The Cluttered Mind

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Ambition, Arrogance, and Aggression

In the Fiji IT industry, generally, progression is measured by one's current job position and to a slightly lesser (but more important) degree, one's salary.

Certifications or degrees are regarded as added weight to an IT professional's years of experience (or servitude and sucking up) in the industry, evidenced by once again, position and salary.

This has given rise to the trend of changing jobs every two or three years, especially after one's first job, known as 'the break'.

Personally, I had the arrogance to, God forbid, do what I want. This led to a turning up of the nose at Vinod Patel's offer of a full time contract as IT Support Officer, despite only fulfilling three months of the initial six month probationary period.

Having only thought about the offer for 30 odd minutes, the realization of the desire to do what I studied, and more importantly, to pursue ambitions my own way led to a decision to go against the flow of society.

In hindsight, maybe the full time offer should have been accepted, after which greener pastures could have been found, because it is said that finding a new job is easier when one already has a job.

Simply put, I didn't want to become an office drone for the next 2 to 3 odd years, slowly and inexorably missing out on the chance to apply all that I had learned during my 2.5 years of university study.

Besides which, Vinod Patel? Come on, what are the chances of positional and knowledge advancement in the IT department of a hardware company. There was also the fact that my father, being the good parent that he is, had spoken with the Big Patel himself to get me said probationary position.

Such was my arrogance at the time, or the folly of youth, according to the IT industry and society's perspective. Not to mention the deliberate smack in the face of Mr. Vinod Patel and to a lesser extent, my father's.

Having pissed all over the contract, I resigned and decided to make my own way, without handouts or favors being calling in (thus removing any perception of debt).

A plan began formulating within your blogger's thick skull. The plan involved applying for only those IT positions where what had been studied could be applied. Basically, information systems and business solutions development.

An imperative objective set for myself within this ambitious plan was to get what I wanted as fast as I could, within 3-4 years, without fear of the consequences. If it required job hopping every year, so be it.

Being the man with the plan, the rest was easy i.e. being patient, telling interviewers what they wanted to hear, and playing my cards right.

First stepping stone was a foreign owned and (very) small IT consultancy firm. Being the only employee with an IT degree, I had ample opportunity to tinker with things, learn, and more importantly make contacts within the industry.

Having served my time there, and reaching the boundary of all that could be applied or learned, I started putting out the word through industry friends and contacts that I was (once again) looking for a new job/challenge.

Surprisingly, word did spread, and Fiji Times IT was advertising for a web developer. Based off a simple character reference and skimpy resume, an interview appointment was made.

Needless to say, I got the position, and the rest was fucking history.

Now for the reason I actually bothered to type up this brief 'life story'.

Ambition is crooning it's deadly siren song again, and the inner demon is impatient, knowing that time is running out.

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