Allow me to introduce you to Shri Bhatia
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Monday: MicroBusiness and Marketing Marvels |
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Allow me to introduce you to Shri Bhatia Shri Bhatia: Akashwani, LLC I am Shri Bhatia, the co-founder of Akashwani, LLC, a cybersecurity firm that was established in 2012 Prior to becoming an independent, I’ve had 20 years of experience working in different sectors. I only became a full-time independent in 2015, when I realized there’s more to cybersecurity than simply protecting various kinds of information. Cybersecurity is a vast field that has a lot of different avenues to explore. I am very fortunate to have gotten a more in-depth understanding about this sector when I shifted to an independent career. One of the misconceptions I hear about being independent is that people in this career path are usually considered “outsiders of the team.” That is not true because personally, I always display my best foot forward to create a relationship with my clients and other people I work with. On the talent side, many people think it is easy to work as an independent contractor. However, what they don’t know is that a lot of people in this career have to keep themselves consistently updated on the latest technology, which requires education. I think the difference between full-time employees and independents is that full-timers are typically sent to educational trainings, which are sponsored by the companies they work for. On the other hand, we (independents) educate ourselves at our own expense. In my case, cybersecurity is starting with enormous information and every day, there are a lot of new things coming out. For that reason, I dedicate at least 10-15 hours of my week trying to educate or repolish myself about this topic, or going back to basics. When I became an independent, I’ve had the opportunity to meet different clients, work on different projects, and explore different technologies. I didn’t start out with connections, so I really had to work hard, create a name for myself, and educate myself in this field so I can give my clients the support they need. Thankfully, with constant networking, companies are starting to notice that I’m available to help them with their cybersecurity needs, and now I’ve been getting a lot of calls from them. However, in terms of work-life balance, it’s true that my free time gets overtaken a lot for repolishing my knowledge, re-educating myself, or learning something new. When I have an ongoing project, I make sure to give most of my attention to it. One of my memorable experiences as an independent is working on a contract in healthcare, mainly building the Security Operations Center and their team. This allowed me to interact with each member of the team and utilize their individual skill sets. A piece of advice I could give to my fellow independent professionals would be this: Building your brand name and reputation is a little tough when you’re starting out, but when people start to notice you, that will begin to work in your favor. You have to live up to your reputation no matter what. Be patient and confident to make sure you’re motivating not only yourself but also your clients. Learn more about Shri Bhatia and Akashwani, LLC here. Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for next Monday’s MicroBusiness Marvels! I am Ahmad Tuffaha and I am part of Peredom, a community of trained and highly-qualified MuleSoft professionals and IT consultants. Learn more about Ahmad and Peredom on next week’s MicroBusiness and Marketing Marvels! |
