Career Advice – Don’t ever become a typist and struggle like me
TweetUpdated 6 Apr 2010 – My nephew, with who i had the discussion mentioned in this post has commented.
Updated 29 Mar 2010 - RK has written a nice rejoinder to this post on his blog. Please check it out.
Prolog
Recently, i was talking to a nephew of mine, who is studying to be an engineer, about career choices and he was saying how he didn’t like programming and was going to stay far away from it. I didn’t think he was making the correct decisions, and i wanted to tell him a story and a lesson from my own life.
Never become a typist
As a middle class family man, my father worked extremely hard to put food on the table and to get us educated at decent institutions. When the money was tight, aside from his regular government job, he would go out and do job typing and earn something like Rs. 0.50 per page or something like that (this is 30+ years back, don’t remember very clearly). Obviously, a lot of back breaking work.
One day, he told me, Son, “you should never become a typist and struggle the way i do”. I would have been a 10 year old at the time he told me this.
Now i took that as the gospel truth. I have developed such a deep-rooted prejudice that i am yet to even step into a typewriting training institute. Believe it or not, every time, i pass by a typewriting training school, the image of my father advising me comes into my mind and i don’t enter the school.
I learnt programming in the 1st year of my college and i entered the software industry soon after i finished college. I have worked in it since then for nearly 22 years now. But i am still to learn typewriting formally. I can type at a pretty good speed thanks to the donkey’s years spent using the QWERTY keyboard.
Had i learnt typewriting formally, it would definitely have helped me with my job. The thing is, i completely misunderstood my father. He only asked that i don’t become a typist as a career choice. He never said i shouldn’t learn typewriting at all.
Programming is also a Tool
Through this story, I told my nephew that, had i thought of Typewriting as a tool and not as a career choice, i wouldn’t have made the mistake.
I told him – “In the same way, programming is a tool. There is no job on the planet that doesn’t use computers or information technology in general in some way shape or form. So, no matter what career you end up in, learning programming/computers would help you in your career.”
He seemed to understand and agree with me. Hope he will follow through and not treat Programming with the same prejudice i treated Typewriting.
Epilog
What did you think of my advice? Do you all have similar types of ill-founded prejudices in your life or am i the only one? Please chime in with your comments.
Sukumar,
Interesting. I do not know if I would equate like you have done. Learning to typewrite would have helped to write a program faster, but not to understand what programming is about. I do not not know if learning to program will make me a better engineer (especially non-computer/EEE type of engineering). In such a profession, it is a must and important that I understand computers, learn to use the tools and what it provides to make my job easier and efficient. But, I do not have to know programming. For example, if me as a CPA is averse to computers, that would affect my job. But if I am averse to programming, that is OK.
Hope it makes sense. And thanks for breaking the blogging inertia
Ganesh
Sukumar,
Nice Post, programming was not my cup of tea, but while persuing engineering (EEE) a similar advice was given to me, and I too up a dual degree course of IT along with EEE. During campus placement ended up in the IT industry and having worked in the industry for a few year, have realised that IT is an integral part of all sectors. Its been close to 2 months since I made a shift from IT to Manu Sector and I must say learning at IT are indeed helpful.
It could be an option for your nephew to pursue a Dual course which can atleast brief him about the IT industries.
Cheers
Thanks Ganesh. Today, i view typewriting as a generic skill much like learning to write, speak etc because most jobs use computers and you need to know how to use the keyboard. If i had learnt typewriting that would definitely be helpful.
I think about programming in the same way. At this time, it is a generic skill broadly applicable to several industries. It is not necessary that one should like programming unless one chooses to do programming for a living, which i certainly don’t advocate for everyone.
As we grow older, our thinking becomes more nuanced, i don’t like programming but i like computers, which is quite workable as you point out. I am worried that as a young boy, he may not have such nuanced views and may end up disliking computers because he dislikes programming much to the detriment of his career.
Thoughts?
mmm … I do not know if I am convinced yet. On the flip side, I would not want to turn off someone from an engineering career just because they equate computers to programming.
Ganesh,
I agree. Your concern is valid. I did encourage him to go for an engineering career which is what he wants to do. I also told him that doesn’t preclude him from learning programming and understanding the application of computer technology.
Let us see if others have anything to say.
Thanks Anuj for sharing your experience. Dual option is a good one. But i wasn’t pushing him to make a deep commitment like that. All i wanted was he learns programming attentively and use it later in his chosen career at a later time. Also, I wasn’t trying to convince him to take up IT as a career.
Sukumar,
You have explained the point about using skills as the tools to enhance your potential and not limit it!
A wonderful example that is easy to relate to.
Thanks
Navinder
Good learnings from your personal experience Sukumar. Thank you for sharing them.
I agree, computers have become a very indispensable tool in most fields. The word ‘programming’ however, is a much misunderstood word. For most, computer training is about how to operate the Windows OS & MS Office. And all the rest is ‘programming’, which is the forte of all the IT professionals.
And programming invariably conjures up images of Java/J2EE, Dot Net, C, C++. Or for some SAP, Oracle, Cisco, etc. However, for the vast majority its not about the programmable tools like Photoshop, Maya, etc. in the 2D & 3D realm.
Similarly CAD, SPICE, Matlab, EAGLE, R, etc. are all engineering tools that one can program to help automate various tasks. I am not aware of the current situation, how many engineering colleges teach them? Teach them in such a way that people will look into them as something more than a chore, an assignment? A means to a livelihood too?
Thanks for the kind words Navinder. Glad you liked it.
Thanks Prem. That is a great perspective. Yes “programming” does conjure up visions of Java etc. As you said, educational institutions should try to teach programming according to the context.
Nice post Sukumar.
I guess there are 2 points here: ‘typing a program’ and programming.. I feel that programming is more about ability to abstract a real-life problem into an abstract model and solve it with optimality considerations.. It is almost like poetry – everyone can express his/her way of doing things via a program.
Typing is just converting this to some language for a machine.
Luckily I did not get any career advice on ‘what not to do’. My parents just said, ‘do your best..’ I remember my dad saying ‘if you all you like is planes and end up being a plane-mechanic, be the best mechanic that you can be’. This was when I wanted to be a pilot. And then I became a programmer
Thanks,
Akshay
Great perspective Sukumar.
Dad got me my first PC when I was in 7th grade. It wasn’t really an affordable thing then but I thank him for the investment. I was outdoing my peers throughout school, engineering and my previous workplace (Wipro) simply because I had learned things on DOS (the hard way, literally) and was very comfortable with keyboard shortcuts and OS tweaks.
I’m about to finish my MBA and I cannot think of one classmate who will not be touching technology in their careers!
Regards,
Sarang
Akshay,
Thanks.
1. You are right. i didn’t mean to directly compare Typewriting with Programming but instead used it as an analogy. Maybe i didn’t explain the analogy well. During my father’s time and probably well into my generation also, typewriting was a profession. You had to master it (# of words per minute, accuracy of typing..). Whereas now with the advent of computers into the field of word processing, typewriting has become another skill that everyone could use, because most careers use computers today. If you see old movies or period films, they had something called Typist Pools (the recent famous movie Reservation Road is an example). My view is that, like typewriting went from a specialized profession to a skill everyone must have, Programming is also passing through the same transformation. A. Prem above has given several good examples of how programming is used everywhere (even Excel macros is programming in some limited sense). Hope you agree?
2. Sorry if i gave you the impression that my parents were somehow trying to control me or my career. If i recall correctly, this is the only advice i ever got from my father. Even that he may have communicated to me in a fit of angst/frustration. It is just that i took it very seriously and is still stuck with me.
Thanks Sarang. Your father is a forward-thinking man. All the best for completing your MBA successfully and bright career afterwards.
Very Nice and different post! I also have a similar experience with my son. As any other parents,We were discussing abt his ambitions,at that time he told me that he will not enter into Software Industry bcos he cannot imagine himself sitting in front of a PC breaking his back.At that moment I neither supported nor opposed his views bcos he was just 10 yrs old.But now after reading your post I think I should try to explain to him that he can use computer and programming as tools to enhance his performance in any field he chooses,and Computer knowledge has become a must for all fields in today’s scenario.
Btw, even I didn’t learn typing so had to face problems using keyboard.
Good advice. I totally agree.
The irony of services in India is that
1. There are lot of folks who say they don’t want to program because that is like lower class work. All want to team lead,project managers. In fact it is sad to see managers proclaim publicly without guilt – “I am not technical so I dont understand please talk to my developer for that issue.”
2.The infrastructure folks are also worrisome. They are averse at the thought writing code/scripts. But in US/UK they are more open.
On a positive, I find good finance guys using excel and doing lot of VBA scripting in India itself.
Sukumar – Good post.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be everything from an astronaut to a movie director. But, by the time I was in the 10th grade, I had whittled the choices down to Engineering (easy to land a job) & Medicine (I loved it). I really liked neurology.
In the 11th & 12th grade, we had the lousiest Botany teacher imaginable. She made me take an intense dislike to the subject. One needs extremely high scores in Botany, to get a medical seat. Instead of grinning & bearing the Botany teacher, I unceremoniously dumped neurology & settled for Engineering.
I guess this is how prejudice played a part in my career choice.
Thanks Padma. Interesting point about your son. You may want to do what Sarang’s father did – buy him a computer if you haven’t already done so and let him explore.
Kumaran,
Thanks. yes, some people do think programming is infra-dig. That is unfortunate. Interesting that the finance people have picked up VBA.
Priya,
Thanks. Blaming decisions on teachers is something all of us can identify with. I wish i had taken history more seriously in grade school, if only for my history teacher.
Hmm…I am still not sure whether programming is an essential skill for people working in different industries. I am a chartered accountant but worked in IT industry.i learnt programming and was even a software architect in a a Telecom vertical. I had to learn programming because I chose IT as my industry.
But then i would say accounting is an essential skill for everyone irrespective of the industry in which he/she works. I can equate accounting to typing but not programming to typing. Yes, knowing about computers and how to use the basic computer applications is essential, but I wouldn’t say the same thing about programming.
Why on earth would a chartered accountant need to learn programming, unless he works in an IT industry and his job requires him to learn programming.
I have now moved away from IT organizations and am on my own…but i still do programming to some extent…..because even my current work life needs me to know programming to some extent…But if i am going to choose to practice as a CA, i will completely move away from programming…
So i would say that if the person in question likes something else better than programming then he should be encouraged to become an expert there…but he should definitely learn to use computer and applications…
Nice perspective, Sukumar. One request, why not you and all those who commented put together something for all those who desperately need the advice, but probably go to the wrong people or in lot of cases, don’t even have someone who can guide them properly? For eg., we were doing a fresher’s round with the 2009 batch…..a lot of folks are clueless as to how to approach their career. They passed out in the midst of a recession and the 2010 batch is just waiting to get out of college and are being hired, leaving the 2009 batch out in the cold.
Rajesh,
Interesting thoughts. Just learning programming doesn’t need to make someone a programmer or an IT person. Similarly, just because someone didn’t learn programming it won’t make him/her unsuccessful. I also don’t see how learning programming could be detrimental to someone who already has programming as a part of the curriculum. The point is, programming is an essential skill and it will become more essential as time goes on. When telephones were introduced, someone predicted that everyone on the planet will become a telephone operator. The prediction came true but not exactly in the same way it was predicted. Everyone of us through automated exchanges get connected to the number we want to talk to, which was done earlier by human operators. In the same way, programming will merge into our work lives whether we like it or not. Maybe we won’t call it programming but we will all be programming. Therefore, programming is an essential skill.
Hope that helps.
Thanks Raj. There is a program called Junior Achievement which makes an attempt to counsel students about various professions etc. At this time, it operates at the grade school level. Don’t know if there is something at the college level. As you say, maybe we should all create one.
Nice post Sukumar. It is typical baby boomers dad to Gen X son advice. We all transformed our-self and fact of the matter, whole India because of our baby boomer dad’s push to change our thinking and career to new dimension. My dad usually says to me “don’t never try to come govt/monthly job, try to learn business course like MBA and start a business by your own, you will be better off”. But my interest was to become a pilot, first air force then changed to commercial and then changed to helicopter, but all of them rejected by family because they thought those are risky, they don’t want to lose their only child.
/** I feel that programming is more about ability to abstract a real-life problem into an abstract model and solve it with optimality considerations.. It is almost like poetry – everyone can express his/her way of doing things via a program.
**/
I go with the above comment of “Akshay”.. THere is a big misunderstanding that programming is all about coding.. but programming means planning a sequence of individual events in the right order and right logic.. like programming an event, programming a marriage function, programming a convocation ceremony etc.. In computers, programming is sequencing execution of statements in the right order to achieve the desired result..
I hope my above understading is correct.. In that case, if programming is understood objectively, one might not have prejudice against computer code..
Sukumar,
Just like what your father did, every section of the society is doing the same.. My grandfather said to my father not to pursue agriculture and instead made him study Civil Engg.. my father said Civil is very difficult which i should not suffer and pushed me to IT..
Similarly a labour family wants his children not to do hard work and instead pushes him to town.. a driver family wants their children to lead comfortable life..
If everyone goes in to this mode, where will it lead to? Does it not reflect a unhealthy system and an unsustainable system? Tomorrow, everyone wants to lead comfortable life, and no one will be ready to work hard or do labour work.. the whole society is going to become stand still.. the symptoms are largely visible today, in all non-IT sectors, where there are acute shortage of labour..
Instead of addressing the social problems, we are just pushing everyone out of their work and make them incapable..
Why should we create pockets of luxury and drive people towards that? Today, IT has been the most preferred destination due to the extreme disparities it imposes on the society.. It has entirely disturbed the societal order and functioning..
A very good story and a great perspective as well.
When I was a child, My Dad always kept me abreast with all the career opportunities that were there for me.
Though I knew that he wanted me to be an Engineer, but he never forced me to be one. He always was an inspiration for me… as he himself had studied for exams sitting under the streetlights when there was no electricity at home. I dont remember any prejudices that I had, however.
Very interesting post Sukumar.
My $0.02 – From my personal experience, I infer most of the engineers today land in that course because they think anything less than that will be a construed as a testimony for sub optimal intelligence or will not get them job. I ended up the same situation as you did a year back, there was a little difference. Mine was in terms of assessing career options.
I had to help a young girl who hasn’t scored big numbers in plus two to get into any one of those reputed Engineering institutes to pursue her dream Comp Sci. engineering. She got admission in some amman engineering college in some place though. The lass thought the world is going to be filled with computer, so not knowing computer programming will land her no where. Well, that perception is half true – the first half. I suggested her to pick up science or maths instead in a reputed city college (she got admission there) – where she doesn’t have to spend too much money at the same time can work towards getting into a good institute for PG and later on pursue research as her career (I trust, This skill is going to be much sought after in next decade).
I am glad she took it, and yes she is glad too for what she is doing today. She wants to master actuarial science in her PG (doing Bsc Maths today)
Sukumar
It is a nice post but comparing typewriting and programming is not even remotely correct.
Typewriting can be learnt.
Programming in its truest sense cannot be learnt.
You can learn the syntax of a programming language/operating system like say DOS or windows or java or .net etc.
But TRUE programming, algorithms and the skill in solving problems etc and I have to equate it with music.
Assume 100 people attend music college or a course. Yes 100 people will know how to play guitar or piano. Yes 100 people will know how to read music notes etc. BUT will you consider all 100 people to be musicians ? Can all of them be creative ?
Can creativity be learned ?
Similarily true programming skills and true problem solving skills can never be *learnt* in its truest sense.
I see you are occupying a position of authority in a big IT major. So have you really not met someone or some programmer who programs naturally ?
So at best you can advise someone to learn a programming language’s syntax but the rest should happen naturally.
Good one Sukumar. I am reminded of this Kural:
epporuL yaar yaar vaai kEtpinum apporuL
meipporuL kaaNbathu aRivu
(Whatever one hears from others, wise are the ones who understand the true meaning)
Not just career choices, even our prejudices come from holding on to words and losing sight of their true meanings.
Rajesh,
I’ll be joining a firm that recruits only MBAs and CAs.
The screening test for the interview process was an excel based test, and anyone with the slightest knowledge of VBA would’ve cracked it. Uphill task otherwise.
The firm is into equity research and unless you can whip up some excel scripts, you can’t even get through the doors. And at present, the firm has more CAs than MBAs – so there’s the point about whether CAs should learn programming.
Equity Research, Technical Analysis and any market-side career for a CA will not allow him to stay away from programming!
Cheers,
Sarang
Nice post Sukumar! I had gone through this “dont wanna be a programmer” and finally realized for a successful engineering career also you would need the programming skills, as some one pointed out its not programming but its the problem solving skills.
I chose Instrumentation as my career choice and of that wanted to specialize on Process Control and did my masters at IIT Chennai. Thanks to the projects our professors (Prof.Chidambaram & Prof.VSR Rao) had and the German collaboration, process control lab had good PCs and software that we could utilize (its way back in 1997). I did programming and some simulations for my MS project work but always had tendency of not to learn any programming language. During an interview with a big brand name in automation domain, Foxboro the MD of that company asked me if I know VC++ and my answer was No! Just with that question my position offered was downgraded by one level, but I never bothered. As I joined Siebe (the old name of Invensys) I started working for Advanced Applications group on industrial automation solutions where we talked more on what software applications can improve the plant production. Many a times it ended up like we may have to develop a customized solution (we dont know software yet). That time I realized programming is a tool that could aid to pursue my career of choice and also that’s the gap that need to be filled. I had to start with programming just because I suggested a developer (a pure “IT” programmer) to wait for sometime to get a response from a physical device when she was trying to get some data out of the device by sending a command. I started learning “programming” as a tool and also termed myself as a “Forced Programmer” on demand.
I do continue working on my own field of interest, trying to apply programming as a tool wherever required and have realized in the last 10+ years on how programming could help build an engineering career. Now, I enjoy the problem solving tool, language or technology doesnt matter and what I look at is what benefit it brings to me in providing a good engineering solution!
I am totally in agreement with the post and would also like to extend this advice to other skills. Any skill learnt is a plus and we carry it with us for life free of baggage fee. Opportunity to learn any skill or gain a new experience should be grabbed with no second thought. For Instance, Learning languages, basic mechanics, playing a team sport, travel, first aid are some ideas that come to my mind.
Never give a second thought to learn a new skill or gain a unique experience.
Thanks Subba. Yes, our immediate family has a lot of influence on what we end up doing.
Senthil,
1. Yes, Akshay’s definition of programming is spot on.
2. My post is about how ill-founded prejudices affect our career decisions. My father didn’t push me down any path. as i said in my post, i misinterpreted what he said. I think the main problem you often keep coming to is that people are abandoning agriculture. Yes, i think it is a problem. I doubt it is because, fathers are pushing their sons out of agriculture. It is a simple matter of economics. If agriculture is not producing enough returns for a decent living, people will leave that profession. It is upto the agriculturists to figure out a more profitable way of farming. Untill then it will be a problem. Having 1 acre and producing rice or wheat for your own family’s consumption is not workable. And in any case, this point is way off-topic for your post. If i were you, given your interests in farming i would figure out how to make farming sufficiently lucrative. In today’s hindu paper, i read about a 13 yearold Bihari boy who is teaching a new technique called SRI which increases farm output by 10 fold. That is the type of thinking we need. Just berating the general society and blaming the British and Islamists will not solve this problem.
Vikrant,
Thanks. Nice to hear that your father is very supportive of your efforts.
Chandrasekaran,
Thanks. Yes, to get into engineering or medicine is a stereotypical view of careers. That is a whole another topic though. Glad you were able to help the young girl with her career.
Somasundar,
1. Sorry if i gave you the impression that i was comparing typewriting and programming. I was merely using an oft-used storytelling device called Analogy.
2. Whether talent/skill is a product of Nature (inborn) or Nurture (made) is a major debate going on everywhere. It appears that you are on the Nature side. Unfortunately, i am on the Nurture side. i believe that everything including Creativity can be taught. Now, the problem with the Nature side is that they usually pick the extreme cases of talent such as Roger Federer or Albert Einstein or Sachin Tendulkar. Can Nurture produce that type of talent, probably not. However, every Tennis player doesn’t have to be a Federer to be successful. You can be a Leander Paes or a Mahesh Bhupathi and still be quite successful. In the same way, there are several scientists who will never be Albert Einstein, who are quite successful and several cricketers who are successful though they never will be a Sachin Tendulkar. In other words, Nurture can take you far enough to succeed. Superstardom may require some inborn talent but as i said achieving superstardom in a chosen field is not the only form of success.
3. To your specific question on programming – of course i have seen natural-born programmers and i have also seen programmers who are persistent, who work extremely hard, who produce brilliant programs.
Please read some more on the Nature Vs. Nurture debate.
Thanks Prem. It is always a pleasure to see the correct Kural quoted in the correct context.
Sarang,
Thanks for confirming my point about programming being a part of every major career stream. As Senthil pointed out, Akshay’s way of thinking about programming may be very helpful.
Satish,
Thanks a lot for sharing your personal story and emphasizing the point about the importance of learning programming.
Jayasimhan,
Thanks. You are absolutely right. We should learn new things/skills with gusto.
Awesome post sukumar !
The way i see why your cousin doesn’t want to be a programmer may because of the not very well illustrated career path of a programmer in the Indian Services Industry. Applicable to all ‘SWITCH’ companies as a whole.
In my not so long career path like your’s, still I have come across lot of very good/smart programmers finally ends up in managing people. Either they are forced to manage people or there is no well defined career path for them. Most of this good programmers lately became a bad managers.
I rarely seen people in Services Industries with 6 years experience or more doing programming. This is not the case with the westerners I still see Tim bray programming as like before. And he is still successful earning more than what the Senior / Group Project Managers do.
IMHO The career path of a programmer is under defined in our Services Industry. When most of them stops thinking once a piece of code is working then programmers job is done, people will fear to consider programming as a career option. This image has to be changed, but sadly it seems not happening.
Nice post Sukumar. I have thoughts in multiple dimensions. Plan on turning that into a post. Will comment here when my post is ready and published.
Interesting post there Sukumar.
It reminds me of Steve Jobs speech where he mentions how learning calligraphy during his college days helped him understand & appreciate letters, which in turn led him to create the most beautiful fonts for the Macintosh he first created. Since Microsoft blindly copied Mac, the beautiful fonts we see everywhere over the net, word etc etc are the child of the great Steve Job.
He likes to call it ‘joining the dots’…we learn many a things in our life, often not realizing it’s significance at the moment, it’s like creating dots all over the place on a plain sheet of paper. But as years pass, we keep joining the dots & something beautiful & marvelous is created.
Awesome post…..on joining the dots.
Interesting post. The moment I read the title, I almost knew the entire content of the post. That’s cause, I have heard the same story again and again from my father. Particularly the point where he says “dont ever become a typist” or “I feel like going to the topmost floor of the building and throwing of the typewriter”. Pardon me if some one feels about their own PCs right now.
I agree with you. I learnt typing during my schooldays, but never appeared for certifications. I can type much faster than others and with less mistakes and without seeing.
On Programming. Yes, it is an essential skill for most people. My brother who is a BCom, MBA had to learn coding in DBase (Good old days). Now, being an MD, the little programming knowledge does allow him to set his own expectations right when it comes to accepting what the software is going to do for him. Hope our clients can also think the same
.
And again on programming; people have learnt it as if it is a multiplication table – by heart. I have a great challenge getting some useful work done by these people. Thank you TN State board. I think, the schools and colleges should teach the students “programming” rather than the “language” in which the programs are written.
Sukumar,
/** I doubt it is because, fathers are pushing their sons out of agriculture. It is a simple matter of economics. If agriculture is not producing enough returns for a decent living, people will leave that profession.
**/
Agriculture is practiced for more than 5000 years in india. How come suddenly it becomes loss making profession within few decades? How come the community which practiced agri for 1000 years, suddenly feels it unsustainable?
Its not just about agri.. its same for all other professions? How come brahmin priests suddenly find their profession unsustainable which their community had professed for 1000′s of years? Same for carpenters, weavers, etc..
It all indicates, that the system of economics that’s imposed now (yes.. its imposed), is unfriendly, hostile to all these sections..
If you believe, that these problems have nothing to do with government, i would like quote the present situation in the IT sector.. Last year, when the dollar rates had a free fall, does not all IT companies faced the crisis? Does not NassCOM (& other export oriented companies) lobby the government to control the dollar rate?
When cash rich IT companies itself could not sustain without government support, how can the traditional profession? Is it not the govt’s duty to protect the weaker sections of the business?
Now coming to the so called lucratice career of Programming, i would ask a question.. if the dollar rate is some what say 20 rs per dollar, will IT sector be lucrative? Or will we getting such high salaries and hence a elitist lifestyle?
So, there is a great disparity being created artificially, in a systemic manner.. where certain professions are supported by the government and other professions ignored.. There is a strong institutional lobbys that’s influencing policy decisions at all stages and sectors of the government, which the common man is extremely powerless to counter.. Do we accept this reality?
There is a condition, where within software companies, 100% export oriented companies gets tax benefit, whereas those companies that develop software for indian customers have to pay tax? Are we (including myself) not key benefactors of this systemic discrimination? And is it because of the same reason, that we dont want to discuss this disparity problem in detail, so that we find ourselves in embarassed position?
Finally coming to the main point, i assert that the career prejudice is NOT an individual one, but largely influenced by one or more combination of macro factors..
Today, many people choose their career based on monetory benefits.. It may be individual choices of preferences.. but, is not career that should be chosed based on passion and interest, and NOT from monetory inducements?
If there is a balanced economics, people will choose career based on their interest.. in the case of unbalanced economics, people choose based on money, so that certain careers are made unlucrative and certain others are made extremely lucrative.. thus people tend to neglect a particular career eventhough they are interested, and choose others eventhough they dont like it..
Some one had pointed in this discussion about the stereotypes of doctor and engineering profession? Why? Is it NOT because, the system is created like that, where we made skilled services extremely costly.. a doctor who should have to treat all humans irrespective of their caste, creed & religion, finally treats only those who can afford him the doctor fees.. (
LOL) .. a skilled & experienced cardiac surgeon charges around a lakh as his fees.. This is what made everyone go mad about this profession..
So again i am getting around the same point.. these stereotypes are institutional and man made, which need to be rectified at the institutional level and NOT at the individual level..
But we all have become extremely self-centered, that we dont think at the larger level.. what we care atmost is our own interest and whether a particular system just benefits us.. we dont care, if the same system is uneven or unfair at the societal level..
/** Thank you TN State board. I think, the schools and colleges should teach the students “programming” rather than the “language” in which the programs are written.
**/
Exactly.. Excellent point.. i second natarajan..
Ashok,
Thanks. Just to be sure, i wasn’t trying to make my nephew take up IT. I only urged him to learn programming because it helps no matter what career he chooses.
Thanks RK. look forward to your post.
Thanks Tonmoy for the kind words.
Thanks Natarajan. Interesting that your father gave the same advice.
Senthil,
Your comments are off topic. Your question is good – why do some professions become unprofitable? I don’t know the exact answer but I think you should look at history and learn from it. There are plenty of professions which fell out of favor over time.
Ashok,
/** I rarely seen people in Services Industries with 6 years experience or more doing programming. This is not the case with the westerners I still see Tim bray programming as like before. And he is still successful earning more than what the Senior / Group Project Managers do.
**/
Westerners NOT just do programming.. rather they design software systems where programming is a major part.. I am still wondering how they could design frameworks, products, in a systematic manner (like Versioning, bug tracking, IRC etc).. the reason i feel is their decades or experience & inherent skills in designing various other systems.. (like economic system, political system, social system, government system).. their thought process is systemic..
and we lack that kind of approach which is NOT taught anywhere..
Very Good post Sukumar .
I totally agree with u on ur advice to ur nephew.IMHO no knowledge goes waste so i think ur advice to ur nephew was right as he will use this knowledge some time down the line in one format or the other and may not actually become a software engineer.
I do agree with u on the teacher part where teachers’s make us lose interest in the subject but in my case i would blame myself for not taking up Archeology/History as i felt back in school that only duffers take history in graduation(sheer prejudice and peer pressure),so i would not blame my tracher wholly here:)
Sukumar,
This is a very good post and coming in the right time for people who are about to take decisions about their career. Fortunately or unfortunately not many people are able to visualize the branch of engineering or the career that they want to pursue. But the point that you have highlighted is very very important in the current scheme of things. I will share it with my nephew who is getting into 12th Standard this year!
Thank you very much!
Senthil,
That is a good observation. Not sure, we can say “it is not being taught anywhere”, but yes we do seem to lack that systemic perspective in many spheres of life.
Thanks Karthik. Yes, we can’t completely blame teachers. I also wish i had taken history more seriously in grade school.
Thanks for your kind words Rams. Glad you find it useful.
Sukumar,
My comments / sequel / cross-post at http://bit.ly/93HIPT
I welcome all other readers as well to see alternate views at http://bit.ly/93HIPT
Thanks for sharing this , Sukumar….Great advice to your nephew on not getting prejudiced about programming…The predicament that your nephew is facing reminds me of the time that I was passing out of college …being a mechanical engineering student and that too making the qualifying cut for all the mechanical as well as the IT companies, the words that kept ringing in my ears were that of an excellent prof , a man we all respected a lot. He said ” IT professionals are glorified clerks”. He asked us not to join IT companies. My choice was a very conscious one indeed and that too after talking to many people including my uncle who has been in IT services for sometime now. Of course there is a lot pf pressure to follow the software dream…..
What i understood from the different conversations that I had was that IT offers its challenges too, in different ways…and that being in IT was not just about programming….There are so many more things that one can do, including pursuing your own dreams….It also about what you think and feel, you can always ask others for advice but ultimately it boils down to what you want to pursue and what you strive to do…..
An interesting recent development is that, most friends are keen to do an mba/ms (actually most have already quit to study), here strangely the reason is not being happy at work….but I guess people who do things for the wrong reasons might end up regretting the decision….Guess you have to take a long hard look at life and then make the decision….
Thanks for the post RK. i have linked to it from this post as well.
Arvind,
Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your personal story. Yes, career decisions have to be made based on what you want to do in life. You are absolutely right.
To that golden advice, I would add – just because you made up your mind on a career, that doesn’t mean you should ignore or refuse to learn skills from other domains atleast while in college when the said subject is part of the curriculum already, no special effort required.
Thanks Sukumar.
I totally agree with you, learning skills from other domains is very important. But dont you think that it should be a continous process and not stop with college? I guess you meant that it is difficult to learn skills from other domains when you have a full work day and that it is better done whilst in college….
Thanks Arvind.
Yes, learning is a continuous process. However what i meant is, “programming” is already part of the curriculum. No special effort is required other than attending the class. When you are out of the college, you need to take extra efforts to learn outside your domain. As you say, we should continue to do that also though it may be difficult due to lack of time.
oh ok, thanks for clarifying Sukumar!
Sure Arvind.
Sukumar,
Just my personal story..
Right from my childhood, my father often insisted, that even rearing donkey is not a bad profession and that i can choose that profession later in my life .. but we have to study well at the school age.. (in tamil.. எந்த வேலையும் கேவலமில்லை.. நீ பின்னாடி கழுதைய கூட மேய்.. ஆனா நல்லா படிச்சுட்டு வந்து அத செய்) .. It created a lasting impression in me .. i believe, as long as any job is honest, genuine, and out of our hard work, nothing is wrong or shameful, even if its the night soil cleaning..
Due to my family background, i had the opportunity to do all kinds of jobs, right from dirty jobs to white collar ones.. I would sit in computers doing civil planning for my father in autocad, and i would also join the labourers carrying the concrete mix.. and at another time, i would do irrigation in our fields, level the fields, harvest and all kinds of farm works..
I went for typewriting class, computer class, yoga classes, music classes in my 7th std itself, during the annual leave.. i did not do any exams in type writing, but i am able to type very fast, which many of my friends in my college often wonder at
.
Having all these experience, i could not have any prejudice against any profession.. but there are exceptions.. During my childhood, i had been attracted towards communists ideology, thanks to the soviet books, that my father had bought during his college days. At that time, i believed, that all managers are exploiters sitting comfortably while the labourers were working hard physically.. I felt this as grave injustice and hence i had this prejudice against supervisors, managers and all white collar jobs.
But later i realized how wrong this prejudice was..
Another prejudice i have is against share traders & brokers.. Still now, i feel, share broking is unethical & unfair..
the end result of all these is that i did not have any focused career path… i am more a jack of all trades, than king of few trades.. i dont know if such a situation is beneficial.. Can any one with such diverse interest have a proper career path?
Thanks Sukumar for the link to my post.
Thanks for sharing your story Senthil. Only requirement for a proper career path is a plan aside from the requisite talent, which you already have. Decide on what you want to do and create a plan. All the skills you have learnt will stand in good stead. Having diverse interests is a good thing.
Sure RK.
Senthil,
/*
the end result of all these is that i did not have any focused career path… i am more a jack of all trades, than king of few trades.. i dont know if such a situation is beneficial.. Can any one with such diverse interest have a proper career path?
*/
An architect is one who needs those skills. He needs to have 60% depth in one domain and 40% spread across. In IT the architect profession is very immature but growing. In construction it pretty clear. So if you are in IT then architecture is the profession that should align with your skills/interests.
Excellent piece of advice Sukumar….
Esp, when the developers tend to think the programming language as their life and forgot the notion that “Programming is just a tool” to solve our problems in a domain….
Thanks
Siva Guruvareddiar
Kumaran,
That is a good career suggestion for Senthil. I already see him do that type of work. I think it will be a good fit for him.
Thanks for the kind words Siva. Yes, we often get too identified with things instead of treating them as tools.
Great anecdote Sukumar. I remember many such advices that still continue to shape my life. Since we are older now, we can take a more pragmatic approach. In the US, they teach typing skills as a part of the school course work. Hence, kids learn automatically. Regards.
Thanks a lot MD. I didn’t know US Schools taught typing as part of the curriculum. smart.
Sukumar
Well said and well put indeed.
Nurture can never match Nature. But It can still produce greatness.
It is 100% true when we take examples for Nature we take only the greats like Illayaraja for music and likes. We often forget how much hard work the others have put in to compete with “Nature”.
Does your blog have the Nature vs Nuture debate ? If so please point me to the link
Somasundar,
Thanks for agreeing with me. We have not tackled that particular topic specifically on this blog. You may want to read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell for some ideas on this topic. I would say one of the best books is Mindset by Carol Dweck. It is a brilliant one.
Here is a comment i received from my nephew. I have masked his identity since he is still a teenager.
—
Thats a wonderful post! Sorry for the late reply though. I was not able to access the net for a couple of days.
I now agree to what you had said.
In fact right after that conversation with you, I realized how important programming is; even in the electronics field. Hardly do engineers ever start to first experiment with the tools and components these days. Its all simulation. Simulation saves time, removes errors, avoids wastage, and cuts costs. And simulation involves programming.
Like prem had pointed out, MATLAB, CAD, LabView are all very vital to an engineer. Programming requires logic. And the best way to learn how to develop logic is to learn C, C++ and Java. They might not be exactly related to my field but I’ve found that all electronic engineers know programming in these languages. I’ve taken OOPS as my elective this sem. And I must say, I’m enjoying learning C++ and Java.
I was very surprised when I found out that the best way to program a Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processing Kit is to program it with C. I also plan to learn MATLAB and LabView in the sem holidays. In a recent conference, the group that had won the first prize had not physically made their device. They made a simulated model of it. Even international conferences these days accept simulation; in many cases even recommend it.
To tell you the truth I’ve now developed a liking to programming. Its after all going to help me pursue my career.
Sukumar
Excellent post and the one laced with an advice that is very much needed for everyone.
Ramesh Ramaswamy, who used to be my manager 10 yrs back used to give me one advice which I think is very relevant one. He used to say that our primary skill is like 1. We must possess it, or learn it and excel in it. The secondary skills are like programming, soft skills, tools, networking with peers, community participation etc. These are like zeros. We need them as well. If we keep them next to the 1, the more we have the larger the number and value. If we just have these, then it is pretty much 0.
Other comments are really great. A learning experience.
Thanks for the kind words Vamsi. I really loved Ramesh Ramaswamy’s analogy of 1s and 0s. I am going to use this analogy. Thanks for sharing.
Nice post, very insightful analogy.
Thanks for the kind words Archana.
Nice post.
I passed out Mechatronics engineering with flying colours. In fact being a Gold medalist, I always aspire to do R&D work.
I was flooded with job offers before leaving my college. I choose to work in an IT company.
I learnt programming which was dumped as extinct tech..Mainframes !!!
I quit that IT company because my aspiration was to do some R&D kind of stuff. When I applied for my PhD in Australia, because of my programming expertise, I came top among other candidates.
Now eventhough I dont like programming in COBOL, the concepts which I learned made me excel in programming FPGAs & DSPs.
Indeed programming will help to develop algorithms and great thing to learn
Cheers,
Selvaraaju Murugesan
http://selvaraaju.wordpress.com
Selvaraju,
Thanks for confirming my findings with your personal experience.
Sukumar,
Guess this post serves me best at this moment – now that I am making a transition from a work to studies. Not that I had any prejudice against this job, rather would say that my stay in this company and the IT industry did enrich me. Again, its only now that I realize this.
First few days of my work in Cognizant, I wasn’t all that excited, perhaps because IT was an alien field to me having graduated in chemical engineering. I joined cognizant because this was the first company in our campus – and having qualified this put me out of contention for any company hiring thereafter. None of the other core companies that I tried would hire me – tried many oil/petroleum/fertilizer/industrial chemicals company in the country. Perhaps this led to a frustration against the very company that hired me – cognizant.
Over a period of time, perhaps I got a little wiser, or the realization just sunk in; anyway, I slowly found my peace with myself. Now I venture out into an MBA – this time again the IIMs wouldn’t take me, so its gotta be NITIE Mumbai – but this time, I don’t have any regrets. It’ll all turn to our own good!
Never will I undermine any work!
Thanks Sukumar!!!
Thanks Srinivas. Good luck with your MBA. NITIE is a good institute. I am sure you will make the best of your studies.
This is one of the best post i have read and will always remember this story to tell it to all my coming generations.
Thanks for sharing this!
Priya, your advice to your nephew was spot on. Whenever, we set out to achieve a task ( varying from simple to complex ) , i believe , we require 3 sets pf things .
1. Toolset
2. Skillset
3. Mindset
This concept can be applied to Choosing a Career ( complex task ) as well. We wont be able to do a task effectively and efficiently if we lack either one of them. You touched upon importance of both tool set and ( to have an open) mind (set). Mindset and Skill set he will further acquire from his/other’s life experiences , Engineering school and application of learning on the job.
Your nephew is lucky to have an aunt like you , who can guide him through his early stages of career
Regards,
RB
Sukumar, i later noticed, this article is from you and not from Priya. Aplogoies for the mix-up.
Thanks Ruchi. Nice way of categorizing into toolset, skillset and mindset.
No issues with the mix up.