Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Life of an........


Sitting in a 5x5 foot cubicle, with a LCD screen and a sophisticated computer; being happy with the fact that coffee and snacks are for free; being enthusiastic about team-outings or star hotel dinner/lunch or office parties; feeling proud for owning a Nike/Adidas; feeling lucky for buying a T-shirt for Rs.700 that actually costs Rs.200 elsewhere; always assuming that your salary is the primary factor for happiness in life; running behind perks; planning to buy a new house that will cost your whole carrier; getting excited about performance reviews and salary hikes.

You always think these things will make you happy. But are you truly happy?

You run like a horse for bread crumbs. You are faithful to your company in spite of knowing the fact that your company might turns its back at you anytime. You burn mid-night oil for moving your project leaving behind your family and personal life.

Why do you run behind money and these silly things when you very well know that your happiness is elsewhere?

You are a Software Engineer. I am one too.


15 comments:

Sankar said...

Fantastic. You got what is on my mind.

damodarakkannan a said...

truly said :)

santosh said...

Gethu machi.. you are right..

But why suddenly this thought came into your mind?

Arun Raghavendar said...

@Santy, Not suddenly.. Had this thought for a long time, AFAIK we have discussed this before.

What actually made me to write this post is this resume of Sergey Brin. A perfect researchers resume, work experience composed of his passions. Unlike ours, it clearly tells he worked on what he liked and not the reverse. It made me envy..

Nikanth Karthikesan said...

Excellent post.

But not all software engineers are like this. And not only software engineers are like this. IOW S/W engineering has no relation to this behavior or way of life.

Anonymous said...

Well said!!!

On the other way, mech ppl sweat in the mech industry near the machines.(if not a sophisticated co)

Lot of small scale industries run day and night,due to their thirst and ambition to become big.

Business ppl would have huge investment and run behind to run a company and manage their credits n meet the market needs.

Everyone has a passion to make their dream home, and they work hard to make one, watever obstacles they meet in their nature of job.

Money is not the primary factor, but it plays a vital role in the lifestyle, and it all solely depends on one's attitude to turn their quest(dream patterns) into reality irrespective of a sw engg/beggar/Business man/Dr.

Our grandparents were once land lords they had assets and so din work hard to make money. They sold for their living, that was a hit on the next generation. The next generation(dad) struggles hard n make some to manage the family n kids. Our generation is a "fast food" world with lot of influence from the west and so as our descendants would be.

Alagiri said...

Amazing. plight of a passionate!

Arun Raghavendar said...

I should agree with Nikanth & the Anonymous commenter above. Definitely every person in this world has to work hard to get his bread n butter and also to move ahead in carrier.

What happens when the mode of your work is not the way you like? Your heart dislikes this work, but your mind forces you to stay here for the sake of money.

I am not interested in executing someone's order, I want to work on my own in the areas of my interest;maybe like a researcher. But I cannot really do it because I need money not just for me, but also my family. I am continuing this kind of job to meet my financial needs. Every poor or middle class man (not just in software industry) has a thought something like this in their mind.

As said my anonymous above, many rich people (as in the case of our grandparents) become lazy to work and they lose their money sometime or the other. So what is the point in becoming rich when you know that your next generation will lose it sometime. Why cann't we be just content with what we have and make a simple living?

I cann't answer this question myself. Human mind ah..

Raji said...

The anonymous comment is from my side :-).

Raji

Tom Praison said...

Nice post.. True (REFLECTION) of many of our lifes

DK said...

Every job other than what you really want to do(even that someday) will piss you off :). But the fact that other jobs would atleast focus primarily on family than work when compared to a s/w enggr is very true.

But the ugly truth is, after we are used to this lifestyle, we will never have the mindset to work in a 9-5 job with very less money. And for Govt jobs, we call our managers and seniors by name here, in govt you will have to beg and bend for so many things. Like others mentioned every proffession has its cons.

And finally, how much ever we speak, we would end up doing the same :).
I like to finish with Dr Abdul Kalams quote which I admire very much: "Love you job but never love you company. You never know when the company will stop loving you."

Qube said...

Great :)

DK said...

Fixing a typo from my last comment:

"Love your job but never love your company. You never know when the company will stop loving you."

Nikanth Karthikesan said...

Isn't it Narayana Murthy's quote?
http://www.coolavenues.com/cafe/jokes/general163.php

DK said...

May be both said it.
http://rajeevdesai.blogspot.com/2009/08/some-beutiful-quotes-got-it-from.html