15 Years In Tech

On 10th Oct, 2025 - I completed 15 years in Tech. I worked as a developer, consultant, and architect across multiple domains. Over these years, I gained multiple tech skills, certifications, and dared to switch domains - I have not seen many do this. I am proud of what I have been able to do, and I am grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way - regardless of whether I accepted or denied them.

I took a few months to think about the journey, the experiences, the achievements, the network, the friendships, the impact, and most importantly to validate if I am still me. I am going to be a bit vulnerable today.

I have been passionate, excited and curious about software engineering since the beginning. I learnt coding not to pass an exam or to get a job, but to satisfy my curiosity and for the feeling of gaining a (super)power to build things. Job, exams, interviews, etc. were the byproducts. I still remember my first impressions of learning my first programming language ever - C, and how my views have changed over time with experience, not just for C but programming in general.

The love for tech grew beyond coding towards architecture side of things. Back then, little did care about the "people" aspect of software engineering. For me, software engineering was all about being able to build products which are well-designed. Meaning, they should be scalable, secure, use design patterns, algorithms, networking, and so on. Eventually I got to learn all of them.

Until a few years ago, finding a job for me was not a big task. I was "good enough" to be head hunted. In all my jobs, yes I got paid better than my peers, but it was not about that. It was about the drive which made me go to the root of all things tech, which was perhaps very noticeable for the recruiters. I was unstoppable.

Things have been a bit different lately. Today, I feel like all my questions are answered. Tech has become easy for me, regardless of whichever new framework, programming language, or revolutions pop up. All of it has become predictable. I look at these things not in wonder, but as a judgement how these things might have been implemented under the hood. It is safe to say that as soon as I get a slight grip of anything in tech, a pseudo-blueprint gets created simultaneously in my mind.

This ability is actually of a great virtue. It enables me to ask the right questions, which I think is a very important quality in any business discussion today.

However, because of this predictability, for me personally, things are getting a bit stagnant. I am not excited enough to keep talking about tech. I appear for interviews with zero interest and spark, which obviously affect my performance. I might have become lazy, and the blame is completely on me. But I also cannot ignore the fact that I genuinely feel "there is nothing new here". 5 years ago I used to write and share passionately, but I don't see that happening in the last few years inspite of multiple attempts to start again.

When the clock struck 15 years, I took some time to understand what is happening with me. After much thought, I concluded that I am in need of worthy challenges. Something that makes me analyse, dissect, operate, disintegrate to get to the root of something, and then let me build or rebuild a better system. A goal that drives me every day and lets me flourish the way I have been doing till now.

I realised that I have not just put the people aspect, but also other business related concepts on the back burner, or no burner at all. I have never touched things like finance, sales, marketing, risks, compliance, and HR. I have talked about them casually whenever required in groups, but never really took solid steps to get a grip on these topics.

I think I have reached that saturation level where tech is conquered, and exploring how businesses function as a whole, and perhaps using those skills to build my own business or to collaborate with others, sounds exciting now. May be this is the "need for MBA" moment for me. Obviously, I am not going to follow a traditional path, but just like software engineering, I have begun on my learning journey by reading, writing, talking, and listening.

To me it sounds like a good next step. With foundations in tech, where I design execution systems, I feel excited to the prospects of designing business aka decision systems. I am looking at it as a progression to the next orbit. Some of the questions that haunt me in a good way today are (all in the context of tech business):

1. How does a financial strategy looks like.

2. How does a market at any given moment impact the business decisions, and vice versa.

3. Where should the funds be put to make the most sense.

4. Which critical decisions are CXOs responsible for.

5. Which global/local events could affect the business.

6. How are operations conducted.

7. What are various ways of doing sales, marketing, PR, etc.

8. How do regulations affect business operations and how to be compliant.

... just a few on top of my head. However amateur, these questions are good enough to explain what is going on in my mind, and which direction I am beginning to pursue hence forth. I am not the best at naming such things, and often I let people define the title for me which suits them - "someone" is fine as well. Titles do not matter to me, getting the job done, does.

Of course I would still talk about my foundational expertise in tech because thats what I am building the next step on. I will keep analysing architectures, build things, and share.

I share this journey on Let's Do Tech. Feel free to follow along by subscribing. I write about my opinions about tech businesses, about my learnings, and more.