The Great Indian IT dream

Hundreds of thousands of us are facing this each day.  The great IT boom of the late nineties and early 2000s had attracted hundreds of thousands of talented engineers ( or so called engineers) into the IT world. IT was seen as a means to big money, onshore trips, ability to buy bikes and cars. We bought houses in our twenties. But we all know what  the reality is. We look at our friends specially referring to some of them who did not opt for IT or did not fit the weird fictitious criteria are probably living a better life. We understand that the matter of fact is that what we accomplish can probably be done by a high school educated person.

The initial sheen of big money has worn off. The reality is starting to sink in. We drag ourselves to work.  We are some what lost and searching for our identity. The increasing demands of the industry. Piling workload and the mad race. The fear of losing out in the rat race. The loss of purpose in what you are doing. Our work life balance has gone for a toss and the situation is very well summed up in the following lines

 "There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like.”
― Nigel Marsh

We are little passed the age where we can start from the scratch again, we have lost most of our engineering skills. We are just hanging in there because we have created a lifestyle that can only be supported if we continue doing what we have been doing.

However, I would like to believe that it is never too late to start something new in life. What we need is the intent. We can change the situation if we want to. We shall have to meticulously handle the situation. The following are my ideas and may or may not work out for all scenarios.

Let's overcome our fear and get a life first by following all or some of the below mentioned points

• Become debt free ( You would not have a debt if you would not have bought things that you didn't need)
• Limit your lifestyle and get real
• Get used to public transport
• We don't need  smartphones when we spend most of our day at work and have a computer at home
• Eat at local restaurants ( I meant cheap)
• Spend more time with family and friends ( Now, not after you retire)

Re-discover our strengths and weaknesses

• Learn something that interests you
• Develop a hobby

Change is the only constant. Try your hand at something new. A new job, a new profession or simply a new way of doing what we do.

Let me know guys what you think about this post.