In this episode Ramesh shares his experience and perspectives related to
- His interest in software and programming that was fueled by an IIT professor teaching programming
- One of the very few who did a software project as part of his degree and then joining Tata Burroughs from campus, as the first batch
- Getting back to academics to get his Master’s degree
- How his extra learning at IISc and the work experience in the first couple of years helped him skip a few courses and jump into more advanced topics during the Masters’
- Joining HCL in their Singapore venture, Far East Computers Limited
- How his experience with facing customers helped in the assignment of setting up a QA environment at Oracle headquarters
- Moving to management roles in engineering management
- Jumping at the opportunity to start a development center in India without knowing all the details
- Thinking that he could do that for a year and then get back to the USA
- How he had to take on various responsibilities of not just delivering, but also establishing processes, building networks for recruitment etc
- Realizing the need to take innovative approaches to attract the right talent, when competing with other companies that would hire in large numbers
- Taking up a teaching role at Anna University
- How that gave him an opportunity to observe the students over a semester, and not having to learn by interacting for 20 minutes in an interview
- Extending this learning through internships
- Starting to love teaching
- The trigger for his getting into writing [and authoring books], some of which are standard curriculum recommendations in about 50 universities across the world
- “Transferring knowledge to others will have a bigger impact on Society as a whole”
- Enjoying the role of a teacher at various institutions
- How some interests popped up by necessity,
- Slicing time every day for work, education and family – to make time for all
- Taking risks knowing that all options may not progress as desired
- Some tips that would help selecting the right candidates
- How everyone should feel comfortable to disagree, but not be disagreeable
- how , as a technical guy, you can have all the answers, but as a leader, you should have all the questions
- His career advice:
- Being passionate about what one does
- Do not undervalue the importance of keeping your skills up to date
- Why you should become useless for your job
Please bear with some audio distractions in the background in patches. You will love this story..
Gopalaswamy Ramesh is an independent consultant, eminent author and has served as visiting / adjunct professor in several reputed universities and an acknowledged thought leader in the areas of global software project management, software testing and related areas as well as on soft skills. He has over three decades of experience in industry, consulting and teaching. He played a key role in establishing Oracle’s India Development Center and grew it from zero to close to 500 people. His contributions to this phenomenal growth were acknowledged in Oracle International magazine When he left Oracle in 2002, he was their Senior Director, heading the engineering team at Bangalore.
Before returning to India in 1994 to set up Oracle IDC, Ramesh worked in Oracle Headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, holding several technical and management positions. He also headed pre-sales and post-sales support of Oracle products in the ASEAN countries while working at Far East Computers, Singapore from 1982 till 1988. During this stint, he actively participated in launching and supporting Oracle in several countries in the region.
Since 2002, Ramesh has been an independent consultant, offering consultancy services in the areas of global software project management, software testing and soft skills in India and abroad. His passion for teaching and sharing his vast knowledge and rich experience have resulted in his writing eight books have become best sellers and two of them being also translated to Chinese language. His books have been widely read and used as prescribed or reference books in a number of universities in India and abroad. The book Managing Global Software Projects won the National Award for the Best Book.
As a thought leader, Ramesh has been an active invited participant in several well known conferences and workshops. He has played the roles of Program Chair, Technical Review Committee Head as well as an invited keynote presenter in several international conferences.
Passionate about interacting with students and imparting relevant practical knowledge and training to students, Ramesh has been an Adjunct Professor in several leading universities and has taught in a number of very reputed institutions like IIIT-Bangalore, IIT Madras, Anna University, Chennai and Amrita School of Business. He was part of the Academic Advisory Board of Project Management Institute, India from 2009 to 2014, during which time he was the Technical Committee Chair for first two Research and Academic Conferences (RAC) on Project Management in India.
Ramesh is passionate about inculcating the right value systems in school children and about people with special needs. He has also written books on moral education நிச்சயம் வெல்லலாம் நேரான பாதையில் in Tamil and Virtuous and Victorious – Always in English for school children. He has translated from English to Tamil the best-selling book GIFTED about the achievements of fifteen differently abled people. He and his wife, Lakshmi Ramesh who is a trained special educator are active participants in initiatives on people with special needs.
Ramesh holds a B E Degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, a M S Degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (the thesis on Automatic Programming won the National Gold medal) and M S Degree in Engineering Management from Stanford University, California.
Ramesh may be reached at gopalaswamy_ramesh@yahoo.com
