In My Own World

Translation (in Filipino): may sariling mundo

I feel like I (and the rest of the IT community in P&G) have our own little world. Funny thing is that we are proud of having our own language and customized solutions and what not - even if it's not recognized industry-wide.

This is what a normal life cycle of a P&G solution looks like.

A lot of people have tried to know what it is exactly that I do in P&G - tried being the operative word.

Friend: "You work in P&G right after college, right? So what do you do?"

Me: "I'm in the IT Department."

Friend: "You mean you work on computers all day?"

Me: "Umm.... not exactly... err... I run the operations of some SAP applications. Sometimes I lead projects for financial systems. Other times I do governance roles for our outsourced partners like HP and IBM."

Friend (silence accompanied by a blank and/or confused look)

Me: "Well, it's kinda difficult to explain...let me try again... umm...."

Friend (still the same blank and/or confused look)

Me (throws hands up in despair): "Yes, you're right. I work with computers."

Friend (expression clears and brightens): "See, I knew you work with computers. Let's get lunch."

Sometimes I wonder if I myself know what I'm doing in P&G. Don't tell my boss.

I have this belief that one should always keep his resumes updated, regardless of how much he loves his current job. However, whenever I try to put this into practice, I encounter the same difficulty. It is almost impossible to translate what I have done for the past 8 years into something that another IT person outside P&G would be able to understand. I usually just give up and just tell myself I'll update it when "the right time comes."

Sometimes I feel that my parents suspect me of having an illicit relationship with somebody based in the US. They do not understand why I have so many late night calls. Whenever I try to explain how people from different countries dial in to a conference number to discuss something, I just get a blank look from them. Sigh.

Who else but only P&Gers use words like align, f-up and learnings? I'm guilty of this as well. More and more, I find myself getting "procterized." I invariably use P&G lingo in everyday conversation and end up earning a blank and/or confused look from the other person.

Most of the time thought, I just end up not mentioning anything specific to my work anymore to non-colleagues. I just concentrate on talking about other universally understood topics - you know, normal stuff like what city you last travelled in during your business trip, what food you tried, what airline you took or how long the waiting time like.

No wonder I keep seeing more and more P&G couples cropping up. Sometimes only fellow P&Gers can actually grasp what being in P&G actually means.

Sad but true.

I wonder: Is this just us or are other companies feeling the same thing?