After becoming an IT professional, I think most of us tend to the adopt the basic similarities of the IT population.....I am no exception to this community... I try to maintain my basic inherent qualities but then some of them have changed over time.......... These are the things that have cropped up in me and I dont know how to do away with them......
1. More extended use of the heavenly shortcuts (Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V) as this helps in better time management.
2. I have stopped the use of oxford English dictionary and other such dictionaries to enhance my vocabulary and spelling (While typing this line itself, I made 1 spelling mistake which the spell check corrected for me :P). This is Effective use of Technology.
3. I see the night time more than daylight (As my colleague puts it...You spend an average of 9-10 hours in office.....7-8 hours in sleep... 1-1.5 hours in getting ready for office and coming to office..... 1-2 hours for lunch/dinner....So effectively you have only 3-4 hours a day for yourself ... or just 90 hours in a month..... And in case, you are in a so called "Critical" Project with "Critical" deadlines.... forget those 3-4 hours also .... you will be 90% of the day in office only and the rest 10% will be spent in sleeping)
4. When nothing works, everything comes to a standstill, press ctrl+alt+del .... not on your life but on the computer. Thats recovery.
5. I stopped travelling by bus when that used to be the main transport system for me in college....(Advent of office buses and right now my work place is right opposite my apartment.....) .... Maybe I could still hop onto 1 in Chennai.... but Bangalore am still scared of taking one........ :(
6. Am so used to AC now...cant be without one......The heat of Chennai in which I roamed about the whole day is now unbearable to me...........
7. My day used to start with reading the newspaper and a cup of coffee.....The cup of coffee remains.... but newspaper has been replaced by the laptop.... Thats globalization of the computer.....
8. Begin any conversation with the words "Frankly speaking", "I was wondering", "Lets discuss", "So....","Oh really ...', "Generally ...." .... the list is endless... Thats corporate etiquette....(if such a word exists... then good... else its my creation .....)
9. More effective use of mails and communicators. Mail the person sitting at an arm's length from you in office instead of saying to him/her directly or send group invites instead of personal invites to a party or a get together.... .Thats resource utilization. Save the paper.
10. Worse still, my mails no longer follow the grammatically correct way of writing a letter (So much time was spent in learning it). You should start with from, to, then Salulation, then sub, then reference, then body of the mail, then the ending of yours faithfully and your name, and date and so on.... Now my mail starts hi and ends with bye or regards.....They should now start IT grammer lessons in school...
11. Use of SMS more frequently than ever...... Even to say Good Morning and Good Night!!!
12. Maintain an excel of activities to be done.... (Forget the notebook and paper and the pen).... Am still saving paper.... (It really pains when I have to write on paper.... my handwriting is no longer the same!!!)
13. Send forwards you received to a big mailing list .... building the network you see... :P
14. More number of coffee's and tea's to keep you going through the day..... Thats what they term as taking a break.....
15. Blow up the picture. Being able to present the minuscule of things in the most grand manner. Thats event management.
16. Maintain contact phone numbers in SIM or Mobile phones (My last phone book was in college). Thats mobile communication.
17. Foreign countries and flights to such places seemed a luxury....Now I am in a foreign place for past 3 years and can fly back home anytime I want. Call it the IT boom....
18. Now my sleep is helplessly devoted to solving that bug over there in the code, doing reviews mentally, and what not.... my poor brainy doesn't want to think simple things of life now......... I call it ITical obsession.....
19. Most of my friends (that's including me) are at onsite... and its years and years since I have seen their faces actually..... sigh.... Meeting friends at times seems to be a distant thought and being able to giggle as in college..... sigh... I miss all that......
20. Last but not the least, how can I forget this.... forget exercies... forget healthy food... eat all the junk food and put on a pot belly ... !!! (Just kidding... I am a reduction spree now :P)
