|
| Sunday, April 30, 2006 |
| Evolution V |
Does it happen only to me? I met a guy at lunch. My colleague's friend, I met this guy for the first time. We had a casual chat and after 10 mins he asks me the much dreaded question.
"Where do you see yourself, five years down the line?"
"Err.... I don't see myself.. ha ha ha"
Oh my god, I was the only one laughing there. I couldn't classify if I felt embarassed or annoyed (or guilty?). I'm honestly tired on inventing answers. Everyone seems to be asking me the same question.
My new manager. This was the first question he had. I was struggling for an answer. (Were I were blessed to tell "thillumullu" kind of answers only in interviews? Come on, tell something....No luck. I fumbled, blabbering something.)
Even my father is not sparing me.
"Think about it da. Five years down the line you'll be married and having kids. You better....."
"What???"
I once had a default answer for all.
"I'm gonna start a company!";D
I had to give it up after my cousin went a step ahead and asked,
"What kind of? You have any ideas? I can help you get funding. Just come up with a business plan."
That was the last time I bragged that I would start a company.
It's the age, isn't it? Some critical stage in our life. We have to make a decision or atleast tell others something consistent.
I see most of us perplexed with the same question. The wave of enthusiasm that swept last year about CAT and MBA has died out. Idayathullah is the only guy who seem to have some positive plans. (Outsiders: I-D-A-Y-A-T-H-U-L-L-A-H is sometimes pronounced as "Beckham"). Of course, I couldn't get any news about Pradeep. When I last heard of him, he works as undercover agent ;D. (Vayatherichaloda innoru form machi. Kochikkadha.)
The rest, we try to speculate on what others will do, instead of doing something for ourselves. At least me and Karthik are doing this. The last time we gossiped, we felt Ramkumar is going to get married and that is why he is not 'participating' in career debates these days :).
Sometimes I wonder if I should accept the reality and concentrate on my work, for better. But you know, I'm afraid that the system will take me. I was once wondering, why I'm the only guy opposing process so vociferously, while most of you took the rival side. May be because, I was a 'fresher' for the most of my experience at job. "18 till I die...", my neighbor's new audio system blares!, as I type this :D!!!!
Other dimension is, many times I feel I didn't get this maturity level of a working professional. I'm still making this odd jokes at wrong moments. I couldnt enjoy my company outings. Ok that's a different story. Let me discuss just about career.
My problem is I couldn't make firm career decision.
What do I want, in my life?
"Money", how spontaneously Venkatesan would answer this question! (and Karthik would have seconded :))))) The problem is I don't have such a clear answer. I'm confused, if I should make decisions based on my interests, or pick one of those 'charsmatic' career paths.
When I interviewed people aspiring for MBA, most of them cited, "For Money." or "For faster Career Growth.", as answer for why they chose it.
"Which area of MBA?"
"Finance", instantaneous answer.
What's diriving everybody!
An advice I was given recently, "Follow your passion and not the outcome, especially while chosing the career path." Quiet true! When I make a career decision, I could not just think of 'money' or 'career path'. I should also plan how well we would fit in the career. My choice of taking up B.E. ECE would have turned disatrous, if not for the IT boom. I should not repeat this. If I'm not really good in say marketing, but I go for it because it is charismatic in various measures. I'm wondering, what if I'm not able to perform well? What if I'm not able to make to those '15L' paying companies but just a '6L' company. No, I don't say performance of individual. I'm talking about relative performance. When the industry slumps and '6L' is the highest bet? Will I be able to compete sans real passion? Am I bridling myself, from the real picture and setting my focus on that '15L' or the 'C*O' position I'm fantasizing myself in 10 years?
("Follow your hearts..." Bryan Adams again. What kind of coincidence is this? Situation song :D.)
I'm not trying to play a preacher but wanted to share my thoughts,as a one time CAT applicant :). The question eating my head is how come almost all except 2-3, go for a career in management. Is it just the charisma that drives all or am I only one missing the 'passion' thing? If you folks don't have a bleary view of career paths (as me) and clear enough already, great! But I would be happy to discover at least a handful, as confused as me ;D.
One more thought. This time a real-preaching. I find lot of us had let the 'enthu' for masters, die out. Including me. Come on guys... Look at 'I'. (Not kidding machi, you impress me :D) Let's start spamming aptitude questions again! Let's not grow old and serious and professional. 7 months are there for CAT and 3 more for GATE. Enough time to make it happen.. Let's start telling bold answers the next time someone asks that 5-year question. (Am I saying this to myself? :D)
PS: I look at me in the mirror. Oh my god! Lost lot of hairs. Five years down the line....(edhir kaalam papparapaenu theiyudhu) ..."18 till I die.." Oh shit, can't he get some other music to play? |
posted by Sunil @ 5:21 AM   |
|
| 13 Comments: |
-
Company mattera kai vittutena??? I said I stopped bragging. Inime only action ;)
-
Really one long post machi!!! Too many ppl askin too many questions is it ;)
There are many things I wud like to mention. Well this is gonna be long.
You seem to be bragging abt the fact that u dont find urself in that maturity level of a pro. I dont think any of us have :) But i figured a way out - Silence. The past generation (okay - the immediate senior with whom i work is 4 yrs elder to me) do not seem to like our jokes and we have the same feeling towards their jokes. So i decided to stop being social and all and maintain this i-am-a-serious-man kind of persona. How?!?! I would just keep silent, speak/walk/react slowly (as if i am thinking a lot), just keep my personal self out of the office. It works :) May be u shud try that. some ppl just cannot agree that work can have a funny or non serious side too :) Well as a side effect, this gives me more time for myself - which i use on the net, and introspection as well. It just taught me that it is better to be in no group than to be in a group with which i cannot sync!!!
Next to this Q u've been asking time and again. 5 yrs after now!!!
Can any of us give a concrete answer to that. We do not know how the market or the business will be next year man. Hell - we can lose our jobs in the next 6 months if things go really wrong. Nothing is a given right. So when we've gotta think abt 5 yrs - we can only speculate. It is better to speculate big :) To start with, it feels great to think of nice things about you :)
You hit the nail on the head when u said PASSION. When i failed in all these Mgmt papers, i felt really bad. Then i had the opportunity to get in touch with quite many ppl thru this pagalguy site. You get to see ppl who have tried year after year after year in CAT. Our own RamP is a good example. Passion is all about perseverence :) RamP never said anything so concrete as "I want to be a HR mgr" (eventhough it was a dream job him he said recently). He knew he was gonna do mgmt when we were in our 3rd yr - fr god's sake!!! So he went after it year after year and lo - he's there :) so the secret is to know what u wanna be and keep working on it - all the time.
Now that changes the question as what do u want to be. If u really know what u like, it really does not matter when u do that right!!! 5 yrs can still be 7 yrs!!! As an outsider i think u already think u know what u wanna do!!! In my view u r one of these Techie-Mgmt (Technopreneurs!?!?) guys the IT industry has thrown up coz of the boom. You are more techie at heart but u still cannot work for someone!!! You like ur way of things - that might mean that u want to manage a team or u want to run ur own company. Basically do things ur own way. Probably that's why u keep saying abt the company!!! You mention abt money - dont we all want that. That is definitely out of the equation for me. We are bound to get paid better as time goes by :) But it is obvious that we are ppl who are ready to do anything for money - we want to do what we wanna do!!!
ppl say abt passion because on the longer run, u r bound to do well in only those stuff u like. You really dont wanna change a career at 35 right :) So how this maps is like this is the last career domain for u. Your domain is fixed for now. So the question u ask to urself is - is this what i wanna do for, say, the next 20 odd years!!! It is obvious that u need a lot of passion to do that.
I accept that the process is really difficult to come thru. I had to do this last year - before even i applied to CAT last year. I seemed to like techie work too eventhough my heart kept saying Mgmt. It was a long process, which took me around 3 or 4 months. I used to discuss with a lot of ppl abt this. Many would call a move into mgmt as a natural evolution!!! I had a discussion with my Mentor some 2 days before reg this. He is a core techie, one who's brain runs SVR4 prehaps. He used to keep challenging my views abt the decision to go mgmt way (he knows coz he's gonna do my recos. btw - my whole team knows) we used to have really long heated args abt these 2 views. He seemed to have more belief in me as a techie than even i had on me :) A year or so later, he agreed to me that this was a natural progression. Ppl (his mentors btw) whom he thought to be techies have moved into mgmt schools now. he saw some MBA ppl who've come into HCL. Now he is worried that if he wants to get into a bschool, he must get thru this GMAT or CAT like test stuff. Extremely difficult for a 31 yr old. We're gonna have some more discussions perhaps :) And all this from a person who dint wanna be a Team manager and took the techie promotions. He's a Tech Architect now btw.
What i mean from the above is that a mgmt role is a natural progression. Not only for a techie, but for anyone. But there are ppl who want to be the core guys - like a accountant becoming a Accounts Dept Head (and working with junior accountants everyday) instead of a Accounts Manager, like my mentor becoming a tech architect instead of a team Manager. They follow their passion. Time for you to discover urs basically.
I read a lot!!! About profiles of ppl who come out of B schools, profiles in various segments, profiles of ppl who change careers, profiles of ppl who went on to become senior guys in 5 or 6 yrs. Basically saw all that can be done. Do some googling and u shud hit on one blog which will take u everywhere. there are all kind of ppl on the net to draw inspiration from - aspirants, students, alumni, researchers, tutors. I started with MBA.com which lists a few possible profiles. Then i follw all links from govar.blogspot.com (our own govarthan) That's a pandora's box. U will end up reading blogs of ppl from all the good B Schools in India. Pagalguy was a great resource.
Just read up on all that is possible and i'm sure u'll find something that strikes a note with u. May be u'll find a bunch of notes. Well, u'll probably have to do more diggin and then fix up on broader targets. Some might only be interested in i-banking or brand promotion, some cant decide and simply say Finance or marketing. To each thei own machi.
Speaking amongst the few of us aint gonna be any help. Our views are as wide as prad's perhaps. We realy gotta widen the scope and look for outside information. We keep speaking abt this month after month after month and we're not going anywhere - proves that we dont know enuf to take decisions. We oughta know a lot more than we do now!!!
Okie - why dont we start collecting info on all possibilities and share amongst ourselves. That will be a valuable exercise :)
Let's just decide on specifics and do this for sometime. I dont know whether i'd be able to contribute enuf, coz of my GMAT. But i'll sure tag along and pitch in my 2 cents all the time. Mid june - i must be all free i guess :)
PS: Sorry abt the long post btw :(
-
An extreme story btw - http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/apr/27spec.htm
Thought this fits the theme of this thread :)
-
My mental state is no different from that of Sunil's.
Our goal is - "Want to do PG in this year in topnotch college - say IITs or IIMs in India or some US b-school/tech institution."
I would suggest you to keep your options wide and try hitting against all of them. First, let us have something in the hand, so we have some options to decide. Proably we need to fork our time to prepare for CAT, GATE or even GRE. I am not sure how it applies to each one of you, but I am sure atleast it fits in Sunil's case as well as mine.
-
In my opinion, cracking these exams is not easy money!!!
It required dedicated effort for atleast 3 or 4 months. If we can display such commitment, we must do good in the exam.
Having said that - trying a juggle act with such a BIG list of exams is not gonna help.
For a CAT in Nov, i think we must start preps by June atleast. We've got ALL the math to catch up, atleast i do. GATE is not easy too - you need to brush up all that we did in the 4 yrs in UG. For some (those trying masters in CS) it might be something entirely new. so that will need a lot of prep too. GRE - needless to say, the word list shit is there. And to apply for a foreign school in Fall 07, u need to crack GRE (or even GMAT) atleast by August. So if u start now, you are looking at 10 months of continuous, concentrated, disciplined preparation for various stuff.
I'm not being pessimistic here, but trying to be practical.
Just ask yourselves whether you can be so committed for such a long time.
I'd prefer to reduce the targets and concentrate on a few.
Ask urself that question first. This either techie or mgmt definition aint gonna take u anywhere me thinks (sorry if that was offensive). You can still do a mgmt course related to tech and get to be in touch with both these worlds you like (and IMHO that is what u guys are more aligned to) or do a tech course, forget mgmt (atleast for the time being) and become a core techie. Decide on that first man.
One who knows not where he is going will not be able to take ANY path, even if there are many options!!!
-
On the other hand, I think keeping all the options open is a barrier da. Just focus on one and play the game. But I admit, I don't have the confidence to place such a bet on myself.
-
i am keeping quiet not becos of my marriage but simply becos i feel i lost the qualification in involving in these discussions. i simply don't do anything progressive. fyi. marriage proposals for me reached two digits last sunday still my father is adamant that i shud complete my mba and have 1 yr exp. b4 tying the knot. rite now, i can tie only shoe lace knot.
-
Maybe ur dad thinks ur getting an MBA is essential to manage ur wife ;)
-
Seems like Ram is hotcake in marriage circle?! :-)
@Iday - We could play these games in stages da.
3 months (Aug to Nov)- CAT
3 months (nov to feb) - GATE
CAT- I don't feel that it requires years of prep to crack CAT; u need to brush up the basics and work on some strategies to clear written test. Given that we attempted CAT in prev years, it shouldn't require more than 3 months for a good preparation. If you think, it should be very easy for us to get 15/50, 20/50 and 15/50 in DI, verbal and quans in CAT...which should get us the calls from 3-4 IIMs. But...
GATE/GRE - one could plan very well and play it together (thou i am not taking these tests).
@ Sunil - Dai, we are very versatile by nature(?!) and we like almost everything excluding the work we do in the company (say writing blogs, tech study, Finance, shares/stocks and ...). But, we endup doing something solid at the end of the day. So, let us materialize something...
-
3 months for CAT - i wont agree machi. Some ppl prepare for years. I dont think we are anywhere close to our best. We are rusty, to say the least. If education ruined us (like prad says) working has ruined us more. this math u've presented - this is the same thing i kept saying again and again last year!!! I failed :( We need to WORK, period. The quality (read difficulty) of math section in CAT has only increased year after year. Today, right now, we'll be able to do all basic level math Qs. advanced level stuff - there are loads that the CAT math could throw at us. We need to get better in these areas to give us that chanced to score 15 or 20 in PS and DI. I'm being a bit sceptical i agree. But i am really not sure if i am really as good as i (or the others) beleive myself to be!!! The same might apply to everyone (except prad ofcourse, who has displayed a higher degree of computational skills and the more important formula remembering/application skill since the day we know him and may be even sunil). No offense meant - to the others!!! so CAT is atleast a 5 month thing for me. Not more only coz i dont have the time. I can only start in June. CAT really needs years of prep. But we were luckily on the right track with a relatively above average schooling system in TN.
GATE in 3 months - i dunno. I've never known anything abt the exam, apart from the fact that there are loads to study. If u ask me - i'll say no!!! GATE/GRE together in 3 months - definitely no!!!
There are factors like "more seats to apply", "scholarship possibilities", "time for loan procedures", "time for Visa procedures" etc which make round 1 and round 2 to be better choices to apply for a foreign course. To be able to do that, u must be done with GRE or GMAT by August atleast. You really cannot study there with whatever money we have :(
I liked the last line meant for sunil ;)
-
No - i am not gonna list the qualities Ram's dad will have in his mind on his prospective daughter-to-be so that she can manage him!!! that would make u call me some other -ist ;)
Anyway - i meant to say that Ram's dad thinks that Ram lacks the "skills" ;)
-
I knew man :)
I thought, may be, the insult to Ram hadnt been well ommunicated!!!
so was just trying to make sure it reached correctly ;)
-
whatever the insult i accept with due respect. after all, i didn't get myself a spouse. neither did i have a date like kicha.
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
|
| Previous Post |
|
| Blogroll |
|
| Archives |
|
|
|
Subscribe to our feed
Company mattera kai vittutena??? I said I stopped bragging. Inime only action ;)