Shadowing Practice: Microsoft MVPs - Rakesh Darge - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Geez, you've got so many credits to your name.

I was looking at your profile.

MCT, MVP, senior solutions architect.

Not bad.

um tell me about uh what's happened in your life

that made you keep pushing and keep going up

that pathway fast track for example yeah

if you ask me i'm a strong believer in uh in the technology okay i do believe

that technology is changing the human life the way it is being defined earlier and

if you ask me about myself

then i try to more focus on learn new things as you mentioned about the past right

so that was one of the aim in my bucket list

that i wanted to achieve this

and i tried my level best definitely

there are a lot of support from community a lot of

support my friends colleagues right who actually really inspired me to do

that but again there are other people outside my organization and outside the community those are in the you know their

what you can say career path they also achieve a lot so i think that really inspired me to achieve

more in that aspect and that's how i became a prospect recommend architect i think

this is the second award that i have i'm looking forward the third time

if i eligible and if i got that award then

that becomes kind of a hat trick for me wow um what happened to you

that made you feel

that one was not enough it was was it um someone who was a really high achiever around you

and you said if i'm ever going to be good i'll be like

that person no if you

if you ask me uh as i mentioned i'm a strong believer in myself whatever i'm doing i never compare

my day -to -day activity with others okay

but yes I do inspire by looking at their you know

thought process how they are trying to you know grow themselves

so I try to adopt as much as I can

but I never compare my day -to -day activity with others

that's how I typically focus my career what is your day -to -day work like

when you wake up in the morning do you straight away roll over to your phone

and start searching stuff or do you have a quiet peaceful morning

it's actually a good question chris

so the day starts with the spirituality okay

i do my yoga at least i try to spend close to 60 minutes

if not 90 minutes

but uh get out of here i try to spend yeah

i try to spend some time uh 60 minutes to perform my yoga after

that i i read a lot of uh books those are categorically highlighted in the spirituality

so i spent i saw them you have a stack yeah

and uh then i start my day with either a cup of coffee

or a tea okay and uh and my breakfast

and then start to focus on native activity typically

i try to be more focused uh the emails those i should respond to my customers then my colleagues

and then my management teams

I try to categorize in this way so

that my customer should be always happy

and my team should be also rallying along me

if they need any support from me and then also but obviously my management team.

Typically, I start my day around 8 .30 to 9 .00 in ISC morning

and try to close my day around sometimes 6 .30, but it can go up to 9 .30

or 10 .00 p .m in the evening as well

that's how my busy scheduling day in terms of my contribution

to community what I typically do I try to spare at least one day in a week primarily Saturday

if that is not planned for my family time

but sometimes it gets hectic right

so what I do whenever I get some free time in this entire nine hours

or ten hours a day I try to make a note of a couple of points

that I need to brought forward or showcase to the community so that I can get some ball rolling for Saturday.

So that's how I try to focus more on that.

So I try to balance both my day -to -day activity with my organisers

and what they assign to me in terms of delivery.

And then second aspect, to contribute to the community.

Yes, actually, a lot of people are confused with MVPs, for example, is how much time to give to the community.

I'm glad you gave it a limit because it's sustainable.

How did you get into yoga and what does it do for you beyond what we know?

It seems to bring peace and clarity to people's lives.

What happened that got you into yoga?

I think a couple of months back, close to seven, eight months back,

I was going through a bad patch where my blood pressure was shoot up close to 150 and 160.

And doctor advised me not to put too much pressure on you in terms of day -to -day activity

and started the medicines and all.

And then one day what happened, I was in a discussion with one of my close friends

and he advised me wanting to try for this yoga okay although i am a strong believer in the spirituality

but i never tried the yoga earlier because

when it comes to yoga uh few people always believe

that yoga means you have to do some sort of activities uh

but they never thought about it is beyond

that where you try to achieve some inner peace right

so with that advice i try to focus more on the ego

and that's how i enter into the yoga uh

when i started yoga close to six months back

I was just a beginner I just did three months of crash course

and then there was a theoretical

and practical thing now I started focusing to become a yoga teacher

because that's how I believe that

if I become a yoga teacher maybe I can inspire more people right they'll also try to understand the benefits

that you get by doing not only just asanas

but also to focus more on the you know some sort of focus to you know gain your inner peace

that's how it is i enter into the over did you have to detox from your mobile phone

because you know we're always looking at the side just to see what's

there no what did you don't you turn it off or push it away

no i think whenever there is a particular focus i try to keep my mobile phone in a separate zone

and never focus on that.

And whenever I, I mean, that's how I divide it.

I try to divide my bucket for contribution to community, as I mentioned earlier, right?

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So I try to give a specific time to focus on the LinkedIn or other activities.

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I never get, to be honest, I never get confused that, no, I need to always focus on the LinkedIn activity or WhatsApp kind of thing.

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That's great.

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That's a great maturity of mind.

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most people find it hard to isolate their sections of their day

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and therefore just becomes a scrambled egg right across it

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so let's go back to your early years mikesh tell me about the person

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that you once were and what you recall from those growing years

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uh if i reflect back uh

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when i started my journey as a software engineer okay uh no

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i mean even even back further like baby rakesh like the the happy child

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or the angry child what were you like as a young person okay

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so uh i basically belong to middle class family in india

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i grew up in the middle class family my father was uh

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he was doing a service

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he was a i would say a mechanical guy fully focus on the mechanical stuff my mother is housewife

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and i'm a i would say a elder son in the family

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and i was fully focused uh during my childhood on the education whatever activity

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that i had to perform whether it's educational section whether it is in sports section

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i just try to focus what best i can do okay yeah

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and i always uh shy to become a speaker whenever there are any kind of occasion happens within the school

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or college i i you go to the back yeah i try to participate

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but then i always believe i should not be front sitter i should be always the back so

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but did you feel you understood what what your knowledge you were trying to say did you have the knowledge

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and the expertise but you just didn't know yeah but

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but you know that's where uh my friends couple of friends during my college days

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and post -college days also they really inspired me if you

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if you just try to do with this you are not going to achieve anything okay

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so you got to get kind of a get going attitude you try to focus

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and that actually inspired me a lot and during my college day i tried to focus more on that aspect and then

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And that's how I started learning the power of, you know, self -believing yourself, right?

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And then once I got out of the college

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and then focused more on the learning aspect and focused more on the solution architecting and developer kind of a thing, right?

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Then I learned a lot.

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And there also I met so many good people who really inspired me and supported me in this area.

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And then that's how I started, you know, growing in that area.

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Can you break it down for me, Rakesh, about self -belief?

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So, for example, when I fear if I start something new, maybe it's on LinkedIn, you try to put something on there.

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I imagine, say, people laughing or making fun or thinking this is unprofessional.

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Maybe I wonder what it will do for their image of me, right?

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What is self -belief for you and what were the voices in your head

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that you were trying to calm down, change things?

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if you ask me first of all i never get confused press okay i never get bogged down

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that who is saying what about me

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if i decided to go with this path

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then i try to give my more than 100 percent what it means

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that uh there will be always you know to balance uh the you know the thing

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but you just try to focus more aspect uh what others are giving you

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that feedback or trying to procrastinate right it doesn't go into support you right going forward

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so i define my own path

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so i define my own path whether it's a linkedin learning

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or whether it's in community learning but i try to focus on

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that aspects then like give me an example of something maybe you tried

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it didn't work out for you maybe you said failed

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or it just wasn't what you had planned was do you have an example of

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that yeah there are there are many examples there are many examples

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I'll give you one of the examples which really inspired me and whatever I am today because of,

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I would say that, when I started my journey into this software engineering world back in 2001,

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I was playing the role of VC++ developer, okay?

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Because I did the CDAC, one of the advanced courses here in India, which talks about the programming languages,

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database architecture, relationship, etc. And when I joined that particular company, they offered me a good amount of salary in INR.

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That is back in 2001.

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And the contract was, I'll be there for three months of time.

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I will learn the VC++ on their go -life projects, right?

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And that's how I'm going to get.

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And then post that activity, they are going to continue me as an employee, okay?

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Unfortunately, what happened, I spent close to one month of time.

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Something happened and one fine day morning, they called me saying that, oh, sorry, we cannot continue.

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I said, but we had a contract, you know, three months of time.

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It should give me at least that 90 days of time.

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And if you believe after 90 days, I'm not the right candidate or right talent, definitely you can kick me out.

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Right.

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That's fair.

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Yeah.

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But they decided not to continue with that

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and i was kind of nervous

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that time then they offered me you have two choices one either

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you get out of this organization right away second uh not empathy

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but looking at you probably we would allow you uh

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that you can work here for a half a day

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we will keep we will pay

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you a 50 percent of salary not the whole salary uh then i discussed with my mother

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and father and my father always he's a hero for me

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and he always inspired he's always saying no that's fine

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if it is half a day fair enough

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if it is 50 salary that's fine

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you are going to get a lot of things spend some time okay don't get bogged down don't get confused

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and don't get frustrated definitely tomorrow would be better today

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and you won't believe i spent close to one year with

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that organization with a 50 % of contribution

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so definitely I got a 50 % of salary

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but remaining 50 % okay

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that really helped me a lot in terms of build more

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connections learn more things in the technology area by where I started VC++

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but 50 % time in a day I used to spend with the 50 % the VC++ development

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and remaining 50 % I started focusing on the other project development activities and I think to to your point though,

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that was a point that I decided to never look back, try to focus.

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If you have a strong believer, you can achieve anything in the world, right?

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So that's how I try to end up that particular instance.

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You know, what's interesting about that example is that on the one hand, you're right.

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You actually achieve so much more by staying and accepting

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that the 50 % is much more valuable to you because you didn't have the experience, right?

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On the other hand, Could there be a different story that if you left, you might have got a job at 100 % somewhere else?

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How do you understand which was the better choice for you?

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To answer your question, it was very simple for me.

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Whatever that was more fascinating for me and whichever way that I could.

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you know, enjoy that journey of that job, I would like to continue.

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And that's how even though they pay 50%, I still continue that journey.

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And you know what happens after close to seven years of time when I started entering into Dynamics,

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that journey of 50 % of salary really helped me a lot

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because I gained so much of aspect of object -oriented programming,

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how to design the solution when it comes to database involvements and so on and so forth.

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That helped me a lot when I started in dynamic journey.

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In addition to this, when I joined the dynamic journey, there were a lot of interviews happened and people used to ask me,

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do you know the fundamentals of object -oriented language?

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But I spent my close to five years of time with VC++ programming language.

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I could be able to crack that interview.

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I think that really helped me a lot, Chris.

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I agree.

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Object -oriented programming, there's many people who do linear programming and very few who understand true OI.

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And obviously, if you had that foundation, that helps you with X++ and the way things work even in C Sharp now,

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right, with integrations as well so okay so from

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that programming background walking through your timeline

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you move from uh one place to the other like for example dillion software

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and infinity um spending a year year and a half with

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that what was happening in your mind uh about

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that jump between these places in a relatively short time were you being offered more

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or greater responsibility before you hit blue star yeah so

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So what happens while I was focusing on this programming language, I met one of my teacher during my TEDx days,

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and he always used to tell me, don't focus what you're doing as a VC plus or a visual basic programmer.

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Try to see what's happening in the markets.

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And he actually gives me a lead that, look, there is a boom of ERP.

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And that time, ERP was not known to me.

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So I tried to learn what is this ERP.

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I was so fascinated about that ERP that some organization is doing something, the entire piece of work, which consists of all business processes together,

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right from accounts payable, accounts receivable, generally, everything is together.

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And your job is to, you know, just focus what they have built from a process perspective,

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from a technology perspective, and try to infuse your knowledge into it so that you can extend it further.

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And I think that, again, inspired me a lot that I need to enter into area of ERP.

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Another segment that I could see in that ERP that it was completely growing,

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that ERP segment, and I could see that I can become an architect in that area.

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So that was the aspiration one of my teachers gave me.

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So I thought, let's focus on that area, and then I started booming.

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So that's where, before I joined

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Blue Star InfoTech, which is one of my first organizations in the dynamic world, Prior to that, I joined one of the organizations in India,

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in Mumbai, where I learned a core concept of ERP.

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I don't know how many of you are aware.

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Today, there is an ERP called Infor.

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Earlier, it was managing by a company called Sightline.

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Now, it is took over by Infor.

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So, there I spent quite a good amount of time.

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There, I learned the fundamentals of ERP, the fundamentals of technical artifacts of the ERP, etc. and then I started focusing on the dynamic change.

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It's a very interesting journey how we often see a solution architects coming from maybe a functional side

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and then maybe before that maybe developers, right?

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That's a path I've seen often, but I've probably not seen a developer jumping to a solution architect type role.

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That was a big jump.

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How did you get

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that opportunity? yeah i think i would say uh

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there were a few innate capability was there second uh my education background

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because i grew up in india

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i i did my post -graduation in uh master's in commerce

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then i did uh the master's in uh business application uh uh management

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then also i completed uh mba in finance okay so

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that helped me a lot in terms of the understanding of the core finance piece, how the fundamentals of finance work.

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So that was, I would say, for me, very easy to understand.

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Another aspect that I was more inclined towards the technology.

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So after the graduation, I spent close to one year and I did one of the known courses here in India,

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we call it SIDAC, and there I learned a lot in that diploma course in terms of the software engine concept, in terms of the programming,

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database design, so and so forth everything I learned and then I

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double up together my core knowledge of

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that I learned from my education background plus the technical knowledge right

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that becomes a strong foundation for me that's the reason I thought it's a good approach

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and then when I started learning in this blue star journey right there also I met

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so much fascinated people and I inspired from them one of my friends in

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that organization he really inspired me why didn't to focus on completing the MBA in the finance

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I replied back to him in a very different way.

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Are you serious?

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Are you joking with me?

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Then he said, no, no, no, you have to do that.

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And he helped me a lot why I should go for the part -time MBA course from here in India.

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And I think that helped me a lot because there I learned the fundamentals of the financial accounting, management accounting, all these aspects.

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And that's become an architect.

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You seem to have a lot of good friends.

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I think a lot of people that I speak with would love to have your friends.

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They seem to be giving you great advice through your journey.

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With your solutions architect, if I took another solution design by another architect and I gave it to you,

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what is the typical things that you notice straight away about what other architects are doing wrong?

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Do they constantly miss out the integrations?

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Do they constantly not go deep enough into the detailed design for the solution?

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do you get a chance to reflect on these things?

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Yeah, I did multiple reviews within the organization and definitely whenever I get a chance outside the organization,

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being a community leader and a fast -track recognized solution architect.

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If you ask me, I try to give a more focus on the pain point that customer is facing, okay?

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Okay.

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Because I do believe if a guy who is a solution architect,

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I don't want to teach him how this fundamental is all about of Dynamics ERP product rights.

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What is more important he or she to understand the current pain point of a customer?

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So I try to give more focus on the pain point, what customers are really suffering and by implementing this solution design,

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how we are going to get rid of those pain points.

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If not all, then how we are going to help customer to achieve more in that particular area.

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And do you find with the pain points that they are taken directly from what the customer is saying?

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Or is there a certain investigative approach you do to get the customer to talk more

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and to highlight the underlying deeper levels of pain?

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Because if you ask a customer, they'll give you the top line problem, right?

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They may not themselves understand the true cause, the root cause.

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Yeah, if you ask me, there are two fundamental things that as an architect, everyone should be able to understand.

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Definitely, we need to pay more attention to pain points.

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But to address that pain point,

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what I strongly believe, you should have that consulting thought process in your mind when you go and talk to customers.

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Okay, definitely technology is the outcome to achieve that.

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But before you get into a technology, I believe that when you have that consulting mindset and when you're talking to a customer,

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you will really understand the pain point and try to see if that pain point can be addressed by,

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you know, enabling some of the core processes that customer has within their organization, right?

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It could be a change management process, it could be some tweaking in the process, or it could be anything, right?

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So try to see if you can contribute your knowledge and thought process into that area before you conclude towards the technology.

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Because technology, I believe, is one of the area where you achieve something,

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but it does not mean that a customer is really going to be happy

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because you have to pay an additional licensing card, you have to pay additional the admin privileges or admin overheads, so on and so forth.

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Do you see examples where customers, and I've had them in my life in consulting, where a CFO might avoid $100 ,000,

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$200 ,000 in licensing costs but create many times

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that in manual work because the licensing cost is a here and now problem.

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They just want to not blow their budget.

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And so they would retain three, five extra people to keep processing the old way.

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Do you have examples of that where maybe people haven't figured out the direction

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or the purpose of what they're trying to do with the RP systems?

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If you ask me, in my view, there are close to 60 % CXL candidates

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that I have seen they try to adopt

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and go with this pattern just to manage the entire budget of the projects rather the licensing cost.

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But but my suggestion to that level at if you can achieve

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that process where there will not be any more burden on your employees, then I think go for it.

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Otherwise, try to see what you can think from out of the box.

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For example, if there is a process to optimize, why can't you go with the other routes where you can

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save X number of man hours in a day -to -day activity, right?

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If not, then you have only one choice left to go and buy those subscriptions and, you know, pay some additional money to Microsoft.

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Is it part of your role to backfill

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that sort of calculations to actually go back and demonstrate the potential savings for them?

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Okay.

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Yeah, because I believe architect being a solution architect is also one of the area, right?

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Expected area where you try to help and educate the customer.

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These are the area in the licensing bucket where you can optimize the cost.

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Over the years, I've seen with clients like CFOs or general managers a change in their skill level.

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That is, it's trending up.

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So, for example, 10 years ago when I spoke to CFOs, they may say, look, just make it happen.

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And they'd wave me off.

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There'd be a budget and, well, the whole responsibility would have been shifted to me.

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But nowadays, I'm seeing the next generation or maybe just people more interested in ERP systems.

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They come and they can talk like on the same level.

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And we're talking about the way the systems are integrated.

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They're talking about the power platforms.

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Their understanding is far higher.

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And because of that, it's great.

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It's very helpful.

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But I'm also challenged.

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I have to step up my game because obviously, they can talk deeper and drill deeper into solutions.

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Have you experienced that with your clients?

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They're coming to you with a greater understanding of technology.

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Yes, I think there are a few clients, they are more matured in terms of what technology can bring a value to their entire ecosystem, right?

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So there, the architect job is, I would say, a bit easier than others, where they always come forward and say,

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why don't you leverage the power automation kind of activity that I'm looking for, right?

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or sometimes they come back with the thought process

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that I don't want to customize any kind of area in my ERK system.

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It's going to be more complex for me from a maintenance perspective.

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Why don't you leverage the power automation?

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Yes.

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So, or sometimes the power apps as well.

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So that's where I think that macularity level is there.

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Almost all the customers nowadays.

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What about with hypercare?

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So, for example, much of the budget is consumed

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and on the day of go live it like hits zero

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that's what the clients think budgets for to get you to go live

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but as you know

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you have to continue your hypercare tools cycles go through whether it's your daily weekly monthly cycles

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and often the end of year cycle is that final step

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that you can improve at least once

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that you've covered all the scenarios well how do you go with the balancing of

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that budget and making sure that the clients understand to include

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hypercare for a lengthier period of time so they're not left isolated, just dropped into the BAU as usual.

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To be honest with you, I never faced this kind of issue because the project that I work with,

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mostly good projects are fixed by project where the hypercare is part of

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and the typical year or period for the hypercare is close to two or three months.

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Again, it is based on the complexity or the size of that project.

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But I haven't seen that the customer is running out of budget because of some valid reason during that hypercarriage.

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Yes, so I imagine you now, we walked through your journey.

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You've arrived at Tata Consulting Services.

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You've been there for 13 years.

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At some point in that journey, you thought to yourself, where am I going in life?

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What can I do for the community how did

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that moment bubble up to the surface in your in your mind

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and then what was your response to it at the time

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I think it always happens every day what I can do better myself

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and for community but you know it's a journey right you have to learn along the way

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and definitely you also learn a lot from other community leaders

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and the members but I think that

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that aspect comes every day in my mind and whatever the small contribution

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that I can do for community i really enjoy whether it's a blog whether it's any kind of sharing of

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that learning or any kind of aspects

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that you know really helped me to enjoy and very soon me

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and my other leaders for my user group that has belonged to Mumbai India user group.

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the community.

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We are planning to start a new concept called the 90

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days mentor challenges to become a solution architect in this finance and operation app.

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Because I have seen many folks out there, they come from a technical background and a functioning background,

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and somehow they believe that they have spent close to five years, six years, or 10 years,

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but they are trying to find out the way where I'm going to become

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and what time I'm going to become an architect right

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so we are just trying to define the solution the structure

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approach as a free learning for those folks who are really wanting to become a solution architects maybe

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it will be out soon somewhere around mid of june

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or maybe beginning of the july that's how we are working in the background

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i ask you something from a career perspective um maybe it's at tata

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or other places do you earn more money as is the only way to earn money

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if you go higher like from functional to solutions

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or can you stay in a functional level or even as a developer

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and become better better better and earn more going laterally

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and the reason i ask you this is how many people want to become solution architects

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because it's the only way to earn more money

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if you ask me i think there are many folks out there they always believe

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that one day i become an architect probably i'll earn a lot what i'm currently earning

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because maybe as a technical consultant i think uh they are true from their perspective

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but i do believe

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so there is also other segment where what you uh with you what you most liked

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it right you should go with that path if you understood my journey

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and if i reflect back i started as a developer

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and then become a uh the lead and architect

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but i never ever focus uh on the salary to be honest i never kind of pay more attention that okay

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if i become architect then i'll earn a lot i leave

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it to my management team what they feel about me okay

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and my skill set and they appropriately they try to pass that judgment call in terms of salary

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But definitely, if someone wants to really go with that path, they can define their own path and see what, because it is also most importantly,

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we need to understand the interest, right?

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If you just pay more attention to salary to become architect, okay, and if you are not having that amount of interest as an architect,

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then you will not be able to justify that salary, isn't it, sir?

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I totally agree with you.

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But having had Indian parents myself and many of my colleagues, like mom and dad pushes someone to be a doctor or engineer or whatever,

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it's based on the fact that a greater salary makes it more stable for your family.

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You won't have as many other pressures.

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So I'm not putting down the fact that they need to earn money.

438

It's more, I only wish there was other pathways rather than you have to keep going up and up.

439

For example, I love software development if you could just stay in software development

440

and have great time

441

and earn a good wage then many people might want to just stay there

442

and enjoy themselves um but i take apart your point

443

that you've chosen the path of interest and not salary

444

and uh good on you for doing

445

that hey i'd like to know um working in mumbai do

446

you know where malad is by the way malad yeah

447

i just have family there yeah one of the suburbs in mumbai malad

448

if i ever go there i go straight from the airport straight to malad

449

and then i have family then i go back

450

and then navi mumbai as well i got family there as well

451

so it's a great place to live um

452

but coming back with the culture when you're dealing with companies overseas have you noticed

453

that the way in which you think um say dealing with an australian company

454

or one country is different and the reason i ask you this is because I was talking to Muhammad Yasser,

455

and he was saying, if you talk to, say, an Australian company, they say, tell me all the features in D365 F &R.

456

But if I present to an American company, they say, well, you should have customized that presentation specifically for our market,

457

our type of industry, and told me just the features that matter for us.

458

In other words, do your research before you come to us.

459

Working with different companies, do you see a cultural difference in how you have to do things?

460

yes definitely every company has its own culture okay but the company

461

that i am working which is cca rights they have a very strong culture

462

and strong values uh to help customers right

463

so we always pay more attention as i mentioned earlier try to see how best

464

we can address the customer pain points not always look at the technology side technology is one of the side

465

but see how best we can achieve

466

and try to help customer to resolve the problem statements uh

467

but if there other companies as mentioned by Mohammed Yasser to you earlier right

468

so there are a few companies but again it depends upon companies culture by culture right

469

No, I mean, like with your clients that you talk to,

470

do you notice differences in how your presentation is carved or cut for different countries?

471

Yeah, so there are two segments that I have seen.

472

Those clients, those are knowing TCS, what is TCS across the globe.

473

They're actually aware of the TCS culture

474

but those who are really a new brand name for us

475

then we typically try to spend more time to define

476

and explain our culture so

477

that client can also learn a lot okay currently what the two implementation

478

that i am involved one of our client they are pretty new to pieces as an organization okay

479

and their initial days we spend quite a good amount of time in terms of define the whole culture

480

so that that agility should be there and that agility is going to help not only for the technology, not only for the implementation,

481

but also to maintain the long -term relationship with the client.

482

I get you.

483

I've actually also had a look at your blog

484

and I've noticed the way you present your personal branding is at a high level.

485

Did you have earlier articles blogs where you were actually not as polished

486

and then you learned over time you go okay

487

this is how i need to structure my titles this is how i need to have

488

that front cover photo how did that happen did it happen on day one or did it take you years

489

no definitely not day one day one was completely a learning i'll be very honest with you

490

and then over a period of time close to one year

491

it took me close to one year to reach to

492

that level okay

493

but you know what i mean

494

i try to spend quite a good amount of time to

495

understand how other leaders try to make more focus how they write

496

and all and i also try to watch a lot of

497

youtube videos from a different leaders from the different technologies companies

498

how they talk how they try to define the problem statement right

499

so yeah one of the thing

500

that i have learned from the community many folks

501

they write a blogs uh based on their skill set okay

502

some may be good at a technical some may be good at an architecture

503

and some may be good at the functional area across finance supply chain commerce

504

and example one thing i have noticed there are few people within the community

505

they try to define the problem statement okay and i picked up

506

that uh point from that point onward

507

if you look at most of my blog where

508

if i know everything you know nowadays uh everything is available

509

you can use a chat gpt you can use the germany everywhere you find all the answers

510

if not 100 close to 50 what is really missing you know the practical experience

511

so if you define a problem statement uh probably

512

that problem statement can help others they also suffering from the same problem statement

513

that's the reason i gradually learn a lot second uh

514

from my have my wife

515

i picked up a one good habit uh learn a lot of she says more

516

you say one she says ten

517

so uh she she actually read a lot of books in a day

518

or if not a week so i picked up

519

that habit from her and try to read at least one book in a week, if not two.

520

I try to pay more attention to that.

521

That really helped me to define the subject very precise.

522

Most of the

523

blogs, probably you would see

524

that where I try to define some sort of different nominic later because that comes from what I learned from these books,

525

all kinds of books, not in a specific category of the book.

526

But that's how it reached to a level of the way I'm writing a blog nowadays.

527

Yes, it actually, it's funny to say this, but it's also entertaining.

528

So there's an aspect of pure fact and logic that you're presenting.

529

And then you've gotten into my mind by saying, I know you want to be tickled.

530

I know you want your eyes to be played with the various colors, the fonts, the layout.

531

And because of that, it's almost like candy to me

532

and i want to go and click on it

533

because it's it's sugary and sweet so there's something where you've learned

534

that very well and because of

535

that um maybe people can use yours as a template for how to do a blog right

536

they don't have to copy it but just it's a good way of thinking

537

and you know there is another point uh within my team the majority of team members uh

538

they belong to Deng D ok

539

And they have a lot of power, they have a lot of energy, and they have a lot of visualization.

540

So I learn a lot, a lot of things from my team as well while working on a project.

541

And they try to adapt and try to implement what you can see on my blogs and my YouTube videos and all.

542

You know, you have one photo of you, and this is a compliment.

543

Everything about each of the images is different.

544

And there's this one feature that gives continuity across all of them.

545

If someone were to see it, they would say, oh, no, it's different photos.

546

But if you look closely, it's the same photo.

547

And I think that's a great thread that goes through all of your blog listings.

548

Tell me about D365 Cliff Notes.

549

Cliff's Notes.

550

Who's Cliff's?

551

So I think there's a story behind.

552

When I started the journey back in 2005, in Dynamics 365, I joined that organization called Blue Star Infotech.

553

I joined as an Accepta developer, and what happened within two weeks of time,

554

I got to know that I no longer will be part of the Accepta team, I'll be part of the Davidian team.

555

So I discussed with the management team why that change has happened because I do have experience of VC++,

556

which is the programming, the object -oriented concepts.

557

I can pick up X++ language, etc. They said, no, right now we don't have any project.

558

And after two weeks of time, I spent day in and day out in terms of understanding the navigation tool.

559

And I don't know what happened after three weeks of time all of a sudden

560

they came to me no no you have to start focusing on accepta again okay

561

and that's how i entered into accepta i don't know what happened in the background

562

and that's how i started into accepta since

563

that day until i think 2018

564

and 19 i am not actively involved in the community though

565

i was fully focused on my day -to -day activity and projects

566

and a lot of really inspired me uh i tried also a lot uh how to become mvp okay

567

and those days uh i was literally struggling to understand what are the criteria to become a mvp okay

568

and one fine day what happened

569

i connected a guy called fawad fawad khan fawad was managing the community

570

he was a community manager uh close to two years back

571

and uh he helped me a lot uh how to achieve the you know the mvp

572

and then he defined

573

that path for me to be honest with him

574

he he helped me a lot to connect to other folks those who are uh

575

you know really uh became my mvp with his guidance

576

and i connected those people and then i said okay that's the journey

577

and that defines me to come up with

578

that domain name of my blog post it's a cliff note

579

so cliff stands for something is strong it's a hard drop

580

and note something that I could learn day to day and day activities,

581

day to day activities that I can simplify the learning for others.

582

That's become the cliff notes.

583

Now I do attach that cliff notes to some of the technology.

584

I could go for a power platform.

585

I could go for a dynamic 365, but then I realized that could be too clumsy.

586

Then I stick to only D65 and that become D365 cliff notes.

587

Yes, if I was your friend at the time, Makesh, I would have said you can also fall off a cliff and die.

588

So I would have teased you about it.

589

Anyway, okay, you're writing your blog.

590

I'm thinking how you sit down

591

and I want to help other people who maybe are going to write their first article on LinkedIn.

592

How do you sit down and work me through writing a blog post

593

so that another person can get over their fear of picking their knowledge, solving a simple problem, like you said,

594

solving a pain point, and then pressing the post button.

595

Because that's the hardest thing to do, right?

596

And you do it all the time.

597

I think if you ask me if someone is trying to start their journey today onwards, maybe a week it is going to be hard.

598

But after, maybe a week later, it is going to be a smooth journey, okay?

599

if you ask me how do I write a blog

600

then what I typically do I do have plenty of apps on my mobile whenever

601

I get some free time during my lunch or during my specific segment

602

that I get in a day

603

I try to make a note of those points still I do have a list of blogs

604

that I supposed to write so I always start with okay the blog titles okay

605

if I reach to at least 10 digit of title then I go into each and every blog.

606

And within that block, I cannot write the entire journey in a day, right?

607

So I start my day around, say, for example, Monday morning,

608

and I try to list down the points that I need to simplify during my weekend time.

609

Okay.

610

So that really helped me.

611

Say, for example, Monday to Friday, if I list down a few sections in my mobile device for one particular block,

612

then that actually tried to help me to summarize on Saturday or Sunday, whenever I get time.

613

I see.

614

Otherwise, yes, I see so your mind is fertile during the week, constantly planting little seeds into your phone or your mobile device,

615

and then when you arrive at the weekend,

616

you've already have a structured set of hooks that you're going to now fill in with the actual content.

617

OK, and then because you said you've already figured out your title, you're not sitting there for hours trying to get a punch punchline going.

618

It's it's a straightforward one, OK?

619

and then at the end of this i know you told me this before i'm not repeating it

620

but you're not really worried about what others think of you

621

but you go back

622

and verify do you show to your friend family no

623

i read this no

624

i try to discuss with my team as i mentioned most of the people within my team

625

they belong to generation so they understand what really wants so

626

if i get a time or if they're also available during

627

that time i try to showcase the high level content

628

that i'm trying to highlight

629

so that's how i get the reviews okay say for example i define the problem statement

630

if that problem statement is not going to help others there is no point to list down the box right

631

so yeah they try to help me to list down these

632

you know validate whether it is really going to be understood by the third person

633

that is point number one point number two once the entire blog is ready right then i always try

634

so i was gonna say are they honest yeah yeah they always honest even

635

if it hurts you yeah yeah they always honest they never looked at

636

that he's my senior how can i say

637

that with this writer no they're always honest they're always honest okay

638

and they always give me a kind of a whether it's a positive or negative feedback.

639

In fact, many times happen I wrote two paras and they always mention to me, no, no, these three paras are not going to help you.

640

You reduce to two paras.

641

Or maybe you remove the entire para, try to have this kind of aspect, maybe some pictorial view and something like that,

642

that will really help you a lot.

643

Okay.

644

That's nice.

645

Yeah.

646

It's a bit like your support team.

647

In fact, you might be an honorary

648

Gen Z, you know that after a while

649

if you mix with them it might rub off onto you

650

and you won't want to hang out with anyone who's older than gen z

651

you just hang out with them listen to their music i i try my level best day to day

652

but to be honest with you i'm still not there yet okay

653

i'm learning a lot i'll have a look at your playlist on your phone i'll tell you which gen you're on

654

that's exciting so then um moving from blobs to videos what are your thoughts um and then

655

And the last point I'd love to also talk about is co -pilot, how you feel about that.

656

Which one would you like to do first?

657

I think I would like to go for a co -pilot course.

658

That's how nowadays the buzzword of co -pilot, right?

659

Okay, let's do that.

660

Tell us about co -pilot and your thoughts as to what people should be doing to get themselves co -pilot ready.

661

It's a big jump for many people to get their company turned on and started, especially with privacy of documents. so

662

if you ask me uh nowadays

663

this co -pilot is a no more a buzzword to be honest okay it's the reality

664

but still it is still in the early phase of this technology world what i believe to uh

665

we should not completely rely on the co -pilot

666

we should start focusing how the co -pilot can help end users in day -to -day activities okay yes

667

that is point number one point number two the technology changing the past in terms of,

668

as you mentioned, how we are managing the security and the document aspects.

669

We have to, within that design and the security principle, we have to design the solution for a customer as well.

670

There are a set of guidelines for AI around that

671

Microsoft has published.

672

I would highly recommend those who are really focusing on this co -pilot, they should adhere and at least learn those guidelines so

673

that whenever they build any kind of a custom co -pilot for their customers

674

that will be within that boundary of you know the ai principles

675

that microsoft has baseline yeah

676

so on your blog article

677

you're referring to the top 10 examples for um to help people try to punch through this this veil

678

that's in front of us um

679

and have you found the clients are pulling it through

680

or you finding you're pushing to get the clients to step up and and have a try of the solution.

681

no no i think many of my clients

682

they are really interested uh to go for it okay in fact uh two weeks before uh

683

i had a one visit here in india i met one of my clients

684

and i focused the demo of this co -pilot capability co -pilot studio and all

685

and they liked it very much in fact many of my clients they're also followers of my blogs

686

and my linkedin profile and they always try to you know learn from it.

687

So they're always fascinated on this co -pilot.

688

I have never, ever seen my clients where they are confused about co -pilot or they're not interested.

689

They're really interested about it.

690

Wow.

691

Okay.

692

So now let's go back to your videos.

693

How did you make the jump from the written word to being in person?

694

Did it difficult for you?

695

In fact, to be honest, initially it was really difficult for me

696

because i had to manage a lot of things one is you should have the proper setup

697

when you uh when you create

698

or make any kind of videos second

699

you should have your uh the script ready what you're going to capture what topic

700

that you are going to lead

701

and i had learned a lot in initial day

702

i i actually registered a lot of online courses to learn a lot how to baseline your structure

703

because when you talk to your friend you can talk a lot

704

but when you prepare the video you should have a structured approach, right?

705

So that we can define that individual segment, right?

706

So that's how I focus on this YouTube video.

707

And why I have decided to go for a YouTube video because I believe so there are many people now,

708

they try to pay more attention to the visual representation than the blogs.

709

So I thought, let me just divide my time 50 % for blogging and 50 % for the YouTube video.

710

But in addition to this, what I thought, uh if i start focusing on the videos for my community user groups

711

that probably will help that's what we probably would see nowadays

712

we are making a lot of videos for on new topics

713

and and are you driven with those topics from your community

714

or are you finding

715

that it's your own research that's trying to pluck it out

716

i know you have your your crew in in the company

717

but where is the topics originating from at the very start in fact

718

it's a combination of both one is what is coming in the marketplace from microsoft what technology

719

that they are trying to focus second how

720

that technology whether it's a co -pilot

721

or whether it's any other ai sort of thing how

722

that can help within the area of my er2 segment

723

or power platform segment and a customer

724

or maybe product matter uh the community members

725

or leaders how they can learn for that's how i try to divide

726

and deliver the topics our segment

727

that i can foresee uh many folks uh to linkedin they reach out to me

728

and they try to listen the topics

729

that can you just explain uh these points to me in fact today morning only one of guys from community

730

he texted me

731

that i want your co -pilot uh series of discussion is

732

it possible for you to help me to define the advanced curriculum for co -pilot

733

i'm really interested in that so i get a lot of things from the community

734

and then i then based on

735

that i define the next topic

736

it's like you had to have five days out of seven

737

every week just to deal with those yeah responses rakesh it's been such a pleasure chatting with you thank you

738

so much for teaching me

739

and showing me the many different ways to tackle blogging

740

i hope the the people watching this also get inspired to start their own

741

thank you very much thank you for have a wonderful day thank you thank you take care

742

mobis is a community -run organization

743

we believe in liberating people from the shackles of monotony inspiring them to dream bigger

744

and reach higher we empower them to focus on the things

745

that matter growing their skills solving new problems

746

and helping others on a global scale we eliminate manual work

747

that stands between people and their future preventing them from learning new technologies unleashing their talents

748

and leaving a legacy that has a lasting impact.

749

Freedom doesn't wait.

750

Join us at Mobis .com.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Microsoft MVPs - Rakesh Darge”. This video has 750 sentences and 9238 words to shadow. The speech runs for 54:00. The speaker talks at a natural 171 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
architect noun	/ˈɑɹ.kɪˌtɛkt/	A professional who designs buildings or other structures, or who prepares plans and superintends construction.
define verb	/dɪˈfaɪn/	To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
salary noun	/ˈsæləɹi/	A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or…
yoga noun	/ˈjoʊ.ɡə/	Any of several Hindu or Buddhist disciplines aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquillity; especially a system…
aspect noun	/ˈæspɛkt/	Any specific feature, part, or element of something.
earn verb	/ɝn/	To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
segment noun	/ˈsɛɡmɛnt/	A length of some object.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
fundamental adjective	/ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/	Related to a foundation, base, or basis; serving as a foundation.
developer noun	/dɪˈvɛləpɚ/	A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products.
nowadays adverb	/ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/	At the present time; in the current era.
cliff noun	/klɪf/	A vertical (or nearly vertical) rock face.
confused adjective	/kənˈfjuːzd/	unable to think clearly or understand
dynamic adjective	/daɪˈnæm.ɪk/	Changing; active; in motion.
contribution noun	/ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/	Something given or offered that adds to a larger whole.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
pick up verb	To lift; to grasp and raise.
get out of verb	To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
figure out verb	To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
go up verb	To move upwards.
sit down verb	To assume a sitting position from a standing position.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

What happened that got you into yoga?
Are you joking with me?
Have you experienced that with your clients?
Why don't you leverage the power automation?
Which one would you like to do first?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you ask a customer, they'll give · if i become architect then i'll earn
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to spend · used to ask · used to tell
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have built · I've seen · I've had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being defined · are categorically highlighted · is not planned

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 109 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thread /ˈθɹɛd/, smooth /smuːð/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/, implementation /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, integration /ˌɪn.tɪˈɡɹeɪ.ʃən/, graduation /ˌɡɹæd͡ʒuˈeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/, spirituality /ˌspɪɹ.ə.t͡ʃuˈæl.ə.tɪ/, architecture /ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like architect, define, salary.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Microsoft MVPs - Rakesh Darge - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?