Work-related post - you have been warned!

I confess. I have a tendency to be brave (or stupid -- same thing) about new roles. Case in point - my first job used C++, Unix, SQL, Perl scripts, and the North American EDI/Co:Di/XML standards for telecomms, but I jumped out of that and landed in data management, SAP, ALE, CIF, Excel formulae (haha lowtech love!). It helped that I knew Unix for CIB work, but everything else was learned on the fly.

Then I took on a role in 2005 (it's been that long!) that left the comfortable world of customized-to-death-I-can-do-it-in-my-sleep (seriously - no blocked idocs and a CSAT of 5/5 for Japan pa to ha) to critical tickets practically every week for 6,000 lines of spaghetti code that ran 70 hours too long. Please note I DID NOT have any ABAP experience and just had the good fortune to be exposed to the gods (Eman, Aileen, Earl, and the wonderful ABAP team :-D). When I reached the point that I could quote exact bits of the BR extractor in my sleep and people started asking how well I knew NY and B5, it was time to move roles again.

So here I am now. Just starting to realize how much I really don't know about this role and the responsibilities associated with it. But every day it gets easier to answer questions - although I still stare suspiciously at people if they walk away satisfied with my answer -- I wanna tug at their sleeves and say "are you sure?". Again, I am only human (and not Sheryl or Roman hahaha). I still have more of my own questions than answers.

Happily for the people I bother regularly, I debugged the damn user exits by myself several times this past couple of weeks, but those obscure bits of Z-programs still leave me wondering. Not to mention the standard code with its German comments. My ABAP syntax could be more pogi but I can certainly construct and review a program design to make sure it's optimized. It's a dark tunnel but there are flashes of light.

What is the moral to my story? If I survive this role long enough to know things in my sleep, remind me not to wander so far off that I need to re-learn everything again. On the other hand, if you're used to jumping into the deep end, chances are you'll end up floating no matter how deep the water is.

Agree with me, you guys. If I say it enough times I may believe it. Pass the snorkel please.