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Last night, Noa, my daughter, told me that she had been given a mission at school for Family Day - to bring an artifact inherited from generation to generation in our family. Chen, my partner, raised his shoulders and said he had no such object. But I smiled and ran to the study room. Moments later, I returned with an old shoebox in my hand. "Kids," I turned to Noa and Daniel while embracing the shoebox, "sit at the table and look".
I've always been a nostalgic type. I loved keeping things of significance that touched me, and in this shoebox, there was a backlog of nostalgic things from different times in my life, not only in my own life. There were also my grandfather's things, which I inherited from him. My grandfather died before I was born and I didn't actually know him. I only heard stories about him. And even though I didn't know him, I felt like he was a part of me, and when they gave me the little presents he left me, I felt like I was touching him.
The first thing I got out of the box was a harmonica that belonged to my grandfather. It wasn't long since I took it out of the box when the kids grabbed it from my hands. They started playing it and the house was filled with random harmonica sounds. At first, I got a little nervous because I was afraid they were going to ruin it, but then I realized my grandfather must be laughing up there and I actually felt he was saying "Let them."
I then pulled out a magnifying glass box that my grandfather used in his work as a photographer to examine camera film somewhere back then in the 1950s. The magnifying glass was also "hijacked" and turned into a children's game. This time I let go easily and just watched them play. As they were playing with the harmonica and the magnifying glass, I noticed something that made my heart miss a beat - my employee card from Amdocs. Wow, I thought to myself, it's been over 20 years since and I remember it like it was yesterday...
I arrived at Amdocs at the beginning of my career and shortly after my military service in the largest computer unit in the IDF. I remember very well the recruitment process of employees at the time. Most of my friends and I, of course, computer science students at the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College, were located by the company and went through a process of mapping and placement according to our abilities and skills. The same mapping process determined that according to my personal data, I am suitable for the role of "configuration management". I remember asking the interviewers, "What is configuration management? Is that programming?" I really didn't know what it was and I wanted to program so badly. One of the interviewers, a senior department manager, replied "Yes, that includes programming" and signed some form, which sealed my position not only in Amdocs but throughout my career as an engineer.
Throughout my service at Amdocs, I tried to move to a different role, in programming, but without any success. I was too good as a configuration manager and the management didn't want to lose me in that job. They thought they saw the best interests of the company before their eyes. They didn't want to lose the talent. But guess what? After about three years, I left. But it was too late because now the whole industry wanted me to stay a configuration manager. "But you have experience in configuration management" I was told in almost every interview. And so, eventually, I became a principal configuration manager. A completely eroded principal configuration.
The Amdocs employee card, this significant memory, made me hug my children and tell them: "There will be a lot of people in your lives who will want you to do something you don't want, don't like, or don't enjoy doing. And you're going to tell them "no thanks, I want to be happy"."
When interviewing candidates for a particular job, make sure they know exactly what the job is and what is required of it, and most importantly - make sure they have a passion for the job. And as for me? It took a lot of time, and a lot of courage, but today I am doing exactly what is in my passion!
Coach Perry
Corporate Coach for employee engagement and diversity and inclusion
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