I
joined my first job over 5 years ago.
12.06.2006
to be precise. Today, 5 years, 2 months and 19 days later, I have come home
after having quit my fourth job. I get to relax over the weekend to prepare
myself to join a fifth firm. This would be the third change in my career - from
banking & finance to advertising, now to marketing.
How
do I feel?
Awesome.
And
perhaps awful.
My
mom was a nurse. She joined as one. Worked for over 30 years and quit as one.
Perhaps
nurses can't shift their careers. That is what they have learnt. Injections and
anti-biotics. How different can it be!
But
I am different. After all, I am an MBA graduate. I get to choose.
Sigh!
Pathetic attempts to justify myself. Not working.
My
shift from banking to advertising was easy. It was a welcome change. In
advertising, I did not have to bear the grunt of trying to sell a loan to
someone who absolutely could not afford it, just so that I could meet my sales
targets.
And
6 months later, I did not have to call that same 'someone' and demand to pay
EMIs and threaten them with dire consequences, this time to meet my recovery
targets.
Advertising
was different.
Though
my hopes of meeting stars, my notion that daily work meant glitz, glamour,
sheer fun and partying, went down the drains within the very first week. What
awaited instead, were tons of survey questionnaires waiting to be administered
to unfriendly, unwelcoming people on streets; collating, understanding and
tabulating data; figuring out what those numbers meant; drawing innumerous
pie-charts and deriving conclusions that gave solutions to address the business
problem that was raised. That was just one part of the story.
Managing
angry clients who would not flicker an eyelid as they said "Get out
Sir!" (to the extent I began believing that I did look like a guy);
arguing with 'efficient' marketing teams who started conversations only with
'Our CEO expects to see it now', 'Our VP has to use it in the presentation
tomorrow morning'; managing 'angrier' creative teams who were already sitting
on endless 'pathetic' briefs and now despised me for being an inefficient
servicing kid who was not even able to negotiate for some more time, so that
they could come up with an award winning idea - was the other part of the
story.
Imminent
deadlines.
Sleepless
nights.
Lean
pay cheques.
Scream
matches.
RTBs.
RGBs. TRPs. TGs. GSMs. Jpegs. PDFs.
Yet,
I loved advertising. Despite all its madness, I loved my job.
But
now I realize I am ready for a change. Yet again.
I
do not know what the future has in store for me. Whatever it is, I am willing
to go where life chooses to take me.
So
I move on. Once again.
Wish
me all the best!
