Disrupt your own job before it's too late

ROGER Grant thought he had it made when he landed a job as an IT manager in Nokia back in 1996. At that time, IT and Nokia were on the ascent. At the age of 23, Mr Grant was paid more than his father to, in his own words, "basically hook up printers to networks".

"I felt that I was part of the core business team. IT at that time was like the dark arts. People thought we had magical powers, and there were very few of us," he tells The Business Times Weekend. But by 2003, the perfect illusion was rapidly disintegrating. IT as a whole was becoming more plug-and-play, and more people were growing IT savvy.

He recalls: "I still thought that I was a rockstar, so I put my hand up in the job market, thinking I would be snapped up in a heartbeat…