Career progression/ambition

[mrcfo]

Well firstly a bit of background and stats about my work history:

Yr Graduated: 2001 (age: 21)
Number of jobs related to degree: 3.
Degree: Bachelor of Business (Accounting major). CPA qualified.

Ok, during the early days I was hooked into all those dreams about working my way up and going overseas but during my first real job I realised this was a far fetched idea and for some odd reason stopped being ambitious and rather lazy from that point forward.

Being somewhat of a laggard compared to the ppl I finished uni with, I'm for some odd reason happy that I'm working in a much smaller firm with a lower wage and my career definitely hasnt developed as quick as the others.

Admittedly I can never really make it now in a glitzy and glamourous firm and I always got rejected for any pontentially lucrurative or high position job. But I'm fine with that. Many of my peers are either working for Big 4 Accounting firms, governent posts or large multi nationals, but again, I'm fine with that.

What I learnt throughout the 4 years is more about myself and what I can and can't handle. I admit that in an ideal world I would have liked to get into a firm that shows more career potential and promise (a la big 4...etc) but hmm we can't get what we want in life all the time...was I jealous? at times yes...any human would.

Having tasted a 1 yr experience at a medium entreprise has exposed me to the evils of office politics and how hard it is sometimes for an asian to fit in anyway. I no longer have the ambition or drive to earn big bucks at some large ass corp. The current job whilst rather low paying and lacks potential to learn new skills, it compensates itself by the people who I work with that are genuinely nice.

[pablohoney]

Mr. CFO, sounds like you're in good shape. You're way ahead of me when I was your age. Let me tell you my sordid career path...

I was an econ major in college (it wasn't part of the Business school, it was just another Arts & Sciences degree) and really had no clue what I wanted to do with it, so I ended up spending the better part of 3 years after graduation alternating between temp jobs and being unemployed, just basically being lost. I spent a couple years after that doing office work that was leading nowhere. It wasn't until 5 years ago that I decided I wanted to get into IT, and got my foot in the door doing tech support for a large company. Since then I've slowly but steadily worked my way up, and I just recently transferred to a new position that got me a better job title & a significant pay raise, so I'm pretty satisfied with where I'm at at the moment. I still don't have a master plan of where I want to be in 5 years, but I feel like I'm gaining a lot of good experience and knowledge that will allow me to continue pursuing jobs higher up the ladder.

Of course, I'd be a lot more ahead of the game if I didn't waste 5 years of my life (or at least the first 3 after graduation) in aimless pursuits, but I suppose that has helped me in some ways, as far as appreciating what I have now and shaping my work ethic. I don't think there's any greater motivation to work hard than remembering when I was unemployed and broke. I also don't think it's ever too late to find your calling. I used to think I was screwed because I didn't immediately break into a career field after graduation, but after working with a lot of older people who've made major career changes midway through their life and found success, I realized there are always possibilities open for those with long-term vision.