Mark42
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2003
- Messages
- 9,334
Been working for the same company for 26 years. I spent most of my career in a technical area. Did the usual corporate ladder climbing until I had my fill of corporate BS, then did a side-step move back into the technical world. Best move I ever made.
Anyway, a big project came up that caused a review of old projects going back many years. I was surprised to see my name all over so many projects, but I guess after 26 years, you get to leave your mark (or stain depending on quality). What I thought was neat was to see how my work changed over the years. The more experience I had the better my work became . The quality of documentation improved greatly, as well as the focus and ability to direct the discussion specifically to the (then) problem at hand. Some of my early work was actually rather lame (even in my own eyes) yet someone must have seen some potential in me to keep me around.
I don't mind saying that I learned a lot at my job, and the quality of my work improved accordingly. Some stuff looking back I wonder to myself "what the heck was I thinking?". Actually, some if my early work was down right mediocre from todays standing. If me from 20 years ago was working for me now, I would be kicking my own butt.
Anyway, thought that was a neat retrospective of my own work. We are not all as good as we think we are. We make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. Seasoning makes for the best employee. But you need an employee with the potential and attitude to make it all come together down the road.
Anyway, a big project came up that caused a review of old projects going back many years. I was surprised to see my name all over so many projects, but I guess after 26 years, you get to leave your mark (or stain depending on quality). What I thought was neat was to see how my work changed over the years. The more experience I had the better my work became . The quality of documentation improved greatly, as well as the focus and ability to direct the discussion specifically to the (then) problem at hand. Some of my early work was actually rather lame (even in my own eyes) yet someone must have seen some potential in me to keep me around.
I don't mind saying that I learned a lot at my job, and the quality of my work improved accordingly. Some stuff looking back I wonder to myself "what the heck was I thinking?". Actually, some if my early work was down right mediocre from todays standing. If me from 20 years ago was working for me now, I would be kicking my own butt.
Anyway, thought that was a neat retrospective of my own work. We are not all as good as we think we are. We make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. Seasoning makes for the best employee. But you need an employee with the potential and attitude to make it all come together down the road.
It's not only wine that improves with age. My focus has sharpened and my tolerance for people making honest mistakes has increased. If we didn't make mistakes, once in a while, then we wouldn't be doing anything. But on the flip side, my tolerance for negligence and poor quality is almost zero. I have the good fortune to have some excellent employees that I've trained since they left high school. I've also tried hiring older folks that claimed to be experts.............It would seem that along with their claims of expertise came a lot of baggage from previous employment cultures that were completely opposite to ours. I really thought that your post was going to end with "and then they laid me off" so it's very cool that your organization recognizes your skills and your contributions. Good luck.
