A Day in the life of Sr. Software Engineer, Harshad Kulkarni
We caught up with Harshad Kulkarni as part of our ‘Day in the Life’ column to find out what life at Isobar is like and what his job entails.
Please describe your job: What do you do?
Being a Sr. Software Engineer in the core technology team here at Isobar Mumbai, my line of work involves the development of a robust ecosystem. I’m also responsible for building the applications that not only cater to the catchy web design but also the hassle-free user experience. Efficiently providing the tech solutions per se by collaborating with the teams of other domains also comes under my expertise.
What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
If you wish to be effective being in my shoes, you should never feel adequate about what you’ve learned recently or what you already know. From what I have experienced, you should always toggle your upgrade switch ON. Of course, you don’t need to know everything, but you should be well versed in what you already have on your plate. Server-side technologies, database architectures, client-side scripting are some of the key factors to be productive in what I do.
Tell us about a typical working day…
A typical working day in my profession is ever-changing. Although there are some definite trends across the industry, the truth is a developer can work just about anywhere. No matter where and what I’m working on, there are few things however, that I get to do daily.
Being a part of the greater team, I feel the results are always positive when the heads are put together. So, the day starts with understanding an existing business problem or a new one. Adhering to the derived solution, the day moves on programming the code for the same and analyzing it later against the problem statement with the help of a quality check expert.
At a time when there are fewer tasks in my bucket, an opportunity to learn something new is always outside the door, knocking! And the house of a developer is still open for the scope of improvement.
How did you end up at Isobar, and where might you go from here?
I started my career working as an Intern at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). The love for science got in motion there with the touch of technology. Followed by that, I worked for start-up companies under the Insurance domain and the offline ad agency. Over there, I worked in adherence to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC). I managed to bag all the ABC of the Insurance and advertisement domain from there.
After working in these domains for a few years, I wanted to widen my scope of work and hence started looking out for the change. That is when one of my mentors enlightened me about an opportunity in Isobar, a global digital agency. Being a part of Isobar helped me deliver an experience-led transformation, powered by creativity. However, there are miles to go before sleep, so I’ll follow mellow and grow with the flow.
Do you have any advice for marketers starting a career in an agency setup?
Well, to my experience, if you’re going to start your career working in an agency, your growth is imminent. Of course, it would be challenging enough to test your expertise. No matter where you are, you have to walk your path, no one is going to walk it for you. To set your MRP in the market and grow in the future, you must run that extra mile.
