Key lessons: I learnt in my professional career
p.c.: Sudhir Kumar /Bhutan

Key lessons: I learnt in my professional career

Recently, I completed two decades of my professional career working in India and twenty other countries in Asia, Pacific and Africa. Successful or not, the past twenty years have yielded many valuable lessons if nothing else. It was at that moment I decided to compile it, hoping to provide encouragement and guidance to future careerists or young professionals.

·      Stick to core #business /function of an organization: I worked for five years with a regional organization based in Thailand and I was in the project development/execution unit. As project execution was the core business/function of the organization, I was fortunate to have vast exposure and opportunity to meet a range of leaders of the sector in a very limited time. Organizations have core business and several support functions to support the core. Working in the core business unit of an organization helps in faster learning and growth as core drives the organization, which doesn’t mean support functions are not important as core can’t survive without support.

·      Grow with sunrise sector: I started working on Disaster risk management issues in 2002 and this was the time, when the sector was getting traction in Asia as several mega disasters such as cyclone, earthquake and tsunami hit different parts of Asia and the global framework/commitments were being adopted e.g. the Hyogo Framework for Action (#HFA) on Disaster risk reduction were being adopted. adopted in 2005. The sector was expanding at frantic pace and so was the knowledge domain and being there and done there helped in fast learning and understanding practical nuances. If I can use an analogy, career growth in a sunrise sector/industry is like having gentle tail wind to a flying plane.

·      Scale is important- #Community to global: I started my career at sub-national level in India moved to work at national level in a few countries and followed by working at regional and global level and again to national level. I think working at any level has its inherent advantage, which includes depth and span. Needless to mention working at community or sub-national level gives opportunity for deep dive while regional and global scale gives opportunity to look at a particular issue across a wider span, thus some quick overview of different areas. I think it is important to shuffle between these scales as it helps to connect dot, ground realities are reflected in global policies and strategies and at the same time local actions is part of broader initiatives and gets it rightful place in spectrum of broad development. With extreme caution and acknowledging individual preference, I think assignment at national level with two- or three-year duration would be my ideal pick. 

·      Where to work- type of organizations: I started my career with sub-national government and then moved to UN, followed by an NGO, consulting firm and the Bank. Each organization helps me grasp the fine nuances of a particular group of organizations. Working with sub-national government helped me to understand the bureaucracy, hierarchy, government structure, etc. which is helping me till today. Working with the UN helped me get insight on global development and humanitarian framework. My engagement with the Bank helped me to improve my research, analytical and reporting skill. In a nutshell, working with different types of organization helps to get insights particular to a sub-group of organization and it helps in navigating across different types of organizations as well as in cross-fertilization of ideas.

·      Venture new thematic areas with links to core theme: My first job was related to reconstruction and recovery and then I moved to work on Disaster risk reduction issues. It was followed by climate change issues and then I moved to humanitarian agenda / #conflict These themes/sub-themes ranging from recovery to disaster risk management and from humanitarian issues to climate change are interlinked and working on these issues helped to understand the intricate linkages. I feel it is good to move to a new theme, however its linkage with themes of the past assignments helps in seamless transition and in appreciating overarching theme/issue as one circle.

Let me close it by mentioning, have fun and enjoy your work, as process is important.

(Views are personal)

Loy Rego

Technical Advisor DPMM n SDGs

1y

Worthy lessons from 20 years and more of meaningful practice and a constantly probing and reflective mind. Well done. Congratulations

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Sushil Chaudhary

Country Coordinator, United Nations Volunteers Programme, India

1y

Congrats Sudhir and very interesting and insightful journey. Thanks for sharing.

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Rajan Ghimire

Humanitarian and Development Professional

1y

Insightful an interesting

Chet Bahadur Tamang

Data driven, system thinker, experienced in designing and implementing disaster/climate risk management approach globally. (Anticipatory Action,NBS,AI for Early Warning System,Geospatial Tech, Market System Development)

1y

Enjoyed reading, wish you all the best where ever you are !!

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Hemang Karelia

Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist at The World Bank

1y

Congratulations on 2 decades journey and thanks for sharing the lessons learnt 👍

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