344: Focus On The Soft Skills and Read, Read, Read with Arpit Mohan

In this week's show, Phil talks to Arpit Mohan, who has always been fascinated by technology, from taking apart has Tamagotchi to creating a mobile game that went viral. He is the co-founder and CTO of Appsmith, an open-source project built by engineers for engineers. It is now used by more than 1,000 teams, employs people in 8 countries and has raised over $10 million in capital. Arpit talks about the value of focussing upon soft skills such as communication and enhancing teams. He also discusses the value of reading, and how it can make you a better writer.   KEY TAKEAWAYS:   TOP CAREER TIP Software engineers focus on the tools and the code too much, we should focus more upon the soft skills that go with the job, such as the people and the teams.   WORST CAREER MOMENT Arpit ran a delete query on a database, and mistyped the command, which wiped every order in the company's system for the previous six months. This taught him the value of quality checking every moment.   CAREER HIGHLIGHT While running a mobile game company, the game they were working on went viral. The user database began to grow very rapidly.    THE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN I.T Software and IT has endless potential to provide solutions for the world. There are numerous ways in which the physical world cannot achieve certain things, but IT and software can make these things a reality.   THE REVEAL What first attracted you to a career in I.T.? – The ability to create and express himself as a builder What's the best career advice you received? – Make your manager look good What's the worst career advice you received? – To focus on the money and compensation, and to go for the jobs that pay the best. What would you do if you started your career now? – Arpit would focus upon the internals of systems What are your current career objectives? – Trying to be a better leader, and to become a more effective communicator What's your number one non-technical skill? – The ability to write long form formats, such as memos. How do you keep your own career energized? – Read, read, read! What do you do away from technology? – Running, fitness and spending time with family   FINAL CAREER TIP Reading is incredibly important. The more you read, the better you write.   BEST MOMENTS (3:16) – Arpit – "I've always been bedazzled by the ability to create" (6:06) – Arpit - "A lot of people end up being senior engineers, but junior humans, but it should be the other way around" (7:00) – Arpit – "What will get you ahead in life is when you build trust with your team" (16:46)– Arpit – "I'm very optimistic about careers in IT, because that's where the future is"   ABOUT THE HOST – PHIL BURGESS Phil Burgess is an independent IT consultant who has spent the last 20 years helping organizations to design, develop, and implement software solutions.  Phil has always had an interest in helping others to develop and advance their careers.  And in 2017 Phil started the I.T. Career Energizer podcast to try to help as many people as possible to learn from the career advice and experiences of those that have been, and still are, on that same career journey.   CONTACT THE HOST – PHIL BURGESS Phil can be contacted through the following Social Media platforms: Twitter: https://twitter.com/_PhilBurgess LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/philburgess Instagram: https://instagram.com/_philburgess Website: https://itcareerenergizer.com/contact Phil is also reachable by email at [email protected] and via the podcast's website, https://itcareerenergizer.com Join the I.T. Career Energizer Community on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ITCareerEnergizer   ABOUT THE GUEST – ARPIT MOHAN Arpit Mohan is the co-founder and CTO of Appsmith, an open-source project built by engineers for engineers. It is now used by more than 1,000 teams, employs people in 8 countries and has raised over $10 million in capital.   CONTACT THE GUEST – ARPIT MOHAN Twitter: https://twitter.com/mohanarpit LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/arpitmohan Website: https://www.appsmith.com/