When most non-Canadians think of Canada, they think of snow, hockey, and free health care. But there’s a whole lot more that Canada stands for, and a whole lot more that defines Canada. Today Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories. It is a multicultural, bilingual country home to three different nations: English-speaking, French-speaking, and the Aboriginals, and has increased its diversity by opening its arms to millions of immigrants from around the world. How did we get there?
This was a land inhabited by Aboriginal people known as the Inuits and Metis, long before British and French colonization. There were many Europeans reported to have set foot in what is now Canada since 985. However, the 16th century when European fleets began to make annual visits to the Eastern shores of Canada to cultivate the great fishing opportunities. Beaver fur in Canada became a valuable commodity and Europeans began looking into establishing settlements.
On August 5, 1583 Humphrey Gilbert, armed with letters from Queen Elizabeth I, formally took possession of Newfoundland in St. John's harbour on behalf of England. The French then began making similar colonization attempts. After several failed French colonization attempts, The French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1605 and established the first permanent Canadian settlements at Port Royal and Quebec City in 1608. Quebec City became the capital of New France; This illustrates Canada's importance.
As the French and British colonies grew in what is now Canada, the French and British began to wage war to gain dominance over fur trade. After many battles, the Seven Years War ended with France giving up all its territories in North America to the British in 1763. As for the French settles who still lived in Canada, predominantly around the Quebec area, the British gave them complete religious, social and political freedom. Once the British had total control over all colonies in North America, they began to raise taxes to establish their authority, which set the pretext for the American revolution.
When the American revolution began, the Canadian colonies remained British loyalists although they were sympathetic to the cause and hundreds of thousands of men from Canadian colonies joined the American army and fought for U.S independence. The U.S gained independence and the formal borders between the US and Canada were established in 1783.
In 1837, rebellions began in Canadian provinces. These rebellions were eventually crushed but led to the unification of what is today Ontario and Quebec into a single province called the Province of Canada by the British in 1840. In July 1st 1867, the province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into a sovereign, self-governing state. Ontario and Quebec were split. This meant Canada originally had 4 provinces. The rest of the colonies remained under British rule. The first Prime Minister of Canada was John A MacDonald and he began expanding the country west and north, and in 1870 and 1871 and 1873, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edwards Islands joined Canada as provinces. In 1885, the Canadian transcontinental railroad united all the provinces from coast to coast, allowing trade and transportation to flourish. In 1905 Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed from the North West Territories and they become provinces of Canada. In 1949, Newfoundland became the 10th province to join Canada.
This is how we got to Canada as we know it today. 10 provinces. 3 territories. A country inhabited by three nations: British, French, and Aboriginals. Each had their own land and did not need to be part of Canada. They could have had their own independent countries. But they chose to be part of Canada. Nearly 20% of Canadians today were not born in Canada, coming from every country under the sun. Each bringing their own beliefs, cultures, and stories.
Why does that matter? Three different nations living within a border of the same country? This is a story not often told. What divides other countries: Languages, race, cultures, religions has not divided Canada despite a few times when it seemed like it would. It’s different from seeing blacks and latin Americans in US. Blacks and Latin Americans migrated to the US or were brought to the US. It’s different from EU where there still are borders and different states. Each country in the EU is still self-governing.
And Canada has been in existence for over 140 years. In that time, countless new countries have formed based on differences in languages, religions, race. But Canada has stood as an example to the world that it is possible for several nations to live within a single country, a single parliament, a single government. It is a high level of empathy that has allowed us to stay as a country, despite different nations within the country viewing the country very differently from one another. And beyond hockey and free health care, that example of empathy is what Canada has to offer to the world.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Why I Love Germany
German history and culture has inspired and intrigued me since I was little. I would talk about Germany all the time to anyone who would listen or pretend to listen, memorize the dates of every major event in German history, and only buy German products as much as I could. Then came adulthood and I became less conspicuously obsessed with Germany. However, the influence of that obsession shaped much of my personality and many of my life decisions and it’s only now that I have truly begun to realize it. My obsession with German cars is what got me into engineering. My admiration for German efficiency is what inspired me to become good at time management. My fascination with German organizational excellence is what motivated me to be organized with all my activities. I could go on forever.
Interestingly, my love for Germany did not spawn from reading books or watching documentaries or meeting Germans. It all started in the 1994 soccer world cup in which I was impressed by how organized the German soccer team was. They were never the most skilled, flashy, or exciting. However, they were very organized, and played really well together as a single unit. To me, that was much more impressive than individual brilliance. Juergen Klinsmann became my favourite soccer player and I remember hoping he’d one day beat Gerd Muller’s and Pele’s records for most goals scored in a soccer career.
As time went by, I began to love everything German. Boris Becker became my favourite tennis player. I’d drool over every Mercedes and BMW I would see on the streets. (At that time, I did not know much about Audi’s. Today, I drive an Audi and I will happily strip in -30 degrees weather for an Audi). For the longest time, I thought Bon Jovi was German and used to listen to him just because of that. Claudia Schiffer became the hottest woman in the world in my eyes. I would only buy stationary that was made in Germany. I even came up with a German version of my name: Akhmann Badztrudder. I would immerse myself in history books, and remember rooting for Germany in World War I while reading even though I knew they lost the war. I’d flip through pages hoping something would change, history would be rewritten, and Germany would prevail in World War I. I still remember cringing when Bismarck resigned as Chancellor of Germany due to disagreements with Wilhelm II. Now that I am older, I realize how stupid that was.
So I guess this was a long time coming, but I finally visited Germany for a week and a half in January as part of a solo EuroTrip. It seemingly felt like going back to my roots, or some of my roots, to a distant heritage I longed to make my own, to a land that bred men who inspired me, to a nation I wished to be a part of. Setting foot in Germany for the first time, I began to love it even more. Talking with and meeting German people broke the stereotypical image I had of stern-looking, antagonistic German people. In my mind, I had images of a Helga, with long, blonde, braided pigtails on either side that were impeccably symmetric, wearing a white, methodically tailored dirndl dress with a fluffy, white blouse and a matching wrinkle-free apron. She would be quiet, keeping a very straight face, one that had not smiled in days. I had images of a Hans, a tall, blonde haired, blue eyed man who walked fast and made no eye contact. What I saw was very different from that. Those images were replaced with truer images of German people. People who were friendly, helpful, and polite. The women were gorgeous. And what I find most impressive and respect-worthy is the strength and resolve with which they deal and live with their dark history: World War II and the atrocities committed by the Nazi, not just against the Jews, but also against homosexuals, communists, and even ordinary Germans.
It’s important to get a few facts straight here and not judge the German population of the 1900s to the 1950s as we were not in their shoes, under the extraordinary circumstances we hope no one would have to live through again. Firstly, Germany did not start World War I. Everyone wanted that war to happen. France wanted to avenge their loss of land in the Franco-Prussian war. Britain was threatened by the unification of Germany and its rapid advances in technology, especially in naval technology. Every major European power already had military plans created for World War I and was spending most of their national budgets on their military years before the war started. There were atrocities committed by both sides. However, at the end of World War I, Germany was asked to take the full blame for World War I, pay back a ridiculous amount of money every year as reparation, and was asked to disarm. They could not build any technology that could be used in battle. BMW started off as an aircraft engine company but was banned from producing aircraft engines and therefore decided to become an auto manufacturer.
This had a deep economic and social impact to the German people. Nonetheless, Germany began to revive its industries and began to produce goods of high quality and low prices. It was exporting its goods to many countries, including the USA. Times of prosperity were here. However, in 1929 the stock market crashed and Germany was hit hardest due to the debt it accumulated to be able to pay back the reparations. Unable to feed their families, Germans had to pick between two ideologies: Nazism or Communism and the Nazi party was seen as the party more likely to help their bottom-line. They attained 24% of the seats against 19% attained by the communist party. The rest is the history we all know. The Nazi party created concentration camps to imprison all their political enemies, thus achieving absolute power. Through the Enabling Act, Hitler was able to strip German civilians of basic rights. 25,000 volumes of books conflicting with the Nazi ideology were burned in public. World War II started and millions of people, including Germans, were tortured and humiliated by the Nazi’s. Throughout this time, many Germans tried to stand up against Hitler but were quickly eliminated. Most Germans, and the entire world, did not even know about the concentration camps until after the Nazi’s were defeated. I went to Daccau, the first and most significant concentration camp, where young Germans, 16-18 years of age, were trained to terrorize prisoners. An unknown number of people died there, and towards the end were cremated as the Nazi’s were running out of space. It was the one of the most unnerving experience I have had. Those were the darkest hours of German history.
German people, not just of today but those that lived through those times are not to blame. They were starving, freezing, and made the best judgement they could, given their extraordinary circumstances at the time. Americans voted George Bush in 2000 AND 2004, not knowing he would do what he has done over the past 8 years. George Bush opened concentration camp (Guantanamo Bay) and passed the Patriot Act stripping civil liberties, strikingly similar to the Nazi’s actions.
The difference between the Germans and the rest of the world is how they have dealt with this dark history. They deal with their history very bravely and openly. Every other country in the world has tortured and killed innocent people but has hid it from its future generations. Every superpower in the world has had concentration camps but the Germans keep them alive as a reminder. As a way to say, “Yea we fucked up. But we won’t fuck up again”. Every high school kid in Germany is required to go to concentration camps at least two times so they can learn from past mistakes and not repeat them.
I went to the book burning memorial, to the Jewish memorial, to Hitler’s bunker’s site, to Nazi ministry buildings, to the Nazi headquarters. I went to the street were Hitler first marched with a band of armed Nazi’s in his failed coup attempt, to the spots were Nazi’s shot prisoners at point blank distance, to the cells where men who stood up against Hitler were imprisoned, to the churches that gave refuge to the Jewish population when it was oppressed. All of these sites are kept alive as reminders to learn from. And this is not just for German people, but for all of us to learn so history doesn’t repeat itself. The German parliament building today, the Reichstag, has a glass dome through which the public can look down and see the parliament as a symbol that the German people will always be watching.
Even after World War II, in which most major cities were bombed and 70% destroyed, the German people had to deal with having their country divided and Germany as we know it today is only 19 years old because the Berlin wall fell and West Germany reunited with East Germany in 1990. Since then, Germany has continued to progress and now is back to being an economic superpower and a leader in environmental sustainability. Out of all the countries I visited in Europe, Germany was the only one with recycle bins. In England and France, I sometimes had to walk for a few blocks to find a regular trash can. And it wasn’t until 2006, when the soccer world cup was hosted in Germany and a brave and young German soccer team was fighting its way to win the world cup, that the German people began to wave their flags publicly. Ironically, the team’s coach was Juergen Klinsmann, my favourite soccer player when I was little.
While I got to see a lot of Berlin and Munich, I feel like there’s still so much more I want to see and learn and I plan to go back to Germany within the next 2 years, to visit cities I haven’t been to, to explore little towns I have never heard of, and to return to Berlin. Berlin! Berlin was, by far, my favourite city in Europe. The architecture was amazing and diverse. Old, historic, restored buildings stood right next to and blended with sleek, modern, glass buildings. Hundreds of memorials were dispersed around the city, each with a strong message and a lesson. I was more impressed by Kurfurstendamm (Berlin’s shopping/entertainment district) than I was with Times Square. Because the city was divided for so long, East Berlin grew much different from West Berlin; East Berlin became more artsy while West Berlin became more modern. Therefore when Berlin was reunited, both parts of the city began to fuse into a new unique Berlin. A large city with entertainment and attractions increasing faster than one can experience, inhabiting a diverse population with people from over 195 distinct countries, and boasting a history that would take a lifetime and more to absorb.
I love Berlin. I think I left my heart in Berlin.
Friday, December 11, 2009
What I learned by playing guitar this year: Feeling vs. Thinking
Part of the reason life is moving at a much slower pace now is I have much more time on my hands now that I'm not playing in a band. The entire band project took three months and I remember the frenzy of having to manage 50-60 hrs a week of work, 15-20 hrs of guitar playing a week, 5-10 hours a week of YPIN work, and the wild social life. I was getting an average five hours of sleep a night for over three months. I remember days when I'd come home from work at 10pm, play guitar till 4AM, then be back at work by 8AM.
The most important thing I learned from this experience was Feeling vs. Thinking.
Fast rewind to May 2009. I was in the EMP "Staying Alive" program where in six weeks, ten people with varying musical abilities got together in a band and created a ten song set for a performance at EMP to family & friends. We called the band Genre Whore. Although my competency level was way below where I am at today, it was a great experience. I got to play with and learn from some amazing musicians. At our last band practice, I asked our lead guitarist Tim (a phenomenal guitarist!) if he had any advice for me to help me take my guitar playing to the next level. He said "I think you sound good. But you count a lot. As you play more, you'll learn to start feeling the music and knowing what goes where by feeling it rather than counting it".
At the time, the concept seemed alien to me. I always knew to count the beat in my head to know what to play where (and even then I would be off the beat!). Also, I've got an engineering background. The only way my brain knew to make decisions was by thinking. Little did I know what impact that advice was going to make to my guitar playing.
When I started playing with Speedbird 49 in August for our gig in November, my guitar playing was still pretty close to where I was at during the EMP project. I couldn't do the complex guitar solo's I aspired to do but I was assigned the lead guitarist role, primarily because I was the only one available. One of our first songs was "Turn The Page" and I was really excited as it is one of my all time favourite songs. The first weekend, I spent over 20 hours working on just that solo. I got to a point where I had something mediocre for the next practice.
About a month went by and we were making slow progress with our songs. I was trying to learn every solo note for note from the tabs. However, our band practice on August 23rd was an inflection point for my guitar playing. I was really getting into the music that day for some reason. And right about the point when I was to do a solo, something weird happened. I was deep into the music, I stopped thinking for a few moments and my fingers played a solo faster than anything I've ever played and different from anything I've ever practiced. It sounded and felt pretty good. I had no idea where it came from. It was the first time I ever improv'd a solo. And as we played more songs, I kept trying to do that. I'd close my eyes, feel the beat, and just let go. And somehow my subconscious mind would take over and play something that sounded alright.
I started having a lot of fun with my new learned style of playing. Over the next month, I improv'd several of my solo's and in the process I discovered new licks. It opened frontiers, boundaries, and horizons. However, it was inconsistent. Sometimes it would sound good, other times it would sound horrible. I had a general idea of how I wanted the solos to sound so they wouldn't be completely different each time I played. But that's when I decided to figure exactly how I wanted the solo's to sound so I could practice them the same way each time. I left some solo's as is and played original and used my creativity with other solo's. The majority of the last month before the show was spent fine-tuning the solo's. Some took major re-work even a week before the show.
None of that would have been possible if I was still "thinking" and counting. It took hours of listening to the music, trying to feel the emotions that the original artists were trying to project, and then in my head trying to feel a solo that would go with it and trying it out. I took lessons with Chris Griffin, who runs Spotlight Studio and put this entire project together and setup the gig at Big Daddy's. I really resonated with his style of playing and teaching and he expanded my knowledge of scales and taught me how play my licks faster. We actually spent most of our time just talking about theory. And I started using the knowledge I gained from those lessons to make my solo's more complex and interesting.
While polishing my solos during the last two weeks before the show, I started worrying about whether I could hit each note of my solo on the beat that I wanted to. I wondered if I could hit a high note each time the drums crash. How do good guitarists do it? I started analyzing Kirk Hammett's solo's and he is on the beat every time no matter how fast he is going. I analyzed Tim's (lead guitarist from EMP) solo's and he hit the beat every time as well. I went to Jason Parker's , our instructor at EMP and an extraordinary musician, jazz performance at the UW jazz walk and observed how each musician in his quartet was on the beat, even during long solos.
It's very powerful when each note in a solo is on the beat, but I decided to make peace with the fact I won't be able to do that. When I counted and tapped my foot to hit notes on the beat, or in other words, when I was in 'thinking mode', my solo's lost their emotions or what I wanted to project through those solo's. When I played my solo's in 'feeling mode', I wander off to this other world where I can't hear, see, or feel anything except me and my guitar and what I am trying to communicate through my guitar. That's how I wanted to play live, at the expense of being off-beat.
Finally, the long-awaited big day was here. November 19th 2009 at Big Daddy's in Woodinville. My adrenaline was higher than anything I've ever experienced in my life. My heart was racing, my anxiety level was high, my blood was pumping faster than ever. I left work at 2:30pm because I couldn't concentrate. Chris recommended I make a cheat sheet with all the songs and chords and where I was planning to start my solo's. The idea was to put it on the floor on stage in case I forget, because even till the second last practice I'd start playing the wrong scale in a couple of songs. Instead, I decided to keep the following sheet of paper:
There's no feeling like being on the stage and performing. And once the show is over, you get one of the most fulfilling feelings in the world. You practice for hundreds of hours just for that one hour of playing live and just for those few minutes of fulfillment after the show, but it's worth it.
I made several mistakes throughout the show. Not hitting every note I wanted to. Not being on the beat every time. Screwing up one of the breaks that I never missed in any of the practices. My fingers were shaking till the seventh song even as I played some really fast licks in my solos.
Friends, co-workers, and former band members, who graciously took the time to come see me play had great things to say, which made me feel better. Rich did a fantastic job recording the show with his camera. I started watching the videos with a less musically-critical mind and I was surprised I was able to hit the beat over 95% of the time even though I wasn't counting or tapping my foot. I was just feeling the beat. Before every solo, I would stop playing for a couple of bars, feel the drum beat, close my eyes, wander off to that world with just me and my guitar, and somehow still be on the beat most of the time.
People were surprised I was able to get to my level of playing in just 2 years of playing and without any prior musical training or experience. Former band members and experienced musicians who've been playing for many years began to tell me I'm naturally musical. I've started taking singing lessons and my teacher says the same thing. Sometimes, I wish I had picked music up way earlier in my life. I love rock music and I love the sound of the guitar. However, what comforts me is that I attribute less of that to innate abilities, and more of it to having learned how to FEEL music. I think that was the real game changer. I close my eyes and my mind visualizes sound waves, harmonics, notes, pitch, rhythm, many components of music I don't even understand. I've never even owned a metronome. It was FEELING the beat that really improved my timing.
The "What's Next?" question began looming, and I had decided towards the end of the Speedbird 49 project that I was going to take a break from playing guitar for a bit. Part of it was because I was worried about getting burnt out trying to manage it with work, YPIN and my social life. I had sprained my fingers and several nerves on my hand trying to play fast without warming up. The callouses on my fingers were so deep I was worried some day my fingers will just start bleeding. Nevertheless, I still pick up my guitar everyday. But now that the pressure of practicing for a gig is gone, I'm free to explore, to create new beats, to play new chord progressions, to compose new solos.
Another part of me wanted to figure how to manage the two personas. Corporate life rules one persona. Music rules the other persona. Corporate life pays the bills and gives me challenging work. Music allows me to explore my creativity. I've come to the conclusion that both personas will continue to exist. It's a matter of finding the right balance, in the hope that the sum of the two personas is greater than the parts.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Recruiting fun
In the three years I've worked at Microsoft, I've been to four career fairs in my school, University of Toronto, to help Microsoft find strong candidates. I got involved with recruiting during my internship at Microsoft. There were some dinner events with all the interns from UofT and the recruiter and I remember us passionately wanting the recruiter to hire more people from UofT.
A few weeks back I went on another recruiting trip to UofT. There were two days of manning (and womanning) the Microsoft booth, talking to candidates, taking in their resumes. I also took the time to meet with some candidates personally, not as part of the recruiting process but just to give them more of an insight into working at Microsoft and answer their questions. I gave many candidates my work email and have been answering their questions. We also had a "Meet the Company" presentation to all the students, giving them a deep-dive into Microsoft. In my slides, I focused on career growth at Microsoft.
I am passionate about doing all this because I love my school and want more people from my school to have the same opportunities I have been lucky to have. I think working at a company like Microsoft really broadens your horizons and enables you to learn and contribute to high impact products. It's my way of giving back to the school. And after three years of being involved with recruiting, I was really happy to see more people in my school knowing about Microsoft, going through the interview process, and also working at the company.
Recently, a good friend of mine who also works at Microsoft asked if I could come up with a list of advice for new grads, because he was going on a similar recruiting trip to his alma mater.
After much thinking, I came up with this.. Yet another "Top 10 list"
1) Do what you can to make sure you have a good first manager
Your manager plays a very big role in your career development and this is especially important in your first job because he helps set the foundation of your career. Rudy Guiliani, in his book titled "Leadership", talks about leadership style and how our own leadership styles are highly influenced by the first set of leaders we are exposed to. Your first manager will be one of the first leaders in a professional environment that you will be exposed to and there's a high likelihood that you will mimic a few things your manager does well. Therefore, you want to mimic a person who is an absolute rockstar at work.
Also, this breaks down into two things to look for: A) Working for a rockstar manager B) Working for a manager who knows how to groom and grow his/her direct reports.
The first point is important because if you report to a manager who is mediocre, you will not learn as much. However, you could also be reporting to a superstar manager but one who does not know how to teach other people the things he/she does well.
2) Network with people well established in their career
Working is very different from school. Remember how you would talk to 3rd and 4th year students when you just entered university about all matters pertaining to University life, from courses and academics to parties and fraternities? Talking to someone with a few years of work experience is almost the same thing. They've been in situations similar to the ones you'll be in now as a new grad. They can give you good advice. They can share mistakes they made and learned from so you can learn from their experiences.
Networking in general is great for your career, regardless of what type of job you have. It's helpful to know people who can help you with your career moves and career growth.
3) Work really hard
There is no substitute for hard work. However, the reason it is especially important in your first few years is that it helps you build strong work ethics for the rest of your career.
Also, the first few years set the foundation for your career. It's the only time you are at the bottom of the organization so you really get to learn the nuts and bolts of the operations of a company. For example, if you are an engineer you will spend most of your time doing technical work in your first few years. Then as you get more responsibilities, you start doing a lot of non-technical work such as project management, product planning, cross-group collaboration etc.. And then comes a point when you don't do any more technical work (if you choose that career track into management). At that point, the years you spent working as an engineer will help you make decisions especially when you have limited data.
4) Passion is key
If you are passionate about your work, you will automatically work super hard which eventually leads to better results. Also, you'll work more efficiently and effectively. You won't even think twice about staying up late at night to finish up work .
Even if you haven't quite figured your calling, or what your career mission statement is, as long as you are doing something you are enjoying, eventually things will just figure themselves out and you'll find your calling. At least that's what Steve Jobs implied in his Stanford commencement speech and I'll take his word for it. Steve Jobs talked about how you can't "Connect the dots" looking forward, but you can looking backwards. In other words, once you've worked for a few years and always done what you felt passionate about at that instant, you'll be able to look back and figure what your expertise are and based on that you'll get closer to figuring your calling.
5) Work towards finding your calling
One thing I've observed over the past three years is that the most successful people find a niche and become the best in the world at it. (Okay a bit of an exaggeration, I wrote about it in "Breadth vs. Depth"). Some people seem to know from the get-go exactly what they want. But things are very different in industry than in school, and as you are exposed to real-life engineering problems, your interests often begin to change.
For example, in school it may seem interesting to work on network security but when you get to industry you'll realize it's way different in industry than in school.
6) Pick a growing industry/company so you can grow with the industry/company
Given a choice between an industry that is constantly changing and growing, such as Technology, versus more traditional industries (utilities perhaps?, although there's innovations in the utilities industry as well, but at a much slower pace), always pick growth.
Let's say you get into an industry (or company) which just has 1,000 people. As the industry (or company) grows to say 100,000 people in 10 years, you will be the most experienced person and thus one of the leaders of the industry. By that point you will have the skills sought out for executives in the industry.
Compare this to joining an industry which already has 100,000 people and it will only grow to 105,000 in 10 years. In which scenario do you think it's most likely you will become a senior executive? The first one of course.
7) Pursue your passions outside work
You'd think that to be super successful, you should just work 200 hrs /week. Or just spend every awake second doing something work. However, so many executives, CEOs, are part of organizations outside work, or have passions outside work they still pursue. Why is that? I've theorized a few reasons:
i. Firstly, I think it's probably good to keep your mind off work so you don't burn out or become too boring. It also gives you breadth.
ii. Second, some of these activities are great to expand your network. Golfing is considered a networking sport because by being part of country clubs you network with high net worth individuals from very diverse backgrounds.
iii. Thirdly, it's a way to pursue your passion from multiple avenues. E.g. you are passionate about industrial security and you are working as a security engineer pursuing your passion at work, you can also join (e.g.) the Canadian Society for Industrial Security and further impact the field you are passionate about.
8) Build your online presence and brand
This is very new to our generation. I read a fantastic book called "Career Distinction" by William Arruda & Kirsten Dixson which talked about how you should build your career brand such that you never need to look for a job - Jobs will look for you.
If you have a strong online presence, it will be easier for recruiters to find you. I have a LinkedIn account, although I haven't spent enough time updating it to have something I feel good about. But I've gotten approached by various recruiters for job opportunities. I've not pursued any of those opportunities but that would be the subject of another blog.
9) Don't be afraid to ask for help
There's a lot of smart University grads who think they can do it all. And it works out okay in school. You may be in project teams where you do 95% of the work. However, this doesn't scale well in industry. And there's nothing wrong with asking for help.
10) Have fun!!
You may have lofty ambitions and work 100+ hours / week to realize your career goals. And you'll probably get there if you put in the effort, follow your passions, and play it smart. But in the midst of that pursuit, don't forget to have fun. When you look back at what you've accomplished at work, the moments you will remember the most are all the inside office jokes with your colleagues and managers, the team celebrations when successfully completing milestones, and the bonds and friendships you created with your co-workers. Unless you have a 9-5 job (which you won't if you have any grain of ambition) you probably spend more time with your co-workers than with your family. You spend most of your life working. Might as well have fun while you are at it. Good luck!
A few weeks back I went on another recruiting trip to UofT. There were two days of manning (and womanning) the Microsoft booth, talking to candidates, taking in their resumes. I also took the time to meet with some candidates personally, not as part of the recruiting process but just to give them more of an insight into working at Microsoft and answer their questions. I gave many candidates my work email and have been answering their questions. We also had a "Meet the Company" presentation to all the students, giving them a deep-dive into Microsoft. In my slides, I focused on career growth at Microsoft.
I am passionate about doing all this because I love my school and want more people from my school to have the same opportunities I have been lucky to have. I think working at a company like Microsoft really broadens your horizons and enables you to learn and contribute to high impact products. It's my way of giving back to the school. And after three years of being involved with recruiting, I was really happy to see more people in my school knowing about Microsoft, going through the interview process, and also working at the company.
Recently, a good friend of mine who also works at Microsoft asked if I could come up with a list of advice for new grads, because he was going on a similar recruiting trip to his alma mater.
After much thinking, I came up with this.. Yet another "Top 10 list"
1) Do what you can to make sure you have a good first manager
Your manager plays a very big role in your career development and this is especially important in your first job because he helps set the foundation of your career. Rudy Guiliani, in his book titled "Leadership", talks about leadership style and how our own leadership styles are highly influenced by the first set of leaders we are exposed to. Your first manager will be one of the first leaders in a professional environment that you will be exposed to and there's a high likelihood that you will mimic a few things your manager does well. Therefore, you want to mimic a person who is an absolute rockstar at work.
Also, this breaks down into two things to look for: A) Working for a rockstar manager B) Working for a manager who knows how to groom and grow his/her direct reports.
The first point is important because if you report to a manager who is mediocre, you will not learn as much. However, you could also be reporting to a superstar manager but one who does not know how to teach other people the things he/she does well.
2) Network with people well established in their career
Working is very different from school. Remember how you would talk to 3rd and 4th year students when you just entered university about all matters pertaining to University life, from courses and academics to parties and fraternities? Talking to someone with a few years of work experience is almost the same thing. They've been in situations similar to the ones you'll be in now as a new grad. They can give you good advice. They can share mistakes they made and learned from so you can learn from their experiences.
Networking in general is great for your career, regardless of what type of job you have. It's helpful to know people who can help you with your career moves and career growth.
3) Work really hard
There is no substitute for hard work. However, the reason it is especially important in your first few years is that it helps you build strong work ethics for the rest of your career.
Also, the first few years set the foundation for your career. It's the only time you are at the bottom of the organization so you really get to learn the nuts and bolts of the operations of a company. For example, if you are an engineer you will spend most of your time doing technical work in your first few years. Then as you get more responsibilities, you start doing a lot of non-technical work such as project management, product planning, cross-group collaboration etc.. And then comes a point when you don't do any more technical work (if you choose that career track into management). At that point, the years you spent working as an engineer will help you make decisions especially when you have limited data.
4) Passion is key
If you are passionate about your work, you will automatically work super hard which eventually leads to better results. Also, you'll work more efficiently and effectively. You won't even think twice about staying up late at night to finish up work .
Even if you haven't quite figured your calling, or what your career mission statement is, as long as you are doing something you are enjoying, eventually things will just figure themselves out and you'll find your calling. At least that's what Steve Jobs implied in his Stanford commencement speech and I'll take his word for it. Steve Jobs talked about how you can't "Connect the dots" looking forward, but you can looking backwards. In other words, once you've worked for a few years and always done what you felt passionate about at that instant, you'll be able to look back and figure what your expertise are and based on that you'll get closer to figuring your calling.
5) Work towards finding your calling
One thing I've observed over the past three years is that the most successful people find a niche and become the best in the world at it. (Okay a bit of an exaggeration, I wrote about it in "Breadth vs. Depth"). Some people seem to know from the get-go exactly what they want. But things are very different in industry than in school, and as you are exposed to real-life engineering problems, your interests often begin to change.
For example, in school it may seem interesting to work on network security but when you get to industry you'll realize it's way different in industry than in school.
6) Pick a growing industry/company so you can grow with the industry/company
Given a choice between an industry that is constantly changing and growing, such as Technology, versus more traditional industries (utilities perhaps?, although there's innovations in the utilities industry as well, but at a much slower pace), always pick growth.
Let's say you get into an industry (or company) which just has 1,000 people. As the industry (or company) grows to say 100,000 people in 10 years, you will be the most experienced person and thus one of the leaders of the industry. By that point you will have the skills sought out for executives in the industry.
Compare this to joining an industry which already has 100,000 people and it will only grow to 105,000 in 10 years. In which scenario do you think it's most likely you will become a senior executive? The first one of course.
7) Pursue your passions outside work
You'd think that to be super successful, you should just work 200 hrs /week. Or just spend every awake second doing something work. However, so many executives, CEOs, are part of organizations outside work, or have passions outside work they still pursue. Why is that? I've theorized a few reasons:
i. Firstly, I think it's probably good to keep your mind off work so you don't burn out or become too boring. It also gives you breadth.
ii. Second, some of these activities are great to expand your network. Golfing is considered a networking sport because by being part of country clubs you network with high net worth individuals from very diverse backgrounds.
iii. Thirdly, it's a way to pursue your passion from multiple avenues. E.g. you are passionate about industrial security and you are working as a security engineer pursuing your passion at work, you can also join (e.g.) the Canadian Society for Industrial Security and further impact the field you are passionate about.
8) Build your online presence and brand
This is very new to our generation. I read a fantastic book called "Career Distinction" by William Arruda & Kirsten Dixson which talked about how you should build your career brand such that you never need to look for a job - Jobs will look for you.
If you have a strong online presence, it will be easier for recruiters to find you. I have a LinkedIn account, although I haven't spent enough time updating it to have something I feel good about. But I've gotten approached by various recruiters for job opportunities. I've not pursued any of those opportunities but that would be the subject of another blog.
9) Don't be afraid to ask for help
There's a lot of smart University grads who think they can do it all. And it works out okay in school. You may be in project teams where you do 95% of the work. However, this doesn't scale well in industry. And there's nothing wrong with asking for help.
10) Have fun!!
You may have lofty ambitions and work 100+ hours / week to realize your career goals. And you'll probably get there if you put in the effort, follow your passions, and play it smart. But in the midst of that pursuit, don't forget to have fun. When you look back at what you've accomplished at work, the moments you will remember the most are all the inside office jokes with your colleagues and managers, the team celebrations when successfully completing milestones, and the bonds and friendships you created with your co-workers. Unless you have a 9-5 job (which you won't if you have any grain of ambition) you probably spend more time with your co-workers than with your family. You spend most of your life working. Might as well have fun while you are at it. Good luck!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Twittangle - Great client to manage your tweets
Since a lot of people ask me why I'm on twitter so much and why I tweet so much, I thought I'd start by giving an intro to my twitter usage. I'm a big fan of social networking so when I heard about twitter, I at least wanted to give it a shot.
I started using twitter May of this month even though my account was created a few months before that. At first, I wasn't sure what to use it for. I didn't see the point of using another tool just to give updates on your life, I already use facebook for that. Also, I prefer facebook status updates because they only go to my friends, not the entire world and all interweb crawling tools (And hopefully facebook keeps it that way).
First thing I discovered while messing around with twitter was the news tweets. CNN, Globe And Mail, Reuters, BusinessWeek, et al, the media outlets I most frequent for my news were all there. And I instantly saw the opportunity to improve my personal productivity. Instead of having to go their individual websites and browse for interesting news, they would just tweet it real-time and I'd get to read news right away. It helped me stay on top of news. I was a happy man.
Desktop clients like tweetdeck and seesmic served my needs then well. I had one column for friends, on column for news, one for sports.
I then begun to explore further and saw an opportunity to stay on top of articles/blogs in areas I was interested in, not just the generic CNN, Globe And Mail news, but my specific personal interests such as Technology, Software, Clean Technology, Solar Energy, Canadian news, Entrepreneurship, Investing, and most recently, Smart Grid. I started following people who tweeted about those topics. Wefollow.com is a great way to find some of the top people in each area. I also began retweeting articles I found interesting, and in turn networked with people interested in the same areas I was. To me, this was a way to be the "first to know" about anything new in my areas of interest.
Two to three months later, my followers list and friends list grew beyond my ability to stay on top of tweets like I was able to earlier. And there are people with 1000 times the number of followers and friends I have. My tweetdeck and seesmic desktop clients would keep hitting 700MB in memory usage and eventually crash. This sucked because I'd miss on all the tweets since the last crash. For a while I actually went to just using www.twitter.com. Another pain point was managing my group list across multiple clients and multiple machines (home pc, work laptop, work pc).
This led me to the following realization:
1. I needed to clean up my friend's and follower's list. Having a targeted, closely-knit network would serve me better, in terms of the tweets I would be seeing on my feed.
2. The twitter client I use must be online so my I only need to work on grouping my friends once and I can access my twitter from any machine.
3. I needed a good view of all my different twitter friends groups. I could only create 10 groups using desktop clients such as tweetdeck and seesmic and the online version of seesmic didn't have a good user experience for multiple clients.
4. I wanted to be able to search my list quickly and find people. E.g. I have a question on Solar Panels, I want to be able to quickly find all my twitter friends who have expertise there.
5. I wanted to be able to differentiate how valuable certain twitter friends are to me from others. E.g. within a group of all my twitter friends who tweet about Clean Technology, some have better tweets and/or are more influential in the industry. Also, this is useful for doing #FollowFridays
I then spent 2 weeks just focusing on the above 5 points. I didn't tweet at all for 2 weeks. I tried countless twitter clients. I read many articles. I'm now at a point where I feel like I am done with all the above five and want to share my findings.
1. Cleaning up friend's and follower's list
Quantity isn't as important as quality when it comes to your twitter follower/friends list, especially when it becomes so hard to manage getting tweets from 500+ people. (And there are people following millions of people!). I went to my followers and friends list one by one and decided who I should follow and who I should block.
Also, I'm not a fan of auto following, auto replying, auto DM. In fact, I block people who do. I now spend 1-2 mins deciding whether I want to follow someone who is following me and do not shy from blocking worthless twitter accounts (like obvious internet marketing, or the fake accounts with photos of attractive women)
And for the remaining points I want to share how Twittangle meets my needs
2. Twitter client must be online
This is fairly obvious. Twittangle is online only. http://www.twittangle.com
3. Good view of my twitter friends groups.
It took me quite some time to figure how to group all my twitter contacts. In the end, I came up with this grouping. And as far as I can tell, twittangle has no restrictions; I can view them all at the same time
Also, the UI to scroll horizontally is really snippy. I like it a lot.
4. Searching my friends list
Since all my friends are divided into groups, it's easy for me to say, find all the contacts who tweet about or are from Toronto
5. Differentiating how valuable certain friends are
Twittangle allows you to specify how much you 'like' a twitter friend.
I’m not clear on how to use this though. I asked @twittangle but have not heard back. I’m guessing it’s a future feature.
Twittangle is still in beta but I've had no problems using it. I've filed three bugs on things I've noticed, and here's the feature list I would recommend:
1. Being able to do group conversations with your twitter friends. Kind of like facebook's wall to wall. That would allow you to remember all the tweets you have exchanged with a certain friend
2. Being able to search for friends in multiple groups. Currently I can see all my friends in a certain friends group. I want to be able to do a query which says "Find all my friends in group B and group C that have tweeted about wind energy"
3. Being able to search for key terms within my feed. Example, I want to search for all the tweets containing #mkt from people I am following. Often times you want to find an old tweet because it contained something you want to refer to.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
When lessons learned make sense
A few weeks back I wrote a blog titled "Breadth vs. Depth" talking about the importance of having depth and how it helps you accomplish more.
I've been reading a book called "Predictably Irrational" By Dan Ariely talking about how we make irrational decisions. There's a couple of things he talked about which I could relate to, and other concepts were new to me.
I am normally not an impulsive buyer. I used to be but I came up with a 3 day rule. Basically, if I feel like buying anything over $50, I wait 3 days and if I still feel like buying it, I go ahead and get it. This helps me filter out 99% of impulsive decisions. Interestingly, Dan Ariely talked about a similar concept, called the "ice-glass method". The idea is to put your credit card in a glass of water and put that in the freezer. And whenever you impulsively decide to make a purchase, you must wait for the card to thaw and by then your compulsion to make the purchase dies away.
Secondly, he talked about an experiment with MIT students who were asked to play with a program that had three doors, one red, one blue, and one green. The participants could enter any of the rooms by clicking on the door and when in the room, each subsequent click would earn them a certain amount of money. However, moving from one room to another required a click and there were a total of 100 clicks. Furthermore, one of the doors would permanently close if not used for 12 clicks. In the end, Dan observed that most students tried to keep each door open, even though they were better of staying in one room and clicking as fast as they could. The parallel of this to life is how we like to keep our options open instead of just picking one option, staying with it, and accomplishing something. It was a good reconfirmation for me after having written my "Breadth vs. Depth" blog.
It also got me thinking about theory vs. practice. There are some things you learn from experience and they tend to stick with you for longer. Even though a lot of times you realize it took you months to learn something so simple like "Don’t make assumptions", the general sayings foolhardies repeat without really knowing what it means.
I want to get an MBA eventually. When I think about it, I begin to appreciate why it's recommended to wait a few years, get some solid life experiences and then do your MBA. Just like reading Dan Ariely's book made more sense after I had already had already learned some of the lessons in the book, and the remaining concepts that were new to me made much more sense, an MBA is similar. Also, if the book has 10 lessons and I am able to relate to 2 of them, the remaining 8 lessons will make much more sense. Similarly, an MBA will make more sense when I have accumulated enough interesting life experiences.
I've been reading a book called "Predictably Irrational" By Dan Ariely talking about how we make irrational decisions. There's a couple of things he talked about which I could relate to, and other concepts were new to me.
I am normally not an impulsive buyer. I used to be but I came up with a 3 day rule. Basically, if I feel like buying anything over $50, I wait 3 days and if I still feel like buying it, I go ahead and get it. This helps me filter out 99% of impulsive decisions. Interestingly, Dan Ariely talked about a similar concept, called the "ice-glass method". The idea is to put your credit card in a glass of water and put that in the freezer. And whenever you impulsively decide to make a purchase, you must wait for the card to thaw and by then your compulsion to make the purchase dies away.
Secondly, he talked about an experiment with MIT students who were asked to play with a program that had three doors, one red, one blue, and one green. The participants could enter any of the rooms by clicking on the door and when in the room, each subsequent click would earn them a certain amount of money. However, moving from one room to another required a click and there were a total of 100 clicks. Furthermore, one of the doors would permanently close if not used for 12 clicks. In the end, Dan observed that most students tried to keep each door open, even though they were better of staying in one room and clicking as fast as they could. The parallel of this to life is how we like to keep our options open instead of just picking one option, staying with it, and accomplishing something. It was a good reconfirmation for me after having written my "Breadth vs. Depth" blog.
It also got me thinking about theory vs. practice. There are some things you learn from experience and they tend to stick with you for longer. Even though a lot of times you realize it took you months to learn something so simple like "Don’t make assumptions", the general sayings foolhardies repeat without really knowing what it means.
I want to get an MBA eventually. When I think about it, I begin to appreciate why it's recommended to wait a few years, get some solid life experiences and then do your MBA. Just like reading Dan Ariely's book made more sense after I had already had already learned some of the lessons in the book, and the remaining concepts that were new to me made much more sense, an MBA is similar. Also, if the book has 10 lessons and I am able to relate to 2 of them, the remaining 8 lessons will make much more sense. Similarly, an MBA will make more sense when I have accumulated enough interesting life experiences.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Breadth vs. Depth
I’ve been a breadth person for most of my life because my philosophy has always been to keep my options open. I am now learning to be a depth person.
In University I switched from Computer Engineering to Electrical Engineering just because I wanted my options open. Electrical Engineering would have allowed me to do either as I already had many programming courses and projects, even though I liked computer engineering more and that's where I ended up after school.
I started working at Microsoft 3 years ago when I was 21 and I have jumped technology areas 3 times in 3 years, not counting the smaller projects I’ve taken up on the side. During my first 2 years, I wanted to get into consulting. I’d get bored too quickly. 6-8 months of doing the same thing and I’d be itching to try something new, and I thought consulting was the answer. I’ve now realized it generally takes doing the same thing for much longer to accomplish something meaningful.
Observing and talking with many professionals at various stages in their careers, from Vice Presidents to entry level professionals, I’ve recently started to realize the importance of having depth. The importance of just picking a technology, industry, business, whatever, and just beating the shit out of it. Going at it for years and years and becoming the best in the world at it. Even successful serial entrepreneurs spend years in each of their businesses before cashing in and trying something else.
One of the areas I’ve put this into practice in the past year is in activities outside work. 2-3 years ago I was all over the place. I remember there would be weeks in which I’d work 70 hours, go to acting class once a week, boxing class 3 times a week, guitar lessons once a week, going out with friends 2-4 nights a week and golfing (I’m not used to sleeping much, thanks to the University of Toronto. And I mean that in a good way). Such a lifestyle meant I didn’t accomplish much in each of the areas. I never acted in small theatre, I never had an amateur boxing match, I never played at golf tournaments.
A year ago, I decided to cut my plethora of activities and just focus on guitar. I began to realize how much more passionate I was about guitar compared to everything else I was doing. And that decision paid off. I started playing guitar 10-20 hours a week. Sometimes I start at 10pm after I am done with work and keep playing till 3-4AM (I have headphones connected to my amplifier which is why I still have neighbours). My guitar skill level began to improve exponentially. In May, I performed live in a band at the Experience Music Project museum for a small audience of about 50 people. Within guitar-playing, I am passionate about lead guitar work. I was only doing simple lead guitar work for a couple of songs at EMP. Since then, my skill level has gone up even further. In November, I will be playing at a bar in Woodinville WA (Details still to be confirmed), and I will be the lead guitarist in all the songs and will be doing some Metallica solos.
So the point I am trying to make is that with the same amount of effort and energy, I’d get nowhere in 5 endeavors, or somewhere in one endeavor. And I’m now trying to figure how to apply this to my professional life.
However, for depth, you need passion. You need passion that will get you going late in the night on the most minute details, for YEARS. I’ve done that for months because I am a passionate person, but I find it hard to continue to work on the same technology for years. And I’ve realized I just haven’t found something I can work on for years and years without getting bored. I’m working to change that in the upcoming 6 months and hopefully will be blogging about it then.
Case in point, Bill Gates. He found that thing he could work on for years and years, at a very early age: operating systems. I also think the earlier you find that passion, the more likely you are to succeed. And by succeed, I mean financial and personal success.
Breadth on the other hand is good to have to augment your depth. Most successful executives and managers I see at Microsoft picked an area they were passionate about, beat the shit out of it by spending long hours for years and years which is what got them promoted to senior levels, and at the same time kept some level of breadth to know what’s going on in other areas. Anytime you talk to them about any industry, they will know at least something about it. An advice my former manager gave me was that anytime you read anything, think about how it affects what you are working on. So even if you are in technology, and reading about the stock market or business, (or even Us weekly :) ), think about how it affects you.
People with much more breadth than depth have very interesting experiences. For example, I’ve seen people who have done very unorthodox career switches. Some have been in the army for 10+ years before starting as entry level engineers at Microsoft. Such experiences mean they have so many stories to share, so many interesting life experiences to talk about. And they grow fast, but in most cases, a person who spends 20 years in industry will be at a level higher in his/her career than an identical person who spends 10 years in the army and 10 years in industry. At least in my observations.
In the end it comes down to what you want. An interesting life with many different experiences, finding and fulfilling smaller passions, or a much more accomplished life where you find your one big passion… and beat the shit out of it.
In University I switched from Computer Engineering to Electrical Engineering just because I wanted my options open. Electrical Engineering would have allowed me to do either as I already had many programming courses and projects, even though I liked computer engineering more and that's where I ended up after school.
I started working at Microsoft 3 years ago when I was 21 and I have jumped technology areas 3 times in 3 years, not counting the smaller projects I’ve taken up on the side. During my first 2 years, I wanted to get into consulting. I’d get bored too quickly. 6-8 months of doing the same thing and I’d be itching to try something new, and I thought consulting was the answer. I’ve now realized it generally takes doing the same thing for much longer to accomplish something meaningful.
Observing and talking with many professionals at various stages in their careers, from Vice Presidents to entry level professionals, I’ve recently started to realize the importance of having depth. The importance of just picking a technology, industry, business, whatever, and just beating the shit out of it. Going at it for years and years and becoming the best in the world at it. Even successful serial entrepreneurs spend years in each of their businesses before cashing in and trying something else.
One of the areas I’ve put this into practice in the past year is in activities outside work. 2-3 years ago I was all over the place. I remember there would be weeks in which I’d work 70 hours, go to acting class once a week, boxing class 3 times a week, guitar lessons once a week, going out with friends 2-4 nights a week and golfing (I’m not used to sleeping much, thanks to the University of Toronto. And I mean that in a good way). Such a lifestyle meant I didn’t accomplish much in each of the areas. I never acted in small theatre, I never had an amateur boxing match, I never played at golf tournaments.
A year ago, I decided to cut my plethora of activities and just focus on guitar. I began to realize how much more passionate I was about guitar compared to everything else I was doing. And that decision paid off. I started playing guitar 10-20 hours a week. Sometimes I start at 10pm after I am done with work and keep playing till 3-4AM (I have headphones connected to my amplifier which is why I still have neighbours). My guitar skill level began to improve exponentially. In May, I performed live in a band at the Experience Music Project museum for a small audience of about 50 people. Within guitar-playing, I am passionate about lead guitar work. I was only doing simple lead guitar work for a couple of songs at EMP. Since then, my skill level has gone up even further. In November, I will be playing at a bar in Woodinville WA (Details still to be confirmed), and I will be the lead guitarist in all the songs and will be doing some Metallica solos.
So the point I am trying to make is that with the same amount of effort and energy, I’d get nowhere in 5 endeavors, or somewhere in one endeavor. And I’m now trying to figure how to apply this to my professional life.
However, for depth, you need passion. You need passion that will get you going late in the night on the most minute details, for YEARS. I’ve done that for months because I am a passionate person, but I find it hard to continue to work on the same technology for years. And I’ve realized I just haven’t found something I can work on for years and years without getting bored. I’m working to change that in the upcoming 6 months and hopefully will be blogging about it then.
Case in point, Bill Gates. He found that thing he could work on for years and years, at a very early age: operating systems. I also think the earlier you find that passion, the more likely you are to succeed. And by succeed, I mean financial and personal success.
Breadth on the other hand is good to have to augment your depth. Most successful executives and managers I see at Microsoft picked an area they were passionate about, beat the shit out of it by spending long hours for years and years which is what got them promoted to senior levels, and at the same time kept some level of breadth to know what’s going on in other areas. Anytime you talk to them about any industry, they will know at least something about it. An advice my former manager gave me was that anytime you read anything, think about how it affects what you are working on. So even if you are in technology, and reading about the stock market or business, (or even Us weekly :) ), think about how it affects you.
People with much more breadth than depth have very interesting experiences. For example, I’ve seen people who have done very unorthodox career switches. Some have been in the army for 10+ years before starting as entry level engineers at Microsoft. Such experiences mean they have so many stories to share, so many interesting life experiences to talk about. And they grow fast, but in most cases, a person who spends 20 years in industry will be at a level higher in his/her career than an identical person who spends 10 years in the army and 10 years in industry. At least in my observations.
In the end it comes down to what you want. An interesting life with many different experiences, finding and fulfilling smaller passions, or a much more accomplished life where you find your one big passion… and beat the shit out of it.
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