Something I've learned from a mistake

A proud 20 yr old, I accepted a job in the distinguished CLR group at Microsoft. As an integral part of Microsoft’s hiring efforts at college I was pampered by my recruiter with lavish events! For practice, I continued interviewing around and receiving offers from IBM, Oracle, NVidea, etc.

I particularly enjoyed a technically challenging 7 hour loop with Amazon.com. The prestige bestowed by the momentous salary was immense. I asked Microsoft to match the offer; they declined claiming they hired me on potential and my newly acquired Masters degree didn’t affect their valuation. Amazon enticed me further citing the challenge of their loose role definition bringing greater breadth. They even pitched their ‘pager duty’ requirement, where developers are paged for urgent production issues, as a James Bond like mission driving quality and ownership. Thirsty to learn I was seduced. I didn’t even consider the hit to Microsoft having kept a position from being filled for a year.

I now see my mistake in joining Amazon.com for the wrong reasons and missing out on 2 years of further growth and learning at Microsoft during a strong economy. At one’s first full time job well defined roles, like Microsoft’s, teach more than Amazon.com’s broad ones replete with randomization. Developers doubling-up as IT support degrades focus and inhibits work-life balance. Most importantly: Microsoft’s less technically grueling interview format seeking to understand the candidate and their career goals to ensure long term compatibility is the right hiring philosophy.

Amazon.com made me recognize the perils of poor leadership that de-motivates even the best employees into un-productivity. This enhanced my respect for quality and visionary leadership over individual intelligence. Amazon.com’s managers aim to have their team produce the maximum output in the short term so they are recognized and rewarded with their next role. I left Amazon for Microsoft after 2 years; indebted to Microsoft I gave them my all. I’m proud of how Microsoft genuinely treats their employees as their most valuable asset, focusing on growing them throughout the year. At Microsoft I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to learn from several great leaders, none more than my immediate manager of 3 years who has taught me so much about values, strategy, tactical skills around influence and execution and most importantly to consistently rally for what one believes is right for the company in the long-term regardless of organizational support and personal reward.

My 3 most substantial accomplishments & why

I've just stack ranked over 30 individual values as defined by Microsoft. The top 3 come in as: 1) Family Happiness/Friendship 2) Fame/Advancement and 3) Health. Loyalty, Individualism, Inner Harmony and Personal development narrowly miss out. Aligning my achievements with my values yields:

Family Happiness/Friendship: My family has been my eternal anchor. My mom is one of my best friends; my sister my best friend. There is nothing I can't tell unhesitatingly them. As a slightly dependant extrovert, once an unpopular nerdy Frasier-esque teenager, relationships are very important to me and I am very proud of my deep bonds with my family and friends. Every one of my close 6 friends I want to know 20 years from now. They are mentors to me in different ways, from their values to their corporate advice, but come Friday evening we paint the town red and give the cast of 'The Hangover' a run for their money. I didn't always know I was an extrovert and wasn't always very social; my ability to entertain and bond with people, even strangers, is one of my unborn traits that I'm proudest of! I've made no compromises in seeking out the perfect posse; the people in my life highly influence who I am and who I will be. I pride my ability to read people, their motivations and their values, and with these amazing people around me my life couldn't be any happier. I have the perfect support system in place! In my continued uncompromising desire for long-term perfection I need to add the perfect female companion to the mix within the next 5-10 years; this is a work in progress and will lead to, I believe, a completely perfect solution as far as that which lies within my control. Wish me luck!

Fame/Advancement: At the end of every day I ask myself: how have I been productive; what have I done to improve myself or the world? I want to make an impact, achieve impossible tasks and be recognized for them. Fortunately this is something that comes naturally to me. It wasn't always such smooth sailing. Academically I was always strong and believed destined for greatness. My first 2 years of corporate experience, at the tactical Amazon.com with management only interested in short-term wins I underachieved and questioned where I would go. However, the move to a broader role at Microsoft where I've successfully built a business from ground up and honed my interpersonal skills, including the ability to influence many without authority, has put me right where I want to be. I believe I have all the potential for achieving great things; the onus is on me to identify the right opportunities and make a difference to the world, both in the corporate world and subsequently in the non-profit space which is so perfectly aligned with the greater good of society.

Health: And lastly, none of this is sustainable without a healthy mind and body (which is elegantly aligned with cosmetic benefits). As a part of a family not blessed with metabolic powers and part of a society taught to gorge at mealtimes and avoid healthy pre-meal snacks that "ruin one's appetite", I enjoy a productive day during which I feel energetic, taut and empowered. Daily weights/cardio is the best stress buster. I attribute to my diligent workout routine two other gains: 1)the ability to successfully overcome a genetic predisposition to depression and anxiety through a regular influx of serotonin and 2) to act as a forcing function to master the skills of time management and rigorous prioritization: the ability to put things in context, evaluate the pros/cons of every problem in true Obama style. Only with this 2nd skill can one regularly make time for essential non-work hobbies such as this.

As the rapper T-Pain says: "On a mission to be, what I'm destined to be...I'm destined for greatness"

Movie Day

Today's double header post-a-thon starts with movie reviews from
'Marathon Sunday 6.21.09'

The Hangover: With all the hype there was no way this movie was going to impress me. I believe in the standard 5-5 rating: you rate a movie out of 5 on pre-watching expectations and then on how it measured up. This was a solid 5-4! This movie hits close to home and I don't believe my crew is too far from matching these role models :). We have Iyer for Fat Jesus, Kunjal for whipped Allan and Jay for Phil (more because he demands this title and is being rewarded for watching it the 2nd time with me). Poor Justin and Adi miss out; and I get 0-personality Doug by PoE. Finally, a special mention for Carlos...cutest diva baby ever!

Boiler Room: What an overrated movie. Guys love the bravado and 1-lines sales pitches here; funny I agree but way unrealistic. I wouldn't buy free sunglasses from these dumbass kindergarten manipulators leave alone stocks. It's probably money greedy Madoff victims that identify with this flick. I'd hope my well to-do friend circle would seek more fulfilling jobs that adds some tangible, albeit debatable, value to society than hedging non-existent stocks. Ahem *DJ* Ahem...

Luck By Chance: This was a 2-5. What a shockingly amazing movie; perhaps the best I've seeing Hindi or English in eons. From the seemingly realistic portrayal of struggles wannabe film stars must face to the deep introspective definition on happiness and success each of us must grapple with to the amazingly eloquent diction of Farhan Akhtar and my new crush Konkana Sen Sharma (I'm so unsuperficial :)) this was awesome. WTH, she's engaged to Ranbir from 'Men in Slacks; Hey Aliens--take this' (Thanks Anik). The well incorporated cameos of each actor, the analysis of how outsiders make it into Bollywood by chance (ala Amitabh Bachan and SRK), and I repeat, the self-absorbed ambitious Farhan Akhtar and the loving Konkana who realises her independence coupled with the job she loves is true success (not to mention her spot on analysis of Farhan).....so awesome! I was enjoying every minute hoping it wouldn't end. It diverted me from my immense food coma induced pain (screw you and Saffron grill, Jay). I even did something I've never done hammered--kicked a live coal off my hookah near my couch and only discovered it the next morning along with the hole in my floor into my downstairs neighbors condo (slight exaggeration, Anik style...)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck_by_Chance

I hope I never spend another day watching 3 movies and eating like an ogre; but if I do the average movie quality can't be any better...

Weird day

I guess it is only fitting that that day I kickoff my long overdue blog be somewhat strange.

I woke up at 9am sans-hangover (after a weird night at Trinity--even the free cover VIP entry was not worth the 30min wait and crowd) just in time for the big Ind vs. Eng T20 knockout game. Winning this should be a stroll in the park. I snooze in and out during England's lacklustre batting that puts up a very achievable 153. I am now wide awake to watch India nail this in style.

Our batting was awful. As one of the 3 best teams in the tournament (with SA and SL) and with the best batting lineup, even after the 15/2 start this shouldn't have been hard. Promoting another left hander (R Jadeja) who is not in form made no sense. I was disappointing to see such a huge strategic blunder from my 2nd biggest idol (Dhoni falls behind Obama, Obama is mad cool).

Dhoni should have promoted himself or Yusuf ahead of Yuvraj. An aggressive right hander to shock England was the way to go. The defensive move of promoting Jadeja to stabilize a 120-ball innings was ridiculous. Aggression is the mode this group of IPL boys have thrived in and the only successful 20-20 approach. With 2 big hitters running out of balls at then end I needn't emphasize this moot point any longer.
For reference: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/addictions/entry/why-men-in-blue-ended
I will now be supporting SL for the trophy. They have the funnest bowling lineup (Malinga/Mendis) and Dilshan may be able to hold the batting order together.

Recovering from that stressful and depressing start to the day involved a long shower and 4-5mile run. But now I was so relaxed I couldn't keep my eyes open. I clear days of piled up snail-mail, including a notification of a possible 13story building to be erected right in front of was once my 3/4ths of a million dollar view. That building will have me broke faster than this economy. And yeah--apparently I owe more property taxes on the house now....geez.

Now time for some mental stimulation:I read a great new issue of HBR. 3 interesting articles included:

1. Reasons why people do/don't get promoted and how to get candid feedback to improve: Great bucketing of competencies into (a) Negotiables (b) Deselection Factors and (c) the most critical element--Core selection factors (strategic thinking, setting direction, growing people, delegation, fostering innovation, cross-division influence). This may be more appropriate for mid-level managers (GPMs) but is interesting nonetheless and the actionable data on eliciting feedback was interesting.
2. Managing people in a bad economy: Focus on (a) predictability (b) understanding (c) control and (d) compassion. Most interesting was the importance of being repetitive and how a manager laying off an employee is often farther along in the 'Anger, Depression, Bargaining, Acceptance' emotional cycle than the employee himself
3. Obama's first 90 days PQ'd: Great start Barak O-Baller

That left me braindead enough to allow mom to convince me to try a tub bath with a Lush 'bath bomb' and Hookah. Not the worst idea ever but probably not something I have the time to repeat; not to mention the 10$ bath bomb while nice is totally not worth it. Who the hell pays for that?

And now: I have all my core-friends (10+) coming for dinner. Let's hope I can either wake up and entertain or get people to mingle and not notice my zero energy level :). But more on how that pans out tomorrow. And how I punish any last minute no-shows with lame excuses...