Software Development Careers: Why, What, and How?

Software Development Careers:
What, Why, and How?
This evolving presentation was initially given to the 3rd year B.Tech. students at JIIT.
It is useful for all engineering and computing students.
It is being frequently updated in view of the newer information and insights.
Published on: 13rd June, 2015
Last update: 24th July, 2015
Sanjay Goel
JIIT, Noida, India, 2015

Ecosystem:
Is something Changing Drastically?

Growing Indian Economy
India is the bright spot in the global landscape - IMF
Goldman Sachs, 2007
Bloomberg Business, April 2015
Source: US Department of Agriculture

Growing Indian Consumers and their Buying Power
• The rural demand saved India from economic crisis in 2008.
• In the last one decade, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education has
increased from 11% to 20%. The target is to increase is to 50% by 2030.
• Rapid increase in wealth and urbanisation
o India has been the biggest contributor to global poverty reduction between 2008-11, with
around 140 million people lifted out of absolute poverty -- Global Monitoring Report on
the Millennium Development Goals, The World Bank, 2014-15.
o Wealth in India will grow fastest @ 21% between 2014 and 2019 , the 2nd best is China
(10.3%). -- Boston Consulting Group report, 2015
o Indian economy : 1 Trillion Dollar (2008) 2 Trillion Dollar (2014),
The World Bank, 2015.
o Indians earning >$5/day: 5 crore (2010)  15 crore (2020)
o $1-$5/day: 35 crore (2010)  50 crore (2020)
o e.g., Bullocks in an eastern UP village: 1200 (1995)  04 (2005).
(Reason: Dalits who used to plough the bullocks had moved to the city).
o e.g., Branches/Profit of J&K Bank: 280/1.48 Cr (1989)777/1,100 Cr (2014)
o In many pockets, the labour wages have significantly increased as labourers are not
available. Thanks to social welfare scheme.
• The number of creators and consumers is increasing rapidly in India.

Changing Needs for Building
New Generation IT Start-ups
• Reduced capital requirement
– Cloud Services for servers
– Open Source for infrastructure and developmentn software
– Cheaper Bandwidth
– Cheaper access to marketing channels because of internet penetration

Changing India, WIPO, 2014
Specialisation Index

Changing India
• According to a 2010 Nasscom report, there are over 300 captive and
Engineering R&D service companies in India employing about 1.5
lakh engineers. It forecasts that Engineering R&D will reach $24
billion by 2015, and possibly $45 billion by 2020.
• 85% population will have high-speed (3G and 4G) connections in next
5 years.
– Social media users in rural India: 1.2 crore (2014) 2.5 crore (1015)
• IT services majors plan automation  jobs to cut down
– Incremental recruitment by the IT services industry will halve to
55,000 in fiscal 2018 from 105,000 in fiscal 2014 (Crisil report,
2014)
– e.g., Wipro may bring down 30% (47,000) of its headcount in the
next three years. (2015 News)

Changing India
NASSCOM Startup Report 2014
• India currently has around 3100 startups in the technology product and digital
space.
• India is the 3rd largest startup ecosystem globally adding 800 startups annually.
• By 2020 there would be more than 11,500 startups, employing over 2.5
lakh people.
• Indian startup investments increase by 300% in Q1 2015, beats China in the
number of deals

Changing India
Governments in Action
• GOI sets up a new Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2014
• Rs. 20,000 crore corpus for MUDRA (Micro Units Development Refinance
Agency) Bank, to refinance Micro-Finance Institutions --2015 Budget
• Rs. 1000 crore for SETU (Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation) to support all
aspects of startup businesses, and other self-employment activities,
particularly in technology-driven areas -- 2015 Budget
• SEBI approves a new trading platform and relaxes listing and fund raising norms
for startups, July, 2015
• Startup Village: Kerala Govt supported incubator now aims to create 10000 start-
ups by 2020 -- 22/07/15, Times of India
• T-Hub, Hyderabad: Telangana Govt aims make it the largest incubation facility in
India -- 23/07/15, The Hindu

Changing India
• Global Giants are acquiring Indian startups – Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle,
Amazon, eBay, Twitter, Yahoo, NewsCorp.
• Ratan Tata, Narayan Murthy, Azim Premji and many others invest heavily in
several Ecommerce and other startups. Even celbraties start finding startups:
Yuvraj Singh is funding two startups, 2015
• Times of India now publishes a weekly full page feature: Startrek
• The membership in Indian Angel Net-work : 60 (in 2007) 325 (2015).
• Infosys announces a change in its strategy, 2015
- Plans to train 70,000 employees in Design Thinking by end of this fiscal year
March 2016.
• Successful startups are enthusiastically grooming, funding, and supporting new
startups.
– e.g., “after 2 yrs, if you do not leave me and start your own business, I have
failed” – Khurram Mir, Founder, Harsha Natural, Kashmir
• <1% of start-ups by students (2008)  3% (2014).
• Mohan Das Pai‟s Vision 2025 -- (20/07/2015, CNBC TV)
– 1 lakh Start-ups, valued US $ 500 Billion, 30 lakh staff

Changing India
• Bloomberg list of top 25 FDI destinations
– 2015: China, USA, India,...
• Top Three countries as per Baseline Profitability Index (BPI)
- Unctad World Investment Report
• 2015: India, Qatar, Botswana (SA: 51; China: 65; Brazil: 99; Russia: 105)
• 2014: Botswana, HK, Taiwan (India: 6; China: 43; SA: 54; Brazil: 95; Russia: 108)
• 2013: HK, Botswana, Taiwan (India: 7; China: 21; SA: 41; Brazil: 91; Russia: 98)
• India consistently in the list of three most favoured investment destinations
- Global Capital Confidence Barometer, Report, E&Y
– April, 2014: China, India, Brazil
– Oct, 2013: India, Brazil, China
– April, 2013: China, India, Brazil
– Oct, 2012: China, USA, India
– April, 2012: China, India, USA
– Oct, 2011: China, India, Brazil

Changing India
Global job creation and youth entrepreneurship survey 2015, E&Y
• A majority of young population want to run their own business at some point.
– Global: 65%
- 27% immediately and 38% after working for someone else first.
- 36% have a fully formed idea. 25% have started developing a business plan.
– Mexico-91%; China-89%; Sub-Sahara Africa-88%; India-86%; ...Japan-36%
- 26% ideas in India are technology based business.
• Entrepreneurs in China + India feel most confident with economic direction
- Domestic - 95%
- Global - 89%

Changing India
• Corporate India announced their plans for collective
investment of Rs. 4.5 lakh crore in next 5 years in different
projects wrt Digital India Initiative, 2015.
– They hope to create 18 lakh new jobs through these projects.
• TCS plans to hire 60,000 more staff within one year.
– Big Projects announced by Ambanis, Sunil Mittal, Anil Agarwal, KM
Birla, etc.
• Govt of India has initiated an Open API policy
– All the relevant information and data of a Government Organization
shall be made available through Open APIs to other e-governance
applications and systems and the public.
• Likely to fuel entrepreneurship and economic growth while
increasing government transparency and efficiency as it has done
in some other countries, e.g., USA.

India’s Ranks in Global Innovation Index, 2014
76
106
6693
31
82
110
9350
87
128
57
94
58
78
122
106
33
99
31
83
80
120
128
46
59
41
50
24
87
100
96

Education Vs Innovation
Bruce L. Gary (1993), A New Timescale For Placing Human Events, Derivation Of Per Capita Rate Of
Innovation, and a Speculation On The Timing of The Demise Of Humanity

Career
Do You Know Your Drivers?

Career Anchors
Schein, MIT, 1996
• Autonomy/independence
• Security/stability
• Technical-functional competence
• General Managerial Competence
• Entrepreneurial Creativity.
• Service or Dedication to a Cause
• Pure Challenge
• Life Style.
• Future: we will have to become perpetual learners, more self
reliant, and more capable than ever in dealing with surprises of all
sorts.
– It should be a field day for those anchored in pure challenge!
Source: Two Decade long research

Job Choices: New trends.
Stanford & UC Santa Barbara study, 2004
• Top 3 criteria for job choice among young graduates
– Intellectual challenge
– Financial package
– Reputation for ethics and caring about employees

Ten Point Recipe for Success
Azim Premji, At IIT Madras, 2001
1. Dare to dream
2. Define what you stand for
3. Never lose your zest and curiosity
4. Always strive for excellence
5. Build self-confidence
6. Learn to work in teams
7. Take care of yourself
8. Persevere
9. Have a broader social vision
10.Never let success go to your head
Source: 35 years of illustrious experience

Work Satisfaction
Your Career Sweet Spot is at the intersection of your
• Interests : what excites you
• Personality: the way you like to work and relate to others
• Skills and abilities: acquired and natural, what you can do easily
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.
Don‟t make money your goal.
Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that
people can‟t take their eyes off of you” - Maya Angelou

Software Developer‟s Profession
What Does it Involve?

Distinguishing features of Software Development
1. Support for Cognitive processes Vs Physical processes.
• Ill-defined and socio-technical problems.
2. No high volume manufacturing/repeated implementations.
• New problems everyday.
3. Imagination Vs Physical constraints. Like „writing,‟
• Possible applications in all discipline
• Knowledge acquisition, construction, structuring, and representation.
4. Main Challenges- Requirements, Debugging, Project scoping and estimation
• Projects face higher uncertainty factor,
• Several iterations.
5. Highly vulnerable to failures and unpredictable behavior
• Discrete abstractions, complex interactions, inherent invisibility
6. Maintenance- learning misunderstood and changing requirement, removing
development errors and continued development.
7. Psycho-social Challenges - intellectual property, security, privacy, anonymity,
offensive content, cyber regulation, cultural diversity, user psychology and so
on.
8. Rapidly Evolution - Theories, best practices, and development tools
• Re-usage based development methodologies are more popular

Some Facts about Software Development
1. 80% of software work is intellectual. A fair amount of it is creative. Little
of it is clerical.
2. The best programmers are up to 28 times better than the worst
programmers.
3. Reusable components are 3x as hard to build, and should be tried out in
three settings.
4. Design is a complex, iterative process. Initial design solutions are usually
wrong, and certainly not optimal.
5. Error-removal is the most time-consuming phase of the life cycle.
– Rigorous inspections can remove up to 90% of errors before the first
test case is run.
6. Maintenance typically consumes 40-80% of software costs.
– Understanding the existing product is the most difficult task of
maintenance.

A Taxonomy of Software development related
Engineering Activities
1. Planning: project and risk planning
2. Design: design activities at various stages and multiple levels
3. Realization: implementation and maintenance
4. Evaluation: selection and evaluation of tools, technology, products,
and process
5. Client Interface: requirements and support
6. Ubiquitous Activities: process support activities that apply across all
phases of a project
7. Overarching Activities: applied companywide across the projects

Design: at various stages and multiple levels
8. Prototyping
9. Component and interface Design
10. Component Selection
11. Algorithm/ Computational Procedure Design
12. Architecting
13. Application Design
14. Service Design
15. Product Design
16. System Design
17. Network Design
18. Process Design
19. Infrastructure Design
20. Security Architecture Design
21. Process Tailoring
22. Test Design
23. Content Design
24. Standardization
25. Restructuring
26. Intellectual Property Management
Planning:
Project and risk planning
1. Time to market Planning
2. Estimation and Costing
3. Resource Planning and
Management
4. Project Scheduling
5. Risk Planning and Mitigation
6. Staffing and Team
Development
7. Project Monitoring and
Control

Realization : Implementation and Maintenance
27. Application Customization
28. ApplicationDevelopment
29. Component Development
30. Product Development
31. Service Development
32. System Integration
33. Infrastructure set-up
34. Process Implementation and Change Management
35. Configuration Management
36. Code AnalysisBuild and Release Management
37. Validation and Verification (Testing)
38. Maintenance, Enhancement, Up-gradation, Porting
39. Data Migration
40. Technology Migration
41. Performance Tuning
42. System Administration
43. Database administration
44. Network administration
45. Security administration
46. Service Management
47. Standards and regulatory
Compliance
48. Program Comprehension and
re-documentation
49. Reconstruction
50. Code Archaeology
51. Disaster recovery
52. Production support

Client Interface:
Requirements and support
61. Technical Marketing
62. Consulting
63. Feasibility Study
64. Work flow/Process Study and Modeling
65. Visualization
66. Knowledge Elicitation
67. Requirement Engineering
68. Migration Assessment
69. Test assessment
70. Product/ Requirement Definition and
Specification
71. Business Technology Alignments
72. Deployment and roll out
73. User Acceptance and Usability Analysis
74. User interface Design
75. End User Documentation
76. Customer Support
77. Infrastructure planning
Evaluation: Selection and
evaluation of tools,
technology, products, and
process
53. Application Audit
54. Process Audit
55. Technology Audit
56. Tools and Technology Selection and
Evaluation
57. Architecture Evaluation
58. Impact Analysis
59. Value Analysis
60. Usability Analysis

Overarching Activities applied companywide across the projects
87. Technology Entrepreneurship
88. Program Management
89. Infrastructure Management and Maintenance (Operations Management)
90. Contract Management
91. Partnership/ Outsourcing/ Vendor Development
92. Product Quality Assurance and Control
93. Process Quality Assurance and Control
94. Procurement
Ubiquitous Activities process support activities across all phases of a
project
78. Measurement
79. Technical Documentation and Presentation
80. Innovation
81. Research
82. Presenting ideas and insights
83. Knowledge Management
84. Training and Talent Development
85. Group work, people management, and leadership
86. Idea convergence

Professionals Recommendation for Most Important
Software Development Activities wrt Education
1. Algorithm/Computational Procedure/Component and Interface Design (79% respondents)
2. Application/Product/System Design/Prototyping (75%)
3. Product/Requirement Definition and Specification/Requirement Engineering/
Visualization/Consulting (75%)
4. Code Analysis, Program Comprehension, Re-documentation (68%)
5. Innovation and research (66%)
6. Application, Component Development/System Integration (65%)
7. Group work, people management, and leadership (65%)
8. Estimation and Costing, Project Scheduling (63%)
9. Product/Process Quality Assurance and Control (60%)
10. Validation and Verification (Testing) (58%)
11. Technical Documentation, Presenting Ideas and Insights (54%)
12. Test Design (52%)
13. User Interface Design (47%)
14. User Acceptance, End-user Documentation, Deployment and Roll-out, Customer support
(45%)
15. Security Architecture Design, Architecting, Component Selection (42%)
16. Project Monitoring and Control (40%)
17. Tools and Technology Selection and Evaluation (40%)
18. Usability/Value/Impact Analysis (39%)

• Comparative study of star and average performer at Bell labs
which showed that
– taking initiative was ranked as the most important strategy
by star performers, while it was least important for average
performers.
– ability to give good presentations was a core strategy for
average performers, while it was peripheral for the top
engineers.
How Bell Labs creates star performers.
Kelley R. and Caplan J. Harvard Business Review,
July-August 1993.

Competencies of Exceptional and Non-Exceptional Software Engineers
Turley and Bieman, Journal of Systems and Software, Jan 1995
Task Accomplishment Competencies
• Leverages/Reuses Code
• Uses Methodical Problem Solving
• Mastery of Skills & Techniques (4)
• Writes/Automates Tests with Code
• Prior Experience
• Obtains Necessary Training/Learning
• Uses Code Reading
• Use of New Methods or Tools
• Schedules and Estimates Well
• Use of Prototypes to Asses Design
• Possesses Unique Domain Knowledge
• Uses Structured Techniques for Communication
Situational Skills Competencies
• Concern for Reliability & Quality
• Focus on User or Customer Needs
• Thinking - Strong Analytic Skills
• Emphasizes Elegant and Simple Solutions
• Innovation
• Attention to Detail
• Design Style
• Responds to Schedule Pressure by Sacrificing
Parts of the Design Process (2)
Personal Attributes
• Driven by Desire to Contribute (3)
• Pride in Quality and Productivity
• Enjoys challenge of assignment - sense of fun
• Lack of Ego
• Perseverance
• Desire to Improve Things
• Pro-active/Initiator/Driver
• Maintains “big picture" View (5)
• Desire to Do/Bias for Action
• Thoroughness - Methodical , Organized,
Cautious
• Driven by a Sense of Mission
• Exhibits & Articulates Strong Convictions (3)
• Mixes Personal and Work Goals
• Pro-active Role with Management (2)
Interpersonal Skills Competencies
• Seeks Help (1)
• Team Oriented
• Helps Others (1)
• Willingness to Confront Others (4)
SEs at HP, Common/NO or v. small difference/ > in Expert/ > in Non expert

Level Large size IT
Services company
Large/Midsize Product
development company
Small size product
development company
Existential 1. Ability to work
in teams.
1. Ability to work in
teams.
2. Ability to apply
knowledge
1. Perseverance,
commitment, and hard work.
Pivotal
3. Perseverance,
commitment, and hard work.
2. Accountability and
responsibility.
3. Ability to apply
knowledge.
4. Problem solving skills.
5. Research skills.
Critical 2. Perseverance,
commitment, and
hard work.
4. Accountability and
responsibility.
5. Analytical skills.
6. Problem solving skills.
7. Research skills.
6. Attention to detail.
7. Analytical skills.
8. Integrity and authenticity.
9. Readiness for lifelong
learning.
10. Technical competence.
Obligatory 3. Listening skills. 8. Integrity and authenticity.
9. Critical thinking.
10. Design skills.
11. Technical competence.
11. Quality consciousness and
pursuit of excellence.
12. Critical thinking.
13. Design skills.
Competencies Expectation by different kind of companies

Large size IT service
MNC
Small size Indian IT product Company
1. Familiarity with IT
systems
2. Ability to be flexible
and work analytically
in a problem solving
environment
3. Good communication
and interpersonal
skills
4. Good voice and
accent
5. Ability to resolve
technical issues and
escalate issues when
appropriate
6. Good attitude and
willingness to learn
vii. Okay to work in
24×7 shifts.
1. Passion to code and quest to work in Product Development
environment.
2. Extensive knowledge in object oriented analysis and design concepts.
3. Accountable for anticipating and resolving problems that impact the
current or developing products.
4. Ability to perform the research, design, definition and implementation
of the product software applications.
5. Deliver high quality software applications and solutions that are
extensible and scalable within the specified timeline.
6. Contributes to Code Reviews.
7. Knowledge in development environments, debugging tools, source
control systems.
8. Demonstrate creativity in identifying effective approaches to software
and solution development process and promote opportunities for
product innovation.
9. The ability to prioritise and plan effectively.
10. Must be comfortable working in small/large teams.
11. Should have Self confidence , dynamic personality and belief in
challenging yourself xii. Should willing to go extra mile to make a
difference for themselves and for the organization.
12. Should have good communication and interpersonal skills.
13. Having the enthusiasm to learn and grow with our organization
Competencies Expectation by a large size MNC IT Services company
Vs a Small size Indian IT product company

Pearls of Wisdom
From a few JIIT Alumnus
Graduated during 2005 to 2009

Messages from few JIIT Alumni
Dr. Amit Pandey, 2005, Chief Scientist, AldebaranRobotics,
France
• It is the time to thoughtfully dream of a goal, carefully identify the
milestones to achieve that and smartly plan "trajectories" to reach
those milestones.
• Focus on learning from everyone you meet on the way, instead of
wasting time in criticizing them.
• Take advice from within you as well. You will be closer to the
dream... but keep in mind, learning is continuous - A Learner

Abhishek Gupta, 2005, Google, USA
• Try to apply for a job where you will learn something new.
It will be scary at first but the long term benefits besides
knowledge include building self-confidence to tackle any
task in the future

Prakash Gupta, 2005, Google, USA
• Dream high and stick to your passion whatever that might be.
• Sharpen your problem solving, algorithmic and data structure
skills. Do not get carried away with specifics of language these
can be picked at any time.

Vaibhav Choudhry, 2005, JDK team, Oracle (SUN), India
• I am privileged to work with the best engineers in the world. My one line of code goes to 6
billion device.
• I had powered ON first computer ever in my life at JIIT
• Coming to 3rd year, Our team of 4 delivered a project to ST Microelectronics, which was
judged by them as the BEST project out of 49 colleges. We delivered this just after our exam
with 200 cups of tea and no sleep of 6 days.
• We had a tough time in placement as we were the first batch of JIIT. Can you guess the % of
placement (It was 100 %)... How ?
• 3 of our friends work in Google USA. 20+ work on R&D. 10+ develop the core of
engineering. A few run their own company... How ?
• Joined a small services company from college placement -> Shifted to TCS in 3 months ->
Shifted to Sun Microsystems (the maker of java, solaris, Zfs, and many more) in 9 months
and working till date... Why ?
• Think of all these questions and you will stand right there, where you want to be ! All the
best.
• Live fearless! Think Rationale! Build, Break and Rebuild

Pravesh verma, 2005, Senior Consultant, SAP Labs
• The perception of the IT market has changed over the past 10 years and so did the aspirations
of the fresh graduates. Now fresher are also seeking opportunities to work in start-ups or
trying to start their own new ventures. Markets is easily accepting new ideas from startups if
they are potentially good and it is providing a substantial platforms for the entrepreneurial
inclinations of new generations.
• Young and fresh minds are coming up with great ideas and new technologies like cloud/ big
data/ IoT etc, are acting as catalyst to get them the shape of new products and services.
• This is the best time if you are planning for a new startup or if you are looking to work in
fields which are new and different from the traditional platforms existed earlier.
• Industries to look for in near future are the one having new amalgamations of electrical and
IT fields and by this I clearly is pointing to areas like AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet
of Things) and Robotics.

Some other stars of the1st Batch
• Vijayanand Chokkapu - Amazon (Forecasting)
• Vivek Sheel - Microsft
• Akansha - Microsoft
• Yogendra Rajput - BallyTechnology (Gaming company)
• Ravi Solanki - Qualcomm (before AMD)
• Chaitanya Ravi - Bloomberg
• Pravesh Verma - SAP (Have a patent on his name too)
• Aditya Kotari - SpiderCloud ( works on wireless technology)
• Neelima B - Pegasystems (Predictive Technology)
• Karan Bhatia - Marketing head - Transtutors
• Nakul Saxena - Project Manager Ciber.
• Deepak K - Researcher, Infosys Lab.
• Robin Singh – Texas Instruments (FPGA Programming)
• Abhishek Singh - Researcher in Juniper Technology
• Ankit Garg - Delhi - Starting his own company on Software Educational tool.
• Setu Garg/Chirag/Swaroop - CEO Woikr
• Ankur Jain (ECE) - Founder of Ajonit-Software (His blog on Software Testing also
makes good money for him)

Kumar Lomash, 2006, Senior Computer Scientist, Adobe, India
• I always find the quote by Dijkstra very inspiring. It keeps me focused on the
problems than the technology. "computer science is no more about computers
than astronomy is about telescopes". A true engineer should always remember
this, it has helped me single out interesting projects and problems from others
which are a distraction at best in the industry.
• Every project team has certain roles which focus on the fundamental problems
like algorithms, software design, architecture, etc. And then there are other roles
which are technology specific like which language to use, platform specifics and
technical know how. To be and remain a sound engineer one should always
focus on the former roles and challenges.

Amal Tiwari, 2006, Lead UX Designer, InMobi, India
• Make. Share. Repeat. Given what we do for a living and the resources we have
today, it is easier to build any idea you have and share with people. Get feedback
and improve. Question convention. For HCI/Design folks, having diverse
experiences is very important in life to build world-class products at scale.
• Passion + integrity + hard work
– I can't stress enough how important it is to have all the three.
• It's good to have a purpose.
• Honesty and morals aren't just dictionary words.
• "Slog". Struggle is necessary.
• GPA stops mattering.. Eventually In reality, GPA matters for some time after
college. But in the long run, what matters is what you have done, what you have
built and where you are going. I have seen many examples of people with low GPA
doing well because they kept working hard on projects, built and launched stuff;
they were the right mix of humility and confidence.
• It's an exciting time to be a CS (or HCI) guy! Best wishes

Anuja Sharma, 2006, PhD candidate, UTAH University
• Don't blame, don't wait. Do your best and move on with a smile! Instead of blaming the
system around you, do the best you can and move on. And do it with a smile and a sense of
challenge and responsibility. If situations give you the opportunity to compensate for
someone's limitations- do it- and do it with pride and be grateful for this chance.
• Think big and have a vision! Have a goal that is personal, intimate and has the potential of
driving you for the next 20-30 years. It doesn't have to be realistic at this point but it should
be something bigger than your personal circle of life- family, friends and career. It should be
something that challenges you and brings out the best in you. It should be your personalized
way of serving the society, the nation and the entire world.
• Expand your comfort zones! The early 20's provide the perfect platform to take risks. You
can definitely be prudent about your choices but don't sit in your comfort zone. Stretch to
learn and reach out to each other.
• 'What can I give' versus 'What am I getting'! The former would make you stronger and
reduce stress and pressure on you. This would encourage your creativity as you would
always be focused on providing solutions. This attitude would make you successful with all
ranks of people.

Aditya Kumar Singh, 2006, Deloitte
I graduated in 2006 with highest on campus package and highest number of offers (3) and I
joined a semiconductor firm that was into product development. Few things I would
like to share with you all:
• Know yourself- It‟s very important for you to understand your own strengths and
weakness. Keep 2 things in mind:
– a) People judge you by what you have achieved, while you judge yourself by what
you are capable of achieving
– b) Play to your strengths and improve on your weaknesses
• Decide what you want to do. It doesn‟t matter if you want to go for higher education
later or want to make a career in a particular field.
• I might sound cliché but you should know your resume: each line of it. Also reach about
the company you are interviewing for.
• Don‟t over plan. I did not participate in the placement process of first 2 companies on
campus as my „dream company‟ was the third in the schedule. I did not even make it to
the interview of that company, was eliminated in the GD itself.

Siddharth Batra, 2007, Twitter
One of the biggest fallacies of human life is assuming things are linear. Careers
aren‟t made by rising the same amount every year, careers are step functions, and
the advantage of being exceptional at the start of your work life will be enormous
by the end of a decade.
Find your unique path in life.
Here are the three pieces of advice, I would have liked to give myself in 2007:
1. Your time early in life is exponentially more impactful than later in life
2. To value your time earlier in life, take risks, it‟s the best time to do so.
3. Work furiously hard and be unapologetic about it. You‟ll never remember the
weekends you took off and always remembers the things you create.
If you made it this far, as a bonus piece of advice to myself, find someone who‟ll
love you for working hard and being unapologetic about it.

Priyank Singh, 2007, Microsoft, USA
• Even after working in the industry for so long, when it comes to
judging candidates we still go back to basic of data structures,
algorithms and designing principals. In short whatever you will study
right now it will help you in future and you will have to keep updating
yourself always.

Nikhil Wason, 2007, Cofounder Card back, India
• On deciding what to do in life: identifying that one activity that gives
you immense happiness even if you would not be paid for it – that‟s
what you should be pursuing!

Angad Singh, 2009, Tech Lead, InMobi, India
• The first few years of a software engineer are a critical foundation on which the
rest of the career is built. The most important thing for first 2 years of career -
LEARNING. Money or stability should be the least of your concerns right now.
• Run far away from a high paying job in a big MNC which has less than
ordinary work.
• Run far away from white collar labour jobs at the likes of mass recruiting
offshore consulting firms where you will be just used as a tiny human tool.
• This is the time to explore and adventure, you will not have the luxury later in
your career when age brings its responsibilities on your shoulders.
• Try to find a place where you get mentored, thrashed into discipline and
refined. Try to learn how "things are done" by the pros before leaping into
doing it all alone just in the beginning.

Avoid a Career in Software Development - Justin James
If
1. You'd rather be trained than self-teach
2. You like regular working hours
3. You prefer regular raises to job-hopping
4. You do not get along well with others
5. You are easily frustrated
6. You are close-minded to others' ideas
7. You are not a "details person“
8. You do not take personal pride in your work
9. You prefer to shoot first and ask questions later
10. You do not like the geek type of person

Tips for all
Spend at least 40 hrs/ week to:
1. Apply theories or concepts to practical problems or in new
situations
2. Analyze the basic elements of ideas, experiences, or
theories, such as examining a particular case or situation in
depth and considering its components
3. Synthesize and organize ideas, information, or experiences
into new, more complex interpretations and relationships
4. Judge the value of information, arguments, or methods, such
as examining how others gathered and interpreted data and
assess the soundness of their conclusions
5. Prepare research based reports integrating ideas from
various sources and concepts of different courses
Practice, Practice, Practice (Tips for Software Developers)
1. Algorithm Design
2. Prototyping
3. Code Analysis, Program Comprehension, Re-documentation
4. Application/Component Development
5. System Integration

Problem Understanding and Solving Tips for Software Developers
1. Clarify the problem
2. Identify key elements of the problem
3. Draw a picture or diagram of the problem or a relevant process or situation
4. Consider a specific example
5. Consider extreme cases
6. Visualize the problem or a relevant process or situation
7. Imagine being the problem, a key process, or the solution
8. Simulate or act out a key element of the problem
9. Change perspective
10. Consider levels and systems
11. When the problem can‟t be solved
– restate the problem
– solve some related problem that may be
• more general,
• more specific,
• more special,
• or analogous,
– solve some part of the problem

Take Risks by William Arthur Ward
• To laugh is to risk appearing the fool
To weep is to risk being called sentimental
To reach out to another is to risk involvement
• To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self
To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naïve
• To love is to risk not being loved in return
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk despair and,
To try is to risk failure
• But risks must be taken
The greatest risk in life is to risk nothing
The person who risks nothing... does nothing, has nothing, and becomes nothing
• He may avoid suffering and sorrow
But he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live
Chained by his servitude, he is a slave
He has forfeited his freedom
• Only the person who risks is truly free.

Please share your comments, views, and
missing information wrt any of the issues raised
in this presentation.
May God Bless You.

Software Development Careers: Why, What, and How?

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