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Musings of a Madman

Why the title?  It all started with a chance meeting, and the opportunity to help a stranger and a response that left me feeling the need to write about it.

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Article: 20230726 (Wed, 26-Jul-2023, 20:03)

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Career - could it have been more accomplished, and would I have gained by it if it had?

Could I have done better?

And who defines "better"?

I look at the careers some of the tech people I've known for 20 years or more, some who I first knew in entry-level jobs, and I see "global" this, "group" that, "head of" the other, and I wonder could I have done better for myself? Meanwhile, apart from the very first 5 years of my career where I had "A Plan" and hit every milestone I have never really had a direction.

I never renewed The Plan after phase 1, and I have simply been happy to go with the currents; mostly coasting along, making sure I was always interested by my work. Usually - not always, but predominantly - I have delivered results that consistently garnered plaudits and respect, but little career advancement. I've often had significant trust placed in my integrity and my ability, but because I have (save for one relatively brief team leader-ship role which, to be fair, I hashed) shied away from anything smelling vaguely even vaguely of people-management my advancement plateaued. I got known at board level in some competetive places, but never actually climbed far. I spent some of my time deeply unemployed, scraping through and surviving on the fruits of prior financial successes, and lately I ventured back into higher education. Overall, though, I can't help but wonder if I've done right by myself, or should I have pressed harder, and made more effort to drive my career upward? Would life be better? Would I be better? And what would "better" look like anyway? Who decides the metric?

Daft question, I suppose. I've few of my career years left. Maybe I should just be content to find a job that pays well and just continue the pattern of the past - delivering quality, and gaining satisfaction from a job well done.