5 years already, how time flies ...

It didn't really struck me until this morning when i was walking to work (after alighting from the LRT). I looked up to see my company building (quite a habit now :p) while waiting for the traffic lights to change and then it hit me, i have been here for so long and yet im still a nobody, but of course there are those who you can call say that they have dedicated their lives to the company.

So many times i have had the urge and hope to be able to join another company and get a higher pay, time and time again i have failed to do so. Most of the time its due to no chance of that materializing as my hunt for companies ended with no replies from all the companies which i have applied for.

A friend recently enlightened me with something which i have never thought about, a reason as to why i was rejected/denied from joining other companies. My target companies were mostly vendors who unfortunately have relations with my company, so the most logical reason was that they cannot hire me as they are not allowed to pinch staff from customer companies according to the agreement which they must sign when engaging my company for a contract.

That being said, there may as well be a better explanation as well as to why i was not successful in being picked. My resume looks very very poor for someone who is supposed to have 5 years of working experience. I would say that this is mostly due to my situation being in a end-user environment whereby almost all the supposed work is done by the well paid vendors hence limiting what i could learn from supposed on the job trainings. Due to a large volume of issues, the internal team for projects are usually overrun with firefighting current issues and was not able to participate with the vendors when they carry out the implementation hence losing out on the experience which could be shared during implementations.

Now that im in a new department, its almost as if im a freshie again, sadly though there is no increment for these kind of lateral movements nor is there an upgrade in ranking/position. I will be very glad to still have a job after the major restructuring. If i am still unlucky enough to not look good enough for other companies then in 5 more years time, i will receive my first long service award :p Hopefully, then, its not just a certificate thanking me for being a loyal servant.