As part of our quest to identify and share some of the meaningful stories from the tech and leadership world, this week we invited Harshavardhan Narla for an interview with us. He is a program manager and seasoned tech leader with over 10 years of experience in his domain. Harsavardhan has been associated with corporate majors like HP, Intel and Qualcomm. Let’s read more about his journey and advice for those aspiring!
Excerpts from our exclusive Interview with Harshavardhan:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;
I have always been passionate about new technologies since as long as I can remember. It has been an interesting journey working as both manager and contributor over the last 16 years. It all started when my Uncle recommended that I choose Chip hardware technologies (VLSI) as my specialization for my Master’s degree. I did and have never looked back since then.
Over the years I have had the opportunity to work across various domains like WiFi, Printers, Data Servers and Mobile technologies. I have been very fortunate to be associated with talented, passionate teams and some of the best companies in the world like HP, Intel and Qualcomm. It is deeply satisfying to see something you have worked so hard on being used by millions of people around the world.
Working as a Program manager in the mobile hardware industry is interesting and every day presents a new opportunity to learn, explore and interact with the best technical minds in the world. I believe in a growth mindset which prompted me to recently complete my MBA in product management. I like to delve into the why of things.
Though I was born in South India, I have studied in multiple cities across India. This travel in India and abroad has helped me be more accepting of other cultural influences. I would like to thank my family for all their support, love and guidance over the years, without which I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
The mobile hardware industry is a very interesting and rapidly evolving industry. There are very frequent improvements and multiple competitors which overall pushes the boundaries of technology. On one hand, 5G & WiFi6 are pushing the envelope for mobile data speeds and on the other processing, imaging capabilities are improving exponentially. Today cellphones have as much as 4 cameras with up to 108 megapixels, can capture 8K HD video. The drastic change in image quality can be seen over just the last few years with people even making professional movies on cell phones. Cellphones today are much more powerful than mainstream computers from a few years ago. They even include neural processing engines for Machine Learning and AI. It’s a great industry to be in and exciting times to live in.
What gets you out of bed in the morning, i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
I love solving interesting, new problems and that is what motivates me every day. Each new problem enables me to learn new things and grow. I work with a lot of very intelligent, creative and hardworking people. A large part of my job involves getting these very talented people with different skills and personalities pulling in the same direction. It is amazing to see the creative solutions they come up with when they work together. It feels exciting to wake up every morning and figure out which new challenge awaits me.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Without challenges, there is no fun in success. I have had my share of challenges from the Y2K bust which caused a serious lack of opportunities to multiple economic downturns which impacted the companies I worked in, causing team shutdowns. I have also seen many technological advances which have rendered earlier skills outdated and irrelevant. The only way to be competitive and add value is to continuously learn and grow.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I would say for me, emotions come before money. The challenge of learning something new and seeing it applied in creative technological endeavours excites me. So, unless I am connected on an emotional level, I wouldn’t enjoy my work. Money is, of course, a factor but I would say it’s not the only factor. For me, money is an outcome of our learning and its application but not the motivation to do things.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
In my experience, the hardware industry generally needs more rigour than the software industry, as the chances of your product failing are higher. If the base hardware cannot support the needed functionality no amount of coding can make it work. Due to this, there is a lot of planning, responsibility and ownership needed to ensure that both I and the teams I that work with meet our commitments. I, however, have been enjoying my interactions. The people I work with are great and though we have frequent debates on various issues it is limited to technological or schedule factors and never personal. I am thankful every day for a great family at home and a great team at work. That being said, it does get intense occasionally.
I try to do something I enjoy after work and if possible, relax a bit on my way home by listening to some audiobooks or music. It is very important to not get your frustrations home.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
Openness to learning new knowledge whether in technology or life skills has helped me grow both personally and professionally.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I feel, caring about the people you work with as people first and being trustworthy are the most important aspects of success. In addition, continuous learning and having a growth mindset are also needed. So long as we don’t take ourselves too seriously and are not rigid, we can always change for the better.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
For someone starting out, I would suggest that they pick a job that enables them to learn the most and in a field that they enjoy. I frequently see so many people pick up a job for different reasons and then unable to excel, as it does not match their interests. Fortunately, over the last 10-15 years, a lot of opportunities have been created in new areas that combine multiple fields and offer some very interesting choices for most people. For example, there are great opportunities in Robotics, IoT which marry Computers with Mechanical, Chemical and even Life sciences.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
