Career - Senior Design (Computer Science)
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Kunal Johar discusses career choices post-undergrad, emphasizing the importance of experience, societal perceptions, and the challenges of starting and maintaining a career. He reflects on his own journey in the tech industry, highlighting the need for adaptability, continuous learning, and understanding workplace dynamics. The document ultimately encourages taking control of one's career while being aware of the various perceptions and expectations from oneself and others.
Career - Senior Design (Computer Science)
- 1. CAREER CS4244: SENIOR DESIGN INSTRUCTOR: KUNAL JOHAR
- 3. CHOICES POST UNDERGRAD… Enter Society •Work •Community Service Delay the Inevitable •Grad School •“Take a Year off and decide”
- 4. GRAD SCHOOL Why now? • You will not want to go back to school once you start an income • It will be easy* Why not now? • Specialized knowledge won’t help you solve problems you didn’t know existed *Easy compared to enrolling later!
- 5. COMMUNITY SERVICE Domestic Opportunities •Teach for America •Americorps International Opportunities •Peace Corps •Teach English Abroad http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/socialcommitment/postgradopps/browse
- 6. SCHOOL VS SOCIETY School •Educated Technical People •Non-technical people are also competent •Friends and Professors Want to See you succeed Society •Thoughts?
- 7. “HOW DO YOU COPY AND PASTE?” SOCIETY IS DUMB
- 8. “CAN’T YOU JUST…” “IT WOULD BE EASIER IF YOU JUST DID IT ” LMGTFY… SOCIETY IS LAZY
- 9. “ACTORS” IN SOCIETY USE CASE How do these compare to friends/professors? •Boss •Coworkers •Counter Parties
- 10. STRUCTURE IN SCHOOL GPA • Homework: 50% • Attendance 10% • Exams / Papers: 40% • B/B+ = Do Homework + Come to Class • A = Study Hard • Know ½ way if you are doing badly and work with the professor to aim for that B
- 11. UNSTRUCTURED SCHOOL What if… •School gave no structure •You built your own curriculum •You graded yourself Where would you begin? How far would you push yourself?
- 12. STRUCTURED CAREER I worked at the Government •Automatic Guaranteed Promotions each year for 3 years •Good Pay •Friendly Environment • (I was not a threat to others)
- 13. DO YOU WANT A STRUCTURED CAREER? I thought I did •Work for a few years •Maybe get an MBA •Have work pay for the MBA maybe?
- 14. THIS WAS THE ORIGINAL TITLE OF MY TALK dCareer OPTIMIZING dTime YOUR CAREER
- 15. “I AM SO MUCH LUCKIER THAN MY PARENTS, I’LL NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT MONEY” DOW: 6547.05 MARCH 9, 2009
- 16. STRUCTURE DIDN’T EXIST Promises Gone •Tuition reimbursement suspended •Multi-year pay freezes •Full Categories of Jobs Eliminated
- 17. WHY WOULD A SMART PERSON EVER WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT AGAIN? SEQUESTER ENACTED MARCH 7, 2013
- 18. MARCH 16, 2013: “IN RETURN FOR THE BAILOUT LOANS, CYPRUS WILL IMPOSE A ONE-TIME TAX ON BANK CUSTOMERS AND THEIR DEPOSITS” ….6 – 10% OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, TAKEN. MARCH 25: ECB CAME TO THEIR SENSES ECB BAILOUT TERMS
- 19. LOOKING BACK ON 7 YEARS THINGS WERE NOT AS I EXPECTED MY CAREER
- 20. “ THAT’S AWESOME! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN COMPANY!? WHAT MADE YOU LEAVE WORK” KUNAL JOHAR
- 21. KUNAL JOHAR
- 22. PERCEPTION > REALITY THIS WILL BE YOUR FIRST DAUNTING CHALLENGE.
- 23. HOW ARE WE PERCEIVED “I just need a programmer” • http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-12.html#e2010-12-01T15_45_40.htm All IT is the Same •Software •Fixing Printers •Knowing how to use applications
- 24. HOW WE PERCEIVE “It’s Just” •Sales •Marketing •Business •Management
- 25. 5 YEARS OF HELL THAT I WAS LUCKY TO HAVE. THE MUSIC SCHOOL
- 26. “I JUST NEED A DEVELOPER” We need a system to track attendance and bill people every 6-15 weeks. People should only be able to skip 1 lesson every 6 weeks without penalty.
- 27. FIRST PROPOSAL “One action (booking a student) will automatically keep track of billing, payroll, attendance tracking, and student progress”
- 28. PROPOSED FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS NOW WE CALL THIS “FREE CONSULTING” – AND MAKE SURE WE NEVER DO ANY OF IT
- 29. LOOKING BACK What if I built what they asked for? Why did I come up with this detailed proposal?
- 30. “MILESTONE #3” “Few additions” •Lasted about 45 weeks •Just add this feature •DB Migration scripts? •Code repository?
- 31. DEAL WITH LOTS OF BS I was billing $35/hour at the time
- 32. OCT 2007 – BS QUOTA REACHED If I quit, what would happen to my company? If I quit, what would happen to their company?
- 33. SUMMER 2008 Govt job here was way too boring Harmony Gateway now at now at 100 tables Can’t / don’t want to do both
- 34. NAIVETY AT AN ALL TIME HIGH THE BIG PITCH
- 35. PRESENTING TO C LEVELS
- 36. PRESENTING TO C LEVELS
- 37. WHAT WE THINK IS IMPORTANT
- 38. AS EXPLAINED TO C-LEVELS
- 39. AS EXPLAINED TO C-LEVELS
- 41. $190,000 PLEASE -- BY THE WAY YOU DON’T HAVE A CHOICE
- 42. “I HEARD YOU TEACH KUNAL, WHERE WILL YOU FIND THE TIME TO WORK ON THIS SYSTEM” CAREER PHASE I PEOPLE WILL PUSH YOU TO YOUR LIMITS…LET THEM!
- 43. THE DEAL $82, 819 •They will handle IT •I will handle software dev •“1110 hours of dev/support” •They stalled until Dec 28th
- 44. LOOKING BACK I thought Senior Management is a bunch of idiots •Ready to dismantle a system without knowing anything about how important it is Turns out it was on purpose •You’ll see it when you go car shopping •Undermining, insulting, frustrating to get bottom dollar
- 45. 7 WEEKS AFTER “HOSTING” TRANSFERRED TO THEM 26 emails just after landing in Houston Airport
- 47. YEA NO ONE READ THIS EITHER
- 48. WHAT HAPPENED? VM Went into Auto Recovery Mode •Database had day month old data •Web server ran auto-renew process on 600 customers
- 49. ROAD BLOCKS ARE TO BE EXPECTED Same time as music school deal $90k Great money, great cause
- 50. TOTAL MONEY RECEIVED: $4,200
- 51. BS, MS
- 52. SUPERMAN PART I
- 53. THAT WAS FUN BUT WHO HAD MORE TO LOSE?
- 54. JAY PARK Music School “just needed a programmer” •Society does bad things in desperation •March 2009 • Kunal needs income • Jay has wife + kids
- 55. PERCEPTION What was Music School Thinking? What was Kunal thinking? What was Jay thinking?
- 56. THE MODULO METHOD I never make mistakes •I only had AMEX and thought credit cards were 15 digits •One script and 10 seconds later, all credit cards lost their last digit
- 57. THE MODULO METHOD What would you do? •Restore from backup? •What about impact from looking bad vs Jay?
- 58. LUHN ALGORITHM Given N-1 digits, compute Nth digit as check digit
- 59. FAIR IS FAIR
- 60. FULL REPORT NO ONE READ
- 61. SUPERMAN IV What was the premise of Superman IV (and Office Space)? You guys too young for this?
- 62. SUPERMAN IV June 2010 •Moved Accounting system from “cash” to “accrual” •Moved accounting system from “single entry” to “double entry” •“What could go wrong”
- 63. DOUBLE ENTRY ACCOUNTING All transactions must be balanced Depending on account code, debit or credit can be + or – action
- 64. SUPERMAN IV $70,000 mistake •I had created discounts as credits instead of debits •Thus I double counted the impact!
- 65. OUT OF BALANCE Accounts must always balance • I had never been more nervous (because I lost control of my own system) • I could not explain how my system worked • Others’ confidence in me plummeted • Self confidence plummeted
- 66. BANK IN ERROR YOUR FAVOR Turns out $70k mistake was in favor of the schools •I was off the hook •I learned a bit more accounting and cleaned up the system
- 67. WEDDING IN SERBIA One month after rewriting the accounting system…. •Also was asked to rewrite the way report cards were generated •“What could go wrong”
- 68. “I AM A RELIABLE PERSON” I deployed new changes 10 hours later, just before getting on my flight.
- 69. FRANKFURT AIRPORT 30 euro for a wifi pass Tired out of my mind 1 hour layover to “Fix issues”
- 70. THE WEDDING Can you imagine not drinking at a Serbian wedding!? Was at Internet café all morning before wedding Was at internet café all morning after wedding
- 71. I FAILED HARD
- 72. MELT DOWN ENSUES Regularly working 300h/month Hating life Becoming socially awkward
- 73. I NEEDED SOMEONE TO TELL ME THIS KIND OF SHIT AT SOME POINT IN M Y LIFE. DON'T CONFUSE FEELINGS OF EXCITEMENT ABOUT A GREAT YEAR, CELEBRATION OF YOUR HARD WORK, AND ACHIEVING SUCCESS WHILE CONSTANTLY FACING RISK WI TH MAKING A FEW BAD JOKES AT A HOLIDAY PARTY. ALL OF THIS SHIT YOU'RE FEELIN G IS VERY NECESSARY AND THE PART OF THE LIFE WE HATE TO CALL GROWING UP, SO KEEP DOI NG WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND JUST REMEMBER IT NEXT TIME YOU'RE IN A SIMILAR SITUATI ON. THE PEOPLE YOU'LL FIND THAT YOU ADMIRE THE MOST AREN'T THE ONES THAT SET WORLD RECORDS IN MONEY -MAKING OR FITNESS, IT'S THE ONES THAT HAVE FIGU RED OUT THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF ALL --INCREASING LIVELIHOOD IN ALL 'BUCKETS' OF YOUR LIFE WHILE MAINTAINING A HEALTHY BALANCE. JUST KEEP UP THE ENERGY LEVEL, B UT SPREAD IT OUT AND CONTINUE THE CYCLE OF MAKING MISTAKES / LEARNING FROM THEM.. . YOU'LL BE SURPRISED HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL GROW TO RESPEC T YOUR AT TITUDE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS REGARDLESS OF OUTCOME. CAREER PHASE II PEOPLE WILL PUSH YOU TO YOUR LIMITS…TAKE CONTROL!
- 74. “95% OF THAT WAS ALL YOU MAN” $454,000
- 75. RESET, REFOCUS, AND REFINE Do not chase shiny objects •“Pareto Principal” 80/20 Rule
- 76. FOLLOW THE MONEY $300 out of $454 went towards vendors who I needed to ‘bail out’ ….for clients who have terrible business models
- 77. “MY HOURLY RATE” Early in your career don’t worry about it!
- 78. RE-ASSESS OCT 2008 DECISION How is the music school doing? •It’s now 2011. They are growing and want to franchise How am I doing? •I’m exhausted, generating a lot of revenue, seeing little reward for myself
- 79. “NOTHING IS EASY” Good workers are hard to find •My ‘best of the best’ developers are quitting every 6 months •My inexpensive developers never learn, I need to retrain every 3 months
- 80. SCALPEL “Hey Kunal, budget is tight, we are looking for 10% cuts across the board from all of our vendors” I just hired Zack, started investing in him to take over my responsibilities, now they can cut me on a whim?
- 81. RE-ASSESS AGAIN AND AGAIN What if they cut me? What if I cut them? Who has more to lose?
- 82. MUSIC SCHOOL OPERATIONS $220,000 •How much does a senior developer make? •How about 2? •How much does it cost to run a help desk? •How important is this system to them?
- 83. PERCEPTION: MUSIC SCHOOL’S BUSINESS What are they in the business of?
- 84. “WHAT IF” What if in 2008, I got my 200k contract? •Would they have kept paying? •When they fired Jay park, why didn’t they look for another developer?
- 85. SHORT SIGHTEDNESS Perception: • vOfficeware is a tiny company that needs our business to survive • We can drop him at a whim so they need to go above and beyond for us Reality
- 86. OPPORTUNITY DOES NOT EXIST BUT YOU CAN CREATE IT CAREER PHASE III NOW YOU ARE IN CONTROL, DON’T FORGET ABOUT PERCEPTION
- 87. WAIT FOR THE MOMENT Build maximum leverage •Franchising agreements mean they have commitments to people with bigger pockets than me •I’ve masked the fact that I have 3 developers + me working on the system •Next time the scalpel comes, I’ll be in control
- 88. NOW WHAT?
- 89. YOUR CURRENT ASPIRATIONS ARE PROBABLY FALSE YOUR CAREER
- 90. YOU WILL SUCCEED Computer Science = $$ •Unregulated profession •Software runs the world, shortage of developers, let alone good developers •DC market has ‘body shops’ paying $100k after a few years of working • Top students can get this now
- 91. POST SCHOOL PLAN Try a lot of things •Determine what you hate •Maybe you’ll find something you want •Work hard in all facets and don’t worry about over working or being underpaid – as long as it is short term
- 92. REMEMBER PERCEPTION What am I? What do I expect from me? What do others expect from me? What do I expect from others?
- 93. REMEMBER STRUCTURE Do you have a plan for now? Do you have a plan for tomorrow? Do you have a backup plan?
- 94. FIND AND FIGHT THE DEMONS There will always be some force condemning your success • Money you earn is less money for someone else • People want to maximize their own keep • Understand how they perceive you, work within that perception to make yourself invaluable • Now you are in control of your own career!
- 95. BUT HOW? How can I be unbelievably valuable? • Ask tons of questions • Find out the work no one else wants to do • Take things off your boss’s plate • People are lazy and will become addicted to your work ethic • They will forget how to work without you
- 96. 10,000 HOUR RULE REVISITED In our first class we discussed how it takes 10,000 hours to master a technique. Your career is no different. • Don’t be short sighted • Recognize other’s perceptions • Succeed
- 97. THANK YOU VERY MUCH IT’S BEEN TREMENDOUS LEARNING WITH ALL YOU THESE LAST FEW YEARS