs which give you an exposure to other principal companies.
- It’s ok to be a diplomat but diplomats never run nations.
- It does not matter what you are at school, it matters what you are at school reunion.
- The richest and poorest people in the world are the least educated people.
- Remember that even if you win the rat race you still a rat