The Engineer Evolution

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I am here at this Symposium. They teach you about the  (read market) new Microprocessors in the market. I had this invitation, because i have registered with them before. Since it was free and also since i love to work with microprocessors, i dropped in. And yes, the free buffet lunch. 

Hundreds of engineers in different sizes and shapes have joined in. Some of them in suit, some of them in casuals, some of them with a huge pot belly, some with hair, some without any hair. i could see the IT evolution cycle. 

The unsure freshers, most of them thin, and with humble looks on their face. Trying to adjust their posture to a very humble one to every 'big shot' who came in. The freshers, most of them terrified/excited by the posh ambiance, continued to press the click button at every amusing frame of image that came by. They are the innocent lot, who is about to be pushed into this mold of next generation techies. 

The next lot in the mixture are the ones, a bit bigger than the freshers. They seem to be serious than the freshers, they have this firm belief that they know a lot. They refuse to smile, they refuse to mix. They will be mostly seen in conference sessions raring to ask insignificant questions. One of these guys even asked a question in a session even as the presenter has just completed his first two sentences of the session. Needless to say, he asked about oranges while the talk was about strawberry. They will be normally dressed in strict formals, they carry the smartest phones, and will be using them in an interval of about 3 minutes. Well, I saw one of them using it while he was taking a leak. No, idiot, i did not peek in. I just saw. :P

The freshers will graduate to this category, in about two years. You can notice the difference by looking at the pot belly, and the amount of fat on the face. It wont be a bit too much, but it will definitely be noticeable than the freshers. vocabulary starts to trim down. 

Here comes the team leads/managers. Mustache, for most of them. Serious, yes, But, they have this look on their face which says they believe they run the place. The pot belly has graduated. So has the hairline. They can be seen dominating the stalls, strongly suggesting their products are better then yours. (Yes, the mine is bigger than yours ploy) Most of them are married by now, and you can see that right on their face. So you can see this 'I am the boss' attitude tuned down a bit less , possibly due to the fairer sex at home. They are half way down the mold. 

The top bosses. They can be seen in a suit. They cannot look to th right or to the left, or down. They have a selected set of vocabulary. 'leverage', 'scalability', 'driven', 'figures', 'quarter' etc are the most common and only words they use. They are You will see them using their phones only once or twice, but you neither see them long enough.

Well. Misfit, i was. 

I represent my small single man consultancy, I continuously fail to understand the corporate way of putting things. I have never worked under anyone. I do small things to make my living. I work when i feel like working. I had refused to go down the mold. That way, I refused a fair share of money I could have easily made. On a rethink, I know I would have never been happy that way. I refuse to make what they recommend. I refuse to live most of my life in a office. I ended up with my own ways, my own vocabulary, and my own vision of life. Neither of them are great. But I still have mine with me. 

The price for a free mind, is real expensive. And as years go by, the price is shooting up.