Reflections working at a startup
It is exactly a year since I joined a high growth technology startup. Truly speaking, no one is ever prepared for the fast-paced and hands-on approach experienced in the startup world. In a world where our understanding of work is changing. Reflecting on my final year of my undergraduate program. I was greatly aware I had to do postgraduate studies, but one, my decision would be heavily influenced by the availability of funding. Two, I wanted to develop more “managerial skills” but I could not pin which postgraduate program would help me achieve this while accommodating the need to continue developing my technical expertise as an engineer. I like to do and create stuff, but I also like to direct and have creative control over the future and impact of the solutions I contribute towards — management.
This led me to pursue a postgraduate program in Engineering Management. The program combined technological problem solving with the organisational, administrative, and planning abilities of management to monitor the performance of complex engineering driven enterprises and or systems. It opened up a whole new world of engineering to me — systems engineering. I was challenged to start seeing the world from multiple perspectives and learning the practical and theoretical implications of what the phrase “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” means.
Coming from Engineering school, one has their idea and expectations of how it is to be in the engineering world. Designing life-changing systems and contributing positively to the development of communities and peoples lives is among the many things that any engineer aspires to do. For traditional engineering disciplines, the career path is standard and is captured through roles like “civil engineer”, “electrical engineer” or “mechanical engineer”. This knowledge does not necessarily apply in a startup environment. All engineering disciplines use well-established and proven concepts whereas a startup is formed around a novel product and set up to develop the product and its market. So for a startup, it’s not usually your core knowledge that you get hired for. The benefit however of engineering education is that it is all about being adaptable and learning how to put theory into practice and dealing with complex problems. For an engineer, everything is just another problem to solve, this is an extremely useful mindset at a startup.
Joining a technology startup pioneering new transport technology has provoked my approach to problem-solving. I have continuously built onto the engineering management skills I acquired in my postgraduate studies. This has allowed me to expand my creativity and expertise in developing new competencies required for the future of work. I have learnt and continue to learn many lessons in my startup journey.
- Life is a journey — Embrace it!
- Time is your most valuable resource
- Be grateful and be open-minded to learn
- Don’t stop learning
- Reinforce knowledge through application
- Deal with failure — it is a normal thing in startup environments
- Learn to sale and become a salesman !- Life-changing skill
- Work in a way that works for you!
I am excited by the continuous challenges I have to solve every day and I am inspired by the potential impact that technology can have on improving the quality of life in many communities in the world.