"The only constant thing in life in change " Any Operations Researcher who wants to go far in this advanced technology era, must embrace the new technologies. Things have changed and thongs are evolving. Don't be left behind. There is information overload. The data is becoming bigger. These data have to be cleaned before used for analysis. The machine learning algorithms, for example, can be deployed to handle the cleaning of the noisy data. They are effective and efficient. So, an Operations Researcher is expected to Unlearn and Relearn because most of the old ways of doing things are no longer effective, partly because of the nature of the projects and problems to handle.

One of the things about "change" in the hard sciences is that it is often really just "rebranding". Some marketing team will start calling what you have been doing for years by a new, fancy name and make it seem like a whole need field of science. Relax. #1) Resist the urge to point out to people that this is still just linear algebra. #2) Resist the urge to ignore the new packaging. Instead, go with the changes. Get the "certificate" in the new thing so you can say, "yes, I am certified in..." But also, don't lose your head. Don't try to become the "expert" in the new thing. Because in 3-5 years, new names will crop up...techniques will get rebranded. And you will be just as competent and capable as always.

As the title says, you need to embrace change. Technology is constantly advancing, new algorithms are being discovered. We cannot manage OR projects knowing only Simplex. We need to keep ourselves updated by following blogs and sharing accounts, and follow the developments in the solver world.

In my career, I made a commitment to continuous learning in Operations Research. I regularly enrolled in online courses and attended webinars focusing on the latest OR technologies. One particular course on advanced algorithms introduced me to new modeling techniques that revolutionized our project approach. By dedicating time to learn and apply these new techniques, I enhanced our team's problem-solving capabilities. This proactive approach not only kept me relevant in the field but also provided a competitive edge in tackling real-world problems. Continuous learning truly empowered me to drive innovation and achieve better outcomes.

Linkedin is a very valuable environment if you follow the right people. You can find powerful Github repos, solid articles or valuable educational content. As production, transportation and management systems are getting more and more complex, we need to move OR techniques and solution skills forward.

Some people, especially those with a university OR education, say that optimization cannot be done in real life, but I disagree. When you build a professional network, you can both guide people by exchanging ideas and get bright new perspectives for your projects that you have difficulty solving.

I focused on integrating new technologies into our Operations Research processes. To achieve this, I actively collaborated with colleagues, joined professional networks, and participated in online OR forums. These interactions provided valuable insights into how others were using new technologies and allowed us to exchange ideas and experiences. One discussion led to the adoption of a cutting-edge algorithm that significantly improved our model's accuracy. This collaborative effort fostered a community of practice, where we learned from others' successes and challenges, enhancing our own implementation strategies and driving successful integration of new technologies.

Stay informed and updated! One hardly gets opportunities to work on all emerging technologies, however it is important to read about the ongoing research and have an awareness about how the recent research is different from the existing state-of-art. For instance, recently a lot of ongoing work is happening in using LLMs for optimization. It's interesting to explore such works, though it may not be of immediate use.

Attending an OR conference last year profoundly impacted my approach to staying informed about emerging trends. I subscribed to several industry journals and followed renowned experts on social media, but it was at the conference where I truly saw the benefits of staying updated. During a seminar, a speaker introduced a novel machine learning algorithm that had been gaining traction in OR applications. Intrigued, I implemented this algorithm in a project to optimize supply chain logistics. The results were astounding—processing times were cut by 30%, and accuracy improved significantly.