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Finally GREENED
17 years Saga comes to an end Last week while battling COVID as a family , hearing the heartbroken news of Roe vs Wade, we also received the much awaited news of our Green card. While some folks might not be aware of what this news means, millions from Indian origin truly know what this means. This post is intended for Non-Indians to be aware of the constant challenges your Indian peers face Indians currently in US on a visa or on a pursuit of visa to be aware of what they are signing up for Saga of 17 years 17 years ago I first stepped in this country with 4 bags 16 years ago I entered with a dependent visa and made a home 15 years ago I started working after a 10 month hiatus due to visa 14 years ago I had my first child 12 years ago we bought our first home 11 years ago I applied for my green card second time 10 years ago I had my second child 9 years ago my green card application first round got declined due to an attorney error 6 years ago I completed my master’s 5 years ago I had offers from 3 best companies in the world 4 years ago we bought our second home and moved Every person we got in touch with in this beautiful country has had an impact on us. Every person has influenced our life to get better, motivated and fulfilling. There never goes a day we are not grateful for all this country has offered us. Be it colleagues, neighbors, baby sitters, friends, managers ( other than 1) were incredibly supportive in our lives Was it all rosy though? 14 years ago went back to work in 4 weeks after a C Section due to visa being tied to the employer and market recession. 13 years ago when my father had a heart attack my first thought was visa. 12 years ago when my grandmother who supported me passed away I couldn’t go due to visa restrictions 10 years ago when my parents celebrated their 60th birthday I couldn’t go due to visa restrictions 1 year ago when my father in law passed away none of us in the family could go due to lack of visa appointments In my 17+ years we as a family have never been to India together fearing on visa delay and potential complications to our life (mortgage, car loan, kids) 80% of my adult life is spent in this country. My kids call this their nation and feel pride in the fact that they are U S citizens. I have been outside the country for a total of 8 weeks in the past 17 years. I realize when I talk about the challenges this message comes from an incredibly privileged experience working in the top company in the world, but not many do and I also realize I have been lucky with COVID situation and have my dates achieved much earlier than was ever anticipated (wait time of 150 years). My story is not unique, there are worse stories than mine which would make your heart hurt. There are kids who are documented dreamers struggling to maintain their status, there are spouses waiting in a never ending haul of approval dates, there are folks who couldn’t get visa dates to potentially visit their home country , companies bartering lower pay for visa individuals, folks who work in a body shop consultancy and get panic attack every time they have to pay a Vendor-Customer relationship between more than three parties, folks who cannot change jobs, apply for a promotion and many many more. Even things which should be easy are harder for visa holders such as getting a Driver’s License , Whole Life Insurance, Vehicle Insurance, Mortgage Rates. Is it a Republican or Democrat issue? Please don’t make this a political partisan issue. I have been here since the Bush Administration. All sides of the party aisle have brought this mess and there is no one to blame but us as Indians for the choice we make. Is it worth it you may ask? Everyone needs to make a personal choice due to their background, upbringing and situation. However, my personal recommendation would be for any of the non immigrants coming from India, please DON’T sign up for this life. Mental peace you would have to forego for not years but decades of your future will forever create a mark in life. For folks who come here to study Master’s and then convert to a work visa or folks like me this life is not worth it. I wish someone shared this with me much earlier in my life. I would have made an informed and different decision. When I signed up and got accepted in the lane, the wait time was 4 years today it is 150+ years. The only reason we were able to even get this good news is due to COVID and embassies being closed I am an Indian born US citizen or green card holder. How can I help? Very few of my friends have actually asked this question. If there is a change.org or any kind of petition , help by signing Be empathetic with your questions regarding a potential trip, job change etc., Create awareness when discussing with friends and family who are thinking of moving to US In conclusion, America might be the best country in the world with awesome people and incredible opportunities but the policies are not brown friendly for immigration. The only word after 17 years when I think about myself is COWARD. With all being said, if you are hell bent on joining the GC battle, below would be the recommendation to get a faster green card Sign up for a PhD course, finish in 5 years . Get some publications and try EB1A Get into a WITCH company offshore (some say this has to be a managerial role but I have seen approvals for ICs too and there is no educational requirement) , move to the USA after 1 year and then file through EB1C (most success). PS: WITCH - In immigration terms stands for Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant and HCL Any questions, comments or suggestions please reach out to kanch@cloudrace.info.
Career is in our hands
The Path to Becoming a Technology Leader Often, career growth is measured by movement up the management ladder. Are you feeling stagnant in your career? Are you evaluating what would be the best career path? Are you a people’s manager and getting frustrated with your growth? Are you an Individual Contributor (IC) who is not sure how to think about your approach? This post is for you. This framework will assist you along your career path and is derived from discussions around career trajectory with current technology leaders. This post is not intended to discourage anyone from pursuing a management role. Every role has a unique purpose, and if management interests you, then go for it. This post is intended to spur an alternate thinking if you do want to continue as a contributor. While this framework can be used by any professional , this post is focused specifically on technology leaders Organizations and Ladder Structure Most conventional organizations tend to provide career growth opportunities through management positions. As an organization evolves to be more technology oriented, senior technology roles do open up. A typical technology ladder in a company will look similar to the path below: Associate (&Sr) -> Staff(&Sr) -> Principal(&Sr) -> Distinguished During the initial phases of your career,promotions tend to come easier. As you move up, promotions become more difficult. . Roles and responsibilities tend to get broader and broader with no clear guidelines. You are now a thought leader in your field and this comes with an innate amount of responsibility. Framework: The below SET Framework will help you evaluate how to approach your career when you are at a crossroads. Think about your current role and your direction, identify the strengths and weaknesses you bring to each of these pillars. This evaluation of strengths and weaknesses will help guide you to your next steps. Identify how to gain experience, to convert your weaknesses into strengths Identify how to balance your strengths towards your weaknesses Soft Skills : Soft skills are the most important in any management ladder or technology leadership role. While soft skills are often attributed to management roles, as you progress into technology leadership, it is important to grow your soft skills. Some key attributes every organization looks for in their leaders are empathy, communication, adaptability, coaching and trust building While everyone is capable of these skills, the skill level differs based on how well you have trained and practiced them.. Can you show empathy to your customer/peer for having to deal with a problem created due to a technical debt? Can you negotiate with your product team in releasing a much needed engineering enhancement? Can you communicate to your team in writing with confidence in your appointed area of expertise? ? Can you empathize with your team but still be able to say “No” ? Can you have the team prioritize without authority? Can you give tough feedback to a person/group? Can you roll up your sleeves and understand a new technology/topic without any assistance? Do you have the trust of your team in taking things forward? Can you coach and be coached? (If you don’t have at least one younger mentor, you are missing out!) If the answer to all the ABOVE is YES, then you have all the indicators of being a leader - be it people management or technology skills. In fact, based on several surveys, lack of soft skills play a key role in careers falling stagnant. Experience: Most often we think experience comes with “DOING”. While it is certainly true that DOING provides more expertise, ,the key is “KNOWING” how to get the information, which plays a crucial role converting a contributor to a technology leader. Some questions to ask if you currently have / can gain the experience. Can you identify and describe how an architecture/technology decision helps your Enterprise with customer experience, cost optimization, top line growth vs bottom line growth. Can you gain knowledge at a broader level in all the technical topics and go deep in the aspects you specialize in? For example, can you have an introductory level discussion with your CTO on blockchain and have a deep technical conversation with your data scientists on neural networks? Do you know the experts internally and externally in the field you are interested in? Do you actively participate in community level conferences and meetups? Can you identify the bottlenecks on a proposed solution and the practices to overcome them? Do you leverage all the support you have from internal resources and vendor resources? Do you continuously seek to gain knowledge in your area of expertise? Technical Skills: The core of being a technology leader is having expert level knowledge in key technologies. For example, programming language basics - expert level in FORTRAN will help you learn any new languages faster even 50 years from now. The same goes with database concepts, cloud computing concepts, architecture patterns etc., Most likely early on in your career you tend to focus on these core technical skills. Technology is ever evolving and technologists should be committed to learning as your career progresses. Other things to consider Find peers/mentors with similar goals to you while you are considering your career trajectory. It helps if they are of the same background as you. This is much needed as the challenges they face will differ. If there are financial concerns with staying in the IC ladder in your organization, try to find an organization that closely aligns with your interests. If not, try to stay relevant to the framework above until a time when you can make the change Be ready to have your ego checked - your friends from high school and/or college will most likely have fancier titles than you. Some final thought on anyone embarking in this journey: BE CURIOUS BE INNOVATIVE BE ASPIRATIONAL If you have the above goals in mind, the sky’s the limit! . So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” — Christopher Reeve. Any questions, comments or suggestions please reach out to kanch@cloudrace.info. Special Thanks to for their review / edits and suggestions Lara Norman, Chris Ricci
