General Advice for software engineers residing in India

This article is written especially for software engineers residing in India. Most of the advice here is based on personal / first-hand experience of living in India. And for those who want to be in engineering for long term (around 40 years of a career in engineering).

Have long term goals

This involves asking yourself some questions: "Why do we work? Why should we have a career in engineering?". This answer varies from person to person. In my case, I like engineering because I am a problem solver. For me, it is like playing a game of chess.

If you like engineering, and know why you like it, you won't be tempted to move to more highly paid jobs like a product manager.

Why you should not start-up?

It is fashionable to start a start-up just for the sake of doing it. But building an organisation is not for everybody. If you love engineering, you should avoid starting-up. Most CEOs in start-up spend most of the time doing marketing or business presentations. As a CEO, you won't even spend 10% of your time in engineering. So, why you want to do something that will take you away from what you like to do?

Limit your exposure to the non-technical community

People outside the technical community in India believe in a lot of things which are not right. For example, there are a lot of self-serving groups in India which only cater to the welfare of the group members, not for the clients to whom they serve. If you are getting a lot of cold calls, it is an indication that one of the self-serving groups are stalking you. Mostly, they will be after your money by calling you or sending promotional text messages. Try to avoid exposure to the non-technical community. They may not understand you and might harm you.

Be fit

One reason why we work is to keep ourselves fit. Working in engineering keeps our mind fit. But we also have to keep our body fit. I found doing Yoga and some running an easy to way to relax and be fit.

Focus

I am a good reader and I like thinking. Reading news or psychology books keeps my busy with thoughts. I am over 40 now. And I feel that it is better to focus on a few things and keep myself focussed on the work that I do. These days, I avoid news. Whatever I read is around technology. This keeps my thinking stream-lined.

My 5-point guide to have a long software engineering career.

• Know why you are an engineer to avoid more lucrative jobs like product manager.
• No point starting-up if you are an engineer. CEO is more marketing than engineering.
• Avoid non-technical community who may be part of self-serving groups.
• Be physically fit - Do Yoga or some intense exercise like running.
• Focus by reading only technology related stuff - for example, No political news.