Letter to My Younger Self: Rahul Sharma, Engineering

Dear Rahul,

You are starting your journey as an undergraduate in Computer Engineering, and looking forward to immense opportunities in the future. Your hardworking approach, analytical skills and affinity for math will serve you well, but there is so much more to your journey.

Most importantly, enjoy what you do and focus on bringing joy to others. That’s ultimately what inspires us to work hard, keep learning, deliver with excellence, and grow – whether we are writing thousands of lines of code, trying out new technologies, solving complex problems, or building new products.

Through successes and failures, projects and products, keep working towards the mission of your life, maintain a sense of purpose in everything you do, and remember to have fun.  With that, I want to share some advice and insights that hopefully you will find useful along the way. 

Knowledge is limitless, and the more you learn, the more tools you’ll have at your disposal. 
The field of technology keeps evolving, and so should you. In the future, you will find that the Cloud has nothing to do with clouds in the sky, mobile phones have become smart phones, and Java is first and foremost a programming language, not coffee! You will have a role in making contributions to these innovations. You will also ponder important questions alongside your colleagues, such as where AI can help solve problems that humans alone can’t. Remember that intellectual curiosity is the foundation of all learning and innovation.  Stay open-minded, read a lot, and never stop asking questions and seeking answers

Look around you, and identify and solve real problems with purpose. 
Remember that technology is not just about design, coding, merge requests and algorithms, rather it’s a means to an end – an opportunity to address challenges and provide value and benefit to others. Use your skills to drive progress towards tangible outcomes. Keep looking for ways to simplify solutions to even most complex problems. The joy of seeing your work bring value and benefit to others, whether end-users, customers, developers, or clients, is incomparable. 

Keep reinventing yourself. 
There is no straight or predictable path to success. You should embrace opportunities and adversity alike. If you have a chance to do something new, unique and different, whether it means taking on a new role with a different team or going after a complex problem, then go for it and learn from successes and challenges. Importantly, always keep your eyes on the horizon – seize opportunities to think about how technology will evolve and change to address the problems of the future. Your creativity in envisioning future possibilities will set you apart as an engineer. 

Always be humble and a team player. 
No matter how talented and hardworking you are, collaboration is key. The best solutions mostly come from collective team efforts. Seek and respect others’ ideas, and be open to learning from everyone around you. You should share what you learn, too, by mentoring and developing others. Earning the trust of your colleagues and unlocking the power of your team is what ultimately allows us become leaders in addition to being engineers.