Rakesh Devulapalli

Smart planning will always take you miles and more so, when you are thinking on long term decisions that could affect both you personally and the organization, professionally. Instead of putting focus on what happens in near term, it is always helpful in understanding how your current decisions affect your future prospects. Being prepared for facing different situations is also important, so it is always good to have backup plans in mind, in case things don't move exactly as you might have expected them to.

When someone gives you feedback, don't ever take it as "personal attack" or that "you are weak". The best way to see it is as a learning opportunity either in terms of refining your technical skills or process enhancements, which could help you get better and improve. Take feedback suggestions with a positive mindset, this shift in perspective allows you to see challenges as stepping stones and not as roadblocks on the path to improvement.

Seeking honest feedback from the Customers is one of the best ways to understand and improve upon your shortfalls and rectify the inadvertent errors which might have creeped into the tasks executed. Start looking at the feedback points from a clear learning perspective and proactively make plans to implement the suggestions provided, to enhance your skills and knowledge in the areas of improvement, this will help you grow professionally.

Coming from a Rail Systems Engineering background, I can very well relate to this - regular and rigorous testing is absolutely necessary for a scalable and secure system design. For example, the project on which I worked, we had a new type of battery system designed to power a new fleet of trains. Through rigorous testing, our team could identify potential safety hazards (heating effects / fire) and performance issues (battery degradation), which allowed us to implement corrective measures to be implemented before the system was deployed on the trains. Without thorough testing, some conditions might be missed and it would have been catastrophic with a train experiencing unexpected performance, causing safety concerns.

For selecting the right specialization in systems engineering for future career prospects, I believe one could proceed as below: 1. Firstly identify your current skills and proficiency levels in core systems engineering principles based on the tasks handled in past projects. 2. Systematically and periodically map the identified individual proficiency levels, reviewing them once in an year. 3. Actively engage in improvement strategies to solidify the technical knowledge base to attain expertise in that particular skillset or subject of interest. 4. Use online courses or consider taking industry certifications specific to your skills for gaining a deeper understanding.

Irrespective of whatever framework one uses for development of high-quality systems, technical expertise in the domain of activity is important to understand the systems' interactions for smooth integration and comprehensive system testing, which ensure that the final product functions are as intended. Technical expertise helps in early identification of prospective concerns and to facilitate user needs into clear, attainable technical specifications, which would guarantee that the outcomes or solutions expected from the project strives are achieved.