Catalyst is written by an industry veteran Chandramouli Venkatesan. Mouli is known in the industry for conducting training. His sessions are titled "Tee with Mouli". This book is a compilation of what he has been delivering in his corporate training. And, has enhanced his work and insights. Based on the feedback he received from his training participants.
While everyone keeps talking about career. I personally feel there are a lot of unknowns, abstract and ambiguous things in the journey.
Your job is not your career. Careers are long and need to be carefully thought off and designed. There is no framework to it. Career success is also uneven. Not everyone finds it. Luck has its own roles to play, being at the right place at right time has its own value. But, again those things are not within our control.
A good school, good college, a good network, personal coaches/mentors to look up to, books. All are catalysts for career success.
Some ideas he shares in the book that are worth pondering on are:
Time spent at work is not equal to your experience. In interviews, it is a common practice to tell years of experience. While evaluating individual growth a good question to ask ourselves. What are the skills I worked on all these years? What is the work that I did to improve the skills?
Optimize for teams that have good bosses, good managers. At least in the early career years for an individual. A lot of their success also depends on the managers. Sailing in the same boat I get it that from the outside it is difficult to gauge the managers. Unless you have some connection from before. Some level of research can help. Largely I feel, this also is luck-based.
Good mentors accelerate your career growth. Especially, mentors with whom you are not competing in any way. Mentors who are equally invested in your individual growth, your needs. Along with mutual respect and value addition. There might be something you can help them in, there are definitely things in which you can get help.
Work-Life balance is often thought of as finding some sought of balance between work and life. A new perspective I found in the book is, what is the impact of life on your work? For having a good work-life. It is necessary to have and take care of a life that does not involve work.
I read somewhere "What gets measured, gets improved". Mouli shares a good framework for learning and improvement. TMRR stands for Target, Measure, Review, Reflect.
People optimize for success in the early years of career. The early years of career should be for building the foundation. This foundation should help you win in the later half of your career. There are fewer people who find success in later years.
A mentor who has more years of experience under his belt can also help you in seeing a long-term career. Imagine 10-20 years down the line. Having the same age or 3-4 years elder friend as a mentor might not give long-term insights.
Be involved in longer learning cycles. Be involved in high-impact work. Long stints of work at one company might result in exponential growth.
Decision to join or quit a company should be independent of each other. When quitting take decisions based on learning and fit. When joining an organization look for opportunities for real individual growth.
Create your values, live by your values.
Having a "Passionately Striving" Hobby is a career catalyst. Playing individual sports can have a high positive impact on individual growth. They keep you grounded. They teach you to continuously keep putting efforts to improve. They give you a sense of achievement. You are not competing against anyone. They help you in keeping a check on your own progress.
In career in life in general there are many things that are not within our control. From the handful of things that are to some extent in our control one is individual growth. I believe there is nothing better than proof of work to show your competence.
If you are interested in having a copy of book for yourself or might want to gift someone. Here is a link: