Lionel Lim: From Software Engineer to Solution Architect (#4)
Lionel Lim is the APAC Director, Pilot Engineers at Tricentis who moved from Singapore to Australia at a young age and is now based in Sydney. With over a decade of experience in the tech industry, he navigated the ever-evolving landscape of software engineering before making the leap to solution architecture, one of the most interesting practices within IT.
With years of hands-on coding experience and a deep understanding of complex systems, Lionel provides unique insights into the mindset shift required to transition from an individual contributor to a strategic problem solver.
In this episode, we uncover Lionel's decision-making process, the steps he took to make his career leap a reality, and the valuable lessons he learned along the way. From seeking inspiration and mentorship from others to continuously learning and networking, Lionel shares practical tips and strategies for listeners who aspire to make their own career leap into an exciting and challenging customer facing role like the Solutions Architect.
Listen to this episode to hear how Lionel's passion for technology and his dedication to personal growth have propelled him toward success in his chosen career path. Enjoy!
Lionel Lim’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lionellim83/
You can watch the podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cUIED7KqWpE
Timestamps
0:00 Episode highlight
02:01 What you’re good at vs passionate about
03:03 The role of Pilot Engineers
06:03 Navigating the decision to switch roles
07:40 Making progress with passion and proactiveness
12:25 Setting a 10-year timeframe
16:25 Key people who supported Lionel
19:05 It’s all about consistency
21:03 Building skillsets for a natural progression
23:26 Relationship between the right role and happiness
26:39 Being a guide for the team
29:17 Most rewarding experience at Tricentis
29:58 Learning strategies for success
Click on the Chapter icon on the bottom left of the podcast player above to access direct links to each timestamp
We hope this episode will inspire you to take action today, no matter how small it may be!
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Quotes from the interview
"I think good things takes time. If you want to achieve something, it takes time. There is no such thing as someone coming up and you get that straightaway. It's unrealistic, you know? It's like saying that you wanna be built and muscular, you have to go to the gym and doesn't mean you go to the gym once means you'll be, you know, yep. Bulked up and muscular. You have to go repeatedly. You have to go over a period of time. All that training, the exercise will get you there eventually. But it's not something that happens straight away. So those know that want to get it straight away. I think probably reevaluates what's realistic. We all want that, but it does take efforts, you know, it's not, doesn't come without efforts."
— Lionel Lim
"I think as a software engineer, the industry has changed over the last two decades. If you look back in the past, software engineers used to be what would be equivalent to mostly full stack developers now. Majority of roles, software engineering roles are essentially full stack developers. Back then, I recall doing everything from the front end to you know, from UI to the actual application on the client site and service sites and all kinds of areas. These days the roles are much more defined if you were in a development role. It's more specialized now, but in terms of what I'm doing now and how different it is I think I tend to look at more about the customer and see what exactly are the customer's needs, and also looking at them from different lenses, different perspective. And then I look back into what we have in our toolkit to see how we can solve those problems, and those needs, what the gaps are. How do we fill those gaps? And then the approach that we take to do those. So it's very different, you know, from writing code every day, thousands of lines a day now to thinking of on a higher level solving problems on a whole."
— Lionel Lim
I think I try to replicate what I found was positive in my career experience. So things like giving them the right environment now I was grateful for and the people who gave me the right environments, in terms of space, the freedom you know, the exposure to learn and to grow. So giving my team that little space as well, helping them, you know, in terms of they may not know something, but If you know it, give them the opportunity, share your knowledge. If you don't know it, bring someone else in to help them with that or can you give them time to learn it? All the positive things I experienced in my career, I kind of wanna give that to them. And in terms of everything else that I haven't experienced, uh at small, but a learning experience for me, at the same time, I would come across scenarios where I have never been in. And you know, you have some mentors or a strong management, leadership from, you know, you can speak to them and talk to 'em about different aspects and find out way to address these things, and you learn from it at the same time as well."
— Lionel Lim
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