Degrees->Certifications->Skills->Project Readiness

What is a project?

A project is where you actively contribute, and that project has a positive impact on the company and yourself.

What is Project Readiness?

It means that you can start working on the project from Day 1.

Does it happen as soon as you get a degree?

-No-

Does it happen as soon as you get a certification?

-No-

Does it happen after your skills were validated?

-Yes, but maybe no-

What can make it a loud “Yes”?

Time for an analogy :-)

When I decided to run a full marathon, my experienced runner friends had suggested a schedule that would take it to at least the 35 K mark and run for at least 4:30 hours, before they proclaimed I was ready for the full marathon.

I would compare Degrees and Certifications with knowing the basic functions of each ingredient, what shoes do I buy? What is the right attire for me to run? Do I train in the morning or evening? Which route to take? Do I enjoy running? Can I run for 30 minutes and not be wiped out?

All this is great information, but you are not ready yet.

Where do Skills and Project Readiness come in?

It can so turn out that some of us just don’t enjoy running, like cycling maybe or just going to the gym.

Getting tested on your Skills helps answer the “Skills” question for you.

This is when doing your short run with all your attire and deciding whether running is for you or not.

And then, comes Project Readiness.

Having passed the “Skills” test with flying colours, do I consider myself Project Ready or Marathon-Ready — No Sir/Maam, Definitely Not.

Project Readiness is what you get to when you get to start answering the “Real world Problem Statements”. Get to 10K, 15K and keep going. It’s no one-day, crash-and-burn course, it takes time. You realize it’s just not running on one day, you need to strengthen muscles on other days, did you know that your core muscles (that’s the ones around your tummies :-)) need to be strong to give you a good posture, your upper body has to be erect, the thigh muscles need to be strong to hold your knee cap in place, eat the right stuff before the day of the run, and much more. This is way beyond having the Skills required to “Run”.

This is what happens in your work too. Planning to build a DevOps Pipeline, an Enterprise application, production infrastructure for deployment etc., it always helps if you have some experience doing similar things before. I know from personal experience that a 30 K run before a full marathon (42.2K) always helps.

And you know another thing, just because you trained to run a marathon, you can now also attempt longer treks, cycling, or any other physical activity. It’s like you prepared for one event and just like that you can participate in other events too, a nice bonus. The same is the case with your work too, solve a problem statement, and the experience will get you prepared for others too.

So, there it is. Skills can get you to the door. But, it is with projects where you grow. And, it always pays to be prepared when the opportunity comes.

This preparedness is the state of “Project Readiness”.

And finally, do you need Degrees and Certifications to acquire Skills and the state of Project Readiness, well that’s the topic for another story ;-)