Necessity to reflect on aspirations
By: Mohitha B G
Tags: Change, Self Reflection, Personality, Job Hunting, Information Technology

Hello all :)

Missed me? :P Well, I am back again, after a break :)

Stability is something everybody needs in life, but it’s very difficult for me to come to terms with it. A lot has been happening in my life and I had to take a break to reflect on my choices and make a decision. I am glad that I finally did something.

I graduated as an electrical engineer but started working for an IT firm. It’s one of the top MNCs and I am really glad I got placed there. I will tell you why.

Where am I ? ( Source: http://cio.org.vn/16/en/digital-revolution-changes-role-of-cio/ )

It was 2015 August when I was trained in C++ and UNIX for three months and then bagged a project which used PLSQL. I worked in the telecom domain and kind of created a niche for myself in it. I was a developer initially and then slowly explored Testing and quality assurance.

In the course of my tenure in the project, I got an opportunity to research on automation Testing for the application I worked in. The research got me interested in analysis and gave me another break to become an offshore business analyst.

Life was almost getting interesting when I moved to a different project and presented an application based on the research on AI and ML but suddenly got thrashed with degrading work assignments that got me frustrated and made me ask for a release from the project.

I finally got into another project now, after almost six sessions of interviews for the role and I am finally working as a business analyst, in insurance domain (YAY!). I was thrilled at the diversity I had in my work life, in a span of three years.

I know that many of you have also been through these role changes and yearn to have no regrets when it comes to finding peace in the work that you do everyday. No harm in that and I am pretty sure it is the right thing to do.

Why am I speaking about all this now? Maybe because I want my readers to know that these situations are quite common and they aren’t alone in this. It’s very important to create an identity for ourselves in the dynamic IT industry analogous to creating a brand for ourselves in our writing.

Today, I just want to highlight the facts that I considered in making decisions that were right for me. They are universal in nature and applies to everyone who would like to take some time out to dwell on their professional life.

1. Do my personality traits match my job profile?

Who am I? ( Source: https://www.tlnt.com/3-surprising-personality-traits-to-look-for-in-a-job-candidate/ )

I am a soft spoken, nerdy, quirky, smart working, passionate and a creative individual. I love to talk about things that interest me and try to be very diplomatic when people talk to me about things I do not have opinions about. I am humourous and optimistic. I have good reviews on my communication skills as well and hence, my personality traits match a job profile that helps me collaborate with people, discuss problem statements and try to simplify complex things. So I will be happy to work with a job designation closest to these characteristics, for a very very long time.

2. What about my personal life?

We are flexible if we can get accustomed to any type of work and also take up work at odd hours of time in unexpected kinds of places. At times, we do not like to work on things that aren’t our cup of tea; making us rigid. That is completely natural and we should choose what is best for us based on our personal life.

3. Career ladder and risk analysis?

This is one of the deciding factors that helps in taking a firm stance. I am still three years experienced and I personally feel I have a lot to explore in terms of job profiles, before settling with one type of work. I still do not know a lot about my potential in different profiles and I want to experiment on them to understand myself better. There might be a few compromises I will have to make (we might get lucky as well, but we never know!) and I am ready for it.

So yeah. Analyze and hold on to these thoughts because there’s definitely a part 2 for this post ( and that kind of makes me happy, because this is my first post with plans of further continuation ! :D )

Until next time! :)