Dilbert & Me

Dilbert, stripped by Scott Adams, is acclaimed around the Globe. I read the first strip only after joining a software firm. What attracted me the most was his similarity with my own disastrous life in the company. Like every youth, I was also a megalomaniac, Pollyanna creature with lots of dreams stuffed in my head. After the pre-university education I aspired to be a social servant and to opt sociology as my elective, but the circumstances pulled me into a whole new world of electromagnetism and transistors. As the theory of ‘Survival of the Fittest’ suggests we had to plunge ourselves in the ocean of Engineering for long years and then suddenly for our revival, came the placements. I considered myself fortuitous to be a part of the Indian MNC, which offered me a job.

The very first day we joined the company, I recognized that this was not the place I dreamt about. There was a huge difference in the pay offered and availed. If realistic and powered with self-esteem, boy it is not right place for you too. This is how I became a fan of Dilbert. Adams has succeeded in portraying each traits of software professional. In PacaficBell (like my Indian MNC) he also faces the same kind of threats from superiors and colleagues. Now as I have already completed one year of valuable work in the firm, and forcefully looking forward to one more year of fruitful association, only way out of boredom is to be a paranoid. This place has taught me lessons like how to project yourself. You do all the crap work, or do nothing at all, but pretend as if the whole institution is run by you. I found out most characters of Dilbert in my office, except Alice.