Lots of things have been happening recently. The past five months have really flown by. My lifestyle has changed significantly recently. I find myself hanging out with my friends a lot more - eating out with them, playing with them, talking with them, etc.
This is almost the opposite of what I was like 10 years ago. 10 years ago, around this time, I was in 12th grade, grinding through high school with all the AP courses, with all my focus on preparing myself for college, and trying to make my time as productive and successful as possible. Now, 10 years later, I think the path I have taken has yielded good results. Of course, my personal persistence and intelligence had a lot to do with it; however, I believe that the majority of what happened in the last 10 years is the Lord's doing. Yes, the Lord. Not fate. Not luck. Not a nebulous higher power. The God who loves me and has been taking care of me my whole life.
The first thing that happened was that I breezed through college. While I was definitely trying very hard with no semester with less than 15 hours (apart from the summer courses), I think that many things that were out of my control simply fell into place. First of all, I was able to get into all the classes I needed to take as soon as I needed to take them (for reference, my pursuit of my master degree later on took the same amount of time as my bachelor's because the classes I needed were not available). Next, I had motivated and supportive classmates who were disciplined and principled. We leaned on each other, though I think I leaned on him more than he leaned on me.
The next thing that happened was that I went to a Bible school called the Full-time training in Anaheim for 2 years. This period of time was ambivalent. While I built up many good skills in terms of discipline and time-management, I think, though, this time ended on a low note in terms with my relationship with the Lord. By the time I left, I was leaning towards finding a job, as opposed to serving the Lord as a gospel-preacher, simply because I found that I was much better at doing the former, rather than the latter.
The job that I did find ended up being an incredibly good one. I went into a trendy language and framework that was rising quickly in the hip and cool environment of software development. I was getting the most valuable experience possible, basically learning how to do everything there is to do to create a product. The atmosphere was laid back. I had no trouble getting my work done. My co-workers, many of whom I still keep in touch with, were cool.
Because I had developed the discipline to be extremely productive previously, I found myself bored sometimes. Thus, I decided to pursue a masters degree simultaneously, in order to keep myself busy. This may have been the only window in which I was still young enough to have the energy and still free enough to do it. I suppose that I will never know exactly what this decision did to my career. All I know is that shortly before graduating, I was given a large raise. It could've been due to my job performance; it could've been due to the degree. I may never know.
Unfortunately, things were going downhill as my co-workers started leaving the place. I really had no compelling reason to leave, as I was paid well and treated well. However, I was getting bored with the job. I wanted to find out what developing in the corporate world was like, with what seemed at the time to be a more stringent, robust, and respectable system. In addition, being in the place filled with memories of having fun and working with people who were no longer there was depressing.
Thus, I left to take an internship at a large corporation. Financially and career-wise, this was a foolish move. However, at the time, I was more interested in getting the experience of working in different environments, and this was pretty much the opposite of where I had been previously. What made it even worse was that the commute was an hour one way. In addition, at the end of the internship, there were no open positions available for me, and so I was laid off for the first time in my life. However, I must say that during this internship, I met a group of awesome people with whom I still hang out with now. In fact, during the second day of the internship, when we all went to Whirlyball, I carpooled with 5 people, 4 of which we still hang out together every Friday.
For a few months, I was searching for a job while trying to develop my own mobile app on the side. It was during this time that I realized how much a job meant, both financially as well as psychologically. I also came to see how hard it was to motivate myself when there was no clear goal in sight. After a few months, I got an interview at the previous corporation, got an offer, accepted it, and went back.
The next one and a half year was a frustrating time. For the first time, I felt helpless. Up until then, I had been confident in my skills, and had been able to solve any problem thrown at me. However, this time, things were different. I went head on with the large corporation, and was massively crushed. I spent more time at the job, but accomplished less. I spent more time in meetings and less time working. I spent more time waiting on my computer and less time getting things done. I learned how much damage people can cause when they don't care to help you with a proprietary piece of software. About midway through, I rebelled. I stopped going to meetings, showed up to work late, took long lunches, left early, and did all the passive-aggressive things that demotivated people do. Interestingly enough, even with this, I was still well-liked by my superiors, perhaps because I had still been getting stuff done. And honestly, we were in a lot better shape now than when I joined due to all the things I developed.
Having been humbled and simultaneously jaded by this experience, I left the company and went into contracting, because by now, I was just interested in making as much money as possible, so that if the environment turned out to be trash, I could still be content with the dough I was raking in. This time, I was pleasantly surprised. My boss was a very competent and technical person. My co-workers were also competent and fun to work with, though there was a QA who would ask lots of questions and try to get me to do the demos. My boss filtered out most of the nonsense that would have frustrated me previously, so that I could just concentrate on getting things done. In addition, there was much less corporate junk I had to deal with, since I could always excuse myself as a contractor and just leave whenever there was the monthly dishing out of the corporate kool-aid (ironically, when I did attend the meeting, I was surprised that the CEO seemed to be a very down to earth, no nonsense, give it straight kind of person, who was transparent with the financial state of the company).
My brother had said a few months back that I would reach a certain target by the time I was 30. At the time, I was skeptical. But, he was right. Two days ago, right before a certain significant event, marks a new landmark in my life. At this point, the question I have is: is this the peak or are things still going to get better? I'm pretty happy with where I've ended up, and I'm pretty sure that this is better than what the me from 10 years ago would've imagined the 10 years later me to be doing.
This is almost the opposite of what I was like 10 years ago. 10 years ago, around this time, I was in 12th grade, grinding through high school with all the AP courses, with all my focus on preparing myself for college, and trying to make my time as productive and successful as possible. Now, 10 years later, I think the path I have taken has yielded good results. Of course, my personal persistence and intelligence had a lot to do with it; however, I believe that the majority of what happened in the last 10 years is the Lord's doing. Yes, the Lord. Not fate. Not luck. Not a nebulous higher power. The God who loves me and has been taking care of me my whole life.
The first thing that happened was that I breezed through college. While I was definitely trying very hard with no semester with less than 15 hours (apart from the summer courses), I think that many things that were out of my control simply fell into place. First of all, I was able to get into all the classes I needed to take as soon as I needed to take them (for reference, my pursuit of my master degree later on took the same amount of time as my bachelor's because the classes I needed were not available). Next, I had motivated and supportive classmates who were disciplined and principled. We leaned on each other, though I think I leaned on him more than he leaned on me.
The next thing that happened was that I went to a Bible school called the Full-time training in Anaheim for 2 years. This period of time was ambivalent. While I built up many good skills in terms of discipline and time-management, I think, though, this time ended on a low note in terms with my relationship with the Lord. By the time I left, I was leaning towards finding a job, as opposed to serving the Lord as a gospel-preacher, simply because I found that I was much better at doing the former, rather than the latter.
The job that I did find ended up being an incredibly good one. I went into a trendy language and framework that was rising quickly in the hip and cool environment of software development. I was getting the most valuable experience possible, basically learning how to do everything there is to do to create a product. The atmosphere was laid back. I had no trouble getting my work done. My co-workers, many of whom I still keep in touch with, were cool.
Because I had developed the discipline to be extremely productive previously, I found myself bored sometimes. Thus, I decided to pursue a masters degree simultaneously, in order to keep myself busy. This may have been the only window in which I was still young enough to have the energy and still free enough to do it. I suppose that I will never know exactly what this decision did to my career. All I know is that shortly before graduating, I was given a large raise. It could've been due to my job performance; it could've been due to the degree. I may never know.
Unfortunately, things were going downhill as my co-workers started leaving the place. I really had no compelling reason to leave, as I was paid well and treated well. However, I was getting bored with the job. I wanted to find out what developing in the corporate world was like, with what seemed at the time to be a more stringent, robust, and respectable system. In addition, being in the place filled with memories of having fun and working with people who were no longer there was depressing.
Thus, I left to take an internship at a large corporation. Financially and career-wise, this was a foolish move. However, at the time, I was more interested in getting the experience of working in different environments, and this was pretty much the opposite of where I had been previously. What made it even worse was that the commute was an hour one way. In addition, at the end of the internship, there were no open positions available for me, and so I was laid off for the first time in my life. However, I must say that during this internship, I met a group of awesome people with whom I still hang out with now. In fact, during the second day of the internship, when we all went to Whirlyball, I carpooled with 5 people, 4 of which we still hang out together every Friday.
For a few months, I was searching for a job while trying to develop my own mobile app on the side. It was during this time that I realized how much a job meant, both financially as well as psychologically. I also came to see how hard it was to motivate myself when there was no clear goal in sight. After a few months, I got an interview at the previous corporation, got an offer, accepted it, and went back.
The next one and a half year was a frustrating time. For the first time, I felt helpless. Up until then, I had been confident in my skills, and had been able to solve any problem thrown at me. However, this time, things were different. I went head on with the large corporation, and was massively crushed. I spent more time at the job, but accomplished less. I spent more time in meetings and less time working. I spent more time waiting on my computer and less time getting things done. I learned how much damage people can cause when they don't care to help you with a proprietary piece of software. About midway through, I rebelled. I stopped going to meetings, showed up to work late, took long lunches, left early, and did all the passive-aggressive things that demotivated people do. Interestingly enough, even with this, I was still well-liked by my superiors, perhaps because I had still been getting stuff done. And honestly, we were in a lot better shape now than when I joined due to all the things I developed.
Having been humbled and simultaneously jaded by this experience, I left the company and went into contracting, because by now, I was just interested in making as much money as possible, so that if the environment turned out to be trash, I could still be content with the dough I was raking in. This time, I was pleasantly surprised. My boss was a very competent and technical person. My co-workers were also competent and fun to work with, though there was a QA who would ask lots of questions and try to get me to do the demos. My boss filtered out most of the nonsense that would have frustrated me previously, so that I could just concentrate on getting things done. In addition, there was much less corporate junk I had to deal with, since I could always excuse myself as a contractor and just leave whenever there was the monthly dishing out of the corporate kool-aid (ironically, when I did attend the meeting, I was surprised that the CEO seemed to be a very down to earth, no nonsense, give it straight kind of person, who was transparent with the financial state of the company).
My brother had said a few months back that I would reach a certain target by the time I was 30. At the time, I was skeptical. But, he was right. Two days ago, right before a certain significant event, marks a new landmark in my life. At this point, the question I have is: is this the peak or are things still going to get better? I'm pretty happy with where I've ended up, and I'm pretty sure that this is better than what the me from 10 years ago would've imagined the 10 years later me to be doing.
Written on September 18, 2014