S44- Panel Discussion – Emerging Career Opportunities in Digital Technologies
Okay. So let's start. Uh good morning, good afternoon, and good evening uh because I know there are uh friends and uh uh students uh from all batches are joining from different parts of the world. Many of them from India, many of them from Southeast Asia, Us Europe. So, very very warm welcome Uh Gaza We have had an opportunity to meet some fantastic am a senior software engineer at Google. He's based at Zurich, Switzerland. He did his engineering and computer science from and uh starting from 2003 to 2007 and then he is from IT Mumbai. Then he
joined Citrix RND in India uh in Bangalore, software engineers and after two and a half years, he moved to Microsoft. Okay. very well for under four and a half years and then he moved to Google. Uh so you can, you know, you can check all the big names in the IT industry and Ahmed has left his footprints on those. He's very very passionate and supportive of students and he has already attended some of the sessions for students and I'm sure today, we love interacting with them. Let me
move on and introduce other another two colleagues actually uh Ash and both of them are actually from 2004 uh batch. Uh let me start with Ash. Ash is passed out in 2004 as I said from Electrical Branch. he's currently working with uh TCS as client partner and agile transformation consultant. Uh Pcs has worked with and consulting and various technology and consulting role. He also has a further benchmark. His industry
knowledge with certifications such as six sigma Ps, Ps, agile, ninja coach, and many, many more and the wonderful thing about is that he immediately put his hand up and he said, you know, agile and uh DevOps of the two things which are very very important. Not only I'm going to talk today about those but I'm very happy to come myself and bring some experts from the TCs to be to talk to the students about those technologies. So, a very warm welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Let me move on to Manish Manish Also is uh an electrical engineer at engineering graduate from uh out in 2004. Then he did his
MBA from a man University He's been with the me for almost 10 years and has Led.net NBC.com BJJ and Angular teams at my He's currently working as the AVP associate vice president for me. Where is responsible for developing digital products and applications as well as maintaining the vendor based applications and various API integration. So, you know, banking industry or digital they were all of us talk about the Trinity or Barbara or or banking and is playing and his team is playing a very, very important role there. So, welcome I think you're on mute. at. Can you unmute punish? but let me move on and then uh uh in the meanwhile, go to uh thank you. Yes, absolutely.
Good evening, friends. Yeah. fantastic. Uh let me talk about another accomplished. Guess what? Uh uh is joining in uh from the US Uh he's he's got 21 years of consulting experience both in IT and uh also domain experience in the supply chain industry where he is an expert.
Uh he graduated in mechanical in 1997 and then it did uh management post graduation from IOT Mumbai. He has worked with TCS Sierra SLT data before he decided to become an entertainer himself and started his own venture called Radiance Technologies. He has been awarded by supply chain of operation Research SEO or supply chain management technology excellence in the year 2009. So, uh he's You're also on mute tassels. Uh some help. Let me. Yeah, you're on mute now. Yeah. Okay.
Thanks. Thanks, sir. And hello, everyone. I'd like to be a part of this. Thank you. Wonderful.
Let me move to the next one of our wonderful panelist. Uh uh I think there are very few people uh in and especially on who don't know. uh uh Lou is a founder and CEO of proper consulting. the company which is focused on RPA, e commerce, and AI and machine learning before founding proper localized as I should be more formal and has had a fantastic fast track career in IT. He started with Zsa and Division and then spent 13 years with geometric, a company which is focused on engineering software development. Uh then he moved
on to on board technology that he had an international business and was responsible for growth across ten of its global offices. Uh he's a post of A and executive MBA from LI and it also has a certification process with Howard Business but very very importantly, he is the database of all our guess I'll them and he is you if you want to connect to anyone. He is the director are driving convergence of cloud and memory blockchain IOT and uh driving a very strong impact on the supply chain uh industry overall uh before uh founding his own company, he worked with the Blue Star, a logical apps and Anna and various capacities. as I said, he's from 1992 Batch. Um uh
he's a mechanical engineer and he's also done his uh uh PG diploma in business management and print uh from MI in the US. So, Sanjay, very warm. welcome. Greetings. Good to meet you all. Excellent. Let me do a very quick intro about myself. Uh my name is as you can see also on the screen and I've had the pleasure to uh post a couple of sessions previously as well. Uh I'm also a guest of
1992 Batch. I did my engineering and electronics. Uh currently, I'm based in Shanghai and uh work with a company called Henkel. Henkel is the world's largest manufacturer of Odessa and I currently had two of our business verticals in the Pacific Region. One is AB to B business and the second is the B to B to C. our consumers business uh and our last 25 years, I've had the opportunity and privilege to be very successful businesses and teams both in Asia Pacific Region but also in the Middle East Africa but I think most important uh uh uh for me uh if I was to count, one of them is actually to be friends with so many guests and uh today I get an opportunity to connect with many many more. So further ado,
let me jump right into the questions and I wanted to ask this question because I get this question asked a lot especially when my son who is also in his final year of computer science engineering and I'll start with Manish actually and uh I want to ask you two questions. Uh uh one is what are the variety of different roles and departments which are available in the IT industry and as we saw, there are people with multiple different backgrounds here on the panel already today and what are the different ways and skills which are must have required to get into the IT industry Yes, sir. So, before you know this uh session begins, I like to congratulate our students If you are in college for placements. So, I think we should all clap for them. Okay. Now the oceans like uh uh different rules and department in ID and then how how uh a student can find the jobs in find jobs in Id. Okay? so sir, I classified the students in like thirty other students as the students and the students were passed out a year back or students or a place right. And
then there's classification likes ID from background IT background and non IT background like mechanical electrical chemicals, and other branches, right? for the and then there is one more classification. There is. One is scholars, students, and students. right, sir? So, for scholars, if you have 1012 degree uh and everything is first class and then for every students, the basic communication skills, analytics, right? What that is a basic need for ID background. ID but again, uh at that point. So, for them, they need to join some like they can join. They
can join CMC. and then they will, you know, in 10 days and I think said, one and then there is for you at testing, testing, uh students internship. student is So social network connects with the seniors, connect with the college, uh uh uh uh campus. I like to
networking is about business analyst. with the solution providers. It is about uh like a pro is there and IT support services there in there. Networking is there.
So, I make a few variety of fields which is a two coffees like where you can see the videos and you can learn, right, sir? Two natives. It's not it's a CEO. There are multiple languages and so these are the fields of the Thanks So, I think I mentioned a couple of good points in there uh in terms of in terms of technology. So, the AI but I have blocked in IOT but you know, mobility cloud. So, these are all the things which everybody knows that I think that's a challenge, right? You know, it's not about people, people, everybody needs everybody needs but before that to be one of the first goal of 100 years. So, congratulations India. I just saw that. Yeah, I
just saw that. Yes. So, uh so one of the key things what I'm seeing in AI, so II have my own company which does AI in supply chain and finance and your it's not very complicated. You know, Python actually is a very, very easy language to learn. You know, anybody can learn Python. you
know, you download the package, you can start anywhere or it's a course, it's free. You just Google it. You can just pick it up. So, if you want to do something, right now, the the flip side of that is that somebody who was doing that job before will be, you know, so which means that is also required for people to do look at it. So, for example, so we have automated process for invoice classification which means to right. So, those kind of
things becomes uh applicable. Now, a can be applied to manufacturing industry. It can be applied to supply chain bank So, which means that if this is the technology which is going to stay for at least next uh seven to eight or 10 years a quantum computing, then it'll take the dynamics slightly differently, right? The other aspect is blockchain. So, blockchain may have a key. If you look at the world world is uh if I use a Hindi word, you know, there are a lot of middleman in the in the in the chain. Uh how do you remove that, right? So so that's the of uh you know, removing the middleman is what blockchain can do because block a central bank, you can trust them, right? But if there are no required or system which is available, then that's where the blockchain can be really helpful. So, there are very,
very big use cases in specifically in supply chain finance where Bill of lading or letter of credit transactions which are happening. All of these are are put on blockchain and a very, very large companies are kind of managing that. So, it's a fantastic technology going into a little bit uh in in some of the use cases but uh I think it will take some more time to become mainstream. uh in there. The problem is that it requires many people to come together, see the other technologies. one can implement straight away but you need many stakeholders to come together So you have consortium of banks and so forth working towards that and that becomes a challenge uh in the blockchain use to track and trace a lot of pharma companies where there are a lot of counterfeit products which are happening. So, if I can tag
some things that I can I can see that this particular uh medicine which is coming. what was So, you can do that too through blockchain. So, quite interesting technology. Multiple use cases. Uh you know, you can have your KC. Know your customer can be unlocked and so forth. So, it's
interesting technology but for us, a technical it's Ethereum and the concept is actually something that you have never done before. Take care. Let's let's let's start from there. Concepts, cryptography, you know, you look at all the branches you need to know what is cryptography. What is encryption you need to know. So
you need to learn from basic Yeah. So, it's a good opportunity to do that now because you're young. So, you know, you can actually pick it up because you know, this becomes a good area for you to kind of work on, right? The third one is uh IOT. Just
follow me on time uh because II can speak uh quite a bit. So, you know, I think that that would be the most important area if you can talk about IOT, that would be wonderful. So IOT is uh is uh so I actually used to sell IOT for Oracle and it's just a hard problem. Okay. So, so at the high if you imagine in so that is IOT because you need to have a sensor which is hardware that that can capture the information and do certain things then, you need software to embed into it and see see if you go to oil field they're dry dock where you see what they call it. Remote terminal units
are and all that stuff. You can actually look at it now. and at at the So, that's called edge computing. Can I make that rather than going to the cloud bag? Can I do that? That's what the company is all about. so I-0, t
I-0 T Software, because we have so that's where uh the the networking element comes into the picture. So, it when you learn these things to put together, that's where now the technologies are available that you know how to have an open source, you know, edge computing and so on and so forth. So, you can start putting in there also. So, there are three things which I thought is very important than public cloud everybody knows.
So, I'm not going to touch up on it but the idea is that this is where things are moving in the industry. Uh from my perspective, right? Very good. I made note of three things and one probably we put it on the parking lot but I think later we come back to it. So, I have you spoke about uh you spoke Uh uh uh blockchain. We talk about
the IOT internet of things which is very nicely. You'll also explain to everyone and what is needed to learn about this but also is very important. We'll come back to that uh also and later but let me go to Sum now um and I think if there are two sectors which are getting increasingly popular in uh but he is health care as well as supply chain 2 years. and we have seen a lot of growth in this area right now. Uh PIT. I'll discuss about what is health care, economics, and research. So, it's acronym,
GOR, and what it actually does is it it does the planning, budgeting, and spending of health care, right? Um so, different types of decision makers had a government insurance companies and employers have uh health care provider I want to compare various vaccines, right on uh spread of infectious disease which is coronavirus, right? Then, I can compare it and also, I can compare it from the cost and effectiveness and budget point of view, right? Um I can also compare non pharmacology interventions, non pharmacology intervention. It was a social distancing, right? Uh you know, restrictions on the travel, how it impacts on the overall uh uh disease pattern of coronavirus, right? health care, economics and so that's the case of Ur. It's used in various diseases, right? Um be infectious disease or be uh uh you know, terminal diseases like cancer and type two diabetes. um those kind of things, right now Uh why it is so important. So, it is the reason it is so important as we have seen last 2 years with the spread of coronavirus and other infectious diseases. right? Health care spending is even without Corona picture for the last 2 years. uh US uh
spending on health care was close to 4 trillion dollars which is close to like 50% of world spending uh world spending on health care uh is uh sorry you are spending on the health care 1 trillion dollars and the world spending is close to 8 trillion dollars, right? So, on an average, if you do the math, you spent $12000 per year on every person on health care right now to do the economic economic evaluation of that health care spending is very important, right? So that's where this a growing field. You know, health care is facing a similar problem as the rest of the other industries. A huge amount of data sitting in segregated applications and data synthesis is a huge challenge, right? So, that's where IT comes into the picture. Uh health care was
always a slow starter in adopting the cloud application but now they have started doing that. So, that's one of the field where most of the application uh right they are moving towards uh having skills on Eso or Amazon is always handy, right From data synthesis point of view I've seen in the last 10 years uh especially when you see these mathematical models, right? Uh whether you see the mathematical models about uh infectious disease or about a policy decision that a government has to take to control that control a particular disease or improve the health care. you need a mathematical models, Right? And uh for those writing those mathematical models, various languages are used to be Python. We are right. There are various tools that use like a mathematical, right? And SPS. So, having a hands on knowledge in those tools can be very handy. Uh I have seen
specifically in health care. Uh interestingly are is more popular than Python and it's very difficult to actually get a resource. So, what we typically do is we hire resources who are good in Python and then train them in a great uh is more adaptable in US universities uh testing and doing an automatic testing Uh that is also having a growing in health care, right. Use our bars and all that to replace the manual testing, selenium, and all that, right? Uh cloud applications I already talked about. Um in fact, most of our applications correctly, we are moving it on Amazon for front end. We use a uh and for uh you know, database uh typically for such kind of applications. We
use no sequel database like Mango or Amazon Dynamo BB and all that kind of stuff. So, these are the various skills uh uh that uh that are used right in health care uh economics and research. Uh the most important thing is the knowledge of math. engineering. uh especially in data science, right Differently. differently. or infectious disease modeling differential equations of here, right. So, Math is very
important. Uh people who have done uh MSC in statistics or applied mathematics. In fact, there's a lot of opportunity for them to get into data science and machine learning, right? Uh I think in my opinion, machine learning, artificial intelligence data science is very less about programming. It's about your knowledge of mathematics and applied mathematics. Um I have seen a lot of doctors and physicians uh uh changing their career and becoming a biotech in health care. I've actually
work. I'm working with a lot of doctors, PST who who are all into data science and machine learning and they have very less programming knowledge almost close to the beginner level but they are amazing data scientists Right. So, uh so that is another thing that I've seen. uh that's pretty much
about the health care. Now, let's switch it to a supply chain, right? Supply chain and optimization. So, for those people who have actually done this, say for example, engineering and mechanical or non field and then work in the industry, right? Like I did II started my career with the Indians organization is uh as a scientist, I worked there for almost close to 3 years. uh uh and my job was predominantly into manufacturing of satellite pelos, right? So, I was working planning and manufacturing department there and then after that, I worked for carrier in the air conditioning. So, after
4 years, right? Then, I switched into ID. So, people who have spent uh uh four or 5 years or 10 years or even some who have spent years have become a domain expert, right? Have no programming knowledge but they can actually switch into it. Uh things like that. We can become a domain expert in ERP, right system integrated where they go to the client's site Um right and do the solution design. collect the requirements, right? And do a uh play a role Typically, the way experts are preferred, Be it in a supply chain domain, be it in HR, be it in marketing, be it in. um you know, finance experts are always important.
I've also seen supply chain uh to export getting into product development is and examples the right people I've seen where they are experts and they are getting into product statistical methods. but I don't think it is sufficient and that is something that students can also explore and I think is also adding some more parts to on the chat for the students but let me move on to Ahmed Ahmed. There are many ways in which uh the technology companies uh and their work what they do can be classified or segmented but one of the ways that we have been talking a lot about application development but one of the ways in which we can also classify this is by product development and services. So, and which is what you have done in Microsoft, also in Google Now, uh can you talk about the product development and what skills are important based on what you have have done and uh also what you observed and uh what does a Day-to-day job look like for a product development engineer? It's just yeah so as as in the start very very briefly describe like in general like what different uh options like a are there in the in the area and then in the areas like students can go and like even even different ways of looking at this company kind of problem that is applicable and to this specific problem for it's a specific client or a specific company. So, they try to pick up a problem and then and then they sort of look at this problem and then, obviously, they try to look at it. The problem is
at the scale or not like how many different areas uh there are many different kind of users are there are businesses are there stitching and then they try to build a solution. Uh obviously there will be many other competitors also we will be like in the same area for example, we have seen with this pandemic and this remote work become very important and then uh now we see that a lot of companies like for example, Zoom, we we can all go right in the last one and a half year, we we we heard about a lot about Zoom and then how it's loser. like I once I was looking at the draft like how the number of users were using like basically the platform has been going and then there are many like for example from Microsoft, we have Skype Skype for business from Google, you have made and so on. So, so there will be like a lot of other companies also, we'll be focusing in the same way So so coming to like the development part is identify a problem which sort of uh either it's it's like timeless problem which is like all these people will be doing or it is something like more specific with the future uh looking at the future thing or the current is becoming reported. So, they
try to sort of identify that problem and then what they would try to do is they would try to think of a solution which is applicable at escape. So so most of the time like in this company, I look at that whenever you try to solve a particular piece, they say, oh okay, what you're doing now is probably okay if if you're doing it as a POC or something on a small set of us but like can you can you are you sure that it can and so on. so, so, so there are some of the skills like I would say that if people like when they are targeting to think about like one thing is like a look, look at a problem was stiff like for example of what is like the current thing like I like there are many parts and more like for example, there are researchers, you have that are like product managers and so on and like we we think of that they um the problem will be coming from somewhere but I think one of the thing that I've noticed is like If you are not looking at the large problem, then, maybe you're focusing on a small piece of that problem also. So,
so for example, let's say you're working on improving or solving a single piece of that problem and then you think it from like user perspective like from the business perspective. So, so I think that is one of the thing that I've seen that uh this company's value. In fact, this become some sort of part of the interview process also and then you look at like how you can solve this particular problem at that scale. Uh I think uh other
thing that you would probably looking at is like Uh uh Yeah. there's the other performance and other kind of other kind of factors are also in there uh that people would be trying to say that we should optimize that because of the competition and so on but I would say like the primary thing that you should be focusing on is like that you can solve that scale uh whether it's uh technically uh sound or not or whether whether it's like a lockdown Okay. so I mean the I captured the census problem solving is the key skill uh on top of your technical skills you might have. Right. I think how do you I think that how to develop that. I mean, if I can probably a little bit on that, how to develop problem solving ability. Yes. So, uh I think uh
if if we're looking at like for example, um one thing is like how do you prepare for the interview And so that is like a different thing but let's say you're interested in like how do you develop those skills? Okay. Like I have to speak from my experience or like the folks I have interacted with. I think one of the good ways to look at like this different um I would say obviously, the studies that we do in the classes and the things that we're reading and so on but I think one of the way is to look at like this kind of different competitions are. So, for example, coding competitions that are happening around like I think when I was in college, I was not sure about about that. The was also
not that prominent and I'm going to be like, we used to go to church this sort of the internet or I think in the later years like 30 year and finally, we got it in the 80s also like in our computer lab uh but now people have these things like readily available at places. So We're not only competitions but also like for example, this kind of idea, submission kind of thing. We're developing the idea that okay, so, you you try to develop that idea, you try to put on those sessions and so on and then you will get to listen from other people. Also like, you know, I'm Let me move on and uh talk to us. So, there are always
buzzword, right? And he used to be in management when we were in college and now in IT uh II think these are the two big buzzword uh in in the industry but what exactly is agile development and how agile is related to Devos if you can uh build on that and then if I can also add to another question that if any of the guests they want to build a career in IT industry Uh how can the skills and knowledge required for agile endeavor to make sure that they are ready when they want to get in the industry. So, what it is and how to be prepared for that? Yeah, sure. I think uh this is very good uh questions and uh this this very good question and uh yeah, please stop me if I exceed at a time please go and we have a lot of fun. This is a very
important part of the discussion today. Yeah, yeah yeah. So agile uh I'm just going to give you a few examples you know why it is so important. So we'll definitely
go into a software development. So if start with a if you look at the dictionary, meaning that is, it's the ability to move quickly and easily. in terms of software development. It is like ability for a team to deliver value to the customer, right? And uh value to the customer faster and probably, you know, better better than the competition, right? And uh especially in these uncertain times, right? Especially after after the pandemic, hit us in 2020. This is even more for us to be a so agile another, you know, aspect of agile is uh to uh respond to the emerging, changing situations quickly, right? So, I'll take a few examples. you know, when the companies were not agile, you know, what was the, you know, problem they had to face, right? So, if you take one example of uh no so once upon a time, it was a market leader, Right. But more than probably
80% of the market share and then with Once upon a time, it was one of the industry leaders, right? Probably Eighty-five 85% or more market share for photography, camera and all those uh related analog cameras and again, it also did not, you know, says, you know, okay, there is some change in the market and we have to respond it. They did not do it and ultimately, they are a company got uh bankrupt with uh with all these data funds. So now we are you know, to respond to change. It is no more option, right? It is like by default, we have to be a giant, right? And the same applies in the software industry also. So, go on are the days where you know, we we work to deliver a requirement or to deliver a feature. You know, we take 6 months of time because we don't have that much of time now So that doesn't mean something which can be delivered in 6 months will be delivered in 1 month. Right. But the beauty
the you know, the future of to deliver incremental. So, if I take example of uh since we have uh money from banking, right? So, say if a new bank is coming up and they want to on board on uh uh internet banking, they want to create their own internet banking platform, right. They cannot wait for a year time, you know, to create all the features, right? Whether it is, if I take the example of uh online transfer, right? NFR, TGIT. what's up? Or right? So, they cannot wait. by the time they deliver this probably, you know, they will lose a lot of market share, right? So, a major talks about, you know, delivering, delivering incremental value.
You know, you deliver something which has most business value and who will decide, you know, which particular feature has the maximum business? Well, it is decided by the business or the product owner. So productive, you know, for everyone's understanding is the person who represents business, right. So, if you IT team and if we have a, you know, a bank uh like I said, uh American Banks, American Bank will have 1% He will be sharing the requirements and the team will deliver it. So, incremental value delivery is the keys of Ajayi, right? And uh most important, right? So now, this is all about we will deliver incremental when you deliver but how do we do it, right? so is kind of a philosophy, right? So basically, if you look agile. It is. It is based on values and principles and its, you know what? It is more important, you know, face to face communication rather than following the process. It is not saying, okay, don't follow any process. You don't follow
any documentation but majorly, it is uh about more interaction of people Then there are other values also about the documentation. So, I don't think we can cover all those values and up I'll be sharing the link but it is very important, right? So, a majorly talks about how to what to do, right? If someone is giving me a recommendation to you, reduce ten K, right? So, this is like what part but how to do. So, we have uh there are a lot of frameworks available in the market. So, one of the most popular framework is so uh which is you know, majorly used in many of the industry where you know, we create of duration. few days, you know, and even major companies uh you know, have the duration very small. So, in every sprint,
right? So, if I have a sprint of 3 days, I will deliver something which can be consumed by the customer. So, here are the incremental value delivery will come to 3 days. We are delivering something to the end customer So, yeah. so that is the cracks of A and uh to the second question. Right. DeVos
and Devos are related or what is the solution So You know, they are they compliment each other, right? So now, I think every day, we will deliver something but how do we do it, right? Because we have to, we have to test and then we have to deploy. So, DevOps, you know, it a 50 thousand feet level. the likes. So, generally in the industry, we used to have two teams. One is development which would work on the coating and another would be the operations team which will work on major, you know, to take care of to take care of their deployment and so now, the concept is you merge these two teams. So, it is not only get a Los it is not like that.
It is these people will work as a single team and then they will deploy the required tools, right? And uh required automation tools. They will change the culture of the team and work as a team and deliver. deliver the value to the user and get a feedback. okay? So,
this is how you know these two things work and if you look at one of the, you know what I should say, uh uh one of the key areas of the CIC many might have been on this side continues integration and continues diluting continues deployment, right? So, it is like it is not key. You deliver it, you create something and then waiting for deployment in production. Okay. so there are tools available for example is Jenkins right? Where are you checking the code? You run your pipeline. Now, this pipeline will execute that test cases, right? Whether it is testing, testing, security related cases, all these cases will be automated that you a lot of time and then, you can deploy it in production. So, even though they have a model called **** right? Which is something new in the market. We are, you
know, security also is part of the the day to day, you know, day to day activity. So, yeah. So, this is what of both. You know, both they go hand in hand. okay? To deliver and
value to the customer faster and get you back, okay? We we have to deliver something, get the feedback, and then improve upon. it could change a lot and you get the feedback and improve so that companies like Amazon and you can talk about Google Light which is a very big companies. They have multiple deployments in a single day. right? So, they have attended this level of maturity. deployment. I think that is the end of it and uh yeah and one important thing is it is about software delivery, right? So, even our students as you are key students can say it's the one thing is when you do Google like, okay, I want to learn.
You'll get a lot of uh lot of links, lot of uh the best part is go through the manifesto. So, based of the complete agile way of working is defined and then there is a framework, right? So, a framework is based on a right, okay? So, it is a twenty 2226 page. PDF which is available available for free. You can download and go through it and then, you know, try to implement it in your team, right? So, if you're doing a project, right? Uh we do have a project, try to implement practices there, right? something. If something is
relevant today, it may not be relevant after 1 month, right? So, we have to keep revisiting our school on That also cannot be fixed. At least, you know, for a long time, right? So, I'll share that documenting, you know, what you can do to kick start your journey and as I mentioned in the beginning, we are also trying to, you know, have one session in for all the for at least for you know, computer science students or other students So, I'm in touch with academic interface manager and are also guiding us. So, we definitely have some session for our students. So, you know, further explanations and yeah, it was very, very good in both uh uh I think uh wonderful and important that we should uh should try to implement these already in their projects. I think that was a big take away. Whatever resources you mentioned that you can also post the link in the chat box for our students who are joining. they can
already start to look at this and I think we and take you up on the offer to bring in not yourself but also the resources from the interface to so that students can benefit from that and I'm very very sure that uh the university and college will take up take up this opportunity. Thanks a lot. It was really really good. Let's go on a lighter note. Uh when
you mention Hi, have had an interesting Yes, we can hear you Can you hear me on that? Yes, you are. So, look, look. uh what we wanted to understand. like I think you're calling on two devices. That's why there is a lag but that's okay. but let me uh uh look and ask you a very interesting question that you had an amazing journey. You
were working for somebody else and you're working for yourself uh yourself just like so and so is uh is it possible to make a career without actually looking for a job, right? I know one part is you work and then you actually build a carrier and then get to start working yourself and what are the ways that you or somebody wants to be an entrepreneur to get started and if there are any practical tips that our ideas of our students or alumni can start to explore already I hope everybody Your voice is making some la Lagging. I'm sorry. I think I'm I'm So, they just I'll change my location and probably we'll start again. In the meanwhile, you can um log in can you please try just uh using your uh audio or not video I think they probably had just moved to another part of uh uh I was in Pune as well just like and if you like it on the order of a good internet connectivity right at the bottom in the country, Uh so uh let's see them Uh I can you hear me? Is it better now? Loud and clear.
Good. Perfect. so II moved closer to the uh to my WiFi. So sorry for Uh As I said, you know, the half of the panelist here. and uh while I would assume that we are we were a little late in starting and uh but with our experience and what we thought probably uh some of you may start much earlier than this and which will be a great thing for all of you, right? So you ask me a question that uh how can somebody start or you know, can you have a career without uh uh looking for a job So, the best thing one can have is like if you instead of looking for your, you can do your job. That's the best thing you can do for society and you know, uh for your your family and everybody. So and the good
thing about it is that it's a laborer, you know, so there's no, you know, uh barriers. All you need is you know, a laptop and internet connections, right. And uh thanks to you know, people like a man who has given to everybody. So, the penetration has started and people can afford to have a laptop unlike in our times, it was difficulty and the oral ecosystem around you is very good. You have very good ecosystem of startups in India. There are, you know, there's a startup here department and you know, they also support entrepreneurship in a big way.
So, there's a regular way to get into anthropology. If you can find a problem to solve because entrepreneurship is all about solving a problem, finding it, and then trying to solve that problem. So, and then you have systems like you know, you get a special tax benefit and all but beside that, you also have a whole of uh incubators angel investors, and venture capitalists coming to India and then you can also go to program like so that's the very regular way and there are uh one of the area which I uh look at, you know, which will grow is this which is softer as a service like you know, going on the day when you would probably spend Es creating some softer like SAP and all. Now, you can just create something and you deliver it really fast like, you know, within a year, you should be able to launch something because lots of small pieces are available. You just have to put together and create a product which which can be sold as a service and all the enabling infrastructure is there. It's available. It's
available at very low cost. In fact, company like Amazon also gives you credit to, you know, try out the systems and all. So, all I'm saying is that the environment is so good right now. This is the perfect time
to start but obviously entrepreneurship comes the Te challenges. So, you know, it does come with risk. So, make sure that you're either very passionate and you have patience and perseverance to to continue that. you know, it may it may take some time but the rewards are really high So, that's one part and second is if you if you can't go to the big uh you know, uh the mainstream stuff, you can always try. There are various ways to get into smaller ways. You don't need to create SAP or sales but you can always create an application on which works on top of a platform like Salesforce or a platform like Slack and you know, uh uh A and all you just have to create some small and then there are app stores, you know, Play Store there. You just create an
app and you know, get on to that. Uh there are many entrepreneurs who are done in uh by and we call it Microsoft also which is like creating small plugins. I'll give you an example So, he just created an appointment scheduling plug in on WordPress. So, it's name is appointee and then some of them, there are many alternative to that. They are
among the top ten guys in that particular field and this is like more than a 1 million dollars or so and he's he's still doing it from right then obviously there are other people who have become much more successful. There's a company known as Postman, right. He started that API testing thing as a side hustle, you know, just to test the software then he realized that that API testing it is a big thing he got and now we moved to San Francisco. That's a unicorn stuff. So, this is the entrepreneurship but besides this, also, if you want to do, you can do freelancing for a because again, you have access to market. You have access to there are sites like, you know, freelancing sites and all but you also need to have certain skills which is so you need to go deep into a few areas. Uh
some of the low-hanging fruit we can say like you can always always get into web development. You know, it doesn't take too much of effort and all you Learn basic web technology because most of the software is going to be developed over the web here and there will be delivered over the web because not because of computing is available on the mobile and all. So, that's another area. Uh if you if you can't do programming, then there are other areas like, you know, you can get into digital marketing program. So, lots of
people need Facebook marketing, uh Google Analytics and there are enough courses available in a free material available to get started and I think this the area where if you're a student, you could probably start from third year and start exploring all these options, you know, so when you, you know, you come by when you complete your degree and all you would probably know a lot of stuff which can, you know, pay your bills. So, even if you're trying something big on the side, you can try all these things, freelancing stuff. So, there are ways in which you could, you know, uh go forward and you know, chase your dream and don't forget to start an internship in a startup and all that will give you the best experience in order Hey, So, I think that's my advice to the people who want to, you know, get into entrepreneurship and there are enough examples available. We can have probably a full session having uh all of you available and you know, more from uh talking about it. I think that's a very good idea that we should do a session just on an entrepreneurs in the meanwhile, if you have any tips on the resources. Yeah, uh uh which the students can use to become an entrepreneur. He
spoke about some freelancing website, talk about digital marketing. I spoke about startup. The government support. You can share some links in the chat. I think we
should uh we should share those with the students so they can use it. um but I also wanted to mention that you have been very uh uh proactively also offering uh students to become a part of the startup your own startup uh through internships. Uh so I think that's also a wonderful idea that students should become part of startups so that gives them uh that uh to learn and also become an entrepreneur themselves in the future. So, I want to go back on that startup topic to uh uh to uh Ahmed uh actually and ask him a question which actually comes up very often that many students think that uh uh uh Uh so, so this is uh actually in I think uh this is this is not only at like the start of the company also like I think when I was finishing my masters, the same question was like uh so some of the professors would try to actually push you towards like more academy if you want to do something more like uh let's say your masters if you want to do something else and then also this comes to whether you want to go to the industries whether you want to go more in the academy where you could probably do of what you like or what you want instead of focusing on what is profitable for the company. So, uh and the same thing also goes with the state. Uh whether you want to
go in a big company, you want to be a small part in a big wheel or a big machinery or uh probably would not get all the exposure. You will have a good brand name or something but uh probably probably not as many experiences as you want and as a local describing like it later on, you want to say mourn with something where you want to do your own thing. Probably a broad experience will help you a lot more than let's say being at a very specific thing uh and so um so so and I have friends like working in startups also and then we also spend some time off and discuss this thing. So, so I will talk
from like maybe a big company uh uh point of view. Uh so uh this is true that you would be probably focusing on a small part of the problem uh uh but you will um and uh you you you it's it's up to you. you want to develop more understanding about the whole thing or not but your day to day. when I talk to my friends. specific area, maybe a coffee, like for example, uh is exactly like small corner Maybe you are not cutting corners. We are
trying to be uh uh because when you have a large scale problem, um and you will be working on a small part of the problem but you you would have enough opportunity to sort of probably do more in depth work there or maybe sometime a little bit of innovation also that at that small piece uh other thing which is not probably related to technical thing uh but more about people that I have noticed with this company is if you get to interact with a lot of like talented people on a regular basis. So, almost like you're flawed uh on a Day-to-day basis with like because there are so many talented people around. Uh so that are like even not only on the things that you're working on but broadly. Also, the other topics like in technology uh So, and there is a lot to learn. So, that is I think one of the good thing that I have found um as as like I have to now I think if if somebody's interested in let's say a joining these companies or let's say getting through the interview to me a lot of material available. He's making it look disturbed and experience and I would say ninety to 95% was put on like a bigger companies target. Okay,
how exactly you should I think you can go and try your skills and try to solve those problem, build confidence, and and interact with people and many of these companies also go to those platforms and try to look for people who are doing well there. So, our options uh uh a shipment. So, most of the companies have their own internship website. So, you can go, you can apply. Obviously,
there will be some rounds initiating with the type or something. So, you have to go through that to prepare for that uh but You take the internship group of the company. of and then after that, there will be some kind of the place Very good. Ah Ah. Thanks a lot and uh your platforms. can share some links in the chat. Uh many of our members
are sharing a very good information in the chat. So, we should say that and also share with the students information. Let's make sure that we save those and if we can share those platforms, that will be really really helpful. Let uh move on to a man. that apart from the technical skills that Ahmed just spoke about what would be the other skills that you think the students especially in the year should acquire, You know, I should acquire which will make them relevant to the market. So, let
me start with and then move to a a me see if I can help you guys unmute. subscription to his students. So, I think everyone should use it to use that subscription and they're not try to deploy the applications with they are working on especially if they are secreting a he or a website or something at least they when they use, they will learn because going forward, everything has to be on the cloud, right? We will get rid of all the data centers at least the big companies and organizations. They are moving away from traditional data and and moving towards cloud. So, cloud is something which is very important. So, all the major major providers. they
provide this subscription. So, uh everyone uh you know, you should use it and play around. Second thing, which I feel is very important is uh the communication skill because this is an area, you know, where we as a uh you know, I need a lot of improvement uh uh because uh and it is not only about the plain English, right? It is about how do we communicate, how do we convey our idea to the person to whom we are talking, Right? So, they have, you know, it is like everyone is there to learn. So, I strongly recommend, you know, joining Toastmasters Club also in college, it's itself. if not Toastmasters because of the fees or something people can create their own group and you know, uh they can grow up on a particular day and then they can talk on any topic. so it
will help them in improving their uh uh their communication skills. So, I think communication is something apart from technical. I think from most of us have So, this is a very important and uh also, you know, as as I mentioned on the chat also. So,
try to execute the project in agile way. Okay? So, it's great if you vote for you will get a lot of understanding about the rules which are there. you know, you can assign rules to yourself. Okay. One person put be another could be a team and one could be the one who is doing the requirements. See,
how are you moving So, that is going to help you a lot when you join the company because nowadays, company looking for a talented right? And uh another aspect is that easiest way to do is to, you know, create a CI CD pipeline and you know, try to integrate the automation test cases. So, that it's and uh you know, on a test cases and you're not deployed via CACD pipeline. so that is something which you know they can do as part of their projects and also you know, whatever is the branch, right? At least everyone should have elementary knowledge of programming. So whether it is also so that they can filter the user from the other community colleges So, theoretically and then they can read as well and then go for the, you know, if the AWS. They
go for a practitioner. Um if you did read the studies on Microsoft and they they go for that uh certifications so that the you know they have more chances to get a placement in our companies like DCS Yeah. I picked up a few gems from there. I think communication is extremely important as a mentioned and regardless of which you are and I mean uh uh sales is uh most important skill in whatever you have to do, right? And selling yourself is the most you are, you are the most important product, right? If you cannot sell your idea yourself to uh whether you're working in IT or sales and marketing or engineering industry. I think the chances of succeeding will be less if you are able to sell yourself.
So that's very important and Toastmasters Club is a great idea and uh I think we should uh definitely uh who is also in the in the audience today. See if we can help our students to install that. I do that in my company Uh for the youngsters who are coming in in different countries and they find it very very useful uh uh you know, especially the newcomers who have a hesitation and Dominic of the Wilbert uncomfortable speaking in front of a large audience. So that's a wonderful point and also I think a point about building your you know, adding more um substance to your CV through certification. I think it's extremely important. Uh I would move the last couple of questions. Uh
I'll come back to you and I think there's also a question uh uh in the from the audience which is a very relevant that how somebody who has been in the IT field, you know, like yourself who was in the mechanical industry in that field can build a career and move to the software industry. Uh what's the uh how should we do it And what are the steps somebody can take? So, mine was a different era altogether. So, today, today, it's a much different II. Did my engineering in Ninety-two. So,
when I came out uh the the first time I saw a computer, it was in the mechanic. Uh it's not in the mechanical engineering lab. It was in uh uh some room there where we're doing for like I don't know that I can do that. I know the
idea. It's the it was there but like so because when I was running this mills, it was kind of, you know, you can manipulate the data to the computers and use that. I said this, this is very interesting area. uh and and so, I decided to move on from a mechanical side uh on the shop floor to uh into the IT industry. So, I said I wanted
to move to IT. There are two reasons. One is that uh when I'm in a plant, there's no AC and 2 hours. I always wanted to be in in Mumbai. So, this plant was near Bombay not in Bombay.
So, I said, okay, I need to leave from there. So, when I moved there, I moved into a company called Heave uh which is uh uh AA. Lot of people know the answer to this company of that. I joined as a
manufacturing or maintenance consultant. In fact, the first project I did was all in ONGC behind me. You know, we used to start there. So, I was a domain expert on manufacturing and maintenance A little bit hustling there in terms of maintenance the So, So, we build that system. Now, the thinking is like this, right? If you want to achieve something, you need to find out what needs to be done, right II got into computers. I found out
that there are domains which are important and similarly then, uh when I work for then, I realized that there's something called ERP, you know, enterprise resource planning and I domain ERP still is is quite active and then I started finding it about it and then II did a lot of walking through at that point of time for They were taking in for a solution. So, so luckily, I got manufacturing distribution. That's kind of the area which I always enjoy and I became a manufacturing and distribution consultant over a period of time. So, I then, I joined a company called Oracle and then I spent about 14 years with them in Oracle, India. I went to to Oracle the US then Oracle Singapore. So, in you know,
when you start doing stuff, you then realize that nothing wrong with that. So, I actually wrote procedures, you know, procedures in in in an oracle technology but then, I moved into a role called presales which is where you need to be have a domain expertise and you can sell to the customers, right? So, that's now, again, I'm based on so so III kind of, you know, in that moment because I knew stuff and I knew I could convince the customers and I did that in US and then I moved to Singapore and then I was heading Asia Pacific for Oracle for supply chain and then I joined the company called AA Plan which went IPO So, I was the vice president of supply chain. An application for Jc. So, the idea is that anything is possible if you put your mind to it, you will find a way to do it right. You know, and for each of us, there's nothing complicated I'm sure anybody and everybody can do it but you need to know what you want to do and and one of the things I think you mentioned network by or meet and as many people as possible. I was the most introvert guy. A lot of people don't know me as well. I was
very introvert nature but I forced myself out of comfort zone. Meet people, Go out of your comfort zone, talk to people. You will learn everything new. So, take that
uh uh capabilities in there and and you will learn. You will learn and make mistakes in life. You know, it doesn't matter if you lose 1 year or 2 years in your life. It's okay. You know, but you know, take make those mistakes and the to a point why I became an entrepreneur is that I wanted to try You know. but one thing I-1 day, I realized that he has oracle is the owner of the company So, I said, why Why should I make the money for myself? right? So, it's just just, you know, so entrepreneurship is not bad.
There are many things you can do. A lot of things which are there. Uh there's a uh initiative Ion a company you can go on their website called Immobile and they are inviting students to give ideas and then, you know, do it with them with the company. That's fantastic. So, look for Hackathon across Google search Hacks I'm in Singapore so I did a hackathon with SMU students here at and they created a forecasting application 24 hours That's the thing. That's
what you learn. You just put yourself into it and you get things out of it. So, just just try things out. Just try things. So, that's kind of what my my advice would be. You will not lose anything for trying something and somehow that lateral uh you know thinking comes over and then you you you use that information uh in in your life, right? So, that's kind of what I would suggest here Very good. Uh wonderful.
Uh I think there are many roles uh which are which can get into IT without having the programming skills which is what I understood also at the same time, you can always learn coding and programming if that's what I take and I think that is the key. I think just like we did uh previously. If you also have any of the I think you gave the example. if
you can share that link in the chat box if you have it handy uh or if any other hackathon that you have in mind, I think that would be wonderful. We are almost coming to an end of time but if it Okay, I want to go 5 minutes over. I want to ask one last question before handing it over to uh for closing remarks.
Is that okay if you go 5 minutes. So, is it okay guys on the screen. Time to remember. Okay. So, I wanted to go to
because Sola has been a fantastic in offering internships to our students and I wanted to get his insights and observations on that from who have he has actually offered internship and uh has been his experience and what would be his advice to the future? in terms who want to come and work for your company or for other companies as well. So, that's a precaution for them. Uh am I audible? Yes. Yeah. So, in the last 2 years, we actually offer a lot of internship and uh close to Twenty-five interns uh in different colleges out of it close to eleven. They're from GECU and um I should thank uh and Ana are actually connected me with the professors and they were instrumental in uh uh helping us set up uh you know, the campus placements or interviews and So, we did offer close to eleven internship to DC. Students have more than half of them join us full time, right? So, amazing experience.
I'm I'm very happy. Uh especially I was actually cheering for their success because I was personally involved um as we are growing uh uh with Radiance Technology. it is becoming professional organization where we have our own HR department and there are other team members So, not that everything I said is is acceptable there, right. So, I have to convince them to get into uh uh campus placement for GC and um I was actually cheering for the students who joining us. Uh they were best interest for them to be successful, right? Um so, I'm glad that they didn't prove me wrong, right? Um so, uh some of them have become very critical part of our products. Uh 60% of
our revenue comes from product development and 40% come from services. So, some of them are very critical to us. So, that said, there are couple of things obviously, which we saw because we did close to hundred plus interviews in the last 2 years of students uh GECU students out of it. We selected
10% of the Um so, one is obviously communication. Um language doesn't matter whether it's in English or in the in fact in most of our interviews I say, let's switch to Indie, right. We'll ask you a question in if you're comfortable in Indy and answer it in the that's perfectly fine. but uh basically, when we pose a problem statement to them, ask them puzzles, understanding, and asking relevant questions.
We saw that yes, there are some refuges that needs to be tuned, right? There is one thing. Second thing that I have observed is everyone wants to do a development. Everyone, everyone who wants to get into IT is wants to do a development. What they don't understand is that if you see the software development life cycle, right? Starting from a requirement to uh software development to testing to uh uh you know, when you deploy it in the production alignment and provide support, right? So, coding is only 25% of it, right? There's 75% is not programming you if you consider the product life cycle, if I'm launching a product into a market. So, say for example, we
recently launched a telehealth service for pets, right? And we have commercial B to B products in health care, economics, and research. So, from the idea conception to uh proof of concept, to product development, to marketing and branding, to deployment, getting customer acquiring customer deploying those in uh into the customer environment. If you see the complete life cycle, coding is only 5%, right? 95% is non coding and the thing that challenge that I've seen not just in but also when we do the campus placements in Pune and uh everybody who wants to get into IT wants to do coding, right? So, they're focusing only on 5% of the problem. 95% is not programming, right? So, that is one thing that we are. I keep telling them but it seems like people will learn from their experience rather than listening to us, right? So that is one thing. um uh if if you
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