Orientation

So this is the 2nd day I'm at the new hire orientation. All the while fretting about my communication plan for a project at work. It had no official deadline, but I knew our team leader asked for review of our project from a 3rd party change vendor tomorrow. Anway, will gripe about the pains of 3rd party vendors in a separate entry (d-oh.. should I even START?)

So, about this orientation. It spans over 3 full days. A prerequisite to this orientation was completing a 30 question questionairre to measure me on my work orientation. The areas of measurement cover Challenge, Freedom, Balance, Advancement. If there are more, I can't remember them. So the first time I took the questionairre, I answered with a politically correct attitude. I scored pretty even for everything - coming out tops in Balance and Advancement, with (need for) Freedom being my lowest score.

Then, the devil in me came out and I decided to take the test again throwing caution to the wind. My true self emerged with a highest score for Challenge, with Freedom and Advancement tying at 2nd place, and Balance coming in last with a miserable score of 3...

That explains a lot. Why I previously stayed at a job that paid me slightly more than half my market value, demanded long hours with an autocratic boss and no job prospects. However, 90% of problems encountered required unique, out of the box solutions (we WERE an IT solutions company after all). On top of that, deadlines were either tomorrow or end of this week, if not yesterday.

I thrived on the rush, the intense focus and drive that can consume you when you own a project that has an instant turnaround time. And I found I enjoyed the stretch and competing myself with my last best time / work. I could have stayed on that job for an even longer time if my need for appreciation and advancement hadn't finally kicked in. I decided then that the adrenaline rush was no longer worth it.

How is this knowledge applicable for my current job? I'm not sure yet. I have 3 documents to work through before I can decipher what it means for me.