was at a wedding lunch and an ex-colleague who is still in service was there too. i could see his discomfort when i addressed him by his first name but who cares. rank and position has no meaning to me now.
anyway, during lunch, the conversation topic at the table drifted to job search. i spoke about how military officers are not very good at marketing themselves and thus would need to improve in this area to enhance their search process. and my ex-colleague gushed about how in the forces, he need not look for jobs cos the job will come to him, he just needs to wait for the order to come... well, it's nice to be in that kinda system but certainly from a choice perspective, it would not be very nice, i thought. then again, that's his perspective of things.
incidentally, i have been coaching another ex-colleague who's preparing to leave the military. when we first reconnect, i could see how unprepared and green he was, but as time passes, i could sense the excitement in him grow as he embrace this new phase in his life. i wished he could leave with better after-taste but that was not the case. a little regretful frankly. but hey, that's the reality of things. when you move on orders, you will eventually hit a point where you will feel unhappy. unhappy when larger thinking change, when you are no longer the flavor of the top, when what you do is no longer deemed critical... having spend the last 5 years outside, i can only say this - that the world out here is one helluva exciting and we need to be outside to appreciate! the frog in the well syndrome will hit us without us realizing it if we stay inside too long. worst still, we learned to justify the beauty of the well, and glorify how it protects the water that gives lives etc.
i left early during that wedding lunch. i didn't want to continue conversations with people who talks like they know the world outside and constantly use management theories to argue their points about the outside world.
come out. experience. then talk. but for now...
seek to understand.
be humble.
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