Now what?
It is such a pity that I have to earn a livelihood. Makes me wonder what I did in my previous life that merited a disqualification from inheriting an oil-well or an opium field in this life. I cant live with the fact that somebody out there has nothing better to do all day than draw on his hookah and ponder over which camel to bet his pile of gold on while I painstakingly crunch out line after line of bug infested code. It is such an unfair world.
Why do Mondays make us groan? More often than not people are inefficient at their jobs because they make uninformed choices. To a child, flashing lights and smart uniforms makes the fireman's job the perfect job. The sleek looks of an i-mac or the new Wii makes an eighteen year old wish he was a software engineer. The power of money draws young men into business. Wisdom makes old people retire. All but the last are examples of poor decisions.
For some reason there seems to be consensus that by the age of 18 one is fully capable of making important decisions. Electing the country's leader, taking a 100bhp vehicle onto the road, putting the bottle to your lips and choosing a career path all are part of a day's work once we hit that magic number. We step out confidently but before long we find ourselves in a situation much like that kid Prince found himself in - stuck in a hole deep down with no room to so much as sneeze. You goof up big enough and you'll be on national TV as well.
Coming back to my orginal problem, the milk has been spilt and now I'll look like an idiot if I cry. So how do I salvage the situation? How does a programmer at a typical Indian software company wriggle out of the hole he's stepped into? The obvious way out is to transmogrify into a manager and spend the rest of his working days looking important and making more uninformed decisions. Is there a more graceful way out?
Why do Mondays make us groan? More often than not people are inefficient at their jobs because they make uninformed choices. To a child, flashing lights and smart uniforms makes the fireman's job the perfect job. The sleek looks of an i-mac or the new Wii makes an eighteen year old wish he was a software engineer. The power of money draws young men into business. Wisdom makes old people retire. All but the last are examples of poor decisions.
For some reason there seems to be consensus that by the age of 18 one is fully capable of making important decisions. Electing the country's leader, taking a 100bhp vehicle onto the road, putting the bottle to your lips and choosing a career path all are part of a day's work once we hit that magic number. We step out confidently but before long we find ourselves in a situation much like that kid Prince found himself in - stuck in a hole deep down with no room to so much as sneeze. You goof up big enough and you'll be on national TV as well.
Coming back to my orginal problem, the milk has been spilt and now I'll look like an idiot if I cry. So how do I salvage the situation? How does a programmer at a typical Indian software company wriggle out of the hole he's stepped into? The obvious way out is to transmogrify into a manager and spend the rest of his working days looking important and making more uninformed decisions. Is there a more graceful way out?
posted by Rags @ 9:51 AM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
So what do you think would have been a good decision for you? Will we ever know?
You know what, when i saw ladder 69 i thought a fireman's job is the most ideal lazy job for me! Just sit around listening to music or reading a novel and hardly things go up in flames :)
Managerification would only make you write more posts like these - believe me :D (no am not a manager and have no wish of becoming one, i.e., the typical horror-image of a manager).
Why don't people do something interesting like save up enough money after the saturation point has been breached and choose a different career path? But it's probably difficult to let go of software money - for whatever reason. Is that the only reason or are there more?
srini : There is no right 'job'. Thats why I was rooting for retirement.
skroderider: Different career path - what about us unskilled, blue collar workers? Maybe sw money is hard to give up.
Hmm I missed your point previously - got it now when you say 'There's not right "job"' :D
Yeah thats what i meant when i said "Will we ever know?".
So are retired people happy at their "job"? Or have they learned to accept/compromise-with life?
This issue of right job has been on my mind too. My options are
1. Lecturer when i turn 40 - Its a 9-3/4 job. Sometimes even less! And i get 2 full months of trekking/travel time during summer!
2. This idea struck me on the last trek. Why dont we start a trekking business?
3. One long time dream has been to buy out a school in some small town and manage it. Good money in it too.
1. Lecturer - it isnt as easy as it seems.
2. Adventure Club - We're greenhorns there.
3. School - I'm in !!
Actually we just need a change. Anything will do.
Rags, another easier way out - Join Quality - the quickest, easiest and the dumbest way to the mangement team ;) Only Hazard - being ridiculed by your other colleagues, but I guess your skin gets thicker with time.. As Dilbert says "First there were amoebas, then some distinctive amoebas got together and formed into monkeys, then came total quality management" !
Get an MBA (tap tap tap) and fry bigger fish!
beautifully written piece...thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. cheers!
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