The credit-crunch caravan knocking on the doors of those affected has just pass by. It promises to come back in the neighborhood sometime later. It’s like “Kamatayan” hacking your head away if you answered incorrectly to their question.
Case in point is the news that some of my collegues(fellow Pinoys working in my employer), were asked a dreaded question — “What is your selling point?”. For the unsuspecting, that’s like any other question thrown at you by your boss. But here, your answer can make or break you. And sometimes, your answer doesn’t matter. If they need to kick you out, they will. No matter how hard it is for them and for you. At the end of the day, when they have to fire people, they will have to or their heads will also come rolling.
All fellow whose contracts ended in January or will end in February have seen their contract extended only up to October 31, 2009. That’s barely 9 months and it send chills to those who are due for renewal. And I think they are still lucky. Most of them are supporting (dev/productionn support) systems that are due for retirement come November. Before I was moved to this project, I’m also part of the dev team of one of the major systems that will be retired and replaced. So I still feel lucky that I’m here in this project.
But despite all the gloomy forecast, all I can do now is do my job and give it my best shot. At least if and when I will be asked that question, I have something to say. I’m currently at the peak of a big project here but big as it is, I am dispensable. My part of the project is limited to the migration which is the first part of the project. After that, my service is no longer neeeded as there are people who are trained to do the other parts (support, etc). On top of that, my assignment is not on my comfort zone. I’m doing C++ programming and unix scripting. Before this, the only time I’ve programmed with C was in college. No matter how much I love it, I don’t have the level skill that will please a manager.
Honestly and admittedly, we are not prepared if and when the rainy days come. Besides, I’m still at the middle of a storm. Hopefully, I’ll be full with assignments for the next 5 months so that I’ll be a little indespensable. A little edge, so to speak. An extension until the end of the year is still welcome, a 1 year extension will be a bonus but an offer for permanent is a long shot. But that’s still possible and I’ll grab it if they give me an offer (at the right price, of course).
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