Recently on Friday, December 9, Rulesware celebrated its 2022 Holiday Party. During this event Rulesware awarded one of its employees with Rulesware’s 2022 Executive Award, an award for which employees are nominated by their peers and one of them is chosen by our Executive Team. This prestigious award, given out only once per year to one employee, recognizes an individual who embodies all six of Rulesware’s core values: Expertise, Responsibility, Innovation, Community, Courage and Quality. This individual is also someone who exceeds their role expectations, strives for continuous improvement, excels in their interpersonal relationships, and consistently contributes to the organization in a positive way.
Without further ado, let’s find out who the winner was!
It is our pleasure to share and celebrate the achievements, talents, and outstanding performance of Rajesh Kumar Balasubramanian, Lead Consultant from our US division’s Development Practice. We interviewed Rajesh to learn more about himself, his career path, and what it is like to win this prestigious award. Rajesh, huge congratulations!
How did it feel to win the 2022 Executive Award?
I felt happy and honored at the same time, knowing that only one person gets this award and I was chosen for the same. It is always a great feeling when our work gets recognized, but getting this award really made me feel even more like a valued member of the organization.
Can you briefly outline your career path?
I did my bachelors in Electronics & Communication Engineering but I chose IT & Computer Science for my career as I found that more interesting. I started as a Java developer but got into Pega within a short period of time. It has been only Pega development since then. I was an individual contributor primarily focussed on development initially. I have led a team that was responsible for production support and maintenance. I even played the role of a Pega admin in one of the projects early in my career. Since I joined Rulesware, I have been playing the LSA role in all my projects.
What originally got you into this line of work?
To be honest, I did not explore a lot of options before getting into software development. What has kept me in this line of work are the opportunities that I get to learn and the joy and satisfaction of successfully implementing what I learnt to solve business problems.
What’s the thing you enjoy most about your role?
I like collaborating with business and other IT teams. Understanding the current business process, the gaps, and pain points and providing solutions using the latest capabilities of the platform are things that I enjoy the most.
Why do you think the team you lead at Rulesware has been so successful?
I have always had a great team to work with. They are always ready to put in the extra effort when needed and often go above and beyond to make the project successful. They are eager to learn and improve, they collaborate well, and they have a great sense of accountability.
As you know we have six core values. What core value do you most identify with and why?
I would say Expertise. I try to stay updated with the latest capabilities and features introduced in every version. It is hard at times to keep up, but I try to make some time for that. Pega’s App Studio and low-code development have evolved a lot since the time they were introduced. Being familiar with the latest capabilities really helps in faster development and easier maintenance. I love to share with the team whenever I learn something new even if we don’t use it in the current implementation.
What is the thing you like the most about working at Rulesware?
I like the way Rulesware cares for each and every employee by making sure they are doing well not just professionally but also personally. The leadership team is approachable, and coaches and peers are always ready to jump in and help.
What does the future hold for you, Rajesh? Do you have any goals you are planning to achieve?
I would like to expand my knowledge outside of core Pega and learn more about Pega cloud architecture and connectivity options between Pega cloud, customer enterprise network, and other platforms deployed in cloud so that I can help debug connectivity issues and effectively contribute in architecture design discussions. In addition to that, I would also want to contribute more to practice and sales initiatives.
Final question – what advice do you have for your colleagues at Rulesware?
Strive to achieve a work-life balance. I know it is easier said than done. Spend quality time with family, travel more, and collect good memories. Focus on making improvements, however small it is. Do not fear mistakes or failure.
Thank you for your time Rajesh, and a huge congratulations for this achievement! We are very proud of you and are looking forward to what you’ll achieve in the near future.
