Prostitutes and Formula 1 racing

*Note : the Firm here is where I work, for sake of anonymity, I'd avoid mentioning names, but I'm sure if you have been asked to read my personal blog, you would know which firm I work for....

When I was younger in the Firm we had an analogy between prostitution and working in the Firm. It was told to me by a Pun Tian Pouw, an ageless supervisor who was doing QA related stuff then and we improved upon it and retold it, till now it stuck in my mind how funnily close the analogy is...

Working in the Firm is like prostitution...
... you are being paid by the hour
... the older you are, the more experienced you are and the more your client pays for your services
... you deliver service to your client
... how good you are depends on your client's satisfaction
... our greatest asset in the firm is its people
... if you don't know how to do it, you will be trained, and guided hands-on by your supervisors or your client members
... client confidentiality is a must
... the methods and approaches used must stay within the client's environment, but we can improvise based on requirements of other clients
... we need to understand the requirements of our clients in order to please them
... we love repeat clients
... clients love our younger analysts because they work so hard, and long hours
... our performance is measured by our contribution
... we work the same hours as our clients, and usually at their place

It is never-ending...!!!

Now, recently we have had another good one, the analogy was career to car racing
First we have daytona, contributed by Dr John...

Working in the Firm is like
Driving a car on a daytona race...
... you get a time extension at every checkpoint, if you don't make the checkpoint, your race is over (promotions to next level)
... you can extend your time extensions, by putting in more coins (maybe buy a few drinks, find a few friends...)
... there is ALWAYS time extensions (even when you're partner)

I improvised it to Formula 1 level
Working in the Firm is like driving formula 1 ...
... its a marathon, not a sprint - you got to pace yourself to the 72 laps, you need to get to the end to finish
... you need a good car, be a good driver (talent and skill), have the right team (engineers, pit stops, manager, etc), have the right strategy to win
... you need to pace yourself, skill and car itself is not sufficient to win - ie. Rubens Barrichello - it is all in oneself
... if you get to the end and everyone has passed by (aka Alex Yoong), you are nobody, many have passed you by, sooner or later you get eliminated because you are just not good enough
... there's always a better new rookie around who has got tons of talent - ie. look around you
... sometimes you need to change cars to win (change jobs?)
... always look around for drivers vacancy in better teams
... as much as it is a marathon, you need to overtake people, you cannot be in the cruising speed and win
... even the defending champion can be sidelined in a bad season
... whilst not racing, you need to spend time on research to develop a better car. every year.
... the good guys are highly paid :-D

A little more serious, but valid as well. Enjoy!