Climbing the wrong ladder

When I got out of college, I envisioned my career as a straight line. I imagined every job would be better than the prior one. I thought I would use all the knowledge I had accumulated until then in the next phase. Naively, I had it all planned, in my head I would have a beautiful and stable future. These plans couldn’t be farther than the reality. Instead of a straight line, my career looked more like a zigzag. I realized time and time again that I was climbing the wrong ladder, but I ended up loving it anyway.

IT analyst

I got my first serious job in the IT area after college. It was the same field I studied for. This was according to plan. I was super proud, got my laptop, a pager for on-call shifts, all the accesses for connecting remotely. This was in 1997, almost 30 years ago, it was pretty advanced stuff for that time. I mentioned how we passed through the Y2K scare, the Millennium bug crisis. It was fun living through those tumultuous years.

Marketing analyst

Then just after the dot-com bubble exploded in the years 2000s, I lost my job. I had to switch gears to become a marketing analyst. Luckily, I was hired because of a particular product that I knew very well and had training for. I was supposed to create a marketing plan, advertise and sell it to telecom companies. As you might guess, the market was terrible for the next three years. Our sales did not perform well.

Night backup operator

Then I was out in the market again, and it was saturated due to the dot-com crash. I waited a few months and accepted working in a gig as a night backup operator. The salary wasn’t much compared to the ones I had until then. However, it helped keep the lights on until I found something more promising. And it was in the financial district, which hadn’t been so affected as the telecom companies.

DBA

To be honest, that was the best thing that could have happened to me then. What started as casual work became the job I am still doing. I have been in the same company for 22 years. They saw my potential. They knew that I had earlier experience in IT support. At the first opportunity, I went to work on the day shift. Back then we wore multiple hats. I was Linux administrator, Change Management coordinator, and Storage and Backup administrator, among other things. But my core responsibilities were as Database Administrator, or DBA.

The market has ups and downs. Economic crises occur at least every three to five years. It’s almost impossible to have a career in a straight line. So, for all the young folks out there, if you feel that you are climbing the wrong ladder, look closely. It might be a blessing in disguise. And you might ending loving it too.