A Piece of Fisherman Daughter’s Story

This article tells a piece of the story of a girl who was born in a family that is very fond of fishing activities. The father hopes to have a son, but it turns out the bestowal is a daughter. So since she was little, this girl was used to being taken by her father to go fishing. Even when the school holidays arrive, almost every day the girl was fishing in the sea. No wonder when she was a kid, she has black skin due to sunburn. When she was at school, the teacher asked what her father did, and she always answers, “My father is a fisherman.”.

During her school years, the girl arguably has a pretty good grade, though she never gets the 1st place, she was still in the top 10. When it was time to get into college, she had to choose the direction to take. Initially, the girl wanted to become a doctor. But, she comes from middle-class families, and her parents said that they were unable to pay for medical education. Long story short, in 2006, the Informatics major was on the rise, and many chose this major. So, she took the Informatics major without a second thought and did know just a little about her choice.

She decided to choose that major because it was popular at the time. Certainly, it did not end well. Knowing she had to learn coding, it turns out she did not like it. She thought she would not be able to learn it, so she always avoided all coding courses. Fortunately in the 4th semester, students allowed to choose specializations. And that will determine the courses that can be taken. The girl immediately chose specialization that could save herself from what she dislikes, namely Network. For the rest of the college period until graduation, she got through it without having to learn coding.

While waiting for graduation day, naturally, students who have graduated must think they have to work after this. At that time, there was a workshop from one of the IT companies from Jakarta, PT Adicipta Inovasi Teknologi. Just knew a little about this company, the only thing that crossed her mind was the thought that she had to get a job, especially, the job is in Jakarta. Just like country people in general, the thought of success must be achieved in the Capital City, underlies her decision to immediately participated in a selection test held by the company. And she was successfully accepted as a trainee for a private bank that uses their services at this company. She was confident because she always has good academic grades, she believed she can pass the training for four months easily and can work at the famous bank.

There is a saying, “The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.” If it does not provide maximum effort, the results obtained will certainly be unmaximized. The four months training period has passed, and an announcement letter came from the bank. This girl came to the office in the morning, and she felt confident her name was in the letter. And that day became one of those days where the world seemed to collapse like there was no hope. The girl’s name was not on the list, and she was not accepted at that bank. When the girl learned she had been rejected, she directly went out into the small room next to the basement, then sat and cried. Felt like a failure, the world did not side with her. How she should tell her parents, and what if her father was angry and disappointed, why is she stupid and got rejected, also other thousands of questions why. Maybe, the reader feels this girl is overreacting. But in her life, she can always achieve what she wants and never fails, and this incident felt heavy for her. Long enough to be in the corner and cried, this girl received an incoming call from her father, which of course, made her afraid of what to say. But when she picked up, her father said, “Papi isn’t angry, Papi is proud of you. Now it’s up to you. Papi will always support you.” She never expected her father would talk like that, but the sentence made her cried louder. Her father is not the type that talks a lot with his daughter. Usually, the father only asks as far as she has eaten, has come home, takes care of her health, etc. So when her father spoke like that, it was something she had never experienced before.

After about 2 hours cried, and followed by pondering in the corner and received calls from her father, she felt like she should be responsible for her life. At that time she was a person who was rejected, not accepted, how could she improve her abilities, and restore her confidence.

Suddenly someone called this girl, a System Analyst at the company, Mr. John Son. He said that this girl could continue working at the company, starting from scratch as a developer, and would enter into a training program for two weeks. After graduating, you can join the New CONFINS team. Again, she must join the training that teaches participants how to coding, the most avoided, feared, and cannot be mastered. But at that time, she was different, this girl wanted to be capable and did not experience rejection, because, she was incapable. She kept telling herself, “There is nothing we cannot be or do in this world if we try.”. These words were written in a book that used during training. Every day, she tells herself, “You can do it.”. The training was very hard to follow without any coding skills. She tried to follow the training well, tried to think of ways how to get through this more easily. Incidentally, she likes playing games, so she tried to think that the training was a game, where every day is a new level that we must pass, and this method works. When she faced difficulties, she always assumed this was the level where she had to fight the boss to get to the next level. That way, coding became interesting, the training went well, and she officially joined the New CONFINS team who at the time were making R2 products and did not yet have a client. Coding becomes a pleasant part of her life. In the past, she was incapable, because she did not want to try it.

The working days to make a new system are certainly not easy. The main challenge is the design constantly changes. She experienced three days in a row to changed the pages that had been completed. Every Thursday, DIC COFINS, namely Mr. Kastoto, always conducts a review until 1 a.m., which of course, results is in a long list of corrections and changes that must be done and completed before the next meeting. But, this does not break the new enthusiasm to continue moving forward.

Little by little, the difficult work began to be entrusted to her. One of them was memorable, which was to create a rescheduling page at CONFINS. There must be times when we also feel like running away from difficult problems, including this task. For days, this work still unfinished, and there was always something missing or wrong. Until one day, she fell ill and treated for a week. At that time, she thought this was God’s help, and the difficult and unfinished work was taken over by someone else. But humans cannot run away from problems. She had to face the same problem when she returned to work. One of life’s lessons learned while she worked here, and that also made her can survive. Problems exist to be dealt with rather than avoided.

Begin as the developer then trusted to become a Programmer Analyst and then System Analyst. It would be lies if she could always be optimistic all the time, and keep up her spirit. There are times when she also feels unable and wants to give up, but she keeps trying because she does not want to be a failure. Over time, you have to deal with different problems. They are no longer a coding problem, but how to build a good relationship with clients and how to serve them well. How to do it when she is in a bad mood, but must still be able to smile and communicate well with the client. Learn how to handle complaints from clients, and she must accept the complaint without being provoked into emotions, also how to make clients trust and believe in her. Including how she has to manage a team that is getting more and more members.

At present, this girl has been trusted to hold a department with 49 members. Of course, this new thing becomes a new difficult task and challenge. There are still many things to learn.

If the reader asked if this girl has become a great person or a successful person? The author can say she is still far away, and cannot yet compare with the successful and great people, who the reader probably knows. But the author hope, every reader who is still feeling unable, wants to give up, or failed can get a new spirit. She was from someone who could not do coding, failed, rejected, trying to change, learn, survives, and fight until now. If she can do it, the reader can as well. In two months, she has been working for ten years in this company and always faces new challenges every day. Hopefully, the reader can get positive things to be used as motivation and inspiration.

Written by Stephanie Santosa