THE STARTING LINE
Circa 1992
It was a Monday.
My first day as a programmer analyst in Great Eastern Life. I was in my requisite shirt & tie, plugged into my Walkman (We had cassette tapes in those days). I was a Shenton Way executive.
The usual excitement for first day folks. The grey blur of introductions and handshakes. In those days, we still went formal. This is Mr Chan. He heads the Marketing Department. This is Ms Lim, she heads the Actuarial Department. This is Mr Quek, he has been here 30 years. Not sure what he does.
I finally get to my desk. A box of business cards declare my official affiliation with Singapore's leading life insurer.
My salary was a princely $1,100. I was a 4 figure man. Young. Brash. Excited. My 30 year career wasn't even on the radar yet.
It was my starting line.
The PC Support team was part of the EDP. Yes, that's what we used to call it. The Electronic Data Processing Department.
We were a bunch of boys. 7 of us. We went out of the way to have fun. We had a local intranet that we would test. It was serious stuff.. The boss bought us computer games to "test" it. We became virtual fighter pilots chasing each other. We were pre-internet cafes but already ahead of the curve.
There was Louis (EX commando), KC (hard-core programmer), Vincent (hard-core vegetarian who handled all graphics work), Nicholas (He hung around doing stuff), Derrick (He had a desk in a corner, sneaking in smokes as he worked - a gangsterly type who screamed like a little girl if a lizard showed up) and Jonathan (A genius in actuarial science who changed lines).
We were the boys ensconced in our little room on the 16th floor of the OCBC building.
We played darts just before lunch time. The loser had to take orders and go get lunch. I never lost. We had our dartboard on the back of our maindoor. No body came down anyways.
I once launched a precisely aimed dart only for Mr Foo, our GM to open the door at exactly the same moment. It flew past his right ear. He was a pale man.. Turned even paler.
But he was a good sport. He simply suggested we locked the door. He never visited us again.
...
Make AI be part of your life | Copilot | Solution Sales | Cloud strategy | Cyber security | Zero trust foundation | Secure productivity | Digital Workplace
6 å¹´You had grew from what you did many years back.
POH_Cheng_Boon@wsg.gov.sg | PMP? | Certified Career Practitioner
6 å¹´Nicely narrated Ben!
Enterprise Risk Management | Risk Management | Risk Assessment | Risk Review | Risk Awareness | Data Protection| Business Continuity Management| Workplace Safety and Health| Sustainability Reporting & Management
6 å¹´I was just getting a little higher around 12 years later. Was happy about it as it was difficult to get job then. After looking back, I discovered that it is quite difficult to get that same joy even as salary and career advances.
Service Delivery | Delivery Management | Agile Leadership | Scrum Master | Programme Management | People Management I IT Operations | Supplier Management | Budgeting
6 å¹´I love hearing all these, brings back memories of my early days