Events That Brought Me Here: A Vision of Hope

Another great meme has been started by Paul Randal ( Blog | Twitter ) about the three major events that positively contributed to what he is today. I was tagged by K. Brian Kelley ( Blog | Twitter ) in his version of the story. I’ve been tagged a couple of times last year but I never responded back. It is one of my resolutions this 2010 to respond when tagged in a meme.

Collegiate Seminary Life

I finished college inside a catholic seminary with a Bachelor of Arts Degree Majors in Philosophy and Mass Communication. I have truly learned to love Philosophy as a school of thought. I took up Mass Communication as my second major only because I thought I can handle it and “double major” sounded better. If there was one thing I learned from Mass Communication, it is that I have come to appreciate the Mass Media and its significant role in our society.

The seminary has taught me great deal of life-lessons. I have learned to co-exist along other great folks. There I learned the truest meaning of communal life – I lived and breathed ‘community”. This is the reason why I really, really put great importance to the ‘community’. Outside of the community, you are just a lone, mindless being. The seminary has taught me how to deal with life in general.

Post Seminary Life

After I graduated from – and eventually left – that collegiate seminary in 2000, I thought I was prepared to face life. Faced life, yes I did. But I was kind of lost as to what I really wanted career-wise. I spent a couple of years in doing sales job (Philippines). Fast forward – United States. I decided I have to reboot my life. I went back to college to get a degree in medical field (Nursing). I can feel then nursing wasn’t meant for me but I still insisted on it. But I gave it up – not until I lost some money and, oh yes, effort and time. Meanwhile, I was already working in a document and information management company (I have worked as production associate  in a similar company prior to this). Just like the first one, I started in the production floor. Then I met… MS Access. I discovered working around data was fun. Manipulating data to produce meaningful reports that helped managers to deal with the flow of production on a day-to-day basis was even more fun! So the managers thought I can be more productive if they move me to the IT room. “IT” for small companies means everything and all things around its network infrastructure. I discovered that there was a more exciting technology beyond MS Access, and it was its “bigger version” – SQL Server (2000 version at that time). I tried to learn to get up to speed with the technology. I never came close to being expert but I was able to become an asset to the whole department. The beauty of working in a small company is that you are given the opportunity to work in the different aspects of the network – infrastructure, databases, business in general, etc.

Now and Beyond

After few years in that company, I decided it was time to look beyond and set my eyes to the bigger picture – bigger multinational-companies in this context. I was aggressive to move on with my new-found “calling”. In the last few years in that small company, I was pretty much on the speed career-wise. I’ve been learning lots of technology stuff and accumulating great deal of technical know-how’s. So, I was able to get a job in a big, big company. Then reality hit. I am no longer the “new kid rockstar” that I and my boss in that small company thought I was. I’m back to square one. If I made the wrong decision, I will never know. What I intended to do was to move forward. If starting from step one is all it takes to launch into the sky, then be it. This is a slow start, and I am trying to speed it up. And I am willing to pay the price.

In 2008 I started attending the Southern California Code Camp. It was my first taste of community event in the tech-world. That was where I learned about developer/technology user groups – and there exist such communities around where I live. I am trying to get myself involved in these communities. I cannot remain a spectator. I need to give back. This is also my “career theme” for 2010 – “Speed It Up, Get Involved!” The primary goal is contribute to the community in any way I can – this is the end. And I hope to speed up my career as the by-product of this effort.

Note: I am currently working with a group headed by Andrew Karcher ( Blog | Twitter ) to bring SQL Saturday to the Southern California Region.

I am tagging:

Jorge Segarra ( Blog | Twitter )

Jason Massie ( Blog | Twitter )

Ted Krueger ( Blog | Twitter )

Follow me: @MarlonRibunal