Jumping Ship

I scored the best goal by joining Man U!

If you watch football, you should read this. If you do not, then you must read this. This post is not about football, it only uses footballers and football clubs as references. Are you ready for kick-off? Let's go.

Alex Ferguson, the soon-to-be-retired old hag, has been hogging the headlines of the sports section in every newspaper after announcing this week that he will step down as Manchester United manager after 26 years. Yeah, and he'll be retiring for good, at last.

While the press continues to churn out articles and columns that honour and pay tribute to him, I would like to direct your attention to another Manchester United employee. He is part of the playing staff and has been at the club for less than a year. However, he deserves full marks for his KPI despite being a newbie.

The man is none other than Robin van Persie. The striker spent eight years with Man United's arch-rivals Arsenal before switching sides. He arrived at his current club at the peak of his career and continued his fine form for them this season. van Persie is currently the top goalscorer in the English Premier League with 25 goals.

He was the top scorer last season where he found the net 30 times for Arsenal. For his country, the Netherlands, he has amassed a total of 34 goals in 74 appearances. Goals are what a striker needs to thank his fans, impress the neutrals, silence his critics and most importantly, contribute to the team.

Arsenal fans can whine and groan all they like about van Persie betraying them by joining an arch-rival. But all of them plus manager Arsene Wenger must agree that the Dutchman made the right move for his career. The Red Devils clinched the title with a 3:0 win over Aston Villa last month while Arsenal are fourth in the current standings.

To make matters worst (for the Arsenal faithful), van Persie was scorer of all three goals that sealed the title.

Other than marvelling at van Persie's footballing talent, we can actually take a thing or two out of this. Firstly, jumping ship is never a bad thing. There are many "ship jumpers" in the world who have went on to achieve greater success or success which they never achieved in their previous jobs.

Marissa Mayer, the president and CEO of Yahoo!, is another classic example. She was Google's first female engineer and stayed with the company for 13 years before taking up her current appointment in July 2012. Mayer had a take home pay of close to $6 million USD in her first year on the job, which works out to be a million a month.

Mayer's salary easily trumps those of fellow Silicon Valley CEOs. Google's founders pay themselves a dollar per year while Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and Tim Cook of Apple made $1.3 million and $4.2 million last year. But she is still miles away to those like Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who pocketed $96.2 million in 2012.

Back to football. There are many players who decided to move on and proved that it was the right choice. Sadly, a number of them used to be with Arsenal. Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy left the Gunners for Manchester City and won the Premier League last season. Francesc Fabregas headed back to Barcelona and now has four medals including the FIFA CLub World Cup at home.

van Persie was quoted as saying "from my side, and Arsenal as well, there are no hard feelings. There were certain elements which were vital to me that we had a different view. That is life. Nobody is angry at me and I'm not angry at them." when he was asked to give his thoughts about his transfer from Arsenal to Man United.

Jumping ship may be a risky move and seen as unloyal to your previous employer. However, if one is high-flying (Dutchman like van Persie, if you catch my drift), one doesn't need to worry about upsetting the boss who nutured you and the colleagues who went through thick and thin with you. The potential taste of greater achievement at your new workplace is stronger than the plain lifestyle you have been leading all along.

Of course, you should not jump ship after just six months at a company if you are attaining great results there. Staying on the job for a while longer may enhance your employability and attract more prospective employers. You should only make the switch when you are confident enough of your capabilities.

Lastly, you might want to think twice about defecting if the new workplace is full of politics. Unless you are sure that you can work your way up to the top instead of struggling to compete with an equally capable co-worker, otherwise you should consider staying where you are, a farmilar and comfortable environment.

van Persie has displaced Wayne Rooney has the first-choice forward in the squad and the latter is planning to put an end to his Manchester United career. Rooney is a quality striker by world standards. However, I am sure that van Persie was sure enough that he can be the top man there before making the biggest decision in his profession.