Self-development

Having worked for an outsourcing company for almost a decade, my approach to learning had gone through an evolution. What surprised me, though, that it is still evolving now that I’ve worked for another company for almost a whole year. I found the key difference in being even more conscious these days.

At the very beginning, all I had to know is what was closely related to the project, which was usually technology related. This changed after I joined EPAM as it was an outsourcing company, both giving consultancy and participating in the implementation of various projects for many companies. You must have a wider domain knowledge if you want to be successful in this business than what is strictly needed for a given company – you must be familiar with their competitors, their technologies, challenges, future needs, etc. I knew I had to learn, though I was focusing mostly on technology back at that time. Learning Java after C++ was a MUST due to switching company, but I was happy to make that step.

Then, I faced with other challenges as I was developing professionally – leadership. Fortunately, the company was always behind people wishing to develop and gave all the tools and opportunities to grow. They realized that it’s a prerequisite to growing their business, the math is quite simple: you must educate your people so that you can extend your business based upon them. I’d slowly got to the feeling that I must learn continuously, not because it was a well-known principle in the industry (was it?), but it was in the company’s culture and the environment.

Then, I’d got a little tired about learning. Yes, I admit it. I eventually grew into the role of a solution architect and I thought “I’ve learned enough, it’s time to share instead of running after technologies”. Needless to say how far I was from truth. Just exactly because I was a solution architect I always had to have a solid technology background AND be up-to-date with technology advancements. Of course, it’s impossible to be familiar with everything (cloud, Java, machine learning, Big Data, just to name a few), thus I had to make my choice. Since I was interested in e-commerce, as a business domain, I chose SAP Hybris. Actually, it was a hit of two flies with one stone – technology plus the domain. It was quite an interesting journey, I must say.

After some time, though, I started realizing that I could have even more influence on delivering projects successfully if I manage the them myself. Yeah, you may say: of course. Yet, it’s really a mental shift from designing the architecture to planning and executing the project, right? I had to realize that I like complexity in general, not only at technology level. But this poses different challenges, right, from schedule to scope management, team structure, risk & change management, etc.

How does all this come to self-development? You know, now that I’ve spent some time at another company I had to realize how much it’s up to me how I keep myself educated. I now remember it was similar at other companies, too: they provide you with a light-weight framework for learning and there you go. Here I am with my mixed skill set being interested in management, technologies and business domains and it’s entirely up to me what I learn, how much time I spend on it … eventually how I grow myself to what I want to be in the future.

With all this background, let me share some hands-on tips.

• As I strongly believe in focus, I allocated time slots in my calendar to self-development in the areas above.
• I carefully selected sources from the internet that I trust in delivering quality information and I follow them closely.
• Of course, I’m interested in any news coming on my way, however, I must also pay attention to filtering the “noise”.
• I prefer not to be interrupted during these sessions, if possible.
• I also read books, but I noticed I’m much slower with reading them and often don’t feel the excitement afterwards – I hope it will change, though.
• And finally, I share what I learned with those people who show any interest. It may motivate them to do something similar and also validate my interpretation of the area in question.

Actually, I’m sharing now, too, as I feel this method simply works for me. Probably it will work for others, too.

Good luck!

Gabor