Friday, June 23, 2006

Alternate careers

Alternate professions are all the rage now, and in like a week's time I've seen articles on career switch and dual careers in n magazines. Which is why I'll put a disclaimer upfront and say I'd started typing this post really long back, before it became such a hot topic overnight. While at it, I must also admit that my dreams, immaterial of how likely they turn real, have been inspired by people around me..
Like every other ---- s/w engineer (apologies for generalising, I'm sure there are a whole lot of you who are here for good), I too have these occasional dreams of leaving the industry and doing fancy stuff. What those are, I'll tell you in a while, post digression. I'm not unhappy with work, on the contrary I've never before been as happy as I'm right now. But there are times when the romantic in me gets a hold on the complacent other half and starts dictating stuff to her.
Now is one of those times
These are a few options that are already on my list: Can you guys think of anything better or more fun?
1) Start a restaurant: This a very recent addition, thanks to discovering the celebrity techie turned chef and his blog. A speciality upmarket restaurant perhaps, continental cuisine coz thats what I like best save mallu food(the bit about having to like what you do), and the kerala cuisine has suffered enough at the hands of the various wannabe restaurants in the city.
Pros: Its the fanciest stuff on my list. It appeals to vin.
Cons: and also the most expensive, perhaps.
Come to think of it, I could actually start one in my hometown though am not too sure the place is ready for it.
2)Join theatre or some performing arts group. This is fascinating, and I might actually go for it, given a chance.
3) Start a montessori school. Its not coz I'm fond of kids, I sure am, but this is more like a nice business proposition, given all the young rich parents in blore.

11 comments:

Sands | കരിങ്കല്ല് said...

Restaurant is an idea which I have always thought about. It's almost sure to be a success. Since we have been to many and we know the good and bad of them and we can make them a success. But, having one near viyyur-bridge will be a bad idea.

Basically someone creative can start almost any business and get it going quite easily. (Wasnt impressed by theatre because of hidden costs and daily work seems to be comparitively negligible to the initial work). Just need to take care of all the hidden costs. Otherwise it'll be like sandeep sadanandan wanted to buy a VolksWagen ;)

- Sands.

Anonymous said...

Me and alexy used to talk abt alternate careers. Coz we are damn sure that we'll be fed up with all these IT crap in a few years :). Here are two options we used to think.

1. A niche exotic upmarket (and lot more adjectives) restaurant. It will definitely have a few stars (five to be the minimum ;)) Come there and you will see me telling him "deyy alexiii, ivide sambaru kodu.. ", while cleaning up the tables. The dress code obviously will be exotic - kaili with thalel kettu :-S

Jokes apart, your plan seems to be good. And continental + kerala dishes is a nice option. Don't forget to add lots of cheese, spinach, brocolli and asparagus dishes in the menu, coz u know what i like. :D

2. Buy a vineyard somewhere. We will have a few hammocks amidst the lush greenery, where we just relax in the afternoons. All we have to do to earn a living is, you know, waste time relaxing over there :D. This one perfectly suits the "highly industrious" nature of me and alexy :D

Anonymous said...

Okay, you can be sure of one customer. Hopefully he wouldn't be the last :(

Asparagusum, brocolliyum thavidum pinnakkum onnum vachittu karyamilla. I'll tell you what. Beef is a rare commodity in b'lore and beaf steak cooked in red wine is... slurrrp :)
Hey were is the next continental restaurant.

Damn, why did they have to close 63 :(

Mayank Sharma said...

there's some vacancy in my theater group if you want to join. All we do is start a group and then forget about it :) . no seriously someday we may have a production.

mathew said...

a school at ooty with all those richy kids would be good!!!!!!rake a moolah out of it!!

sandeep said...

soorya somehow discovered this blog and sent me the link..

reading this, its coming to my mind that i'm also trying to shape up an alternative career.. but since its an expensive business, me trying on simulators in my computer..

its about flying.. :))
i'm in front of a ms flight sim most of the time these days..
don't let ur hubby, my collegue know abt this.. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I think that the feeling is of not being "productive", if that's an appropriate word to use. In India, the software industry is dependenent on the sol called "forward" nations. A slump in their economies causes large scale job cuts here (There were a few in IBM and TCS) this month.

I think that the guys getting frustrated with IT are the ones who have the quality to be innovative. They want to create something. I am sure there are are many things that we can think in the lines of technology and still do our own stuff..."INVENT"

Unknown said...

I m at the beginning of my career n i feel that this IT thing aint gonna take me anywhere!!! As cool as it used to sound to be a "Software Engineer" my job isnt anythng close to what i expected it to be.!!!M kinda frustrated already!! A restaurant sure sounds like a tasty option !!

daytripper said...

I'm not an IT or software person like any of you on here, but still like fiddling with computers (purely for the fun of it) and I honestly wish i was one of you, not to work as one, but just to implement my own ideas..the world is turning so 'virtual' that there's a bucketload of interest (and maybe money) if you can be creative enough. This is personally only my opinion though!

Anonymous said...

since we are talking bout careers.. i spent the last million years workin in restaurants and ships all over the world. did my mba and all that shit.
got frustrated..gave up my job and am taking scuba diving lessons now to become a scuba diver and am also trying to form a group for rowing. trying out competitions.
so to all u careers guy...any one intrested in my rowing group..emial me---katha_415400@yahoo.com.

Unknown said...

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