Career Walking Deck

Happy Summer, yes stay cool. We spend some time with friends and family on our backyard deck and have fun. Do you know that it is something called ‘Career Walking Deck’? It is an untold expectation. A year back, even this was new to me. I just want to familiarize you and especially friends who are on the job hunt.

What is Career Walking Deck?

It is a visual representation of your answer to the well-known question ‘Tell me about yourself' in job interviews. It is an elevated, brief pitch about you. In this short speech, you present about

• Professional experiences / Projects
• Career progression / Goals & aspiration
• Roles you performed
• Personal Life/Values
• How do you fit in your current new job (being interviewed)
• What is your plan for the first 30-60-90 days?

Why is it important?

It helps to ‘Break the Ice’: Career walking deck is good for Intro meetings. Just share a screen and introduce yourself. It is a great way to start a meeting.

Prepped Well: Going to an interview with the Walking deck, shows how well you have prepared after thinking through the JD and how well you fit in and know well where you want to go.

Stand Out: Walking Deck will help you to stand out in the interview. The visual representation of it makes a good impression with the evaluators.

What is the purpose of a walking deck?

The Walking Deck is a brief presentation used to provide an overview of you.

It outlines a conversation or mini speech designed to

• persuade and gain attention and support from others
• elicit feedback
• get helpful constructive criticism.

The below slide was prepared for my Job Interview at Microsoft, a year back. 

The narration is below:

I am Sucharithaa Gunachandran, known as Suchi

One of the very few in Cognizant on their silver jubilee year.

Successful Global Business Operation Executive with over 24+ years of IT experience and in Operations for the past 15+ yrs Leading the Cognizant Digital Business - Artificial Intelligence and Analytics practice by process improvements and resourcing for the past 8+ yrs

Aligning business objectives with Employees and Management - Driving growth

As a part of the high-performance team, we all share a Common Goal - To maximize Revenue and Profitability for the company.

Handling high-stress, dynamic environment. Our team, including me, is Very Open, transparent, Future-focused, and Able to deliver Success

I am a ‘Go to Person’ for any Resource escalation or 1 stop shop. As I am a problem solver, exhaust all the options available to solve problems - which has created a ‘brand’ for me in Cognizant.

Being in a consulting company, Associates are Revenue to us, hence we call them ‘Resources’ Working with the HM and the Associate, who is waiting for an assignment, I become the bridge bonding these 2.

Also, I am the gatekeeper to let people leave the practice /company. If there is potential, I am keen on tapping and getting the Dollar in - I mean revenue recognized. At the same time in the case, it is a wrong hire or a person with a bad attitude, we need to churn them out.

I do have a magic wand to clone associates – Not Kidding, yes work on multiple Alternate supply channels – Hire & Train / Train & hire / Campus hiring / Cross/Up Skilling yield 50 to 75 Jr level associates every quarter.

You must be thinking about why/how I moved to this field of ‘Business Program and Operations. Due to Personal reasons moved from Software Development to the Operation Role. I had my second baby and was forced to work from home and got an opportunity to switch. I am thankful, that I did.

I am an asset to the BU I am working with because I am consistent in achieving the target set. I am Say, Doer - say what I do and, I do what I say always.

If you need to get the thing done, on time, on budget - you are speaking to the right person.

What differentiates me from the others - I am a person of execution, dependable, and a high achiever. My motto is always to out beat the past records.

To add to it, working remotely for the past 15+ yrs and NOT just due to COVID. I have been promoted every 2 or 3 yrs and also my Salary was matched with the market couple of times - that shows my grit.

Finally, you will be glad and get to work not only with a joyful warrior but also with a dogged worker.

I am truly excited about this opportunity – cannot wait to learn, work and grow with you, your team, and the organization.

                                                                Thank You 

OKR – Objective

We saw that OKR Objective Key Results are a great way to set a company’s goals and track or monitor a company or team’s progress.  OKR - Specific, strategic systemized tool. It was pioneered by Andy Grove at Intel. Then it was taken by John Doerr to Google and then it spread across all the companies knowing its potential

 Using OKR helps us to

• Be creative and focused.
• Work together
• Enjoy process 

There are 3 layers in OKR – Mission / Objective / Key Results - which answer to Why / What / How.  We already covered an overview of OKR in my prior blog. Today I will focus on the Objective which is the smart layer. Objectives or goals are like the ‘North Star’ – you need to identify and stay focused on this.

 Before writing the OKR, you need a good understanding of what you want to accomplish. First focus on your objective.

 Ask these questions

• What are our current challenges ahead / how do we solve them?
• What is stopping us / how do we overcome it?
• What should we change to have the results that we want?
• What can we achieve in this month/quarter? 

It needs to

• Help achieve company goals.
• Inspiring
• Move the company forward
• It is time-bound. 

Objective – as said earlier it is your answer to your ‘What’, what deliverable/impact/outcomes we have for our business. It should be ambitious and give everyone in the company - the required direction.

It needs to be measurable, it should be ‘top focus’ too.

The words used in the Objective should be Specific /concrete - No fluffy/hazy bunch of words. Yes, it is either Black/white and not grey.  This helps to emphasize solidly what outcome we are delivering.  First, write down the objective as descriptive as possible. Once you are clear then break that down into short inspirational bullet points.

 

1. Objectives should be inspirational and easy to remember – if the objective is not known and not easy to remember, it will hardly be implemented.  When writing the bullet points start with the action word Verb – Increase /create / improve / maximize /build / grow /leverage. It is human psychology to aspire for growth, hence frame the objective in Positive language/tone

Ex. Enables all teammates to achieve their fullest potential

     Maximize our ability to grow by optimizing utilization.

 

2. Objectives should be qualitative - It should be of high quality and excellence. There should not be any numbers. If numbers appear, then it is no longer an objective, it becomes a key result.  Numbers can appear, provided it is inspirational

Ex. Become a #1 company in NJ.

The Customer Experience team operates at its best

 

3. Objectives are achievable in a timeframe.

As said it should have the action word and be time-bound.

Ex. Improve efficiency with a data-driven approach by Quarter 1

Grow by improving our win rate by the end of Q2

 

4. Objectives should provide business value

The objective should focus on

· problem resolution

· areas to improve

· take new opportunities.

It should bring positive business value.

Ex. Learning is our passion and priority

Be the architects of our future

 Objectives

• Should not be easy
• Should not be project/task / sub-task.
• They are not your business, as usual, BAU targets.

We just saw the importance of the Objective, for the OKR. 

The next blog will focus on Key Results.

 Hope this was useful. Thank you. 

 

OKR - Objective and Key Result

Intel, Google, Amazon, Uber, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Microsoft, what is one thing that all these companies did? They were and are successful companies. They all used OKRs. Objective and Key Results 

Today I will touch upon the overview of OKR. 

OKR - Specific, strategic systemized tool, to help you accomplish and execute company goals.  This system was pioneered by Andy Grove at Intel. Then it was taken by John Doerr to Google and then it spread across all the Tech Companies in the Silicon Valley and all other companies knowing its potential.  

This is an incredibly powerful tool.  As John Doerr says, ideas are easy, and execution is everything.

Studies conducted by MIT Sloan of business Review state that less than 50% of each layer in the company are aware of the company priorities and take good decisions to focus and spend their time and energy. So, when it comes down to the Team player who executes these strategic priorities, only 13% are aware of what they are working on and how it creates an impact.

In the good old days, we had 3 simple questions

 

1.    Where are we

2.    Where do we want to go?

3.    How will we get there?

But in today’s unpredictable world these old questions are no good. These questions have changed in today's volatile world to

 

1.    Why are we here

2.    What do we want to achieve?

3.    How do we do our business

To build a strategy for a company we simply answer 3 questions - Why /what / How. 

'Why' is generally referred to as the mission statement of our company. Which form the basis /foundation for the other 2 - what and how.

In simple terms, the OKR answers these 2 questions - What and How

‘What’ is O - the Objective - Ambitious, altruistic (beneficent), Audacious.

‘How’ is KR - the Key Results- Dauntless steps /activities taken to achieve the objective.

Everyone in the Org must be able to decide and act independently but still be clearly aligned to the ‘What’.

I am going to walk you through the 7 steps to follow so that you can learn the process and try to implement it on your personal front to start with. When implemented in a company it ensures to execute the company strategy and drive growth.

Know your ‘Why’ - Goals. You should be 100% committed to the goal. Whatever you do you cannot be half-in

After knowing your ‘why’ - Your OKR starts now.

Objective - Now is the time to know your ‘What’. That is your objective can be 2 if needed Primary and Secondary. They should NOT be tied to your Compensation & Benefits.  They should be stretchable at the same time not easily achievable.  Not a Slam dunk.  At the same time not an impossible one too.

2)   Setup Key Results: They need to be specific and measurable too.  When you look at your key results, you should feel the pit in your stomach – feel ‘Oh man how am I /my team going to do that’. This is possible and we need to rethink a little.  That is a good one – which forces you to think more, bigger.

 

3)   Identify Responsible Person - Every key result should have a Person responsible - call it a single throat to choke. Yes, we are in real business.   They take ownership end to end. Period.

 

4)   Team level OKR - Responsible person along with their team come up with their OKRs. Steps 1 to 3 are repeated so they can operate. They are responsible for the Project plan with short- and long-term planning - Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly planning.

 

5)   Resources/Alignment/Buy-In - Once you have team-level OKR, check whether you have all the required resources available to perform. Ensure the team understands the OKR and it is doable. Socialize it in the team and get the buy-in from the team.

 

6)   Gut Check – The person responsible do the gut check to see whether it is achievable with the bandwidth provided and not over committing. Take a call – Are we doing too many things / are we doing the right thing? Larry Page - ‘I would rather have the objective to go to Mars and if we fall short, we will to the moon’.

 

7)   Progress Check - Have a weekly status meeting for all the OKR at various levels. Have RAG report - Red/Amber/Green. Check if everything is OK, and if not what measure to course correct to achieve the objectives. If needed also have a daily check-in by the team too.

 

In the process of reading this ‘Measure What Matters’ by John Doerr. Will deep dive into this process in my upcoming blogs. Also, will share how I apply this OKR process for my core priorities at work and share with you all.

 

My Journey in Toastmasters

Roughly 7 years back, my daughter Sree was in Elementary school. She loves both her dad and me. She will be happier to take her dad, than me for any school activities or birthday parties. My hubby is an extrovert, can get into a conversation very easily, and get into a comradeship quickly. Although I studied English from my kindergarten to my Master's degree, I was not comfortable talking to anyone or a stranger. In fact, the job I did virtually, did not help in improving my public speaking skills or just a regular speaking skill. While working from home, we communicate only over email and some phone calls. In fact, I had better command in virtual calls/meetings, than in person. The butterflies in our tummy, come in more when we are in person. 😊 

 

In order to overcome this and also to climb up the corporate ladder, I made up my mind to improve my public speaking skill. Also, I did not want to let my daughter down in front of her friends.

 

Heard about Toastmaster in 2005, but I walked in as a guest on October 9th, 2017. I am very frugal when I spend money. I know the subscription is only 50$ for 6 months, but I wanted to convince myself, whether I will be regular to the meetings, every Monday evening or not. So, I was a guest for more than 4 months. When I knew, I can be committed to this initiative, I immediately became a member. I joined Toastmasters International in 2018 February.

 

My first mentor was Hiro Takata, he guided me from the icebreaker speech. We used to have offline discussions over the phone. He encouraged me a lot… All the members were and are very supportive and helped in pulling us up… 

 

As there is a quote - Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.

 

I will call out the names, no particular order or preference

 

Margie Jones,Barbara Snyderman, Dan Stahl, Miki Baker, Anand , Barb Johns , Beth, Jo Stante, Matt Goldberg , Rhonda Young , Rich Kouhoupt , Mohanan, Lorie Arnotte, Krystalyn Jones. Members from other chapters like Herb, Stanford. 

 

Whether they role-played with me in mock interviews or as an evaluator, grammarian, timer gave constructive feedback for me to improve and polish my speaking skills. 

 

After being in a company for 24 years, getting into a job hunt was very intimidating. Due to  

the pandemic, all sessions last year were virtual, I took the best advantage of them. In our pathways where we can select our Electives, managed to get the maximum number of Mock Interviews and tried them with the help of our fellow TM. Happy got into Microsoft at the maiden attempt. I had the official/technical skill through the years of experience, but TM empowered me to speak, present and showcase the skill I possess. 

 

Rhonda, who celebrates her birthday with my mother, is special to me always. She not only helped me in my resume writing but we discuss and bounce back thought to improve myself in my career too. I still remember when I was down in 2021, she encouraged me ‘Hang in there, until you make a change’. Recently saw a video on LinkedIn with the same caption - you can search it up on Youtube “wild dogs hunt antelopes at the edge of a cliff “- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvLFVmn5P6I. Thanks Rhonda. 

 

Barbara- Although I delivered so many speeches after researching a lot, I did not log them in our pathways. I am tech-savvy but did not think it was important. We had more than 3+ calls to sync up all my updates in our Pathways. She is very diligent and pushing not only me but everyone to participate, learn and grow. Thanks, Barbara. 

 

Also being in Toastmaster, hard-pressed me to become a blogger. As I delivered various topics on Organization behavior / Operation, some of the members were interested in a copy of the speech I delivered. Hence, I always blog all my speeches - https://suchiguna.blogspot.com/ . In fact, I do go refer to them as and when needed too. 

 

I like to quote a couple of thoughts 

 

Mistakes are proof that you are trying

 

Replace excuses with effort 

Replace laziness with determination 

And everything else will fall into place

 

All these years toastmaster did not only help in my public speaking skill but also helped me to build a friendship. When we do not mingle, people think we are stuck up, they do not think we are hesitating to talk. Being a TM member not only transformed me but also changed my family and friend’s perspective about me. 

 

I started with my daughter in beginning, let me end by telling a recent incident. We had to drive for my daughter’s flute audition… It was for more than an hour, so we decided to carpool with my daughter’s close friend. The entire drive both the ways, up and down, I was talking with my daughter’s friend's mom. We touched on various topics - high school studies, Families / extended families, Books that we are reading, Cooking, vacations, and many more. My daughter was so surprised and happy, although she was not selected in the audition, she told me ‘Amma you were talking like a perfect local US mom’.  👍

 

Being in TM, is like another family, I am really glad to be a part of this group, learn serve and grow with you all. 

 

Let me end with again another quote - It doesn’t matter when or where we start. All that matters is that we start.

 

Good Luck! 

 

Résumé Writing

 Today will share some tips for sharpening your résumé writing skills.

 What is Résumé?

The résumé is the first point of selling yourself. Your résumé speaks for you when applying for a job. You make the cut or not in just 8 to10 seconds, in the hands of the recruiter/hiring manager. Yes, hence it is very important to have a top-notch résumé. Before you prep for the interview, invest your time in résumé writing. 

 Who is the best person to write your résumé? 

You can hire someone to write for you, but it has to come out of you passionately, which will help you to speak up in the interview, with the same confidence about your competency. Agree?  

 I am ever grateful to my Toastmasters friend Rhonda Young for helping me with my résumé preparation when I started my job search. She gave useful tips, which were needed before I could even explore online.  

I will break up my tips into 4 Sections.

1. Growth
2. Presentation
3. Do’s
4. Don’ts 

Growth

1. When writing in your job experience section, ensure to reflect your growth.
2. Write your experience in reverse chronological order.
3. Use the universal language "Money" when talking about your growth. Eg. Started to handle a 3 million$ project and moved to handle 12 million$ at the end of 4 years.
4. In case you are unable to quantify with dollars, check if you can fit in project size with the onsite /offshore team size or the number of hours if needed.
5. Just ensure your current job experience is elaborated effectively to attract the hiring manager. No one is concerned about your expertise 5 or 7 years back. If you lost touch with a skillset for more than 2 years, however expert you might have been, you will be good with your current skill only. Moreover, the skill which you were proud of in the past, would have released 2 or 3 more versions, with the best features, of which you are unaware of, or it could be obsolete now too. 

Presentation

1. There are zillion templates available for free and at a cost on the internet. I prefer and was recommended to use PowerPoint for writing your résumé, which helps in better formatting and can easily be published to a PDF.
2. Pick effective, strong words (Action verbs) to emphasize your learnings and contributions. Go through various Job Descriptions to get the clues – showcase your skills. Eg. Boosted, Developed, Enhanced, Lead, Accomplished 
3. Also write about your education, certification, awards, and affiliations.
4. Include all the languages you know with level (Basic/Intermediate/Advanced - Speak/Read/Write). With the more remote working, companies are spanning across the globe.
5. Hobbies - Optional and References can be provided, as needed. Before you include the references in your résumé, get their concurrence. Most of the background verification will also check with your references. 
6. Polish it for grammar, formatting, and spell checks.

Do’s 

1. You need to add your picture, with the professional dress - prefer a colored one. 
2. Ensure your current designation, contact #, LinkedIn link, in case you are in a foreign land your immigration status is included. 
3. Highlight your area of expertise  
4. Have a short and crisp objective.
5. In the end, if you have a LinkedIn profile, it should match with the résumé you are applying with

Don’ts

1. When a CEO of a big company can write his/her résumé in a 1 pager why not us? The résumé should not be more than TWO pages. How many ever years of experience you might have.
2. Recommend not to have more than 6 sections for your experience. This holds good, for any number of years of experience or number of companies you might have worked for.
3. If you are applying for a Manager position or above - do not have task-related details in your current job section. All should be result-oriented. For eg. Boosted the growth by resolving resourcing issues, with additional alternate supply models by adding 150+ Jr associates per annum. 

Having a perfectly honed and well-written résumé is like having a superpower during a job search. It is often the little tips, that are more important in life. Hope it was useful. 

                                               Good Luck!    

 

Bench Report

The one skill that I always vouch for is process improvement in the field of IT operations. When working for my previous employer made several process improvements, which are still continued as a ritual. All the process improvements or best practices were implemented after a complete brainstorming with the people on the ground and then details shared with the leadership for their approval.

 If you are in IT industry and especially in a service-based company you can understand this better and appreciate it. For any Service based or consulting firm, every associate is a revenue. Need to convert every hour of our associates to Dollar value; this will help to meet our top and bottom line – aka Revenue and Profit margin. 

Planning to share one of the process improvements - Evolution of the Bench report.

In the IT sector, whenever there is demand or a new requirement open, PM checks for the internal pool/bench and then only takes the lateral hiring route or goes to market.

What is Bench / Redeployment Pool? The bench or bench period is the time between the assignments. The bench policy varies from company to company. 

There are 2 types of Benches –

1 For the Practice (as the skills are niche / specialized for the practice -

AWS / Azure / GCP / MSBI / Informatica /Python) - PDP (Practice Deployable Pool).

 

2 Corporate (common skillsets - PM, BSA, Testers, Java )  CDP (Corporate Deployable Pool)

 

As a combo, the team gets deployed for the client, and once the assignment/project is done they return to their respective benches. Based on the skillsets acquired over time, the associates move across the benches. For us Ops, billing is a priority at the same time fulfill the associate’s aspiration too.

 As Ops for the Practice had developed the Bench report - which is divided into 7 sections. 

 1. PDP - Practice Deployable Pool. This section will have the details of the associate who is currently on the bench and also the associate who is released from the project with the future effective date. As per policy the releasing account should give a minimum of 2 weeks’ notice. Hence to have optimal utilization the respective PM, will release the associate when they are billable with future effective date. Else PM will carry the associate in their account when they are non-billable to serve the 2 weeks’ notice. Yes, discipline counts for this…. NO Exceptions. Pre-COVID also included Travel Ready TR associates, available for deployment. TR associates have been included both the ways, offshore to onsite and onsite to offshore.

 For every section Associate details are published like - Emp ID, Name, Designation, Contact #, Skillsets, Release/d date, Available from. Pre-Covid had the location of the associate and whether the associate was flexible on the location too. Post-Covid as most of the demands are virtual, can ignore it for now. 

Also in case, no demands are matching the skillset,  will release the associate to the Corporate deployable pool. 

2. To overcome the resourcing challenges - have been hiring more than 150 associates every year through various alternate supply channels. 

Hire & Train / Train & Hire / Campus hire / Up or cross skilled -all these associates were available with a cost holiday. Most of the major clients acknowledge these hiring strategies and supported us. As this is an ongoing effort, do publish the availability calendar with the PMs. Once the cohort is identified,  do publish the associate level details - they will be deployed on completion of their training.

 3. This section is for associates who go on FMLA (Short term Disability) / Visa issues / Leave of absence with their tentative return dates. So, the managers can map them to upcoming opportunities. 

 4. Also publish associates whose assignments are ending in the next 5 weeks. Irrespective of their assignment is marked complete or not. This will help the respective PM to work on the contract and have them extended in the system as needed, to have these associate's assignments extended too. In case there is a delay in extensions of the contract, PM needs to work on the associate releases.

 5. In this critical section, list all the associates with discrepancies. Like their billability is nil, (NBL) or missing assignments - unassigned or under-assigned (< 100 % allocation). This helps to reconcile and fix the gaps. Extreme cases can be released and considered for other billable opportunities.

 6. The following section will include associates who are proactively hired or to be hired based on their skillsets. So, the managers can map them to upcoming opportunities. This includes primarily full-time hires and sometimes Subcons or Contractors too. This section is a luxury to have, based on the budget available, need to plan. Also, this has to be meticulously calculated and the hiring process initiated with the Talent acquisition team.

7.  The last section is where we treat our Subcons also like our employees - include CWR Released / To be Released as well, so we can redeploy them.

Also, there are various applications/systems,  teams working on each activity and the Resource / Workforce manager is responsible for collating these details and compiling this BR.

The one feature that I am proud of is having an adjustment that was totally under our Ops control. As per the norm, need to carry only 1% to 1.5% of the practice headcount in PDP at any point in time.  Based on the number of associates in PDP switched the PDP associates’ availability from soft-lock mode to FCFS basis mode. When the volume is high, go with FCFS mode. When it is low or BAU (Business as usual)  go with soft lock mode. This feature was not a corporate standard, but we in the practice implemented it as needed.  When executing this switch both the PMs and the associates are aware and they play it accordingly. In the end,  need to place our associates in a billable role ASAP. Both the associate is happy, PM /client is happy. It is a Win-Win for all, yes it is copacetic.

With this BR - any PM who is having a burning demand can map the available associate with less hassle. Else work with the recruiter for lateral profiles FTE/CWR from the market. This report is considered as one of the sources of truth – a one-stop-shop, which helped to improve the utilization by 6%. Also ensured that all stakeholders involved in Resourcing, Project management, including the leadership get a copy of this Bench report. Earlier published all working days, but as the sections started increasing, it was published twice every week.  

 Lessons learned. Given an opportunity to implement this best practice, I am well equipped.

Success 🏆

 

Who in the world, will not like to succeed?  Every living being on this earth wants to excel.  

 Success is defined by every individual. For some getting good grades, some putting food on the table, some reducing weight, some running a marathon, some getting a dream job… the list is infinite.

 1.     Success is not given, it is yearned - you work towards it.

2.     How do you work? Work hard in Silence and let Success be the Noise

3.     Not only in meal, do we order Combo, but we need combo for Success too… Patience, persistence, Perspiration, passion make an unbeatable combo for Success.

4.     The key to success is to focus on the Goal and not on the obstacle.

5.     There is a strategy too - if you focus on Success, you will be Stressed. The shortcut is, just to pursue excellence, success is guaranteed.

6.     Success is what happens after you have survived all of your rejections/disappointments/risks/failures.

7.     Failure is NOT the opposite of success; it is a part of success.  

8.     Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit the rock bottom.

9.     We are all human, and I like this the best, let me end this, saying ‘The best revenge is “Massive Success”’ 

                                                                Good Luck 👍