Career Insights on Business and Technology Consulting
HOUSTON: IITAGH co-hosted a panel discussion on Business and Technology Consulting with the Rice Indo American Business Club. The event was held at Rice University, Jones Graduate Business School on Saturday, Feb 27, from 2pm to 4:30pm. Between the three panelists: Rama Manne (Partner at Infosys), Amit Bhandari (Associate Partner at IBM) and Shyam Chulki (Director at Deloitte Consulting LLP), attendees tapped into decades of technology consulting experience. Around 40 people, students, mid-careers and seasoned professionals participated in an engaging 2.5 hours. Students from Rice University and University of Houston made use of the opportunity to connect with other technology and consulting professionals as well.
After a quick introduction, Sundy Srinavasan moderated the discussion for 2 hours fueled by questions which continuously flowed from the the audience. Talking about fuel, we discussed about how long before the oil recovery and how the Energy companies are leveraging technology to improve operational efficiencies. Given the current situation in Houston, job in energy was on top of everyone’s mind. We discussed about how the jobs have moved towards east of Houston with increased downstream activity.
On the topic of career progression, panelists talked about how they made into consulting, starting with their engineering background. Early in their career they gravitated towards learning more about the technology behind the engineering processes. As they got more involved in the technological aspects they were driven towards consulting with executives in shaping strategies. They mentioned that successful consultants empathize with their client’s pain, connect with them and focus on the value they bring in.
Don’t be shy to express your opinion, they said, however make sure that they are backed with data. As you grow in your consulting career, quickly focus on becoming a master of something vs. jack of all things. Collectively the panelists advised that as you move into consulting, you have be ready for a change in pace, network, be flexible and deliver to the “it factor”.
Looking into the future, they talked about criticality of the geopolitical influences, risk sharing approach from consulting companies and increasing footprint of Big Data/IoT/AI in all sectors. Beyond Oil and Gas, genomics and financial evaluation of technology companies were attractive to the panelists. You know you are having fun when one of the questions to the panelists was what would they do if they were Tim Cook, FBI and the Supreme Court. Attendees stayed back to network after 2 hours of panel discussion.
IITAGH President, Shamanth Shankar thanked Rama Manne, Amit Bhandari and Shyam Chulki for being available for this event, Pratish Kanani for bringing the panelist together, Sundy Srinavasan for continued support as the moderator at the Career Insights events, Pradeep Anand for his continued support to IITAGH & helping in outreach, Nishanth Babu and Professor Ramesh for helping with Rice University, Shiladitya Basu, Neha Jhinge, Preeti Singh, Jaideep Reddy, Shannon Hightower, IACCGH and TIE with support and outreach.