andi setiawan's blog

This question often asked by many interviewers to see if you’re settling for any position you applied, using it merely as a stopover until something better comes along. Or they could be trying to gauge your level of ambition.

But I’m not talking about any job interview tips right now. I often asked my self with this question.

You see.. now I’m sitting tight in front of my dad’s laptop, in my single room apartment staring at the only bottle of mineral water which I bought from the money I achieved from working as a freelance web programmer. What a career, huh?

Well, in the matter of fact, I got two big projects on going right now. I’m helping two last year students from an Informatics School here in Bali, coding their last assignment so they may graduate. You might think my wallet is fit enough to buy you a drink, well, don’t!

The truth is, this job is killing me. I got to face the same project for 5 months now while the payment is made when the project begun. Even, I’m not sure if I could pay the rent for next month. But, um.. This is the career I dreamed.. To be a great professional programmer along with my friends, building a new start up company in this little town, Singaraja City.

But there is always a but in every dream job. Yes, I have to make a better living first.

As I’ve planned from years ago, I got to work on a cruise ship for at least five years, collecting money from my own hard work as a waiter or something else to support my family, send my little brother to a better school, at least Smansa Singaraja as I went 5 years ago. And he must go to a better university than his older brother and sister could go.

I have got my opportunity to work on a great cruise ship with high paying rate among other cruising company. But before I sign up for the cruise ship, I must join an 8-weeks class in Cikarang. The thing is, they (the agent) said that they will call me next year, around January to February to inform me that I will get my class a month after. So, it’s not quite clear when I will get the job.

There’s a conflict here. If I continue working as a freelance web programmer, I wont able to support my family or even my self, But this is my dream job.

Else, if I succeed on board the cruise ship, I could support my family and might having a long-term saving to open a start up IT company and go to IT School here in Bali while watching my unborn kids playing in my dream house with my dream wife. But I will lost my coding ability because of vacuum-of-coding for at least 5 years.

Of course I don’t wanna loose those opportunities and wind up being homeless person and the most unlucky person among my fellow friends. Well, such an easy though decision.