It has been a month plus since I have applied and gone for my TSM interview. Seems like the ghost of it still remains.

Was in a late meeting with my boss today and i have no idea why we suddenly chanced upon the topic of me having applied for the position. The funniest comment was that he said despite me being so young that I think like an old man, being indecisive about the post. I just shared that there are probably too many variables at the current moment for consideration hence my hesitation. The biggest of it is marriage. Then he went on to comment that it is rare to see that guys these days put family ahead of career, especially at the young age.

Though inside, I get the feeling that I might have damaged my career progression chances by not having that “decisiveness” (army and Nike style), I’d still take it as a compliment. I would figure it is a testimony to what I truly stand for. All that i am doing now is indeed for my family and I have not strayed by putting my career first. To me a career is only a means to an end - to support and sustain my family. It’s better to have a “margin of safety” than risking so much.

It is highly probably that a typical young chap in my position might feel that the whole thing that just happened might just have been career limiting. And hence be severely affected somewhat. Somehow I feel quite non-chalant about it. But then again, blogging it all out here might also be a psychological indication that this might just be an act of catharsis to isolate and contain my “sadness”, if you call it that.

But it is cool to know all these because it does affect decisions somewhat. There is no one way to go UP and if it does seem career limiting for a time to come, there’s an internal system (well, at least i have it inside me) to “explore opportunities”. And even so now, I think it is quite exciting to see how I can change my boss’ perspective. Time to hone the “decisive” competency. In the meanwhile, there’s so much to leech from this place by contributing and being as involved as possible - experiences, learning ground and networking.

In short, I am having a whale of a time in my “job”.

Are you?

Well, in short, for all of us, we are gauged according by some standards and largely by the primary role we play in our jobs. A huge emphasis or weightage is placed on this primary role. i.e. if you are an accountant, you are gauged by the accounts you manage; if you are an engineer, it’s the projects you do and complete. It is naturally assumed that to climb, you will work damn bloody hard in your primary role to get up there.

However, the fact of life is that such a focus is not entirely the best way to do so.

Even as the primary role has great importance, it is not a differentiating factor. To get up there, it is not about meeting expectations or KPI, it is about differentiation. Sounds like a no-brainer right? But most of us do not function that way. We just slog at our primary role because it’s mainly where we are measured.

The secondary roles are which we are “marked” and can set ourselves apart from others. Even as their “importance” or “weightage” in our appraisal is small, they can make or break your career. We know of instances where people were eyeballed because they did something extraordinary, and often not in other roles than their primary role (we are talking about career builders, not entreprenuers).

This does not mean you can be lax on your primary role. No boss wants to promote a person who performs poorly in a primary role and well in a secondary role. But of course, you can complain of a job misfit and ask for a job change if the organisation is large enough to accomodate. (In my previous short stint, i did not have that luxury. And i bailed.)

So the moral of the story is:

To climb, focus on the right thing if you want to move up - standing out.