Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional
John White | Nick Korte
Podcast
Episodes
Listen, download, subscribe
Beyond System Building: The Practical Applications of Industry Expertise with Srikanth Bollavaram (1/2)
How honest should we be in job interview situations when it comes to what we don’t know? Srikanth Bollavaram, our guest in episode 335, would encourage transparency in these situations, but we should also find a way to communicate what our capabilities are and our potential to meet the challenges of a role. Srikanth is a product development leader with experience spanning the financial, railroad, and consumer packaged goods industries. His story showcases stepping beyond building systems to become a well-rounded leader capable of driving real business impact. Listen closely to the story of an unexpected job assignment in Switzerland that jumpstarted Srikanth’s embrace of industry expertise. Pay special attention during this interview to learn from Srikanth’s experience: Supplementing technical skills with business acumen and continued education Embracing the mindset that every challenge is an opportunity, even if it doesn’t seem that way at first Explaining complex concepts through the lens of practicality to stand out as a job candidate Original Recording Date: 03-30-2025 Topics – Meet Srikanth Bollavaram, Practical Approaches to Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, Relocation and Experience as a Consultant, Execution and Delivery, Continued Education and a Step Beyond Building Systems, End-to-End Solutions in the Railroad Industry 2:13 – Meet Srikanth Bollavaram Srikanth Bollavaram leads a product development organization for a global consumer packaged goods (or CPG) company. His organization is currently focused on building a product for a major business transformation. Srikanth is originally from India but had the opportunity to relocate a couple of different times beginning early in his career. Srikanth relocated first to Switzerland to work in the financial industry and then later to the US. Today Srikanth and his family reside in Dallas, Texas. 2:54 – Practical Approaches to Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science Growing up in India, Srikanth wanted to be an engineer. He was curious about how to build things and how things worked. But at that time there was a general expectation to become either a doctor or an engineer. After being unable to dissect a frog in middle school, Srikanth realized his path was engineering. When you want to be an engineer in India, you have to pass a test similar to the SAT. Based on overall rank, students in the top 1% get to choose their major. Most pursuing higher education would go to either a government school or a private college. Srikanth had only a couple of minutes with a counselor to choose between pursuing mechanical engineering at a top state school or attending a private college to focus on computer science. At the time, Srikanth chose mechanical engineering because he had always wanted to go to the school where this program was offered. While he did like mechanical engineering, Srikanth wanted to be a computer science engineer as well. Many of his courses for mechanical engineering were computer courses, and he focused on the practical uses of computer science for mechanical engineering tasks. John mentions listeners might not know that the test and ranking Srikanth mentioned in India is nation-wide. Universities might differ on the requirements for entry based on your ranking. Srikanth mentioned there was a state-level test in addition to the nationwide test, and based on your ranking you get a choice of major. But you don’t know which major you will get into until you go to counseling. When Srikanth graduated there were not many national or state-wide engineering colleges. Now there is a quite a bit of choice for students in India. Was engineering as a discipline of study as interesting as Srikanth thought it would be? Before he began studying engineering, Srikanth says most of his education leading up to high school was heavily theory based. Srikanth tells us this did change but not to the extent he would have liked. Srikanth tells us engineering designs were basically hand drawn 2-dimensional models. He was studying computer languages and wondered if he could draw a design in real-time on a computer screen, which provided an opportunity to experiment and observe. Srikanth says he was more comfortable with the hands-on aspects of learning than the theoretical parts. There were lab exercises, but they weren’t representative of real-world scenarios. Srikanth was also studying thermodynamics. While they did have labs, if he wanted to see how energy transfer worked (i.e. heat energy converting to electrical energy), Srikanth could go to a power plant to see the entire process. The practical aspect was more interesting. “In engineering what I tried to do is focus less on academics but more on the practical applications of those academics, and that turned out…in my favor…. When I was graduating, all the consulting companies were coming and interviewing, and they were more looking for that broader application or mindset, and it was easier for me to get selected even though my academics were not the top in the class. But I had a broad variety of experience both in computers and engineering, and I could explain things in an easy way.” – Srikanth Bollavaram Consulting firms partnered with many of the universities and would interview graduating students for jobs. Srikanth mentions a computer-based consultancy that was willing to consider candidates from various majors (including mechanical engineering, for example). The consulting firms might ask candidates to take a competency test or conduct interviews to determine how candidates solve problems. Nick says the desire to understand how things work and the practical application of it sets someone up nicely to be able to communicate how things work in a simple way. Srikanth remembers a specific question from his interview about internal combustion engines. The internal combustion engine had been built based on Western designs, but Srikanth explained an example of how Indian engineers had built a stabilizer for fuel efficiency when vehicles traverse rough terrain. Srikanth’s approach to answering the question from a practical standpoint instead of solely a theoretical one really impressed the interviewer. John mentions being able to ground complex concepts in reality and explain them in a way people can understand is something solution engineers constantly have to do, but as a skill this is useful in any discipline or field. Srikanth stresses the importance of taking the time to understand a problem and its practical applications before narrowing to solution. John says this feels like it falls into a pattern we’ve seen in the past. If you think you understand a concept, can you write down an explanation of it in your own words that you will be able to read and understand at a later time? If you cannot explain a concept to yourself, you might not understand it as well as you thought. Srikanth remembers working for a leader who shared a similar lesson related to design. Put the design on paper, and try to explain it to yourself. This process would help someone think through all of a design’s implications and remember more about it in future days and even months afterward. Was this process of explaining things to cement learning something Srikanth found himself doing when he made the move into consulting after graduating from school, or was it later in his career? Srikanth thinks it was later in his career when he moved to technical leader and architect after some coaching from his leaders. Earlier in his career, Srikanth was a programmer driven to learn new concepts through testing and asking questions. 13:59 – Relocation and Experience as a Consultant Srikanth tells us that his relocation to Switzerland was somewhat unexpected. At the time, he was a programmer, and he really wanted to go to the US. Srikanth had heard about a project in Switzerland that would last a few months and was eventually told he had to go. When Srikanth was chosen for the assignment in Switzerland, he did not know what type of work he would be doing. Srikanth learned he would be acting as a liaison between the customer who had hired his employer (a consulting firm) for the project and the IT team. “A lot of times people are observing you, what you do…. Your skill set or what you are is determined by what people are observing. And they somehow thought that I was a better fit for this.” – Srikanth Bollavaram Srikanth remembers his boss on the customer side asking him a lot of business questions the first time they met. In that moment, Srikanth was honest about what he knew and what he did not know but also spoke to the things he could potentially do. “Talking about relocation…it’s all about context…. A lot of it is built on how you take it. I could have been sent back on the next flight because I was not fit for the job, but I talked to him and explained what I know and what I could do potentially based on if somebody could give a training. So, they sent me back on a business side training for like 3 days to get up to speed quickly. Initially I was supposed to be there 4 months, but they liked my work. So, they extended me for like 2 years…. I was a consultant. You just have to go and look at the job you have been assigned, not necessarily just ‘this is what I am going to do.’ What is the problem at…hand? …Do it well, and if you don’t know, build that trust you don’t know but you will learn and still do it. It was a great experience from that regard. It could have ended up otherwise. But it’s what opportunities come to you, and then how…you take it and run with it…makes the difference.” – Srikanth Bollavaram, on being a consultant John reiterates the lesson here in being honest about what our capabilities are and are not. It’s not just about what you don’t feel qualified to do. Speak to what you can do and how you would get u
Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional RSS Feed
