Autodesk!

Well... after those frustrations of the earlier post, here's a lighter note :þ

I finally met up again with a guy from Autodesk, Paul, whom I first met 2 years ago while I was still in my first job. (For those who didn't know, Autodesk is the software developer for AutoCAD and related products, and my first and current job are in reseller companies for the abovementioned products). I lost touch with him when I left my job, and have only just reestablished communication.

Back in my first job, I was the applications engineer for the civil engineering + mapping solutions, and although I didn't know it then, apparently a lot of people thought I was good. So much so that after I left (when I left, I hadn't kept in touch with anyone in that line), there had been a few vacancies in other companies and they were looking for me... but I was MIA and they couldn't get hold of me. Including Autodesk! Paul said there had been a vacancy and he thought I could fill it up but my ex-boss had refused to give him my phone number. But now it's already filled. Missed opportunities! Argh!!!!

And to think that at that very time (only a few months back), I wasn't doing so well in my second job, and I was miserable and doubting my self-worth and wondering whether my career was heading to and whether I would ever achieve anything in my life. And yet there were people trying to headhunt me and only didn't offer me a position because I could not be located. I had left my first job wanting to leave the CAD line for good, but it had been a serious career mistake because I was obviously good at it. Well, I don't regret going through that short miserable phase, because I learnt so much from there... like what it's like to work in a badly-managed company, to work under a hopeless manager, to have endless nonsensical meetings about unimportant matters, to be chased about a skirt-wearing policy, to have people saying that I have a lot of potential yet at the same time doubting my ability to achieve. It makes me appreciate my current job even more.

Well, at least all is not lost. I have still a long way more to go before I can really succeed in this industry, but at least this is a line I'm more confident in compared to the security products line I was in previously. When I talk to customers, I feel that I'm actually trying to help them instead of trying to push an unnecessary overpriced software which they're going to regret purchasing later. I understand what my customers are going through, and I try to help them, instead of looking at them blankly when they throw unfamiliar industry terminology. My manager wanted me to be a "security consultant".... which would have been a blatant lie to the customers since my company is merely a product-pusher, not a genuine IT consultant. And at any rate I had no interest at all in security products.

Talk about quarter-life crisis!