Monday, November 7, 2011

At the fork

Everyone in life will or have come across situations where one has to make crucial decisions. We all tend to ask everyone around us for advice on how to go about it. Some encourage a certain decision others discourage, some end up confusing you even more. You tend to value a more learned or elderly person's advice more, but it still remains your decision to make no matter what.


Gathering all the advice you sit down and assimilate what you have heard and draw a conclusion and analyse it again and again to see whether everyone's opinion was taken into consideration.


Many a time, we consider others' advice and suggestions so much that we forget to respect our own opinion on the issue. This is quite sad. And it is as though it hardly matters. But one can be so wrong. If we look at how people resort to giving advice is by telling you how they would decide to act upon the choices they have been given or that fork on the road where they have to choose a path. At times the advice they give can be so impractical yet it value it more than ours.

I right now am faced with a situation where I have graduated from college. Got placed in a IT company that recruited me from the college campus placements but have been delaying the date of my joining for just about have a year now. I should admit I am no extraordinary student, I have decent grades but feel this is not the way to start my career, waiting indefinitely for an offer. I resorted to try other companies and have got a job at a small  IT firm of just over 50 employees doing some financial sector software product business.

The company I got through college is an IT giant, offers standard pay, insurance and other benefits, stable job, not so great on the learning curve but compensates quite well with other facilities. This small firm offer, the pay probably is much lesser, can't expect a perk filled benefit package, another unprecedented recession will wipe this company out. The only advantage that has a lot of hidden potential is the fact that the office is very near where I stay so I can save on travel time and expenses.

My parents expressed disapproval and said jobs got in campus has added value and that it was best I wait, but the very same day I got a letter from the IT giant that my wait can extend over another 5 months or so. They asked me to decide upon something by myself because either way there is something to lose. But I didn't believe it was that pathetic.

Plus points in my small firm job is that, it is run by a bunch of IT veterans as you can call them, went to the US during the IT boom, made a lot of money, now settled down with an IT company within walking distance from their homes. I only see it an opportunity to grow and learn from these pioneers in the field. The company has been around for around 13 years and that didn't sound bad at all.

It is a big question, a big risk that I am taking, will I benefit from a decision of choosing  David over Goliath? Will I be in a better position than my big company peers, at least at par if not more? How big is the risk that I am taking? How much can I bank upon the fact that my learning curve will be robust and steady. Obviously I'm looking at two years maximum three in this company but it is crucial as it defines how the rest of my career will be shaped in a big way. My choices will be scrutinised.

The fact that worries my parents are that small companies can be so unpredictable, they can go bust in a matter of a string of bad decisions in a week. And close down in a month. But if I take that risk and go for it then all I can do is gain, and gain in a big way considering the exposure, the experience, the responsibility and this happens to be a research and development division of it's parent branch in bangalore so that's another big plus point.

Taking chances can work both ways. If it works fine, then there is much to gain from the fact I willed to take that risk.

Since all I want to see myself do is go with flow once something has been decided. Following the path I have chosen,if into the road  less taken i tread, then maybe, maybe, there may be a day several years from now, when I look back and reminisce that I saw, 


two roads diverge in the wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that made all the difference.

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