In the newest episode of Fixing the Bug, Shivangi sits down with Ensemble Health Partnersâ Global Operations Vice President Ketan Sharma to talk about careers in tech, entrepreneurship, risk-taking, happiness, and a lot more. What came out of their conversation is a goldmine of advice and insights for young techies of India.
Listen to the full podcast here.
Ketanâs Journey
After finishing his Bachelorâs in Computer Applications in India, Ketan moved to the UK for his masterâs. He then started his professional life in the UK as a software developer. After working for several years, he decided to take the entrepreneurial jump.
Ketan returned to India and founded his startup, fifthnote. His small team at fifthnote worked with several leading companies in the US & UK. After some time, the startup got the offer to merge with Ensemble Health Partners â one of the leading revenue cycle management companies for hospitals and healthcare institutions.
Ketan Sharma is presently leading Global Operations for Ensemble as Vice President. Over the course of his enriching career, he has picked up insights and wisdom on everything from entrepreneurship to happiness. In the podcast, you can hear him insist on âquality over quantityâ and the necessity of âadding value through your workâ.
What Are You Pursuing, Your Passion or Money?
Itâs no news that tech jobs are among the highest paying jobs, both in India and worldwide. That is also the reason millions of Indian youth go for engineering after finishing school.
One of the first things that Ketan talks about is this mindset, which has pushed thousands, if not millions, of people into a career that they do not enjoy. In such a scenario, they measure their success by the size of their salary package.
The pursuit of a fatter paycheck leads to another phenomenon: creating an illusion of experience and expertise. Software developers and engineers in India would often switch company after company only to add more names to their CVs.
According to Ketan, these things stem from the fact that a large number of techies are not in love with technology. They have either not taken out the time to figure out which aspect of tech they are passionate about or were too busy chasing better-paying jobs.
Unless you are in love with what you are doing, you will not excel in it. And while you chase the next incremental growth, exponential growth lies in excellence alone.
The 4 Quadrants of Financial Success
Indian youth is presently moving towards entrepreneurship. Venture capitalists are pouring in money like never before, and more people are now willing to take the risk of entrepreneurship.
In the course of the conversation, Ketan revealed what he called the four quadrants of professional growth:
Job: When we talk about jobs vs starting your own venture, the first thing that comes to mind is security. However, Ketan points out that your job is also a part of a larger business. As such, the inherent risk of the business going down is always there. âJob = securityâ is not only logically unsound but also diverts our attention away from the real advantage of working under someone else.
A job gives you the opportunity to learn. Even if your goal is to be an entrepreneur going forward, doing a job would be a great learning opportunity. You do not have to figure out things on your own as a salaried employee.
Self-employed: As a self-employed person, you get paid for what you do. This is a step above being a salaried employee but a step below being an entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs go through this stage before starting their own businesses.
Entrepreneur: As an entrepreneur, you earn for the amount of work done by your team collectively. At the same time, you bear all the risks. If the company goes down, you are the first person to go down with it.
Money makes money: In the last stage of professional growth, money makes money for you. Not every business reaches this scale, but it should be your goal as an entrepreneur.
Once we stop chasing the idea of security, we can more confidently dive into entrepreneurial growth. Jobs do have their merits, but the idea of security attached to them are mere illusions.
Finding Fulfilment in Your Career
According to Ketan, chasing success requires you to establish the yardstick of success first. Remember that financial prosperity is not always equivalent to professional success. The more value you can add to a project, company, or business, the more successful you are; money rolls in naturally as a by-product. This is the only approach for job satisfaction, happiness, and financial growth in the long run.
The importance of financial literacy is also paramount, and so is exposure to the broader world. Without these two, reaching the pinnacle in the tech field is difficult, if not impossible.
When you chase success in a field that you are passionate about, things will fall in place by themselves. All you need to do is keep adding value to whatever you are doing.
Follow our podcast to learn more about âwhat the top minds in tech and IT are thinkingâ and âhow you can carve your career in this increasingly competitive fieldâ.
