I have been now working as a Consultant for 2 years and I wanted to document my insights and understanding towards the designation. I want to take you through the benefits and the sporadic hardships (luckily!) that have shaped my understanding of the work we do.
As a Software Consultant, our involvement in the decision making for the project has been immense, compared to what I hear from some outside world consultants who rant that their opinions and suggestions are not heard, even though they are called Consultants. Their work is more or less limited to development. Why? Because Knoldus puts us in front of the clients as people who are able to make sustainable decisions and not just merely as coders. That increases the potential of a person in decision making. It also increases the confidence and the connection with what we do. With that increased connection, our focus is on building a sustainable solution for a problem statement, which in turn ensures the longevity of the work.
This, in turn, churns out good faith from the client in us (also we get praises from them!) and they also hear our suggestions, concerns, opinions, and decisions. Finally, we achieve the goal of building the right product right!
That being said, we should now ponder on the second crucial aspect of being a consultant – positive communication. We can attend seminars or read blogs to sharpen the skill but we need a ground to unravel it. It is the art to be able to not say “we did not achieve ”and say “what is left to be achieved” and many such conversations where our words need to exude the confidence in challenging times.
Personally, I have learned this by observing my seniors at Knoldus who do it well and ensure that we understand it. Also, I have been trusted enough to handle challenging situations and positively give responses to them which made me realize that how significant it is to manage “how you are saying it”. These are lifetime experiences which not only shape the professional careers but also help us in our personal lives.
If knowing cutting-edge technologies is the proverbial cake then knowing the best practices around them is cherry on the cake. A personal anecdote for this too. My first project with Knoldus was based on ScalaJS and second had Cassandra GraphDB and Akka. The third is prominent in BDD. This has enabled me to learn about new technologies by using and practicing them. And with that, I also become aware of the best practices which help me in making better decisions to solve a problem statement. A consultant should be equally aware of the use cases and best practices the tech. An opportunity amply supplied and used in Knoldus.
As consultants, we make decisions, we try out new approaches and may at times not see them going our way. At Knoldus, decisions which may not have gone the expected way are not denigrated. Rather, people are backed up to help them understand what did not go well and how we can achieve better. A very, very important aspect of decision making.
What this all silently also does is that it increases the satisfaction with the work we are doing and makes us passionate to delve into the depths of it.
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