Student activities gave me more energy. It is satisfying to chase objectives with a bunch of friends working together as a team. In 2017-2018, Developer Student Clubs gave me an excuse to do more of it at my University. I took up the opportunity. Today, I run alongside a team to build an ecosystem of business developers because they deserve beyond transactional relationships and converse more common business problems than they appear on the surface.
What helped me become who I am today? That’s a broad question. If I were to start somewhere specific, I am sure developer student clubs had a prominent influence on my thought process.
My objective felt meaningful — I wanted to see students in my circle interested in learning mobile and web development skills. Maybe, because I came from a circle where creating a simple PowerPoint presentation is celebrated. Just powering the same circle feel, “I built an app” is deeply satisfying.
- I learned emails can sound more meaningful. In 2017, the only emails I read were templates. None of them said like they were to me, barely information. Emails to me from the DSC team weren’t fancy in design. They were candid & thoughtful. I wanted to be that person who makes the other person feel I wrote to them candidly & thoughtfully. Two years later, my email response to HR at Freshworks was to get my current manager (story) to create a new requisition.
- My mindset was limited to requesting permission (for leaves, etc.) from people of authority at my University. The DSC program allowed me to report the outcomes of events & efforts to the same people of authority. It quickly taught me to put together what matters to them and navigate the org structure to get closer to my objectives. My current role would appreciate this trait manifesting itself in High Agency.
- I remember talking to at least 40+ people at DSC Summit in Goa and running through activities with new people every time. It pushed my thinking boundaries. For once, the frog (me) knew it was in the well.
- These conversations weren’t conventional to me. They were ambitious & confident. I mean people worrying about imparting skills to students & solving problems for local businesses is inspiring, whereas I only heard about marks until then.
- That allowed me to plan diligently to jump outside of this well.
- It wasn’t about listening to these Googlers/Speakers on the stage, but observing them off the stage helped me recognize the unexplored. In one of the Mobile Developer Fests, Mathang found some Google Schwags were left. He would call me up and ask — “Give these to those students, who grew technically in your leadership. These aren’t giveaways; these rewards & prides a behavior that helped the same students grow”. I noticed his focus that delivers on impact, not just giving some fabulous goodies away and forgetting about them.
- I learned to dress like the person I want to be. My conversations with the rest of the DSC Leads & Leadership Session at the summit ignited my awareness about my personality. I learned to read the room; and help someone feel heard is more important than proving myself. This consciousness could be the most critical learning that transformed my behavior to express more Humility.
- Before participating in the DSC program, I never saw a chart showing timelined milestones. This imagination is very underrated and influential. For someone being onboarded on a journey, it gave me a direction. When I graduated from the DSC program, I wanted to clarify who led the community after me. I must pass the baton. I did it with a living document. Today, I can see through my organization’s existing processes and imagine myself in the people following the processes and making/suggesting improvisations that help us become more efficient.
- The entire Googlers on the DSC program had few traits in common. Being on time was one of them. It was treated as a sign of respect. For someone, who would blame hostel food for being late at college, I never imagined respect is at the table stake. Today at my work, I learned I can be whoever I want — So I decided to be that person who finishes meeting early and joins on time. Eventually, my manager (in my career reviews) will write that he did not have to spend time compared to other graduates to teach me professionalism.
- The more I spoke to Googlers, My language evolved from talking about “What I got done” to “What value did I really deliver”. One of the emails from the DSC program said, “Do a workshop. You don’t need 300 people. Try helping just 15 people become successful. They should feel they’ve learned something new today.”
- Becoming a DSC Lead was an opportunity to sharpen people skills. I can learn an algorithm by doing it wrong 100 times on a coding platform (like LeetCode today). But it’s impossible to learn people skills without really collaborating with people. I had a team & the club set up. I made mistakes. I learned the consequences of the processes I would introduce to the team or the club. Compare it with in-company challenges today — People resist new changes. I can now deal with them.
- I could expand my care for promotions & design by organizing events for a technical audience. These became more prominent as I grew up into a Developer Advocate trying to talk the language of a Marketing team and gauging their priorities.
When I look back along the way, it’s surprising how much influence some people had on me in this journey.
Deepak Sridhar — Deepak taught me that calling someone by name is more respectful. I was a kid saying “Sir.” until then.
I learned what humility means. I practice it to this day.
I read his emails. They make me feel it’s for me and that I’m contributing to a cause. His passion was very contagious. I had never met driven people before. I could only appreciate his passion when I met more and more non-passionate people as I grew along my career.
I once set up an “out of office” reminder in my Gmail account with content saying, “I’m trying to focus on exams”. No one replies to a OOO email. This guy sweetly replies Best wishes for my exams.
I was young. But I felt the want to make the DSC program successful. I never felt that I have to. This is because of that “We are on a mission” feeling that Deepak was able to create with all these gestures.
Mathang Seshagiri — This person met me multiple times. He made time to text us DSC Leads in that region to meet up. He would share stories and listen to them. I only feel more enlightened.
I still am surprised by his career path, from a journalist/literature background to a Googler.
The first thing he taught me was that I should add a "note" what the Google Document or Spreadsheet entails when I share it with another person. I had to share a list of students from my campus for Mobile Developer Fest he is program managing. When I shared, I got a call from him immediately asking “what” did I share.
He met me again in Delhi when I was running the Google Scholarships program when interning at Udacity. I wanted to spend time with him whenever he was in town. Once, we were in a cab (just for the shared time in busy schedules), and he would convince me to go on a tour in Delhi even if I was alone. I took his advice, it’s a maturing experience I will forever remember.
I was going to be in interning for four months in 2018. One tip Mathang would always tell me is to do one small thing so that people will remember me. I did. I always used to carry “Kaccha Mango” candies. Whoever was around me that day, I used to give them one. I made friends and meaningful relationships.
I am confident that more people taught me something, or I might’ve learned it from them. These were whom I remembered because of all those little stories. They were small things that made a compounded difference as I grew up in my career. They contributed to professional skills that would help my career scale.