Milestone

I stepped into my first "real" (read: full-time) job two years ago. So this post is in celebration of two years of work life!

It is hard to recall how I felt that day. Nervous and excited, definitely. It also got off to a disappointing start, because, after completing the formalities (signing encyclopaedia-sized forms and documents), I got to my 'office' to find that the entire division was out on a trip! So I killed time for one and a half days before I knew where I'd sit and who I'd work with (and spent some more time figuring out what I had to do).

I spent 10 months in my first job, and those months were packed with learning and fun. I had landed this job after quite a few disappointments, and to think that this was the one job on campus that would have suited me as well as it did - it almost makes you believe in a god.

So, two years later, I am in my second job in another city. I've got raises, but no promotions (though a change in designation and work when I changed my job) - and no hope of promotion too, in the kind of job I'm in!

But no regrets. Some people have sometimes called me ambitious, which used to take me by surprise. I am not much interested in making what is generally called a 'successful career', in earning a lot of money or in gaining 'power'. What I am is, always, deeply interested in my work and dedicated to doing it well. If that is ambition, so be it. I would call it sincerity.

Continuing my self-evaluation - I am in a job I like, that offers me freedom, flexibility, and creative expression - and even pays me for it! Asking for more would seem greedy.

So join me in congratulating myself on completing two years in the "corporate world"!