A software engineer's experiences
In old days, graduated students come back to visit professors and their former schools is common, but today it is rare. When students graduated, they are gone and the relationship between professors and students rarely extend beyond the time in school. However, last week a former student who graduated several years ago came back to see me. He was a good student so I expected that he would do well but what he told me was not what I had expected. He said: “I’ve had five jobs in three years. Nothing to be proud of but in retrospect, I learned a good lesson and that is why I come back to see you”.
He explained: “After graduate, I had a job offer from a start-up company where they paid good salary. I did NOT check on the company but was blinded by the salary and the prospect of getting rich. This job did not last long because after ten months the company filed for bankruptcy and I had to look for another job. As a young person, after got a good paying job, I spent more than I made. I bought a lot of things, laptops, cellular phones, stereo systems and flat screen TV so when I got laid-off, I also had money problem. What I learned is even if you are have a good job, you should always be prepared in case something happen. Eventually, I found another job, even it paid less because I needed money to keep my consumer life style continue. My next job was in a financial company but after several months, I found the field of financing very boring. Because I was not happy with the job, I also had a lot of personal conflicts with co-workers. Each working day was miserable so I left the job and got another building websites for an internet company. This job paid much less as it only required basic programming skill that anyone can learn in few months but at that time, any new job was better than the old one. Of course, after several months, I found it was not challenging enough and I got into a lot of arguments with co-workers. I got fired after an argument with a manager and was unemployed for several months before found another job working for a government office. This job was not exciting, mostly maintaining old applications that someone wrote many years ago but it was better than nothing. I stayed there for a year before I found a better job at a software company. In this new job, I began to learn new things and I was happy with this new challenge. I worked hard and eventually got promoted to project manager. Now I realized how many mistakes that I had made in my career and what I should and should not do”.
I asked: “So what have you learned from these experiences?”
He said: “I learned that I must know the type of work that interest me so that I can build a career on it rather than just take any kind of job. I remember that you told us in class on the importance of having a career rather have a job. A career is the progression of your working life based on the particular area for which you are trained where a job is an activity performed in exchange for payment. I did NOT pay attention to the difference and that is why it happened to me. After several bad experiences, I learned that I should NOT take a job unless it offers at least two things. First I must like what I will do and by doing it I also learn new skills. Now I know what you mean by progressing on a career and I should select job based on the progression of what I will learn, NOT on the money, NOT on the position, and NOT on being not happy with the current job”.
I asked him: “What else have you learned?
He said: “A career is what you get out of what you put in. If you contribute then you will be rewarded with knowledge and skill as you are making progress. If you put in the effort then you will more likely be remembered by management when opportunity comes. Even you may not get the position, you still learn a lot and it will help you when you need to move on to a new position. I learned to be good at what I do because I am putting the efforts to gain better skills and knowledge. Having these expertise will advance me in terms of career, finance and overall happiness. I also learned that I must select the company that I want to work for. In this Internet age, it is easy to do research on your prospective company. Most companies have web sites, where you can check out the company history, management and products. Not only this allow anyone to form an impression of the company but it also allow the candidate a good foundation for asking questions during the interview to figure out if the company has what you want. Of course, money is important but it should NOT be the only reason to change job or to work for a company.
I told him: “That is a good observation. I am glad that you have come to that conclusion but what else have you learned?”
He smiled: “I learned a lot more. I learned that it is NOT just the boss you have to be nice to but also your co-workers. When I started in my first job, I was arrogant because I considered that I was smarter than most people. In my second job, I did NOT get along with people as I continued with my arrogant attitude and that was why I did not last long. A financial company was NOT the same as a software company because I had to work with business people and customers and they did not tolerate arrogant technical person like me. In my working life, I learned all the bad things such as office gossips, spreading false rumors, work less but claim more, but I felt guilty about these wicked behaviors as they did NOT bring me any happiness. That was why I change job again but this time I learned that I must thoroughly check out any prospective company before applying. I understand that having a job is necessary to secure the basics such as shelter, food and clothing but a career is more than a means of having income. It is a way to have purpose in life, a chance for social contributions, a way to set and reach personal goals. These are not something new, you and other professors have mentioned about it many times in class but I did not get it then. That is why I come back to say thank to your advises and hope that other students can learn from my experiences”.
I asked him to come to my class and give students some “friendly advices”. This was what he told the class:
“Do NOT take a job because it is convenient. Do NOT take any job because it pays more. Do NOT take a job because you are not happy with your current job and think that any new job would be better. You MUST know what you want to do in life. Remember why you are here: To get an education. Make anything that will help you with this goal a priority. The first lesson in building a career is that you do NOT have to find something perfect or be a hero. You do NOT need to do something extraordinary but just be happy as long as you are making progress in building your career. As a software person, you have made a good choice as jobs are much more plentiful in this field. When you start a career with higher education degrees in hand, you will make more money and be given more responsibility than others but you must be humble because there are more things in life than just money or position. You must continue to learn because things will change. Additional training and experience will make your job even better for your personal growth and eventually your goals. Ultimately, when you do meet the basic necessities of life, find something that you are naturally like and from there make additional efforts to fulfill this personal inspiration. That way, you can get much more in life than just from a job that put food on your table. You can find a reason for your existence, a reason to awake each morning and live all your days to the fullest”.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
