anyone can help me ... totally lost in my career path

[aabukar]

i have a problem .... a huge one in my job and i need to make a decision that i think will change the rest of my life or at least miss up my career path...
i will be as detailed as i can so forgive me in advance for this long post

it has been my dream when i was at school to become a programmer though i didnt know what programming is... and although my high school grades were high enough to get me to engineering or pharmacology faculty i decided to study Information technology in the best university in my country.

i graduated with an average grade 3.78 (Excellent) and order 3rd of the graduates. and then i continued my master degree

for my second year i started to work as a programmer in one of biggest companies in my country and i was able to graduate with an average grade of 3.95/4 (Excellent) and order 1st of the graduates and i published three research papers as well.

then i had to make a decision to return to the country that i was born in because my family needed me to be there... but knowing that there are no programming positions for girls I knew that i will have to teach in a university.
therefore, to get experience in teaching field... i became an instructor in my university and yet i kept working as a part time programmer in my company
they were not ready to let me go and they appreciated me a lot and handed me challenging tasks.

then i returned back with 2 years technical experience and 1 year academic teaching experience. and surprisingly i found a job offer as a developer and so i didn’t hesitate to take it.

i had to make compromises to take this offer ... i refused offer with 5 times its salary and with fewer working hours as well.. and the job was for a what turned out to be a very small starting company with high employee turnovers.

the problem is that they lied to me about many things regarding their status , their employees and they were talking about facts but when i started to work it turn out to be plans for future not facts.

they gave me the package they give for a fresh graduate with 0 experience and with no higher education. and although they said they are working for 6 years it turns out that they have been working for 6 months before i came...

i was thinking positively ... maybe they didn’t consider my experience years because i was developing windows applications not web applications... maybe when they see my work they will appreciate me ...etc.

after three months i talked to the vice president .... i told him that they are giving me tasks as fresh graduates and i finish an estimated one month task in a week and then i have nothing to work on and i am bored... i complained that i want to take more responsibilities and told him about the type of tasks i used to work on and i that i reached a point where i was training new employees ... he said that they noticed my performance and that i was exceptional ...bla bla bla ... and he said that we didn’t type your business card yet because we are considering changing your work status cause you are way more advanced than other employees and we noticed that.

then he told me to write a business plan to make the female department a separate working unit with its marketing team , support team ...etc and he told me that i will be responsible on hiring people and make decisions ...etc in a short i was promised to become an assistant project manager.

so he gave me this 1000 page book on how to write a business plan and i worked hard on it until i finished what he asked me to do. he told me he will have to leave on a vacation for a week and he will read it and discuss it with me when he will return and guess what ... he quit

and then three more developers quit and all of the sudden i was working on my tasks + three developers tasks with the same very low salary and bad medical insurance and no overtime.

then i had enough and i talked to the project manager ... i was straight forward and maybe agressive ... i told him about my experience with the company and about how unfair i am treated .... he then handed me the task of estimating the project deadline and promised me to discuss my issue in a meeting ...
well i promised him that we will meet the deadline and we did for the first time since they started to work on this project.
and in the meeting he said that he is in my side and that he knows that my offer was unfair and that i am supposed to be a senior developer not a junior one... he promised me to take action but asked me to get Microsoft certification to prove my knowledge in web development ... again i promised to take the certification in a month and i did i am now MCPD certified
and for the next release he again made me decide the release deadline and again i had to work on my tasks and other employees tasks and again we were able to meet the deadline

then he said you are going to be promoted after two weeks ... and please be patient .... well it has been two months since he said so ... he told me that he is submitting a new scale and that is why it is taking time and i am still waiting
the last news is that the scale was approved and it is based on qualification points and he submitted mine and this was supposed to take action on 1/3 and today it is 28/3 and i am still waiting...

i have searched and searched and contacted over 60 company but i think when they said they were the only read development company for girls they were not lying ... "surprisingly".

so i have a chance to go back to the academic field and with a better salary "much much much better" and better medical insurance and better package in general.

I dont hate teaching ... but i am so afraid that i will get stuck with a university when teaching means repeating the same material again and again and my biggest fears is to turn to one of these university professors who know nothing except what they repeat to their students and then i wont feel that i making a contribution to the society and i wont feel that i am advancing and developing and that what scares me the most. and on the other hand i dont think there is a future with this company not because it is small or still developing but because i dont have trust with them...
they didnt even told us that the vice president quit and until now he is supposed to be on a vacation "vacation that is 4 months !!!"

i am also afraid that if i went to the academic field then maybe after a year or two their will be a chance to work on programming but what missy my career path will be ... my cv will show how missed up i am

i was thinking to put a deadline like for example if from now until september/2007 nothing changed and i didnt get a fair raise then i would know that there is no hope.

all my family and closet friends are telling me that this is a bad choice and that teaching and even staying at home is better than working in such environment.

what do you think ? please anyone have been in this situation before or know someone or have any idea ? anything ... i am really depressed and dont know what to do and i am still 25 years old.

by the way my ultimate dream goal what i vision myself be doing in 25 years or so is
to have my own business ... a software company that is one of the leading companies hopefully
and to be a (Yale or Harvard or any university in their level) professor at the same time (be able to do research and make a difference in the computer since . "big magical dream i know" but this is my ultimate lifetime career goal.

do you think i am in the right path? if not what i should be doing ?

sorry for such long post and really really thanks for reaching this line

Areej

[SeriousKidding.com]

Sounds to me like you ARE on the right path. You know what you want, you have clearly defined goals. I'll bet you will attract this into your life. But, instead of focusing on how bad things are for you now, focus on how good they're going to be in the future when you have just the teaching situation and business you've always wanted. Much good luck, my friend.

[aabukar]

dear seriouskidding,

thanks alot for your advice ... i have been viewing ur previous posts and i am inspired by how you took action and left your job and followed your passion it seems working from home on the net worked great for you and this give me hope as well

thanks my friend,

[SeriousKidding.com]

Glad I could be of help. Working online is a roller-coaster ride, but I wouldn't have it any other way. To me, the #1 main ingredient for success and happiness is HOPE. With HOPE it seems as though anything is possible. And, I get that from doing what I love, working and writing online.

[aabukar]

yes i totally agree with hope and determination everythign is possible

[aabukar]

I got promotion and a good raise too i think that somethings need time i have worked sooo hard for 7 months but i've earned it thanks God

[Brutha]

by the way my ultimate dream goal what i vision myself be doing in 25 years or so is
to have my own business ... a software company that is one of the leading companies hopefully

What stops you at the moment from starting that company?

[dgorila1]

Aabukar,
What country are you currently working in? If you have the credentials you state (graduate degree, extensive teaching, work, and project management experience, certifictions, etc), you can pretty much write your own ticket as long as you choose a country where females are on an equal playing field as males in the work force. With your credentials, you should have no trouble getting a work visa or whatever it is called to work in most countries (USA, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Canada, etc) since you have extensive specialized technical skills that these countries seek and readily approve entry for work (same as nurses, doctors, etc). Why languish in your current country if it is holding you back as it sounds.
As a sidenote, my computer instructor told us that women actually make better programmers and Forensic Computer Specialists (the people that recover data from "destroyed" hardrives and media for big bucks $$$) because women are, for the most part, more analytical and focus on the details needed in these jobs. I would say investigate other areas of the world for work where your skills and credentials are looked at and rewarded, not your gender. In fact, my company is looking for a programmer of some type. Not sure exactly what the details are or what it pays, but I can give you the web site to check it out if you are interested. If so email me. Thanks.

[aabukar]

Originally Posted by Brutha

What stops you at the moment from starting that company?

thanks for replying

my working experience is 3 years as a developer ... i am starting to handle project management tasks in my current work but honestly i am still scared about starting my own business ... i dont have enough money to start ... i am currently saving almost all my money and hopefully after 2 years from now i would be able to start working on my own

[aabukar]

Originally Posted by dgorila1

you can pretty much write your own ticket as long as you choose a country where females are on an equal playing field as males in the work force.

dgorila1,
beside that men are not equal to women different salaries for the same position in the same company are based on nationality ... so you can imagine how difficult it is here

so if you are a women you are getting a lower salary than a man and if you are a resident then you are getting a lower salary than a citizen despite your hard work or potential or performance.

thanks a lot for the offer God knows how much I want to have a chance to fulfill my dreams but unfortunately ... my family does not agree on the idea of leaving them and working on my own in a different country...
they are so protective. They event didn’t let me continue my masters degree in England after they promised me to allow me to do so and after i got my IELTS certified and admission from the univ.

but i am holding on to my dream and i am not letting it go ... in the meantime until i have the chance to leave i will keep developing my skills i am now Microsoft Certified professional developer web applications and i am working on MCTS distributed certificate until PMP is available for female here