Three Stories

There was a student doing his final year in the university. In the previous few years all he cares about was to get through to the next year. But now it's different. Soon he would graduate and need to start looking for a job. He realized it takes more than good grade to get him that. He realized he didn't even know how it looks like to work in the real world.

A young professional had been dreaming to work overseas. He didn't know how to get there but that was his target in life. He did his best to make a good resume and kept sending it to many recruiting agencies around the world without many responses so far. He wished someone was willing to give him hints and share the experience so he can just follow it.

He's been working as professional in several different countries for many years. He remembered how it was not easy to get into his current position. He could still recall all the interviews he had to go through every time he switched job. How he learned to build connection and reputation at work. Now he feels like it's time to pay back. He's planning to share his experience to others.

Do you think the three stories above are real? Any of them?

I was a student and even after I graduated I didn't know how to find a job. I always wanted to work overseas, but I didn't know how to do it or whether I had the expertise to be able to compete in International market. Good thing I passed my CCIE lab. And it was still not easy because obviously certification is not enough. Even with expertise and experience I still spent many years trying to get a job in Cisco. I had to go through many projects, had to build connection and reputation, before finally Cisco gave me a chance for the interview.

So for me the stories are real. And they are the reasons why I founded Project Avatar.

I want to build a community for professionals and students so they can help each other to achieve their target to compete globally. Experienced professional can help by sharing his knowledge to younger professional. And by doing that at the same time he demonstrates his leadership and coaching skill to the world. Professional can share his experience to the students so at least they get some clue how the working environment looks like. And by doing that the professional will become a better professional. Every time you share your knowledge you gain more. Every time you give free gift to some people they will do the same to some other people. So then we build the culture of giving gift. Students someday will become professional too and they will continue this chain of knowledge-sharing culture.

That's the value that I believe we are doing with Project Avatar.

And that's also the reason why in the beginning I self-funded this project. That's the same reason why I spend time outside my 40-hour a week for Cisco to keep the website alive. And why during the weekend night I spent my time to write this blog :)

And I believe in that value. I believe in my reasons.

What do you believe?