Finding your feet, finding yourself

For a long while now, I've come to question whether or not I'm cut out for the software industry. There is a desire in me to excel and be prominent in a field of my choosing. But tracing back the history of my actions, I'm perplexed by decisions I made:

peer pressure

• Went into IT studies - no direction
• Did IT projects during university summer holidays - practical experience
• Studied hard to get good grades - report card mentality

money pressure

• Jumped straight into a programmer job after graduation - You must heard these lines before if you're from an Asian family. "When are you going to get a job?", "You can start looking already even before you graduate, don't you know?". But usually this one takes the cake, "Do you know that [insert name of family member/friend here... best if chosen person is a genius or alpha male/female] has already started new job at [insert name of glorious multinational company here] with [insert generous salary amount here]. "

society pressure

• Stuck with the same company for 2 years - don't hop too soon, bad on your resume
• Self study new skill (.NET platform, SQL Server) - More skill, more valuable

And yet here I am now

• Currently in a technology consulting firm of 30+ people.
• Been in the industry for almost 5 years now in development and support lines
• Worked with local Malaysians and other nationalities
• Given travel oppurtunity for work assignments
• And sometimes, people actually like what I've worked on!

Sometimes it just blows my mind about what has happened in these 5 years. Kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if I had truly focused my effort and willpower into making an IT career an obession. Case in point, my dad's cousin left me a violin. Without attending any classes, I managed to play well enough to do small time performances. This was at a late age of 16/17.

Bottomline? I should've picked up the violin earlier! *snicker* But IT ain't all bad either *wink wink*