Tinge

Me leaving the firm is slowly settling in. Today, I'm back at the client in Cyberjaya... will be meeting the project director to "break the news". Kinda late, isn't it? And the partner on the job will tell him "he's taking time off..."

So I was telling this partner...ok... if the client sends me email, how? It will bounce back...

so he tells me "go talk to HR to try to get your email extended.."

sneaky...

Packed

It's very unlikely of me to skip a week day before updating my blog. Apologies. Damn busy. In fact, now that I'm transitioning to my new role, I'm more busy than ever.

In my new role, where I work mainly from home (officially next week), in order for me to work effectively, there are numerous conference calls that I need to get on. The new project that I'm starting is yet another mouth watering one, coupled with a lot of headaches. No, no sexy women yet.. but it's yet another core system replacement.. insurance.

So, next week, I fly off to Brazil to check out this insurance vendor which my new company has invested in and which has now made this Brazilian software a "political choice". The problems? This vendor has a proven .NET solution, however, rolling out to the larger countries, my newco's directions are J2EE. So I'm going there to not only check out functionality, but to suss out the new version which they have started re-architecting on J2EE. Already I can see some bizarre decisions... mixture of session and entity beans (i hate entity beans), a custom built rule engine (how robust is that?), lacks some critical functional components like undo/redo, statementing..

My god.. it feels like a custom built job!

Dash

A bit late blogging this.. have been pretty busy..

At the project front, I'm starting to do my handovers. Yay!

On the "transition to the new place" front, I've been busy booking flights (to Brazil next week, Mexico 3 weeks later, New York sometime in mid November). Found out that visas are required for Mexico. So I gotta plan a trip to the Mexican embassy sometime this week. Also found out that Brazil insists on yellow fever vaccination (quite funny, since the Brazilian soccer team wears yellow.. get it?) so I got to go to the Mont Kiara Medical City, which is located in KLCC, to get vaccination shots... (another irony.. I can hear Allanis Morisette in the background...)

Tomorrow.. I have yet another "what the heck" interviews... You're probably wondering.. again? Ya lah.. might as well... Big arse database vendor who have been gobbling up other software companies... head hunter has been pressuring.. might as well go for a laugh and see what's up there...

Need to finish off annual reviews.. still 1 outstanding...

New laptop from new co not arriving anytime soon.. hmm.. life without a laptop is gonna be strange...

Just installed AIM on home PC.. damn.. have you tried AIM? Compared to yahoo.. the interface truly sux.. but it's the new co corporate standard.. so I better not start pissing anyone off this early..

damn busy... already been involved in con calls preparing for new co..

.. no time to even reflect and miss the firm...

Faith

A few days ago, things look bleak for the new co that I was going to. The travel schedule just seems so out of whack. It was like 2 weeks in Brazil, followed by 2 weeks in New York followed by 2 weeks in Seoul etc etc.

That's why a few days ago I had deep doubts on joining...

... but somehow god is great.

Deep down inside me, there's a great deal of respect I have for tradition. My wife has a lot of faith in her Kwan Yin, the goddess of Mercy, and during telling times, she would seek advise from her faith. I too, have sometimes been deeply influenced by this.

You will probably think sometimes these are quite antiquated followings .. but in times of trouble, angels sometimes guide you with invisible hands.

Things looked bleak a few days ago. But every time, for the past 2 days, when I "talked to my faith", she would always tell me that the path I'm moving to is the better one, compared to staying. Of course, I always asked her "are you sure, because the travel just seems so impossible". And she would reconfirm.

Today, I find out that I don't need to travel so extensively. It's more likely 1 week away, 2 weeks back home, 1 week away, 1 week back home.. better.. much better...

Faith will find a way...

Quadruple

I had lunch with another partner today. I used to work with him on 3 projects, the custom built banking system job, a dot com B2B payment infrastructure project and a banking merger down in Singapore.

Told him my predicament of travel and he said he understood my predicament. Typical advise.. need to select what is best for all... he did not do any hardsell... that's why I respect him...

Spent some time at the bank today. We went in, did the interview, and things all look good.

The partner running the portal job said to me:
"aiya... I double the salary that your new company will give you lah"
I said
"ok.. where do I sign"
Then later he found out how much I would be making at my new co...

... but amazingly, he was still serious in his offer...

hmmm

Vertigo

I am sitting down in the cafetaria of the bank which I am proposing the portal. At first I thought we're in a good position, but then I found out that the dreaded 3 letter acronym was also invited back for a discussion. There's a difference tho.. we were invited back to show case our resources, the 3 letter acronym was invited to clarify scope.

So, 2 ways of interpreting this...
... positively, maybe we're asked to discuss resources because we're the leader...

... negatively, the 3 letter acronym could be on top because scope discussions could be for the contract...

Nevertheless... we'll wait and see...

... the partner for this job has decided to be forthcoming with the bank and inform them that I plan to leave.. so we'll see what happens tomorrow...

...on the other hand, there are other complications.

I found out that the new job I'm supposed to be going to has a fair amount of travelling. In fact, the moment I join, I need to spend 2 weeks down in Brazil to suss out a .NET insurance solution that will ultimately be re-architected on J2EE.. thereafter, 1 week back home, then 2 weeks in US, 2 weeks back home, then 2 weeks back in the US...

I knew there was gonna be travel, but I guess I did not anticipate so much travel. This has caused me to seriously think hard on whether this is what I want...

Given, I'd love the USD salary, but if it is to the detriment of my family, then, I'd rather be a good boy, stay where I am, and just thrudge it thru and fight the good fight...

I need to be fair to my family, therefore this may need some re-thinking...

My counselor, the one who is working with me on the same project, the one who took 1 month to react to my tender resignation, the one who has not told the client I am leaving, took me aside and asked me to stay on for a few more weeks.

Of course I told him to stuff off. I nicely said "but I gave 2 months notice".

The cheek! What's happening to this world!

Deadlock

I remember, back in the Australian winter of 1990 when I was studying 6.723 Concurrent Programming in my university, we had this Polish lecturer, Jerzy Orschowski (something like that lah.. I cannot remember his exact name) who taught us that subject. We used the ada programming language, and one of the topics was about "deadlock".

I am now in that situation.

Just had a conversation with the partner who's chasing that same portal project that I have possibly brought to the brink of securing.

He's asked me (he said), as a friend (he said) to consider 1 of 3 options:
1. Stay on
2. Extend my stay for 2 months and transition later
3. Leave, but will be disastrous cause we have to break the news to the bank before our "interview" on Thursday.

Sigh.. he did the expected "you brought us to the brink of securing this, you built such good relationship with the bank..."

But he was also frank with his "ya.. I know this win may still not get you any closer, but I was hoping by staying on you can see the goodness of the firm..."

My sugar levels went up a couple of notches.

I don't know.. I could be a pure bastard and say Option 3.. but deep down inside, I'm a softie..

I told him "I'd really like to help you convert this, but not at my expense. Perhaps we can consider me partiming, maybe go over to my new co, but still be left free access to the firm's resources like email, etc.. so i can plan the transition.."

The saga continues...

NSLookup

Sweet! I found a way pass the client firewall. Found out (from the error message) that they were filtering by URL. So obviously, if you did an NSLookup on the URL, you can get the IP Address that bypasses the URL filtering.

I'm glad I stayed attentive during uni days.

I used: http://www.enc.com.au/itools/nslookup.php

Unforgiven

The weekend was spent thinking abt one final quip from the partner chasing the portal project.

"Karipap, I don't want to sound selfish or self centric, but you have to think about this project. You brought it to life when it was dying, and now we're on the brink of winning it, and you want to quit"

The fact that the above person even opened his mouth to utter those words meant it had large doses of selfishness...

I discussed the above with my wife. Of course, me, with my sentimental reasons, felt I needed something to uphold those words said above. My wife was more brutal.

She reminded me of 2 occassions where I got totally screwed by the firm.

The first was when I was asked to go down to Paris to save that sinking ship of a project with my wife expecting. Not cool. Wife damn unhappy. The firm says "good for your career"

The second was that infamous "tap on the shoulder" by the then retired Singapore office partner. My wife had just given birth...
"Karipap, you're going down to Melbourne tomorrow..."
"Ayoo.. I only got 1 pair of underwear..."

The third was when I slogged nearly to death chasing that SGD75M deal (which would have made me partner then) during SARs. I travelled every week, by bus, to Malacca... (because I had to move my family somewhere with me spending full time down in Singapore). I remember, every time I came back, I straight went in, showered for an hour before coming out..

And what have I gotten in return?

Bind

I got a call from the bank that I am chasing for the portal implementation. They want to interview our resources for the project.

This has me slightly in a bind.

Now, the fact that the bank has gone this far and want to talk about resources is a good indication.

The problem is since I'm leaving, I should not be going for the interview. But if I don't go, then, this might complicate the deal. We might not get this project. If I went for the interview, we get the project, then I later leave, this might be a bigger complication for the firm.

Some of you might say "screw it lah" but I'm a professional. I will not do anything to screw the firm, even though my ass has been screwed so many times that the anus feels raw.. (reminds me of that Busta Rhymes Song... don't you wish your girlfriend was raw like me... don't you.. don't you.. but I digress...)

Even better vibes was when I asked the bank representative "did you have similar clarifications to the other vendors". The representative nicely said "well you know I cannot give you such a direct answer until everything has been cleared.."

Damn... so the weekend is gonna be spent thinking...
Option 1: Screw the firm
Option 2: Screw my USD job...

A lot of screwing to be done... need calmness and guidance from above...

Irony

My Cyberjaya client has decided to filter out yahoo messenger. I guess they figured out that too many people have been using yahoo to talk to their cats, dogs, etc.

So, since Monday, most of us here have been using the browser based version ie www.e-messenger.net. Today, they also banned that.

But the bizarre thing is www.playboy.com is not filtered out!

Grin

The Champions League has just restarted proper. It causes lack of sleep, dammit.. which is truly unhealthy.

What the heck.. with the love of soccer that I have, nothing tears me away from it.

I remember the time where my wife was so pissed off with my obsession with the ball that she removed the Astro sports channel away from my package. I felt the full force of that like a batu tengilling hammering my nuts!

Thankfully, through many months of being nice to her again, she has allowed be to reinstate Astro sports package back!

2 nites ago, I watched with amazement when Liverpool trooped out facing Real Betis without Steve Gerrard and Djibril Cisse. I'm like.. what the hell? And what's Josemi doing at right back?

But 10 minutes later, Liverpool was 2 up, I had a smirk on my face. My smirk became a larger grin when the next nite, Man-Ure was held to a draw with Rooney sent off at Villareal. Then this morning, I find out that Everton got pummelled 5-1 in Romania.

Sweet!

Dismantling

Still no news from the bank who I'm chasing for the portal project. Ho hum.... all so typical of Malaysian clients.. all damn kan cheong all the way up till final presentations.. thereafter silent...

Yesterday was a busy day. Cyberjaya in the morning for meetings. After lunch, had to go to the US embassy to pick up my passport with the US visa. After that, I went over to Jalan Raja Laut to deposit a cheque. Didn't know where to park... so I parked in Menara Tun Razak.

Going there brought back many memories. When I first joined the firm 13 years ago, I used to take Mini Bus No. 12 from SS2 which dropped be just opposite the EPF building. Cross the road, and I'll be at the Octagonal Menara Tun Razak, where my firm occupied 3 floors. I walked slowly around the limited car park, saw the same mamak vendor stall who sold keropok and cigarettes and newspapers still there at the ground floor.. just so poignant.. the lobby still looks a little dark... sniff sniff...

Pigmentation

Things are getting uglier..

I just bumped into another Senior Manager. He is my senior by about 1-2 years, used to be in Fin Services.. moved over to goverment.. did not make it the last round because "I only sold RM12M"...

Apparently my other friend who is in the architecture group made it because of some dastardly rumour that apparently the goverment unit had some half baked leader (pun intended) who has been executing projects not in the smoothest manner.. So there's talk about chucking the half baked fella out.. and because you're in government, you really need a certain pigmentation to make it and therefore my other friend of a different race made it...

Tsk tsk tsk...

Sediments

I updated the CMD yesterday, he dropped a note to me, extracts of which are here:

"Thanks for update. Was going to call you. OK I think that’s the kind of conversation we need to have. Too bad to hear no more room on Malaysia although not surprising.

Whatever you decide, at least I am glad we are able to be open and honest and if there is no room to provide a career for you that the ang moh can see, then I am happy we tried and did not let you go blindly. I don’t think we should be afraid to tell people when there is no room that there is no room. "

It's sad to hear the truth surfacing ie "when there is no room that there is no room"...

Crystal

Well... I'm now standing at a free Internet booth at Changi airport, waiting for my flight back that's delayed.

The bottom line?

My future's away from the firm.

I met up with the Asia Pac chief architect. Found out that he did not have much background from the CMD.

I spent a good 45 minutes bringing him up to speed. I started explaining my predicament and I also told him that it would be nice if someone came up to me and said "yada yada.." (you know it already by heart by now, the comment abt zero sales target etc etc)

The ang moh firstly stated that in the consulting business, it is hard to have zero sales targets. The moment he said that (which obviously I have been expecting...), I nearly spit the coffee that I had in my mouth out. But obviously I did not want to purge coffee into Asia Pacific's Chief Architect...

Secondly, he said, with respect to exploring perhaps a 12 month career progression opportunity within the global architecture group, he said
1) Malaysia is pretty much out of the picture because of perhaps limited opportunities and the fact that the pyramid is perhaps filled up with that other dude from another race who already got promoted ahead of Picard there already
- China is a good opportunity that can perhaps make it for me >> but I told him I did not want to travel
- the only other opportunity he said was perhaps exploring this other unit that does SAP solutions, because of my SAP Netweaver experience

Given the limited opportunities, it was obvious that my best bet is still away from the firm.

It was a good conversation. He did not do any hard selling to make me stay. He understood my predicament and said that "sometimes, if you're not getting a fair shake out of the firm, it makes sense to leave"

True words of wisdom.

Now that this burdenesome decision has come to a close, I'm gonna look for some free X Box games to play at Changi...

Picard

As I sit here in the Singapore office, I talked to my good friend who did not make partner. This was the guy who sold that USD65M core banking replacement job, and yet did not get promoted.

His story was quite shocking too.

He, like me, used to be in Financial Services. Last year in November, after talking to the current SG FS partner, he decided to switch to the architecture group. That was because that partner said "got no hope making partner in SG in FS" (something like that lah). Wah.. if SG got no hope, with only 1 FS partner, in KL worse... with 5 FS partners!

He was telling me of how he met the ang moh partner (who i'm supposed to meet later) and how this partner told him that he had 6 slots to promote partners in FS...

So of course my friend jump ship lah.. from FS to this architecture group...

Now, the story was in the run up to the promotion, my friend, with USD 100M worth of sales (he nicely corrected me...) apparently was ranked No 2 in Asia Pacific. No 1 was my other friend, different race. This other friend was ranked No 1 because "FS supports, Government supports, and he has done a lot for technology". My friend thought "Niama, chase this USD65M job so hard, where got time to do things for technology?" But he also thought, never mind, ranked 2 out of 6, sure get promoted one...

Then last minute, like a bull being castrated, worldwide cuts their partner quota from 6 to 1. So my friend thought "chow chi bai!" (Actually, he said worst things, but I'm too lazy to type all that crap here.. and it'll probably be cencored.. so I went for the hokkien swear word instead to signify how he felt...)

So, this gives me damn a lot of food for thought even before my 1.30pm meeting. I'm like, if I switch over to this architecture group, surely my friend will still be ranked No 1. What hope in hell do I have to make No 2 in 12 months? Whatever sale I make in Malaysia will be divided by 3.7, will look so puny... and worst still, my friend was saying that there are other ang moh senior managers all being lined up... like this one Norwegian guy in Australia with a Norse god's name...

The hope just doesn't seem to be there...

Inflight

Over the weekend, I delivered my contract to my contact who will bring it over to the states. He flies off today (Monday) and should reach New York around Tuesday morning Malaysia time.

So, things are in motion.

What if I change my mind? Seeing that I'm meeting Asia Pacific's Chief Architect to discuss career prospects...

Well, I'm meeting the Chief Architect, who is also the head of the global technology consulting unit for Asia Pacific, at 1.30pm. So, by 3pm, I should know if I should retract the contract.. plenty of time...

Just to recap, after meeting the CMD, and after I told him "if someone says from now on, ZERO sales targets for you... you are now the chief architect, just go and kick ass on projects and here's an AP salary" the CMD said "ah... there is a role for you in the firm, go talk to this ang moh fella down in Singapore who runs the Asia Pacific global architecture group... nothing to lose..

So here I am, in the Singapore office with a great window view.. waiting...

Schmeichel

I met with the Country Managing Director. Decided not to make him drive all the way to Cyberjaya, so I met him in KLCC instead.

It was a good lunch. At the end of the day, I told him my standard line of "If someone comes up to me and says You now have Zero sales targets, you can be the firm's Chief Architect, just go and kick ass on projects.. BTW here's an AP salary". He said that now the firm is changing to allow for such roles and urged me to talk to this one Ang Moh guy who is actually the firm's Chief Architect. He said I had nothing to lose, and worst case, I could actually go and do my own thing and come back to the firm later...

So, he's arranging me to talk to this ang moh guy..

I gave the CMD the benefit of the doubt, and I will speak to this ang moh guy to see if there's really such hope.. but I have little hope...

One

Now that the Malaysian government is recalling the RM1 coin, a lot of trouble has emerged... most of it coming from the hawkers.

My wife yesterday was buying noodles, gave the person a RM1 coin, the bloody Indonesian maid there said "tak terima". Niama chow hai! What do u mean tak terima? "Bank buat susah". I'm like, flipping hell.. legal tender mah!

This was not the first incident... when I was buying something in KLCC today, I got my change back in RM1 coins. The cashier had a little smirk on her face. I'm like, is there some kinda conspiracy going on to ditch these coins?

Come on.. December 7, guys!

Then I found out that the banks are the ones starting this viscious cycle.. when you change your coins, 100 coins gets you RM80. Bloody hell! No wonder!

Stop it!

Letter

I got a lot of bitching abt the salary letters. My counselee got a particular rating. She found out that her rating is just one notch lower than someone who got RM25 more than her. I'm like, what the...

RM25?

Worst, she did her math and said her increment is RM50. Well, this year, our firm removed the RM500 travel allowance so theoretically she actually got abt 18% increment.. but if u add the RM500 from before, it really feels just like a RM50 increment.

At least she's happy with the iPod she won at school...

I went back to Cyberjaya this morning.

More shit from bitch woman. That woman just thinks things will nicely fall into place into her maidenly hands. Bitch!

Then in the afternoon, it was a quick 40 drive from Cyber to KLCC to prepare for tomorrow's portal presentation, my final gift to the firm. Getting good vibes from it. The bank personnel were calling me to give me tips. Maybe my selling skills not so bad after all...

Drive

Today I spent most of my time in "selling mode" shadowing that bank I was pursuing for the portal proposal. Our presentation is this coming Friday. Fingers crossed. It'll be damn ironic if we pull this off and sell this, seeing that this bank is the territory of the dreaded 3 letter acronym.

But, as I have promised, this sale is supposed to be my parting gift to the firm.

On another note, I got a message from the Country Managing Partner who wanted to see me. "If you want, I will drive to Cyberjaya to see you". Brings a tear to my eye. Here we have, the biggest kahuna in Malaysia willing to drive out to Ulusville to see me, whereas the head of financial services in MY just "play dono".

The head of the "solutions delivery service line" also chatted with me and said maybe I shd just be straight forward and say what I want.. ha ha.. like I said.. it'll be nice if someone came up to me and said "karipap, from now on, you have ZERO sales targets, but you can be our Chief Architect and just go and kick ass on all our delivery projects. BTW, here's a wad of cash similar to an Assoc. Partner's salary".

Fat chance!

Tear...

I signed my contract at 2.28pm today. Well.. signing doesn't mean it's a done deal. I've got to fax it back..

My last CTO job offer, I signed it on Aug 20.. I just never returned it!

So, there's still a slim chance of something happening that might change my mind...

Yesterday, one of my german buddies called me up from Korea. News travelled far. One of the partners who lead that ill fated attempt to win that large SGD75M job down in SARs laden Singapore also called me. Today, I got an SMS from the Managing Director of the firm, asking me out for drinks...

The action's coming in thick and fast. Probably a bit late, eh?

i was telling my counselor, if the firm worked a bit like the dreaded 3 letter acronym, and made me say "Chief Architect" and make me just go project to project to kick ass on software delivery, pay me Associate Partner Salary, no sales targets, I think i'll be happy...

Unfortunately, the firm doesn't work like this...

Tulan

That bitch woman that I'm working for is at it again. Already my wife is not well, I get inundiated with so many phone calls and emails to do this and do that. Does she not remember that I'm actually leaving the firm?

I was chatting with the other manager who recently left the project because of "racial pressures". She also said that the very last week before she left, bitch woman was asking her to do this and that etc etc. Niama man!

On a more positive note, I received my contract! I got till 3pm to sign it (again, feng shui talks abt good times to do things, bad times and neutral times). If I miss that window, it's then 7pm - 11pm tonite.

Hammer

Today, I stayed home. My wife was not well from yesterday so I had to stay back to be the backup driver, tuition teacher, cook etc for the small one...

It's funny, dono whether it's fate yet again playing its games.

I'm supposed to sign my contract for the new place tomorrow, Sept 6. My feng shui calendar says tomorrow's a good day to sign contract. Because my wife was not well yesterday, I could not pick up my contract. Supposed to meet my good buddy to get the contract... but since wife not well, could not pick it up...

Sleeve

I made a bizarre discovery during the weekend when I was doing my ironing. I was ironing some of my wife's women's shirts eg

http://www.espritshop.com/Shop/HtmlProduct/us/34511.html

http://www.espritshop.com/Shop/HtmlProduct/us/34507.html

and I noticed that the sleeves were helluva longer than the actual shirt itself! Ya man... is this something common? My own shirts are not like this!

Volcano

Today, the efforts to stop me from leaving intensified.

Firstly, my counselor gave me all the reasons to go through a 2 year program. But at the end of this 2 years, there's still no guarantee I'll make it. Why waste another 2 years, when I've wasted 13 years? He said that obviously there's no guarantees...

I'm like, what the.. a 2 year plan.. with no guarantees... I am reflecting a few bad decisions in my career
1) I chose to go to Financial Services -- god dammit.. with 5 partners selling a total of USD8M each year, how the hell can one justify a new partner? Even selling USD65M down in Singapore does not guarantee that!
2) I was given the opportunity to lead this Global Architecture Group that my good pal who got promoted is leading -- 3 years ago. I turned it down to better cement my relationship and position in Financial Services. Zilch

So, what guarantee? Probably close to none.

Secondly, I had a call from a very senior partner who used to run the Financial Services Practice, but is now heading Government. He said "the firm now recognizes the need to reward and retain detailed executors like yourself, because we realised that we have promoted to many wishy washy people". I'm thinking, if the firm values me so much, I should already be promoted!

Someone from my project just got his salary letter. He said I should publish this:

Top 10 Reasons for Staying in the Firm (a cut and paste from the salary letter)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10) Outpatient Medical Coverage
9) Per diems
8) Paid Sick Leave – A great 15 days per fiscal year
7) Hospitalization Leave – Up to 60 days
6) Paid Maternity Leave – 60 days
5) Corporate Credit Card Program
4) International SOS Program
3) Employee Provident Fund
2) Enhanced Remuneration
1) Partnership….oops….Senior Executive

I just had to throw this in..

0) 5 days leave for religious reasons...

Thanks

After I put that last post, some of you from my previous project said the following nice words:

person (6:09:30 PM): ...u get at least 12 ppl who considers u a superstar and a hero, and THE one reason why it has been a great year with the firm
person (6:09:30 PM): that's the answer to your blog
karipap (6:09:47 PM): haha
karipap (6:09:48 PM): thanks
karipap (6:10:01 PM): but none of the partners will think of it that way unfortunately
person (6:10:58 PM): then it's their loss when u leave
person (6:11:09 PM): can't please everybody, u're oni human

sigh...

then my counselor calls me up.. he was supposed to talk to me abt that "2 year plan". When he came in to work today, he "played dono". Then when I told him "can I consider going off earlier", all the panic set in again.

We were supposed to meet this evening in PJ. He just cancelled that and said "tomorrow".

File Upload Conversion Kit!

Pissed

Today, the promotion list came out.

Whilst I expected a lot of the partner names, I was surprised that one of my good pals, the one who slogged as much as I did when I chased that SG Insurance client.. but he got one up on me, he actually sold THAT core banking system job for USD65M.

I'd expect he'd make partner... Noo.......

Who made partner? Another of my close pals, different race, different "group" (non financial services) sold perhaps quite a bit to government agencies... but no where near USD65M.

What's the morale of the story?

There is no consistent formula of making partner. Being in a "different group" helps. Perhaps having a different race helps to.

Let me be clear, I have nothing against this friend, just that the formulas for promotion are not clear.

Here I am, probably my company's best technical and application architect, being shafted because I cannot sell...

You know, I have bailed the firm out on so many occassions
1) in 1995, when this custom built core banking project was rolling out to the Kajang pilot branch, all matters of shit hit the fan. I spent 11pm to 7am every day for 2 months to stabilise and ensure the software went live!
2) in 1996, because the client just rolled out the new core banking system, I was seconded to the client to run production support for 3 months. I got 3am calls to trouble shoot batch runs etc..
3) in 1997, i was plunked into this death march project, the client threatened to sue, we had a software with architecture so bad that it made Microsoft Windows look stable. We had a 7,000 SIR count. I was sent there to pacify the client, bring it back on track, go to Paris to finish UAT. All this whilst my wife was expecting
4) in 1999, I was sent to that 100 day death march project, on day 41, to ensure we lauched an internet bank in under 100 days. I worked day and nite, in Melbourne, when my wife just gave birth to my son...
5) in 2000, I was sent on this banking merger because the current project manager pissed the client off so much (this project manager also just got promoted). I had to facilitate over 800 bank staff, coordinated the fastest banking merger/ conversion ever ie in under 5 months..
6) in 2003, I was chasing this SGD75M insurance core system custom built project in Singapore. SARs was on... my wife begged me not to go. I moved my family to Malacca. I took the bus to Singapore every Monday morning, took the bus back every Friday nite.. for 1 year chasing this shit..
7) On Malaysia's largest bank, there used to be another team targetting that client. Screwed up big time. I went in there and sold a ground breaking project.. with this new Azur alliance.. world's first..
8) just recently, ran a custom built J2EE job, on time, ahead of budget, with the firm's best Team satisfaction survey score

and what do I get?

Merdeka!

Yesterday was Merdeka day. I still had to still be a faculty member for the last day of the Architecture school, so it was a bummer. But traffic was ok....

At nite, my housing area had a huge Phor Thor festival (hungry ghost festival: http://goasia.about.com/library/weekly/aa090999a.htm) and I brought my son there who spent his time running up and down the field. It's a good eye opener for him

Today, sigh, had to make my ardous trip back to Cyberjaya. Ho hum...