More than 9 to 5

Narayana Murthy said India's work culture needs to change and that youngsters should be prepared to work for 70 hours a week. That created some spark in the industry.

I found myself backing that suggestion to some extent. If you look at my career, each job change required a lot of learning. Moving from Java to PHP, then to React and Node.js, all those were possible with late-night learning, and building things.

Over the years, I did a lot of side projects as well. None of this was made during my 9-5, but after that. Maybe 10-1 (in the night) and weekends.

Returning to what Narayana Murthy said, he might be talking about spending 70 hours for the company. I have mixed feelings about it.

According to me, everyone's career goal should be to learn, improve, and excel, both personally and professionally. If you think the company can help you reach your potential, I'd definitely spend more time there, considering I'm fairly compensated well.

But if my corporate job is a dead end from a learning perspective after job hours will be spent on learning and practicing what I like and what I want.

In the long term, both approaches will work, since you are upskilling on a continuous basis.

Have a long-term goal, work towards it, and spend your hours & days wisely.

To summarise,

• A strict 9-5 doesn't have to work for your career, especially if you are starting out.
• If you have a boring job that you don't like, spend your spare time learning what you love and improve yourself. Do projects and use that as a leverage for your next move.
• If you are doing what you love at your current job, push yourself if you want to learn more and make it big.