51 Indicators of a graduate student back in professional life

Blog XXVII of Thirty Days – Thirty Blogs series

About two years ago, I put together a list of 51 indicators of a person in graduate studies. Having moved into professional world again, it is time to pay tribute to that list by coming up with another list of indicators that you are back in professional life from graduate studies. Admittedly most of the points are updates to points from the previous list.

1. wear a set of goggles and proceed to the nearest cool destination to get a profile photo to announce it to the world that you are employed.
2. you start using premium wipes  (think morning).
3. you don't think twice about splurging on chic T-shirts and trendy wear.
4. you lug around an IBM ThinkPad or an Apple Mac Book.
5. your conversation starters can vary widely from photography to entrepreneurship to in-house growth opportunities to cheapest way to remit money to India.
6. your adopt exotic hobbies like skydiving.
7. phrase "Friday nights" elicits an image of an early break from office and visit to a nearby pub (I don’t drink, mind you).
8. in your nightmare you tape-out your chip only to catch a bug in your part of the design using a late regression.
9. your mall trips are triggered by an idle Sunday afternoon with nothing better to do.
10. eating out is no big deal.
11. you train your ears to pick up office rumours.
12. you train your eyes to spot bugs in simulation waveforms and boss approaching from his cubicle.
13. you have your meals largely in your cubicle, often while attending an online meeting as  a passive participant.
14. you no longer care about sharing your expense with all your roommates.
15. you specially go in front of your manager’s cubicle early morning but sneak from behind when leaving early.
16. you ditch your basic phone for a smartphone.
17. you have more grocery and dishes than your refrigerator/kitchen cabinet could ever hold.
18. while going through grocery items, you focus on taste.
19. you pay frequent visits to nearby recreation centre to play TT.
20. you claim to be a racquetball champion even though i has been ages since you last played it.
21. 50% of your emails in Inbox are junk emails from that distribution list you decided to subscribe to.
22. other 50% are training enrolment/service request confirmations.
23. after-office talk goes like "So who is cooking tonight ?".
24. you browse social media networks and comment on your friend’s updates as if you were paid full time to do that.
25. learn virtues of eating/sleeping on a couch.
26. bedbugs figure nowhere near the top of the list of things to worry about.
27. you take an insurance because your landlord expects you to.
28. path to Wal-Mart goes through your office’s free shuttle stop.
29. your arguments with roommate are STILL over which flavour of ice cream to purchase.
30. you learn different ways of sneaking that 'grocery trolley' as near to your home as possible.
31. you take upon an expensive gym membership only to end up not using it.
32. you have to convince your manager that despite being an HDL engineer, you need to take a training on “Advanced HDL Design Techniques” or something similar to that.
33. you realise that there do exist non-Asians who can pronounce Asian names perfectly well.
34. you send a brief write up about your professional career to be included in a speech/email/write up to other team members.
35. you open a bank a/c for the investment options that it has for offer.
36. you have forgotten that apart from having ATMs, banks have branches too.
37. you agree to work overtime just because it pays more.
38. you always appear Available on GTalk.
39. you still read PhD Comics but with a sense of nostalgia than a poignant feeling of déjà vu.
40. you start breathing datasheets and juggling project work.
41. have chicken tandoori rolls for lunch at company cafeteria when not eating out.
42. you stare at other Indians as competition for that next promotion.
43. 99% of mails in your post-box are regarding benefits options or new credit card offers.
44. you count no. of vacations to your India visit.
45. you have long forgotten about metric measurement system.
46. the last time you flashed your passport was for submitting an H1B petition request.
47. you realise that not all desi stores are so expensive after all.
48. the only time you cannot wake up early in morning is on weekends and holidays.
49. you brainstorm for days over which car to buy.
50. you go for a trendy hair style with/without coupon because 'you think ‘you can afford it’.
51. you decide to write thirty blogs in thirty days.

DISCLAIMER: Above points are based on self experience as well as perceptions from external agents. Not all the points are followed by people in general. Also please read the disclaimer in original article about skew towards international population.