ReflectionsByIndu

  Let me tell you a story that began in India a while ago. There was a little girl who was very energetic. She couldn’t sit still at one place and had trouble focusing. She told her parents that she felt different compared to her friends and siblings. Her parents thought that she was a smart girl who could do anything she set her mind to, there was nothing wrong with her, and that she was probably just a bit too lazy. The little girl believed them. She believed that probably it was just as hard for everyone as it is for her, and others are simply better at overcoming hurdles than she is. There were high academic standards set for her at home, so she never had an option to fail. She had to come up with ways to solve her ‘focusing’ problems herself. At home, she would walk back and forth while studying, which helped her concentrate better. At school, she would force herself keep focused by writing down every word that came out of the teacher’s mouth. She comes from a cu...

 “Keep Pedaling, keep going. You got this; Don’t be scared, maintain your balance”. I heard my husband saying to our daughter as she was trying to ride her bicycle. She was hesitant to start biking, and after about half an hour of her dad running behind her, she had done a few laps around the park and biked back home. After she parked her bike, she came to me with a glowing smile on her face – “I did it. I thought I couldn’t do it, but I was able to do it”. “Of course, you were able to do it, you already learned how to bike last year, and now that the sun is coming out, you can start biking again. Why did you think you couldn’t do it?” I said. We live in a place where there is only 3 months of no-rain in an year, and she was getting an opportunity to ride a bike outside the first time after last summer. “You see Hon, you are a smart and strong girl. You can do anything you set your mind to, as long as you are confident and work hard towards it.” It was me trying to turn a r...

    I’ve recently hit the 5-year mark at Microsoft as a Technical Program Manager/Product Owner. As I reflect on how my professional experience changed me, I realized how helpful it would have been for my career if I knew a few years ago what I now know. I’m penning down my learnings with the hope that it may help someone else out there to learn from my experiences.    If the below post seems too long, please scroll down to tl:dr summary of the learnings 😊   Learning 1: It’s your responsibility to convey your career aspirations.   Think of a scenario where you have worked hard all year long. You landed a very important feature. You’ve received a lot of appreciation from the leadership. You can feel your impact in the air, and naturally you expect a promotion out of it. Come your time for annual review, you were not given a promotion. You are very upset about this result and your manager was surprised at why you were upset as you never once expres...