Succumbing To Entropy (Part II)

What Happened In May, 2001

May 16 was the four-year anniversary of having lost my last respectable job as a software support engineer. The job had potential. The company had potential. I had the respect of most of the support department. I could have worked into a position as full-blown software development engineer. But then, the company’s founder decided that he wasn’t qualified to run a company, and hired a CEO. CEO’s, as they usually go, act out of un-enlightened self-interest. The first one decided to grow the company by buying up a bunch of smaller companies. He was fired for incompetence. The second one was already retired, and only agreed to do this until they found the guy they really wanted. Then the third guy decided to grow the company by shutting down parts of the company, and pointing out how much money he saved the company.

I was pursuing the latest technology, which the sales people never understood, or cared about. The market for those products was never developed. In yet another political maneuver originating in greed and unenlightened self-interest, the sales manager “acquired” the support department, and shifted the focus away from skills and technology to customer satisfaction. The Sales manager told us “Nothing will change. Continue work as usual.” I told the Support manager that I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing, and just let me work on this one project for at least three months to get established. We agreed to this. Two weeks later, I was fired for “poor productivity.”

It was about the 10^th time that I lost my job (I actually lost count), and the second time the managers made up excuses and lied about why they were firing me. That’s when I decided I had had enough with working for corporations as an employee. That’s when I decided to go into business for myself. Four years later, I’m still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

To Be Continued...