Just finish looking at pics of my friends back there in Innodata. A lot of these people mean so much to me and seeing them so happy and enjoying their sportsfest makes me smile and laugh at their wacky poses. I've been with Innodata for four years. Four years of happy and instructive memories. These people have been a part of all those memories--whether they know it or not. Seeing them nudge me back down to memory lane. A memory of the best love affair I have had in my life. Hmmm... sounds juicy? Ahh, actually it's not what you might think.
Innodata was the one and only company i fell in love with. I guess you can call it love at first sight... if there is such a feeling for industries one work with. My first experience with the company, was when I applied for and Indexer/Abstractor (IA) for the company back in the year 2000. The reason for choosing Innodata among the many selection of an HR positions available during that time? Their job advertisement. It says " We pay you to read on the job" and they did!
In Innodata Cebu I read like I never read in my life. It never ceases to amaze me how much I get to know through all the various articles I aome across everyday. In fact, it's only then that I learned that Coca Cola which is a close neighbor for as long as I live is not first owned by San Miguel but some Australian company. The facts and rhetorics I've read everyday was really amazing.
But what amazed me more as I go to work everyday was the realization that there's a lot of us there, graduates. Young professionals that otherwise would not have been working if we were to stick to looking for some clerical jobs after graduation. There was just not enough office jobs to accommodate all the college graduates every year. That was when I realized how much the city owed to the company, especially that back then the starting salary of an IA was 100 or so above the minimum wage. Wasn't that amazing when you can't get that kind of salary working in your field as an inexperienced graduate?
It was then that I believe I choose to fall in love. Fall in love with Innodata. We'll if its not yet apparent to you, I am afflicted with the disease common to all idealist out there--the hero syndrome. Being young, that affliction was very strong then. So, I made it somehow a personal mission to give all back to the company what they have given to my classmates, schoolmates, batchmates and everyone in between.
I believe I work harder that anyone then, studying specs until the wee hours of the morning just to make sure I won't make any stupid mistakes. To my mind, since I cannot do everything I might as well do what I can as perfectly as possible in accordance with what the client wants. If the client is happy more work come our way and more work means less unemployed graduate. To me, the equation is as simple as that.
My hardwork and dedication payed off. I was made trainer for new IAs in just four months after joining the team. I was very happy. Why not, I am rewarded. My dedication and attention to quality was recognized. Unfortunately for me, I seem to surpass their qualifications. I was transferred to QA for our project which according to them needs the kind of work behavior and job knowledge that I seem to have better than anyone in the team. I said unfortunate since, looking for errors and finding mistakes is not among my strongest suit. Needless to say, I resigned in Innodata Cebu 2 hours after I started my new assignment in the hope that I could still go back to being an IA, not QA for IA.
But that's now how my love affair with Innodata ended. After 2 years, they had transferred all its project in Innodata Mandue. And like a long lost love, I never wasted a moment to submit application for another IA job.
And there it all happens. In Mandaue that is. Like all love affairs go. First you get to experience all the good things, just like the things I've experienced with Innodata Cebu. Then when reality tries to set in and muddle the rose colored atmosphere you and your love created things begin to become a little bit harder.
Things in Mandaue was not a little harder, it was downright difficult. For one, I did not found much kindred spirit in Mandaue as I had in Cebu. The people I found there was another breed of young professionals. Confident, hyper, and so into the world. Very different from the silent, mellow book loving crowd I had met in Cebu. Just the same, I fell for this crowd. For one, their enthusiasm and energy is quite contagious.
But like any relationship that doesn't sync in from the beginning, it falls apart before things went much deeper and meaningful. The differences are just too vast to bridge the small yet essential issues of working together. That might had ended up quite poorly, but the insights I've got from that one experience was priceless.
Just like some lost love... Innodata was the lover that had given me so much but had also taken everything I had to offer. And like a former love... those days when you actually find yourself loving the one that you are more because of what you become at their side made you long to be with their presence; but, the memories of pain that are present in any colorful love affair, made you balk at the idea of going back to the folds of your lover's arm once again.
In the greater scheme of things, however, what I have become because of Innodata--the wonderful journey of becoming in Innodata's fold--far outways any pain that I had suffered. In fact, pain is all a part of those wonderful romance, that I when given another opportunity would willingly embrace again.
