Hello Graduates!

I was recently asked to do a keynote speech at my alma mater’s CS graduation award ceremony. I felt truly honored and as I started writing it down I felt an urge to write something I would write to myself when I was graduating. Here it is ..

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Hello Graduates,

Today is a day to celebrate your accomplishments and focus.

I would like to start by reflecting on the power you all have as computer science professionals. Some of you will move on to get good jobs at prestigious software companies, some will go to startups. Some of you might have your own ideas and might even start your own companies! What we all have in common is a computer science education, we are all in the category of makers and creators. You will make things with your hands and minds that will be used by thousands and potentially millions of people. Whether its a search engine, a swipe left/right app, or an industrial waste management system. You will all have your opportunity to make an impact. And this is the beauty of being computer science professional.

Someone asked me the other day, what were my typical work hours and my answer was “I am always working and I am never working”. What I meant was, I love my work so much that I never find it “working”. Its something I just do. The amazing thing about software is that people basically pay you to solve interesting puzzles, by its very nature it’s never repeatable, you don’t build the same thing twice, it’s always new. I can tell you from personal experience, it truly is an amazing feeling to not wait for 6 pm so I can rush out the door.

As you all go about pursuing your professional careers, I would wish you all to dig deep and find that one job that truly makes you happy. It could be coding, it could be product management, it could be graphics design so choose to do what you love! From experience I can tell you, most of you don’t know what you will be good at when you are just graduating out of a university, you think you do but you don’t. I say experiment with your career in the beginning, don’t get stuck with one thing.

Now that we are talking about choices, in your professional and personal lives, you will make choices. You will work with many people, different personalities, different priorities. Earlier in your careers you will have a chance to learn from others and later you might have a chance to help someone else. Your current boss might end up working in your team in the future, and vice versa. What I am trying to convey here is, you have the opportunity to be good human being and forge relationships that will last for a lifetime. Technology is an incredibly small network of people and what goes around, truly comes around!

In today’s age, being a software professional is a responsibility. While you all have the privilege to create something that millions could use, you also have a responsibility to handle their information with respect; information that is volunteered to you and information that is potentially deduced by your software technology. Doing the best you can to keep this information private and secure is a requirement, there is a fine line between terms of service and breach of trust.

Software eating the world, algorithms engineers are responsible for more and more important decisions, from self-driving cars to pacemakers. The costs of software errors are higher and higher and you will bear an increasing responsibility.

I ask you all to explore this topic and decide what kind of a software professional you will be. I ask you all to set an example.

As computer science professionals this is not the end of your education, it is just the beginning. I have personally benefited from the somewhat controversial 10000 hour rule. I do believe it works in the Computer Science field. The more you practice, the better you will be and more you will know. Technology has a new thing everything year and it is often very easy to feel lost.

In 2015, BigData/Cloud.

In 2016, Virtual Reality.

In 2017, Machine Learning.

In 2018, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain.

Every year brings more changes than the year before, and sometimes more than an entire decade used to bring. There are many theories on what singularity can be like but no one knows for sure. What is certain that you as software developers will play a big role in this unfolding story.

THANK YOU and BEST OF LUCK!