Jatin Sharma
Software Development Engineer.
Microsoft
Brief description about me
Hi, I am Jatin Sharma. I natively belong to Jaipur. I completed my B. Tech in Communication & Computer Engineering from The LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur (LNMIIT). I was always into Robotics and Embedded Systems here. I was selected for the prestigious Young India Fellowship programme (IFRE and School of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania). Here I was exposed to Liberal Arts education, which I feel was most important part of my life. It helped me to gain new perspectives about life and taught me the art of questioning. I along with my team worked with SEAS-University of Pennsylvania for 9 months where we developed a tactile feedback belt for visually impaired so that they can navigate in their usual lives. My hobbies include cricket, meditation, music and poetry. I joined Microsoft India R&D Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad in May 2012 and currently work as an IT-Software Development Engineer. My work includes developing software and tools that manages foundation services at Microsoft related to business data.
Challenges in job
The most challenging and interesting thing I found in IT is the “Big Team-Big Project” concept. Rather than a small dedicated team working on a project for 1-2 years we see quarterly releases with big teams. Sometimes size of the team can exceed even 60-70. Such an environment is definitely a huge shift from our regular project coteries at college. Rather than having a mentor/professor who would help you learning things, you get your peers to help you. I really found this thing helping me to collaborate and understand the team dynamics. Everything needs to be standardized, properly documented and time bound which was missing in college projects.
Job made easy
I don’t treat my job as a job. I rather treat it as one more college where I have made some good friends. We learn, we play, we eat, we work and we party.
Upcoming Trends
IT has evolved from a support system to the backbone of software industry and is going to be the essential companion for future technologies such as Natural User Interfaces, Personal Computing and Cloud Computing. The personal computing devices have grown with rich user interfaces, multi-tasking capabilities and seamless connectivity. With the launch of Windows 8 Phone and Surface Microsoft is rapidly picking up with its competitors.
My point of view
The education system in India is not research oriented. It fails to develop an interest in learning itself rather people look for a handsome salary package and treat education just as a medium. This is unfortunate and needs to be changed.
Advice to students
My advice to all my young friends is that they need not look at a job as the final destination of college education. You never know where you’ll be after 20 years. Just follow your passion whether it is in writing, singing, dancing, sports, business, public service or engineering. Sooner or later everyone reaches his/her natural destination.