Here I am, This is me
“I have put down my papers, and I don't have an offer yet”
Eyes popped out of this girl who sits next to me. First she thought it was a joke, and then it took her some time to realize that i meant it.
Her surprised eyes changed to sympathetic.
“Then why did you put down your papers without even getting an offer?” she asked.
Should it be always like that?
What if your notice period is 3 months and that being the reason your profile doesn't even gets shortlisted for interviews.
Or what if you just want a break from this hectic work culture and want go on a really long vacation before getting a new job. (Do you still get leaves for a long vacation?)
But my case was different. Yes. I didn't have an offer because I didn't try. I didn't try because, I have not decided what to do after quitting this job. But what I really knew was, I don't belong here.
I landed in project management career for survival after my career in character animation ended in 2009 (Yeah, victim of the great recession)
Character animation was my passion (and still is), a career I loved with compassion. Though I worked for 12 to 16 hours a day, I never felt exhausted or stressed. I was applauded for my animations and creative works. But life in entertainment industry is different. Today you will be happily feasting a Mc Donald Family Feast Dinner Box alone and tomorrow you’ll be more happy to hear the chai wala saying “ No problem bhai, I’ll get the money tomorrow”
Life has to go on. Though animation was my passion, there was no stability in that career. Then an eLearning organisation offered me a job in project management.
2009, I joined as a project manager. It paid me to meet my requirements. I got salary on time, which was a luxury for me at that time. The job was not hard or easy. I didn't hate the job or loved it. It was like living someone just for money.
I couldn't live that life for long. I don't want to survive, I wanted to live.
I decided to quit my Job after 5 years. And the big question is WHAT NEXT?
I can't go back to character animation. In the past 5 years the industry was brutally raped and most animation studios we shut down.
I started taking HTML5, Angular JS, Bootsrap classes . Hadoop and Big data were Plan B.
Then I heard someone speaking about User Experience and I started to research on that. Spoke to people who were usability analysts. I was more drawn towards that, though i couldn't get the complete picture.
For some reasons I had a gut feeling that UX is my thing. So I prepared to get trained. Not just training, a hard code training which will give me an entry to user experience industry.
I came to know from few of my contacts about a certification in UX which is highly expensive (really high) and a difficult nut to crack. I decided, I will take up the certification.
October 2014, I quit my job as a project manager and enrolled myself for the certification which I cleared in first shot and officially became an User Experience Analyst who had no job and domain experience.
The next phase was difficult than I thought. Though the certification made me a qualified candidate to apply for jobs, still I lacked domain experience. I would have attended 12 to 13 interviews in 4 months and everywhere my lack of experience was highlighted and I was rejected (Sometimes humiliated as well)
One fine day,I went to an interview where the interviewers who really saw my knowledge and not pointing out the lack of experience, decided to offer me a position in UX. And that were it all started.
And today, after couple of years, I proudly say, This where I belong.
I chose a career which gave me opportunities to completely utilize my skills and gain confidence of my clients, managers and my peers. I have worked for huge brands and travelled places in a short time. And most importantly, I really enjoy what I do. How many people can say this from their heart. Even to this day, I am really glad that I had the confidence in me to take a big step by quitting the job which didn't work out for me.
If I would have not taken that step of leaving my job as a project manager, I would have just survived, cheating myself thinking that this is my job and I have to like this. I might have not been acknowledged or recognized and any X, Y Z could have replaced me. I would have have been invisible without an identity.
Sometimes we are complain about our managers, peers and the tasks we do. It's not about them. It's us, who are in the wrong place. It us, who decide where we belong. Till then we will be just jumping tree after tree without having time to set foot on the ground and take a moment to think what we really doing.
Though my decision to quit a job was a huge risk, but I have to take that chance so that i will not regret in future. While writing this, I cannot stop thinking my favourite Bryan Adam’s song
“Here we are - we've just begun
And after all this time - our time has come
Ya here we are - still goin' strong
Right here in the place where we belong”
I am right here where I belong, what about you?
Saravanan N C -