Interview with Karanveer: A Solutions Developer with clear goals

For our fourth guest on The Entrance Series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Karanveer. He is currently a Solutions Developer in Hong Kong after graduating with a Computer Engineering degree from the Pune Institute of Computer Technology.

For those of you wondering what a Solutions Developer does, check out the article here. It is part of OpenDoors’ new initiative — “A Day In The Life”, a blog post series that walks you through the day-to-day of different professions.

Karanveer has accumulated some impressive work experiences since University. After working on Artificial Intelligence-related projects at a Tech Consultancy for his first internship, he quickly joined the Bioinformatics department at C-DAC (The government unit that builds supercomputers in India). Just before he graduated, he co-authored a research paper on Blockchain and presented it at Fudan University in Shanghai.

“I was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my career, and I have some pretty clear goals now.” Karanveer reflects as he goes on to explain his vision. “I want to develop deep technical expertise and eventually become an advisor that helps businesses solve big problems. To do that, I must broaden my inventory of skills and learn about as many industries as possible.”

Karanveer has developed a structured approach to reaching his career ambitions but things weren’t always as straightforward. Join us in our interview with him to find out how he manipulates his emotions to overcome the obstacles in front of him.

OpenDoors: You are well on track with broadening your inventory of skills, with 28 licenses & certificates on LinkedIn, what keeps you so motivated?

Karanveer: The key to staying motivated is to have clear goals. I tend to set long-term and short-term goals with clear timelines and work backward to decide on the tasks or checkpoints that I must reach each day.

I am also inherently fearful of not being able to reach my ambitions. It is relatively easy to force myself into learning something new and once I’ve invested time into developing that habit, it would be stupid not to continue. This is what you would call a sunk cost fallacy.

OpenDoors: And how does your current role fit in with your longer-term vision?

Karanveer: I initially joined my company as a Programmer where most of my time would be spent on coding. However, I soon discovered my passion for dealing with clients and understanding their business needs and I started thinking about my path. Thankfully, I have a very supportive team at the company and after talking through my concerns with my managers, they decided to create the Solutions Developer role for me. The roles involved are exactly aligned with what I want to do in the future and I’m happy with the way things have turned out.

OpenDoors: Looking back, what advice would you have given yourself?

Karanveer: Definitely have some sort of plan with what you want to do. Take some time to reverse engineer the process and be very granular on how you can achieve them. Inevitably, you will deviate from your plan as you get distracted by new ideas or opportunities coming at you, but try your best to align your current situation with your long-term goals.

The other point I want your readers to take away is that you must believe in yourself. When I first started, I suffered from something called Imposter Syndrome. I would constantly get the sinking feeling of being inferior to others and even when I do achieve something, I would just call myself lucky.

OpenDoors: And how did you manage to overcome this?

Karanveer: Speaking with people who have done what you want to do definitely helps. The conversations help me understand that my goals are achievable and that I actually have a chance.

I also learned to celebrate when I should. Whenever I achieve something, say getting a job offer, I would tell myself that the processes are well-designed and I got the offer for a reason. It was just a mental hurdle that I had to get over.

If I can do it, I think most people should be able to do it too!

Get in touch with Karanveer:

LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter

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