Being an indent believer and follower of the dictum ‘Actions speak
louder than words’; a continuous effort towards achieving my goal and
knowledge has helped me scale up the ladder. I started my career with
Infinite Computer Solutions as a pre-sales and market researcher; the
keen observation skills and a thirst for knowledge inspired me to make a move
to a Business Analyst role very soon. The career objective, towards
achieving a management role set a fire to understand the IT landscape and a typical IT
organization. This involved knowing a business- in and out, through
various information sources. That’s how I took an interest in Business
Intelligence and took a turning point with the favourable work environment
in my career at HCL technologies to achieve the right career path and
reach where I am currently.
Decisions That Mattered:
All the decisions I have made till now have proved to be correct and important
in one or the other way, if not always. Every decision taken in my
career, moved me into a role which taught something new and exciting and
challenging to work. Every role helped me understand the
organization process, IT infrastructures, BI solutioning, BI analytics
and what is needed to manage people. But the most memorable decision was to start my knowledge gathering on database architecting.
Well, it’s not as easy as the other tasks I have been doing. I still have a long way
to go. Turning Points:
Starting my career into pre-sales and market research was a
turning point. Further, the guidance
and the mentoring I got from a couple of my seniors to whom I reported,
moulded the way I think and look at a given issue. This could be another
turning point in my career which makes me unique. The most important was when I took up a BA role for my first
project which was into Telecom. This threw my talent and skills open to
the IT industry from where very senior industry people started measuring my
calibre in terms of communication skills and logical thinking, which a
BA or a management aspirant must have.
Work and Role- Then & Now:
My previous job was more action oriented without great challenges and
interactions. In contrast, the present role is providing an opportunity to work
around the objectives and goal to be accomplished in a project or a
given task. The main reason for this change would be the work
environment and the kind of technologies being worked and the list of
responsibilities given to handle.
Few Years Down The Line:
I would be looking for the right opportunities to fulfill my dreams. I would endeavour to refine
my strategic and client relations skills. I intend to be an
expert not only in Data Warehousing And Business Intelligence domain but
also in other application related domains; where the expertise would include
technical, functional and business areas of expertise . Depending on my
performance and the opportunities provided I will carry on my duties and
responsibilities as long as I adhere to the IT industry; and continue
to contribute my abilities in challenging and rewarding tasks. What I Learnt Along the Way:
Lessons are many as learning is a never ending process. I understand my imperfections and I strive to be perfect. Each moment and
every work teaches me to be perfect. There are lot of imperfect things
around the industry and the organization we work, instead of seeking the
imperfections moving towards the perfections with a good team spirit will assure success.
Trends to Watch Out For:
BI is moving towards Cloud unlike the whole IT landscape. Big
Data is following with latest technologies such as Hadoop where
enterprises are turning their big data into business intelligence
information. Other than these, the two major trends to be observed are
BI analytics and Mobile BI.
My Advice if You are Starting Out:
Keep your mind and eyes open always to grab any kind of opportunity
which comes in your way for DWBI domain (If you are interested in DWBI).
Be it testing, or BA or a Developer, just welcome it with an open mind
which will make a way for your success. Well begun is half done and
I wish you all the best. Must Focus Areas in the BI Domain:
The most challenging aspect of BI is to have the technical skills along
with the functional capabilities. One area which throws a lot of
challenges is Business Analysis and Business Process Understanding. This
area needs specialists who can look into the requirements from
multi-dimensions with a logical thinking. The ability to propose the right
solution approach to handle the requirements with a data model which is
in line with industry standard is valuable. The candidates with this kind of skills
are much in demand in the industry. Do We Need Certifications:
I believe certifications are labels for your skills and
experience; hence I have not taken them seriously because I believe
my skills and experience could sell me better than my certificates.
However, for those who are interested I would recommend getting certified
from the tdwi institute. Books/ Websites I recommend:
One of the books I read when I began in DWBI was Wiley & Sons - The
Data Warehouse Toolkit. The websites which get me thinking are tdwi.org
and learndatamodeling.com. I also keep browsing various discussion topics in
LinkedIn for day-to-day issues, users’ views and the challenges
techies face in the domain.
