Whore of Fame

 

Warning: The following content may sound crude and rude and contains offensive words that are not for the faint of heart. Do accept my apology if you feel offended.

In the early days of my career, I once heard an elder colleague of mine jokingly lamenting about his bleak future of being a developer. This was what he said,

“Developers are like whores. The older you get the less market value you have. In order to get out of this lowest rung in the industry, you need to study the pimp book (PMBOK) by hard and get yourself certified as a pimp (PMP) so that you can, in turn, manage the whores.”

Laugh as you may, but this was the common mindset that the majority of developers had back in the early 2000s. It might not be the same in other parts of the world, but at least in the place where I belong, this was the case. I am not sure what could be the real reason, but the post Y2K impact, dot-com bubble burst and strong outsourcing and offshoring of IT jobs to India during that period could have contributed and propelled the manifestation of such sentiment in developers in those days.

Whatever reason it might be, it was disheartening and discouraging for a young and aspiring developer like me at the moment when my career was just taking off. It got me wondering – Is project management the inevitable path and springboard for developers to move up the career ladder? If not, what are the alternate paths available for developers? Actually, there are quite a number of alternate roles like chief architect, IT manager, business solution manager and consultant etc. that developers may work towards. In fact, the options are plenty. The important point is not so much on what are available out there, but what you have in you that make a difference. Aristotle once said – “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”. As an individual, we have to keep challenging ourselves on what we can contribute and what impact we can make, which in turn justifies our value to the organization. In fact, in his top-selling book “The World Is Flat” (published around the same period), Thomas Friedman actually encouraged fellow American workers to keep upgrading their skills and focus on creating value through leadership and creativity in order to stay competitive and adapt to the challenges in the new economy. Always remember, there are many paths to fame but the choice is yours.

What have you been doing to help yourself rise up to the ‘whore of fame’?