5 minutes and never a title

It's been about 6 month now since I've entered Comptel. It's been great - working and all that. Meeting new people, learning new things, jargons and languages (as in programming languages) and honing my english-speaking skills (one of the reasons I picked an MNC). Always wanted to be in the telco industry. The problem used to be from which angle should I enter - networking, RF, or programming. I guess my job now answers that question huh.

The early months was pretty laid back I suppose, with lots of training to attend to, and there was also this time when I was pretty much without work (in which as it turns out, my manager had thought that I was busy doing something - so she chose not to assign me with anything. Later on after we had a lil' chat, I explained my situation and later on some CRs came in my mailbox. Damn relieved to have some work to do).

So far my product knowledge goes only up to the Eventlink 4 and Eventlink 5/6. The two although quite similar in function, works quite differently. One relies much on S-Lang and shell scripts, while the other uses much C language and Perl. Frankly though I think I am starting to hate EL4, hehe~

And I've been getting the hang of reading Functional Specs nowadays. And those weird jargons and terminologies don't seem to scare me anymore. I used to worry a lot whenever I read those specs - actually I still worry now too but because of different reasons, haha. Back then it used to be about understanding what the terms meant and all and try to make sense of things. Now the problem is understanding how the program is suppose to flow and what exactly is the customer expecting to see.

These on-the-job training can be quite intimidating at first. I used to be able to use my "fresh-grad" status to buy myself some time in order for me to learn up some new things. It's like having a "Get-out of Jail Free Card" I suppose, where if you'd make a mistake or need some leniency, you can always get it. After some time though - you do not seem that "fresh" to them anymore. Buffer periods get shorter, works get tougher. And all of a sudden you might be thinking that extra cup of coffee might not be a bad idea after all. Owh, and don't forget the pizza delivery, it's gonna be a long night.

Coming from an electronic background, there were times where I question my decision to work here. Hell I could be doing RF or Networking if I'd want to. But I chose programming. Hurm~

Maybe it's one of those days where you wonder about the what-ifs stuff eh? What if I had done this...what if I hadn't apply that..all those unnecessary and useless question. There were times that this "self-questioning" thing became quite troublesome to me (especially in the head). But I guess this is just a phase that I'm gonna have to go through sooner or later.

Is there better opportunities out there? Should I jump while I'm still quite new in this programming thing and seek other jobs in a different field..you know..just try things out..see if it suits me or not.

I dunno. Life is full of stupid questions at times. I say it's stupid because most of the times you already know what the rational answer is, but you still keep on asking the darn question - and usually hope that someone might be able to read your thoughts and give you their second opinion, supportive or not.

Guess I'd just have to live with it for now. Been doing a lot of hard work lately (and sleeping rather late as well I might add). Working on stuff for FET, DiGi..and now Vodafone New Zealand.. man.. I need a break.

Or at least I think I do. It's that "hope" thing that keeps me going I suppose. That "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow kinda thing. Where you think that after this is all done you're gonna go wild and do all sorts of crazy things - but once done you get there, you realize you may not wanna enjoy yourself that much after all. It's that "hope" that gets you finishing that job earlier.

Owh, recent internal news says that Comptel has been voted as top OSS Vendor in Asia..err..or something like that. Great news I'd say. Better news should that mean I'll be getting a fat bonus at the end of this year.

Fat chance of that ever happening eh? But a man can dream. Owh you bet he can.