The Butterfly Diaries 14 - Design Dilemmas
When one designs a system, there are some patterns that are often seen to repeat themselves. And so it is when one designs one’s career.
With mom breathing down my neck, I had to come up with a pattern that would win her design approval.
The IT Gold Rush pattern was too plebeian for my mother’s taste, and it required me to be onsite by now. The American-educated specialist pattern required me to admit the last two years were a mistake and get back to my core subjects.
Mr. Zest had opted for the foreign-educated generalist pattern. But our family finances did not allow me that choice. It was sad to have to say goodbye to the one person who had been with me from my first day in the company.
That left the Indian-educated generalist as the default choice.
With my new expertise in client-side technology and the premium module, my focus shifted from bug fixes to enhancements. Starting with testing, I had worked my way upstream to finally reach design.
One day, as I was thinking through how I would go about my preparation for the Indian MBA entrance exams, I was interrupted by a querulous voice. It was the new client-side programmer, Miss Audacity, who shared a first name with Miss Sincerity but nothing else.
“My contract says I need to work nine hours a day, five days a week. I shall work exactly that and not a second more, come hell or high water,” she was saying. To Mr. Dependable of all people. How could she!
“She is preparing for her MBA,” whispered Mr. Quiet with a conspiratorial wink.
And a few days later she had the opportunity to return the favor when I noticed him pretending to look at the computer monitor while gazing at material under his desk. “MBA prep material,” she told me with a grin.
And a couple of weeks later, I ran into Mr. Noisy, our fellow team member, during a weekend mock exam. “Our lead Mr. Dependable is writing the exam too,” he told me. “He even got an admission offer last year but decided to drop it and try again this year.”
Wow! It looked like everybody in my office and their boss were preparing for this exam.
As the day of the exams neared, our water-cooler conversations shifted from speculation on who would be going onsite next to B-school rankings and which of us would make it.
Luckily for us, it was a lean phase: the client was not finding many bugs. Further, Mr. Dependable, who by now knew what we were up to, slowed the delivery of enhancements to give us some slack.
Then something happened which none of us could have included in our design considerations – the cancellation of the exam due to a paper leak, and a re-exam in two months. It was back to the drawing board for our exam preparation.
Mr. Dependable had had enough of the exam game. He was going to hand over his lead role to Mr. Earnest and go onsite. Miss Audacity and I, however, had other cards up our sleeves – interview calls from other exams.
And around that time, the boss lady wanted to speak to me, out of the blue. I was surprised! What did she want with me?
“How are you finding your role?” she asked.
I was sure that was not what she had called me for. She soon got to the point.
“I understand you are looking for an opportunity to go onsite?”
I was not sure if I still was. With all the preparations, my mind was more inclined to go for MBA. I said nothing.
She continued, “We have you next in line. However, the next vacancy is likely to be in the Interfaces module. So, thinking it may be best for you to move there so that you gain the necessary expertise.”
That was the module Miss Sincerity was part of - moving there would mean a steep learning curve. But with the interview and re-exam coming up, I was not keen on putting in additional effort at work at this point.
So, I requested time to think. She looked surprised at my lack of enthusiasm. I thought for a day or two. And decided to come clean to her on my plans.
“I understand,” she said with an air of resignation. “You let me know when you are ready for an opportunity. We will find something for you.”
And we still had our new lead, Mr. Earnest, to reckon with. “Guys, we need to up our game. We need to be faster and more consistent in our delivery.”
Worthy aspirations indeed. But wrong timing. For us. Not for him, though, having just taken over a new role and needing to show impact. And his expectations were not wrong. The company did not pay employees to prepare for MBA entrance exams.
I wondered if I had made the right choice by not moving to the Interfaces module. I might now have to work just as hard without the expected reward of an onsite opportunity. I had put so much thought into selecting the best of the three design options and had still ended up with the possibility of three different outcomes – joining an MBA, going onsite or the status quo continuing.
With mom breathing down my neck, I had to come up with a pattern that would win her design approval.
The IT Gold Rush pattern was too plebeian for my mother’s taste, and it required me to be onsite by now. The American-educated specialist pattern required me to admit the last two years were a mistake and get back to my core subjects.
Mr. Zest had opted for the foreign-educated generalist pattern. But our family finances did not allow me that choice. It was sad to have to say goodbye to the one person who had been with me from my first day in the company.
That left the Indian-educated generalist as the default choice.
With my new expertise in client-side technology and the premium module, my focus shifted from bug fixes to enhancements. Starting with testing, I had worked my way upstream to finally reach design.
One day, as I was thinking through how I would go about my preparation for the Indian MBA entrance exams, I was interrupted by a querulous voice. It was the new client-side programmer, Miss Audacity, who shared a first name with Miss Sincerity but nothing else.
“My contract says I need to work nine hours a day, five days a week. I shall work exactly that and not a second more, come hell or high water,” she was saying. To Mr. Dependable of all people. How could she!
“She is preparing for her MBA,” whispered Mr. Quiet with a conspiratorial wink.
And a few days later she had the opportunity to return the favor when I noticed him pretending to look at the computer monitor while gazing at material under his desk. “MBA prep material,” she told me with a grin.
And a couple of weeks later, I ran into Mr. Noisy, our fellow team member, during a weekend mock exam. “Our lead Mr. Dependable is writing the exam too,” he told me. “He even got an admission offer last year but decided to drop it and try again this year.”
Wow! It looked like everybody in my office and their boss were preparing for this exam.
As the day of the exams neared, our water-cooler conversations shifted from speculation on who would be going onsite next to B-school rankings and which of us would make it.
Luckily for us, it was a lean phase: the client was not finding many bugs. Further, Mr. Dependable, who by now knew what we were up to, slowed the delivery of enhancements to give us some slack.
Then something happened which none of us could have included in our design considerations – the cancellation of the exam due to a paper leak, and a re-exam in two months. It was back to the drawing board for our exam preparation.
Mr. Dependable had had enough of the exam game. He was going to hand over his lead role to Mr. Earnest and go onsite. Miss Audacity and I, however, had other cards up our sleeves – interview calls from other exams.
And around that time, the boss lady wanted to speak to me, out of the blue. I was surprised! What did she want with me?
“How are you finding your role?” she asked.
I was sure that was not what she had called me for. She soon got to the point.
“I understand you are looking for an opportunity to go onsite?”
I was not sure if I still was. With all the preparations, my mind was more inclined to go for MBA. I said nothing.
She continued, “We have you next in line. However, the next vacancy is likely to be in the Interfaces module. So, thinking it may be best for you to move there so that you gain the necessary expertise.”
That was the module Miss Sincerity was part of - moving there would mean a steep learning curve. But with the interview and re-exam coming up, I was not keen on putting in additional effort at work at this point.
So, I requested time to think. She looked surprised at my lack of enthusiasm. I thought for a day or two. And decided to come clean to her on my plans.
“I understand,” she said with an air of resignation. “You let me know when you are ready for an opportunity. We will find something for you.”
And we still had our new lead, Mr. Earnest, to reckon with. “Guys, we need to up our game. We need to be faster and more consistent in our delivery.”
Worthy aspirations indeed. But wrong timing. For us. Not for him, though, having just taken over a new role and needing to show impact. And his expectations were not wrong. The company did not pay employees to prepare for MBA entrance exams.
I wondered if I had made the right choice by not moving to the Interfaces module. I might now have to work just as hard without the expected reward of an onsite opportunity. I had put so much thought into selecting the best of the three design options and had still ended up with the possibility of three different outcomes – joining an MBA, going onsite or the status quo continuing.
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