Welcome to my 1st blog. I've never been into this blogging thingy before, which i decided to embark on out of fun. And this is how I am gonna kickstart it.
In case you're wondering how come i chose Jedi; any member of the knightly order in Star Wars, which was trained to defend justice and peace in the universe(www.dictionary.com), its juz
simply because i have been an avid fan of it since young and started off when i saw the 1st Star Wars movie(dun noe how long ago it was).
...don't worry! Other than sometimes fantasizing about becoming a Jedi, I'm very normal otherwise. (just abit too normal)
Friday, March 23, 2018
Engineering Change
Intention:
1) To get an in
principal agreement / awareness from RO/AO on career development for an
internal transfer within the company
2) To take
charge and plot my own career path (with plan and not just being trigger happy)
"Where do I
see myself in 3 years time?"
For a start, preferably
not in this department. Why you might then wonder........
Probably a more
appropriate question to ask might be
"Where do I
like to see myself in 3 years time"
Plateauing
skill set
I have been working
in the same job for the past 5 coming 6 years. True, I have transited to the
commercial side of the house fully only a year ago which is not really
considered long.
What I meant in
terms of skill set plateauing is that I have already learnt the ropes of what
it means to be an FTE. Of course one might argue that there can never be a
situation when u realise that you have learnt enough. How can I one say that he
has learnt enough about aircraft. I have worked/working on F16 -> F15 ->
A330 -> A320. Yes, one can never learn enough on the technical aspects of
aircraft knowledge, let alone 4 different aircraft type.... However, truthfully
speaking these technical aspects does not directly lie within the work scope of
being an FTE. But is this what I liked to learn more? More about that later.
Being a FTE, I was put into situations whereby I have learned how to cope with
a steep learning curve, how to work under stress, how to perform crisis
management, how to make snap quick decisions, how to rely on my group members
to work as a team, and perhaps more recently and importantly, how to manage
expectations. I have realised how hard it is to stay true to your morals and
values when it is so easy to stray away from your initial path in life. I have
seen how ugly things can get all in the name of meeting timelines. I
digressed.....
That being said,
perhaps the uncomfortable truth to the reason why I'm still here (I have often
ask myself this too!) is that I might actually be getting comfortable with what
I'm doing. I'm fully aware that the inertia to change gets harder the longer
one stays. Seeing all these movements (not sure whether is this by choice) of
people within this past year made me dread that the day may come that this will
happen to me too. By then I would already be too helpless to do anything about
it.
I'm someone who
is always a proponent of lifelong learning, especially so in the face of this
fast changing business environment. Hence skill set plateauing is something
that kindda irks me..... I guess this was one of the reason why I was
previously involved in a grassroots project on structuring learning development
for new employees within my unit (not just within my dept. unfortunately this interesting
side project sort of died off when my colleague got transferred .....)
Contribution
to the dept (the sandwich class)
I would define
myself as part of the sandwich class. People who are not exactly the lowest
life form in the company but yet not amongst the big fishes. We are expected to
start contributing to the dept after the years of 'investments' by the dept in
us when we were the lowest life form. Not trying to rebut here but in a bigger
perspective of things, what's the difference if I were to contribute what the
dept have 'invested' in me in a different role within the company? That being
said, I would like to believe that the dept should be pretty happy from the ROI
that they have already gotten out of me...
How to make sure
that there is a cover up in the event I left? I guess this was the same question
asked when I transited from fighters to commercial. Do we have enough
experienced commercial FTEs to cover my current work. Yes actually. There is no
anticipated overlap of test activities between the upcoming commercial
programs........
"Where
to I like to see myself in then?"
Marketing,
Program Management. I will always have a soft spot for aviation I admit but the
recent trend towards smart city concept, big data also offers enticing growth
opportunities to ride on. I wish to further work on in developing the big
picture perspective of how things are run at a macro level and the potential
head and tailwinds facing a business.
Final
Thoughts
I get that often
transfer opportunities are put forth to someone if you are:
1) A scholar
2) Rubbed enough
shoulder with more senior management to be 'noticed'
Obviously I belong
to non of the above or am currently not 'noticed' enough.
I see this
activity also as a way to get 'noticed' about my intentions such that even if
this activity does not work out, I'm still kept under the radar in the event
similar positions do open up in the near future.....
"You will
not be stopped if there are such opportunities open." Although they are
not actually privy to me, I would like to rewrite the stars and see how far
that takes me.....
...the dark lord came, and left
