Rahul || Kumar

Summer is Coming

A little Game of Thrones joke, voila. This is a little overdue, but I thought I’d write a post to share what I’m doing this summer.

In this summer, this is very tough (not at all tough, but I had to insert the Lebron line), in this summer I’m going to take my talents to Mountain View and join a stealth startup (backed by YCombinator) creating a product to disrupt the way payments are handled today.

I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity; it’s going to be so much different than anything I’ve experienced to date, and as close as it gets to living in Silicon Valley. While working at a giant company like Cisco or Apple would’ve been great too, working at a true startup means the opportunity to learn how to build a company/see the impact of your work, rather than build an obscure, small feature at a large company with little impact on a company’s bottom line.

Aside from all the fun and demanding work the job will bring, the perks include living in a 3400 square foot place in downtown Mountain View complete with catered breakfast, lunch, and dinner and maybe even a gym. The few I’ve shared the news with compared it to scenes out of The Social Network. I’m not sure if it’ll ever become as big as facebook, but if it does then I have no problems.

I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t spent the last eleven months working at two great Valley companies in two distinct roles (Engineering at Workday and Marketing/Sales at Square), both of which have been incredibly fulfilling. I’m thankful for everything I’ve learned (and still learning) at each, and leading me to this unique opportunity this summer.

Rahul

goals for the year ahead

I’ve tried New Year’s Resolutions in the past and they’ve never really worked out past the second week of January. This year I thought I’d try something different by setting up some goals and benchmarks, a bucket list if you will of what I want to accomplish. Some pertain only to the upcoming year, others for life.

I’ve had a poor reading habit all my life. The only real books I’ve ever read are Harry Potter, and other than that most of my reading comes from magazine and newspapers articles. I’ve never read the Lord of the Rings, or even The Da Vinci Code (blasphemy I know), but it’s just a poor habit that I want to end in 2011. In 2011, I began Steve Jobs (yet to complete it), but there are loads of good books out there that I’d like to get across to, and it’ll help career wise too with programming. so reading more is a top goal. Finish Steve Jobs, then move onto the Dragon Tattoo series, and in the middle of all that some programming books.

Have a schedule or plan. Sounds fancy, but this will help with time management. If I nail this, I’ll be golden. I plan to have a schedule or calendar in iCloud where I can schedule out every day with school, work, and fun activities, which in return will all me to see how I’m spending my time (productive or dicking around). Greater accountability, and transparent. It’ll even be a web calendar so what I’m up to can be seen online by just about anyone.

School. 2011 was an improvement for my academics over 2010, but the ball has to keep rolling. No one way to get better at school outside of tests, which are my weakness, but the real goal is to make sure I stay afloat and don’t sink. As college has gone on, engineering has become more and more brutal and at times graduation could not come any sooner. 5 quarters and counting.

2011 was a mind blowingly good year for my professional/work career; Workday has been a huge boon. I’ve been so fortunate to have gotten this opportunity. It’s been a terrific place to work, I’ve learned more than I’ve learned in school and probably ever will. Dabbling in new programming languages, working on stuff that scales for different needs. Incredible. But there’s no guarantee I’ll be back at Workday, so it’s important to keep working, and make sure something concrete exists for Summer 2012. Ideally Workday would be my number one choice because of the amazing people I’ve met, proximity to home, and the impending IPO (I don’t get shares, so I won’t be rich next year contrary to some beliefs that I do have shares), but I’ve got to look everywhere.

Personal life, the most important one that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. 2011 was good, but 2012 should be great. I’ll finally be 21 which is saying a lot alone, but I’ve made some amazing friends with whom I have so much to be thankful for, and learn from while also giving back. And if I’m lucky maybe I’ll get a girlfriend, but the dry spell could continue. Time will tell on that one, but always hoping for the best. And I’m cutting down further on facebook. I quit for a bit of 2011 and got called a hipster but I have to say I loved my time away. However, it was apparently highly inconvenient for many as they didn’t know how to reach me at times, so I’ll just cut my time down but maintain a profile in 2012, so you can post on my wall and get a response. I’ll be spending more time on twitter where I’m already sharing and engaging more, as well as on Path, my new preferred social network. Fortunately Path is limited to 150 people so I won’t be adding everyone and their mom, just my closest friends, but for all else look to twitter to keep up, I’m in love with it.

and those are the goals for 2012, and I can’t wait to see what does get accomplished and what got pushed back further at the end of 2012… that is if it isn’t the end of the world.