Mohammed Ammar Bayrakdar

It has been quite a while since my last post; it mainly had to do with me being very occupied with other life turning events.

Anyhow, now that ‘08 is ready to kick and we are being introduced to the all new ‘09 we are all hoping that the new year brings with it better success than ‘08. One of the very important things that we all need to do is mainly to reflect and reminisce on how ‘08 went, the good, the bad, the ugly, and what is the position we are coming out of at the end of the year. Regardless of whether the position you are coming out of is more on the red than the green side, we all need to know where we stand for the new year.

It is based on this stance we will know what kind of necessary and corrective measures we need to take for the new year of ‘09.

For me, I believe that ALLAH has blessed me with finishing my Masters degree, I started a new job in a good company and in an area that I am looking to deeply pursue. I have certain goals in mind that have been achieved and others to be achieved during the coming year.

All in all, I thank the Lord for what he has given me, what he has allowed me to accomplish, and I pray that the coming year will be just as good as the one we are finishing.

I wish everyone a happy new year and I hope that we are all blessed in the coming new year. I would also like to pray for the people of Palestine; they deserve all our prayers.

Lately, I have been contemplating my future quite a bit. I think, now that I have reached the end of my Masters I am finally going to have the time that I have been wanting for the past 4 years. Anyhow, in 3.5 months I am planning on completely closing the books on my academia and put some extra efforts for my career. I believe that its time my career has a certain timeslot allocated to know where I want to head.

My problem starts at this point. I keep on asking myself, “Do I want to stay in the Middle Eastern region or should I move back to the USA?”. And this question has been bugging me for sometime now. There are some luxuries that I really am not willing to forgo at the moment such as, being close to family, being close to the promise land (Syria), etc. Sometimes I believe that money/savings might be a priority, but at the moment it is not as important as advancing my career in the direction I want to.

And there are other necessities that I am not willing to compromise and this mainly is living in a region that has a lot to offer in terms of practicing my religion; ISLAM.

Currently, I think moving to the USA would be an incorrect decision. With the current economic recession situation (which people currently deny), the level of job security not being so high it doesn’t feel like the right time to move.

There are so many factors to consider, unfortunately at the moment I cannot make a decision with the information I have at hand. I guess we will see what the next couple of months have to offer!!

It’s nice to wake up in the morning and the first picture you see is something like the picture below. Gives you a feeling this day is going to be a really good day:

Lately, I have been quite busy with work and my dissertation paper. One of things that I have been realizing lately is that frustration tends to get the best out of me. Through frustration I tend to get more engaged with what I am working on and keep working and working and working until I get it right. It doesn’t really matter how many times you really work on things, because the next time you will become more vigilant to not repeat the same mistakes.You learn that frustration could be a good thing if you learn to manipulate it and turn it around to benefit you. Never mix frustration with intellect, rather be persistent on what your working on and you will succeed!!!

I have been working with my new company for just over a month now. I must say that with my new company, my career is finally heading in the direction I want it!!

Anyway, so I am working as a consultant for one of the banks in Saudi Arabia. The majority of the employees in the bank are Saudi nationals. Before I continue, I just need to say that my cultural adaptations is more towards the Western culture. I was born and raised in USA, but I moved to the Middle Eastern region and most of the pople I dealt/deal with have somewhat similar backgrounds as myself.

Anyway, my Arabic is not as good as my English but I do speak very good Arabic (I prefer speaking in English because my vocabulary is better). So, the people at my workplace know I am American with a Syrian Arab background. Ever since I started consulting in the bank, I only speak English. And well, the other day I found out that the Saudis there get offended when I speak English. My first question was why. It turns out they think I am showing off and I see myself over them with the way I talk in English. I actually had a long discussion with some guy about this and it took me a long time to convince him that when I need to talk in Arabic, I think of what I want to say in English, translate it to Arabic, and say it. I think he still isn’t convinced about this!!!

Here is a contradiction I pointed out just today. I said to the guy you get annoyed when I speak in English and you want me to speak Arabic because we are Arabs. So then I said, “Why do you write your MCDONALDS order in ENGLISH?”. His response was, “Because that’s all the people understand”!!

Last night, I continuously checked news websites to see if the democratic party reached a conclusion for their nominee. While they didn’t, I had a gut feeling that I would wake up in the morning and read headlines that stated Obama is the winner. So, today the first thing I did was check the news and well Barack is the nominee for the 2008 elections in November.

I have been monitoring Obama and Clinton’s campaigning strategy and to be objective about the entire situation, I do believe Obama had a stronger strategy when he developed a slogan “Obama For Change”. He build an entire campaign, that won, around that strategy.

I think that America needs to wash away the past and begin a new future from today and this is quite imperative for America maintain its power in the world. I believe, lately, that America has been going through some tough times with the stock prices tumbling, the depreciation of the dollar, the rise in oil and fuel prices, the loss of hundreds of thousand of jobs, the rise in the cost of living, etc.

I really hope the American nation makes the “right” choice in choosing a proper candidate to fix America!! I look forward for the time I could return to America and wok there!!!

I remembered the movie Office Space the other day, because there was this Hip/Hop song I really enjoy listening to; No Tears by Scarface.

Anyway, I went on youTube and watched a small video excerpt of a guy rapping along the song. It’s a hilarious clip.

The past four years have been quite interesting in my life. I have been working in the Middle Eastern Region, specifically Saudi Arabia, for the past 4 to 5 years. I started off working as a Software Developer, moved on to being an IT Consultant, and now I am a Business Consultant. While I am happy with the success I have achieved, it has not been easy and there are some tricks to “the game” I picked up over the years.

I started off my career back in end of 2004 in a local company as a Software Developer and I was quite naive. My primary focus was on gaining the most possible experience. I left my job in early 2006 because of differences with management and moved on to a multi-national company (MNC). While I was happy joining an MNC, I was under the impression that I could build myself and grow from the inside. I was wrong here.

I did stay with the company for around 2.5 years until it was time to move on. The following points summarize what I learned during my time in the company:

1) Don’t let any personal differences interfere with the way you deal with people of different origins. If you have some personal difference with a certain nationality, don’t bring in your work environment. It will negatively impact you.

2) Never see yourself as more knowledgeable over other. Even if it might be true, don’t make it apparent. BE SMART in the way you deal with people.

3) Never backbite. If you do it will come back and haunt you throughout your career (Read my previous post for more information about this).

4) Be Diplomatic: Work on building contacts and maintaining even after you leave. Let the company know that even after you leave it was a pleasure working with them and that they played a major role in building your career.

5) Don’t be politically incorrect. Don’t speak negatively about a client, a vendor, or a representative from any of the both.

6) Finally, be positive in the way you talk, the way you answer questions, the way you conduct your work to build a positive image in the workplace. This will be a major plus for your career and your mentality in the future.

Luckily, I didn’t fall into the trap of any of the points mentioned above. But, I will need to work on those because they are critical to my success!!!

Alright, so back in my Devilish University days I was addicted to a small type of property vandalism. I used to go around writing in a PERMANENT BLACK MARKER “WHO DA MAN” on exit signs in the University property (along with a number of other areas, but lets not get into that!!!).

The other day I was chatting with an old friend of mind and she told me that my “MARK” is still there and she sent me this picture:

I just can’t believe that is still up there!! I was actually expecting the University janitors to clean it up, but hey it’s still up there and I ain’t going to complain!!

Let them know who the “REAL” Man is!!! Hooray!!!

Alright, what you might not know is that I recently joined a new company in Saudi Arabia. I am very happy with the move as I am in a better position; both financial and career. I am an X-Logica guy and I am proud to say that I once worked in Logica UK, Ltd. I worked with people of various cultures, backgrounds, and corporate experience.

Not so far back, when I was working on the Saudi Payment Network (SPAN2) project, my project manager was a person who has an immense background in the financial and banking sector. He is highly experienced in a new card technology called EMV.

Anyway, I was brought on the project as an outsider who could have an objective opinion on the progress of the project. I was put in charge of a system for which I was suppose to see until the end. During the progress of the system, there were numerous times where people would approach and talk incorrectly about the project manager of how inexperienced he is and that he should not be project manager. Luckily, I was one of those that would discard such comments and only speak the truth; objectively.

Time went by and I resigned from Logica. Today, I am working with the same project manager in a project where I report to him today. I could safely say that because of the “correct” attitude and position I took about the guy I have this job today. I got this job because he spoke highly of me, he recommended me to my current company and preferred to work with me than with a new guy.

The moral of the story is, don’t be one of those people who “goes with the flow”. Take your own stand about any position and NEVER talk correctly or incorrectly about someone. If you want to talk correctly about someone, make sure it is in a bunch, a crowd, where more than one person hears what you have to say. This avoids the concept of probably deniability by one person. If you think a person is professionally bad, keep it to yourself for two reasons; One you might be wrong, and two if you speak about it to someone it will come back and bite you in the ass!!

For my case, the people who spoke bad about the project manager, they were WRONG!!! The guy is very successful today and has established a very good reputation in the market!!!