Building a career
Play the long game.
I have always dreaded a scenario in my head where I have accepted something from which I can never come out. It is not like people can never come out of things, but one wrong decision can derail you from your path and it will take months or years to fix it.
I have been in this scenario and thankfully, there were people who have always managed to put some sense in me.
But first a short story on how I reached where I am today:
I started my career as a support engineer. For 2 years and 8 months, I was working on an enterprise content management tool and helped clients across the world with onboarding. It was an extremely ordinary job.
At that point in time I was highly unsatisfied with my job and the work I was doing. There was no challenge. The only way out of that I perceive was doing an MBA and opening more opportunities for myself.
During my MBA days, I was shortlisted for an interview by a consulting firm on the basis of a keyword mentioned in my resume, “Content management system.” Though I didn’t have a thorough knowledge of what could be the content world holds, I, however, managed to convince the recruiter to hire me.
I worked on developing retail products such as e-commerce websites. With it, I learned, an eCommerce website is made up of two aspects: one is product and another is content. Product is what you sell and content helps you sell the product.
After a few years, I was hired by another company that asked me to develop an in-house content tool for them based on my extensive experience. But soon, I started looking for more and started exploring the areas where I will enjoy myself. Gaming/sports was one of the areas that allured me. I have no gaming or sports background, and I didn't know why will anyone hire a retail product manager who builds a content platform. Just for the fun of it, I started playing tennis to get into the shoes of a sportsperson and experience what they experience.
After a few months, a sports company interviewed me to build a sports/gaming app for them. Along with building a sports app, they were also struggling with managing content for the app. So they were looking for someone who can help with both.
Content has been an enormous part of my life in some or the other way.
With every product that I developed, I always had my doubts, about whether I am moving in a promising direction.
But now that I look back I realize how my first job prepared me for where I am today. We are nothing but a compound effect of what we do every day.
Every time fate used my content side to propel me in the direction I needed to go. All the more in those times, when I was unhappy with what I was doing, I kept on doing what I was supposed to do.
So it doesn’t matter if you are not where you are supposed to be or not even remotely connected with what you want.
What matters is where you are in your career today because in that you will find something that is already preparing you for where you want to be. For me it was content, and for you, it can be something else.
Therefore you nothing but need to work hard and keep aspiring.
My next aspiration is to get into hardcore gaming products and I can’t wait to see how I land it.
I am excited, are you?
