“Build for the Customer, Not for Yourself” - My First Career Lesson
It was a warm March afternoon of 1991. I was five months into my first job as a software engineer. I must admit I had a smooth start to my career. However, on that particular day, I was very nervous. I was going to demonstrate the first application that I developed to my boss. Though I did a couple of utilities for other departments, this was the first application that I developed and I was so proud.
Mr. Y
Let me introduce my manager. Mr.Y was one of the most senior engineers in that department. He was a Chief Engineer. He had multiple engineering degrees from top universities and had several awards and accolades. He was part of a core team involved in the design of power plants, oil refineries, space antennas, and other complex structures for companies around the world. He understood software very well and wanted to cultivate the software culture in his department. Even with all his knowledge, power, and influence, Mr.Y led a very simple life. I was so fortunate to have him as my boss, mentor, and leader.
The first application I developed on my first job was written in C language and ran on DOS (Disk Operating System).
