0188E: Beyond the Corporate Life



There are two major ideas bouncing around my head these days. One is the prospect of finally buying a house of our own. The other is whether or not I plan to be working at the same job throughout the entire term of the housing loan we're inevitably going to need. The two items are intrinsically tied together since paying for a house will need steady income over the next 10-15 years at least.

Of course this doesn't necessarily mean that I'm limited to the job that I hold right now. Trying to project how things might go for a full 10-15 years is never an easy thing. Just looking back, 10 years ago I was struggling to eke out a life apart from my parents while just starting my current call center career. At the time I had no idea that I might end up in a field like Marketing - it wasn't necessarily part of my long-term plans at the time.

I had also had a major goal of owning property before I hit the age of 30. That "deadline" is well-past by now and over the years I've learned a lot about the housing market and the limitations of current banking system. Loans seem to be a lot easier to come by, but that still leaves you with 20-30% of the total property value to come up with as a down payment. And I think a lot of my savings efforts over the years have been dedicated to gathering up enough capital to address that first down payment including factoring in other miscellaneous expenses that come with moving into a new home.

I don't think anyone can immediately answer the question, "Do you see yourself working at the same company for the next 10 years?" - I didn't know if that would be the case for VXI thus far, but here I am, still working with them after 11 years. Another ten years is certainly possible, although I know that I've also written about my concerns that the call center life and my whole graveyard schedule are beginning to wear me down a little. The industry as a whole is not exactly an easy one given our offshore operating model and that may give way well before I find something "wrong" with the job itself. I honestly like my boss and the team that I work with as a whole. What the future will bring is anyone's guess.

But if I were to leave the BPO industry, I'm not quite sure what I might do as an alternative either. I don't think I want to work in another corporate environment beyond this point. If anything I suppose I might be prepared to run my own business or at least something with more flexible hours. I just need to figure out what that alternative business might be.

I don't think I'm going to find myself suddenly in a career as an independent author or something - that's a little hard to swing. Writing is fun and I like writing but I don't think I'm at a point when my creative efforts are strong enough to act as a primary source of income. Perhaps I'm just too scared to try for real, but that's how I feel at this moment in time. Maybe things will change in a few years - who knows, right?

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