Change is Constant

Hi There,

It's been a while since I wrote a blog. Quite a lot has happened in my life in the last 18 months. I always believe only Change is Constant. I had been bugging with bugs almost 8 years in my career. Coming out of comfort zone to courage zone is not quite easy than said. I wanted to explore and I wanted a change. Since I have been in development for a long time working closely with the testing team thought testing would be the best bet for growth. "The grass is greener on the other side !". Had been in discussion with the management to find an opportunity in a testing team but in vain.

In my initial days of my carrer I worked a lot in modems. Infact the reason I got a chance to write a test in HCL is because of my mini project on xDSL modem which I had done in Crompton Greaves, Banaglore. Cleared the test and my first interview and got a Job in HCL and rest is history. Will be completing a Decade with HCL on 16th April 2010.

As said I had been working on fixing bugs on Analog and Digital modems. The first 18 months was a real struggle and I would rate it as my toughest part in my carrer . It was very difficult and survied that phase. My Cisco couterpart used to say me as "Modem Guy" and often she encourges me as "The only guy across the Globe to fix modem issues in Cisco". Those encoragement had pushed me to give my best. From my fifth cycle (third year) I started to perform well. Infact I had a healthy competition in our team on BCR (Bug Closure Rate).

When working on modem I used to loan from a person called MohanRaj Kumar, who is senior to me and was working in application development project. Whenever I loan and return back I used to make an entry in a register for tracking purpose. He had become good friend of mine and I used to say "Ungala polo nallavanga Cisco ODC-la yaarumae illa" ( No one is as good as you in Cisco ODC (Offshore Development Center)). I say this whenever and wherever I meet him :) Couple of times I remember Mohan asked me if I am interested in application development. Since I was in the system side I said I don't know Java and I didn't took his offer very seriously.

I was in my hunt for testing projects but it didn't come my way. I remembered Mohan words and I thought of checking with him for any opportunity in his project. He was then Senior Project Manager and was handling quite a bunch of projects. It was a quite a coincidence, there was a senior person (Technical Marketting Engieer) who was about to quit in one of his projects, he asked me whether I am interested in this role. And he gave me couple of days to think as it was an Individual Contributor role.

He gave me two options (for growth) one in Product Manager for the product. The project was running in Risk and Reward mode and the complete ownership is with HCL. And if didn't worked there is another option for me to manage the project. As the project was already being managed by a senior person he wanted to wait for few months to position me in any of the role. Do I need any compensation to eat Sugarcane ? (Karubbu thinna kulli-ya ? :) ) I said a Big Yes and got into that project.

A sea change for me, working in a system side (device driver, interface, interrupt, bugs) Now I am into a differnent landscape and all the above words are bad words expect the Bugs. Used I say "Without BUGS there is NO Indian IT industry" Thanks to all the 'So' called developers in the world (I had been part of that word as a 'Developer' but developed nothing but my belly :) for making India rich by 50+ Billons of dollors.

Life has started moving fast and I was learning of lot diversified things in my new project as a TME with little people management (this is a bad term and our mangement wanted to get rid off this term with something called Technical Manager). Things are going quite normal and there came the recession and lot of projects has be downsized by half and most of the testing teams got affected. If I been moved into any of the testing project I would been kicked off first !

Since I had been in R&R project was able to survive most part of the recesion period, but things were getting worse as the project profitability was not in great shape as my project resource cost was at the higher end. In the mean time there was a Program Manger position created by Krishan (Business Unit Head) in one of a Fix Bid project (so called Japan Project). Since there was too much of procuremnet involved in that project he wanted to position me in this project. I don't know whatprompted him to select my name for that role. (Special Thanks to the great and humble Leader !)

Mohan approached me and asked me about my interest in taking up the role (from project management to product management to program management..) Thought it could be quite interesting profile and I said a Big Yes to my Hero. Now into the Program manager role. The first and big assignment is to procure devices (reaching vendors, getting quotes, negotiation, raising capex, interlock with procurement team, mutiple follow-up...) Learning is endless and it was quite interesting and so far I have procured devices close to $1M to our project. Now I can write another blog on the capex process.

Program Manager role is not procuring devices but to keep track all that makes the project to go well and raise alarm when things are not at the right direction. Slowly I was learing the art and I was making myself to fit into the role. Next came a big surprise, onsite cooridnator huh... Since the project is for a Japan customer and there was a need for a strong onsite coorinator who knows cisco process well. I have been approached and it is an onsite (Japan) coordinator role. Again same sugarcane with lot of kooli :) I grabbed this opportnunity and flewed to Japan.

I have been in Japan for the past 44 days and doing my best for my project. Also I have been exploring a lot in Japan. A Sea Change in Short Time !

Change is Constant !

Regards,
-Kumar.