Thursday, April 17, 2008

Age or Experience?

In my new workplace, there are probably seventy employees. At least sixty of them are younger than I. This is a new experience for me.

The Web team at IBM numbered around ten people, and two were older than I. One was a gem who was incredibly knowledgeable about any topic you could throw his way, and was possessed only of a fabulous sense of humor rather than an ego to match his body of knowledge. The other was a caricature. She knew next to nothing and could talk extensively about it.

I like being respected by my peers. I want to always behave in a manner that promotes respect. And in turn, I want to learn from my younger colleagues, to continue learning and growing and expanding my knowledge base.

I've worked at a lot of jobs across varied disciplines in the past 25 years. I'm trying to ignore my chronology and focus on my experience. I hope my colleagues can do the same.

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