2: communication and changing the world of work.

i felt i could really relate to the passage "questions, not answers," in chapter one of eigenberg's "organizational communication." i think this is also because i've grown up in silicon valley, and witnessed my father as vice president of marketing jump from competitor to competitor in the semiconductor industry. i felt such promise would come with a college degree, but as i found, it is no guarantee for stability.

like my father, i became interested in marketing at a young age. i was constantly doodling logos, and drawing still lifes when i should have been doing my math homework. when i was five, i could recognize the brand of any car on the road instantly, and always felt interested in finding out who is responsible for that kind of artwork.

i wanted to be an artist when i started college, but i also felt the need to find a financially stable job to support my personal life goals. i chose graphic design as my profession, and somehow got lucky enough to land a graphic designer position on an internal marketing team at cisco systems, inc, one of the top 20 most valuable brands in the world. however, i soon found i was really working for webex communications, inc, a recent acquisition of cisco. i was involved in the rebranding of webex as a product family of cisco, and i feel honored and lucky to have been a part of the team for my first job.

however, i found this also created turmoil as well. i expected not to have to worry about whether i have a job or not. i expected to just be constrained by a visual design manager, who would judge if your design fits the brand. i didn't expect to have my job threatened by an acquisition, and i didn't expect the country to fall into a severe economic slump. i didn't expect to worry about whether our acquisition, which was quite promising, would be cast off due to budget cuts. it certainly has been a life lesson so far, and in a way it has taught me to expect the unexpected.