Ved Sen
Digital Evangelist
What I do
I work with emerging digital technologies, helping clients get through problems and foresee future opportunities. There is no business or organization that is not being changed significantly by the digital era.
How I got my job
I had an interesting conversation with TCS. There was not a name for the role, but once TCS knew what they wanted me to do, we could put a name to the role.
What I love about my job
Everything. I like the fact that we work in a place of innovation. I have the freedom to pick up initiatives that I feel look interesting and go after it, no matter the technology or industry. I also like the fact that I get to shape conversations and ideas.
What’s difficult about my job
When you talk about new things, there is always excitement but also a lot of challenges. People have expectations that may not be grounded in reality, so you have to understand what can actually be done. Another is the fact that TCS is choosing to change now while we are doing well. When people are doing well they may not see the need to push themselves out of their comfort zone, and this can be challenging.
What skills I need
The ability to quickly grasp a wide range of emerging technologies. It is crucial to be able to marry design thinking, technology, data science and business, and understand how they come together. I also need to be able to explain things in a way that anyone would be able to understand. Finally, I have to spend up to an hour a day staying abreast of all the things that are going on in the fast-changing world we live in and try to understand how these trends might affect our clients.
Where should young people start if they want to do the job, too?
Get lots of experience in the first five years of your work life. Careers are no longer linear and you can afford to be more experimental. You need to know who you are before you can find the right way to go. If you want to do this job you need to get exposure to design, technology, data science and business, and have a working knowledge of each of these.
How my job could change in the future
The actual tools and components will change – for example, the technologies that we are talking about, or how businesses are adapting to competitive new rules. In those practical ways it seems like my job changes every few months!
