Living It Up

Confession time.

The reason why some of my posts have been password-protected is ‘cos they were about my search for a new job.

Today, i’ve finally signed my new employment contract with my new co. to be, Eon, and tendered my resignation with my current co.

I was rather hesitant about tendering my resignation cos i have no issues about my current company. Sure, there are certain colleagues who really irk the crap out of me… but they are few & far between. Most of my colleagues are friendly, helpful, and people i would like to continue keeping in touch with.

I have also grown rather attached to the condo that i’ve been in charge of since Mar 2005… and of ‘cos, many firm friendships have been formed with the agents there. In fact, the agents are one of my greatest worry as i prepare to leave. Will whoever who takes over me treat them fairly? Will the person sort out time-tabling issues properly so that everything can run smoothly?

The resignation procedure itself was rather funny. After a sales meeting this morning, i told my boss that i needed to talk to him. He thought i wanted to talk about work so he wasn’t expecting it at all.

He asked me to talk to him at his cubicle so i just went over, passed him my resignation letter, and said, “i’m tendering my resignation.”

He was like, “huh?”

So i repeated myself. “I’ll like to tender my resignation.”

I then pulled up a chair to sit next to my boss, as he opened my letter and read through it. He asked why i was tendering and i said briefly that having been from an insurance background, i hope to go back to the insurance industry.

This was where the funny part happened. He said, “ok”, and then he offered me a sweet.

No, not a sweetener to entice me to stay on, but a sweet. Werther’s Original to be exact. Hahaha. I thought that was quite amusing.

The news is starting to spread like fire… so most people in office should get to know about it soon. Well, nothing’s ever a secret in SG. Much less a not too big office like mine.

My boss also said i could go ahead & inform the developer of the condo i’m in charge of. I thought of doing it over the weekend but since the sales & mktg manager called just now, i told her about it.

She was shocked. She thought i was joining a competitor or something but i told her that i was going back to insurance. We had a nice chat on the phone and she was quite upset about me leaving ‘cos she says she doesn’t trust others to take care of Triumph (no, not the underwear) as well as i have. Haha. I’m quite happy to hear that. At least she appreciates my work!

As the HR lady from my office is on maternity leave, the Senior Manager from Finance is helping to find out when my last day would be… after off-setting leave & stuff.

Ooh… i just gotta mention this! Heh. The prophecy has been fulfilled… everytime i work at Raffles Place, i’m at Singapore Land Tower. Hehe. When i did my professional attaching during uni, i was at SLT (actually i did my attachment at the same co. i’m going to join but different dept). Then with my current job, i’m at SLT. So now with my new job, i’ll just be changing floors. Darn. If only i could like shift my stuff from my current desk to my new office… instead of bringing them home… hmmm..

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Oops… the recruitment guy just sms’d back (i sent him an sms saying that i accepted Eon’s offer ‘cos he didn’t answer the phone when i called) to ask me to wait for Cofrance’s reply ‘cos they’re likely to get back by tomorrow. He said it was to my advantage… haha. I feel sorry for him. Seems like i’m the only candidate of his who got through to the final round… and whom the 2 interviewers openly expressed interest in… well, too bad. Ultimately, i think i’ll prefer the jobscope at Eon better.

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Praise the Lord! Eon* called to say they want to employ me. I’m beaming like an idiot now! Heh.

I was with the recruitment guy discussing how to handle the interview with Cofrance* tomorrow when Big Mac* from Eon called. At first i asked if i could call him back in like 10mins but he said he was boarding a plane and i could probably call him back 3 hrs later so i was like… no worries, i’ll definitely take the call!

The recruitment guy was quite understanding… i excused myself and took the call outside the office. The conversation went something like this,

Me, “So… is it good news or bad news?”
B.Mac, “Good news of ‘cos!”
Me, “That’s great.”

(At this point, i was practically jumping up & down)

B.Mac, “So we’ve decided that we want to employ you. As for your renumeration, you asked for $XX to $YY right? Well, we’re prepared to give u $YY. How does that sound?

(This was when i nearly hit the false ceiling of Peace Centre)

Me, “Wow. That sounds fantastic! So where are u flying off to now?
B.Mac, “I’m flying to Jakarta…. will be back tomorrow but i won’t be able to meet u till Thur.”
Me, “Thur’s fine.”
B.Mac, “We can go through the employment contract on Thur, and if everything’s fine, we can sign on Fri.”

(By then i was thinking… wah! Still drag till Fri uh? Thur sign on the spot already lah! Mai 夜长梦多 [translated as "night long dreams more" - the more u drag, the more problems might crop up].

Me, “Sure. Will meet up on Thur then.”
B.Mac, “But we can only give u the title of Senior Account Servicing Exec…”

(I was thinking… whatever lah. Call me admin assistant also can)

Me, “No problem at all.”
B.Mac, “The reason is ‘cos u’ll be dealing a lot with banks and so if we call u a manager and u’re not familiar with the product, it might not be so good.”
Me, “I totally understand. No issues there.”
B.Mac, “But we’ll see how it goes. Probably later on, we can explore the title of Manager again.”

(As Cirrus says, call me toilet cleaner also can!!)

And we ended the conversation. Hehe. It took tons of self-control to keep a straight face when i re-entered the recruitment guy’s office to continue our talk!

Sigh… i’m still so elated. Hehe. Was shouting whoops of joy as i was driving home. Haha. But i’m still going for the interview with Cofrance tomorrow… just in case there’s any unforseen hiccups. Azure told me last week that one of her ex-colleagues was offered a job over the phone but before she signed the employment letter, the HR retracted the offer!! How horrible is that!!

Heh… just like i was once a professional contestant, i think i’m turning into a professional interviewee now. Haha. Seasoned, calm, steady, totally no sweat. My ego’s also quite boosted ‘cos AAA* wants to offer me again. Wahahaha. But no lah. I think this job with Eon will be something that i can do for a slightly longer period of time.

There’s going to be tons of stuff to study & learn… which is good for someone with extremely short attention span like me. By the time i get the hang of the ropes, it’ll prob. be like 6mths later so i definitely won’t be bored anytime soon. I also really appreciate the fact that my direct superior, B.Mac is really approachable, and his boss, the executive director is ok too. As in, thank God i can click with my soon to be bosses!

On top of that, when i look at the way this job has panned out - from how i woke up in the middle of the nite ‘cos i felt this strong urge to open the email from Jobsdb, and how i quickly rushed out my resume when i saw this job, to the whole interview process, perhaps, this job was meant to be. I hope so! I’ve always wanted to work in law… and obviously i’m not going to be a lawyer… so perhaps this is as good as it gets. Thank God! Hallelujah!

*Names have been changed for blah blah blah…..

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Have u ever taken a DISC personality test before? It’s supposed to help you understand your personality better, w.r.t your job function, hence helping u figure out if u have a good job fit or not. DISC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Click here if u want to know more about DISC.

I remember taking a DISC test before when i was still working with AIA. I was high I, high C, middle D & low S. Heh. Recently, i had the opportunity to take another DISC test again when i went for an interview with AAA (Alexandra). They offered me the job but i declined their offer.

Today, at the interview with AAA (Martin Rd), my test results were passed over to the interviewer and he said that it shows that i’m someone who’s easily bored. Hehe. That’s very true. I have very short attention span when it comes to whatever job i’m in. The minute i learn all the ropes, i get bored and start looking for another job. I can’t even fathom how i managed to stay all of 2 years 9 months in AIA before. Perhaps i was too busy then to look for a new job. Heh.

Sigh. I’m still rather traumatised about my bad phone conversation with B.Mac from Eon. But as azure said… it it’s meant to be, it will be. Sigh.

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I have bad vibes about the job with Eon. What happened this morning was this:

I called B.Mac but he didn’t answer the phone. So i sent an sms saying that i’m still very keen on the job after going through the notes he gave me, as well as checking out the miga.org website.

B.Mac replied that he’s glad that i find the stuff interesting and he’ll get back to me in a few days’ time.

I then called him again but he didn’t answer.

He was on the line apparently and returned my call soon after. I said i wanted to clarify if there were 2 positions available, as mentioned by Rafi (the ED) the last time, or only 1 opening? B.Mac said there was only 1 opening - which means that both the other candidate and me are competing for the same post. Damn. The conversation then turned awkward and B.Mac went like, “So how was your weekend?” I told him that it was busy at the showflat over the weekend but i managed to read the notes in between the stuff i had to do. Conversation then ran dry. Very dry. And i ended the call by saying, “So i guess i’ll be hearing from you in a few days?” And B.Mac was like, “yes”.

Bad vibes. Bleah. Not a good way to gain affinity with your potential employer. Sigh.

Went for an inteview with AAA in the evening. It’s a biz development position. I’m OK with the jobscope… not like jumping over the moon but if the offer is good, i guess i might consider. It’s going to take quite a bit to get me out of my current job, unless i’m really interested in the jobscope ‘cos i have a very easy life at my current co. Heh. I work very few hours a week, though weekends are kinda intensive.

Ouch… my right elbow hurts. Great!!! I scraped it and i have no idea how i scraped it!!! Sheesh! I amaze myself sometimes… argh… gotta go wash it….

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Went to Eon’s office today and collected some notes on what constitutes political risk insurance. Very interesting. Reminds me of my insurance notes in school.

I’ve only read through a few pages of the notes so far and i find it pretty interesting. In the typical insurance policies that the public is exposed to (e.g. life insurance, employee benefits, etc), there’s always a clause excluding “war & rioting”. This same clause appeared in everything that i’ve studied before in school. But with political risk, it’s like crossing over to the other side of insurance. Political risk falls in in the category that most insurers deem uninsurable. Really cool.

B.Mac asked me to spend the weekend going through the note and to let him know on Monday morning if this is my cup of tea. I asked him what happens from there and he said that he’s shortlisted 2 people for the position, me being one of them, and so both of us will be given the notes to read… and he’ll “come to a decision” early next week.

Looking at it simplistically, that’s a 50-50 chance that i’ll get the job. Or perhaps the other candidate will realise that bring political risk, bi-lateral treaties & stuff aren’t his/her cup of tea and he/she’ll pull out? Or, i could take Iceman’s suggestion and assassinate the other candidate. That’ll bring my chances up to 100%. Hmm…

Renumeration wise, B.Mac said that they’ll have no problems matching my asking… so that’s good. Now it’s just a matter of eliminating the competition…

Any assassins for hire?

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Eon called. I was half asleep (off today) when my phone rang & i answered thinking that it was some agent who called ‘cos i have an ad in the papers today regarding condo rental. ANYWAY, it was the senior manager from Eon. He said that he was out of town the past 2 weeks and hence did not have the opportunity to review all the candidates. He called to check it i had joined any other companies (since i mentioned that i had an offer the last time) and asked if i was still keen on the job.

I told him that i had rejected the other offer. He asked which co. was it from and i told him that it was from a property developer. I think that gave him the impression that i’m more wanted by property people. Damn! Should’ve told him that i rejected an offer from AAA just 2 days ago! Bleah! *Slaps myself to wake up*.

The senior mgr (oh his name is B.Mac) says that he’ll call me again by early next week to let me know the status of my application. I hope it’ll be good news!

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My mom told me just now that an ex-colleague of ours from AIA, who’s now working for AAA, informed her that there’s this marketing post available… and the jobscope is to market AAA’s travel insurance (not exactly a product i’ll enjoy marketing) to travel agencies.

Although this is supposed to be a “marketing” position, it sounds more like a sales type of job to me. I think i now understand what my friend meant when she said to choose a job based on its functions, not the industry it’s in.

Sigh… i guess what attracted me to the developer job initially was ‘cos it encompasses a lot more “marketing” type of work than my current job… which is a mixture of marketing and sales. But… perhaps the product i’m supposed to market doesn’t inspire me… hence i was very hesitant.

I have a clearer picture of what i want to do now… or at least a clearer picture of what i do not want. :]

Oh… i forgot to add that someone from Achieve Career called me yesterday and said she has a broking position available, and wondered if i’m still interested. (I told a colleague of hers before that i wanted to move back to insurance.) Coincidentally, i just saw her ad in Monster today.

Sent her my resume yesterday but no news from her yet… based on the salary range in the ad, i may be under-qualified for the position… maybe i should follow up with a call tomorrow to see what’s the status…

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I got an sms from the recruitment guy yesterday morning saying that Cofrance (the trade credit insurer) has shortlisted me for the last round of interview with the Biz Dev Director & the Managing Director. The interview will be held end of the month ‘cos apparently both directors are not in SG now.

That gives me about 3 weeks to study the company, their products, and the way their trade works. Gotta read and study their website more… that was the advice given by the Senior Manager at round 2 of the interview process… as well as the recruitment guy.

Sigh. It’s going to be a tough fight to get this job ‘cos i don’t have any relevant experience at all… just banking on my gift of the gab… and whatever info i can dig on the company.

Well, everything’s in God’s hands i suppose… man proposes, God chooses.

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I really don’t know what i want. When it comes to jobs, i have a very short attention span… so once i get the hang of a job, i tend to get bored and want to move on. The bad thing is, my pay doesn’t quite grow with each job change ‘cos i keep taking on completely new tasks!

Being in the “worse half” of my 20s (as Zounds calls it), i recently felt that it’s time that i settle into a career that i can do longterm. Enough of fun, enough of exploring, time to roll my up sleeves and dig deep into my chosen profession. Then the problem crops up - What industry? What job function?

Very few things would interest me greatly. Over the years, i’ve wanted to be a lawyer, to go into marketing, to join CPIB, etc. Very diverse interests so… that makes it extremely tough to decide what could be my career for life.

If i were to go back into insurance, i’m only interested in a very niche area - brokerage in trade credit insurance / political risk insurance. If i remain in property, then i guess the next step would be to join a developer (though that’s not really an option anymore). If i want to venture into marketing, would employers take me in considering i don’t really have any solid marketing background?

A friend suggested that instead of exploring jobs in term of industry, i should consider jobs by their function. But that’s kinda tough isn’t it? Things like insurance brokerage is tied closely to the industry, rather than the job function… as in… u won’t find insurance brokerage in anywhere but insurance… get what i mean?

So i’m really lost now. A door was open but i closed it myself. Another friend advised that whatever job i take, it should be one that i can work cheerfully (means no cursing & swearing even when things go wrong), and work at it with all my heart so that i can be a good testimony for God. (Now that’s a tough call!) Sigh… what to do, what to do?

Anyone wanna hire me?

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I said ‘no’. I turned down the offer from the property developer. The recruitment guy wasn’t happy of ‘cos. But i guess he should be used to it by now. He said it wasn’t nice, i’ve given them my word, etc, etc. But i told him better that i say no now, then to take on the job, and quit w/in the next 6 months. In fact, i might resign even before i start!

The recruitment guy said that after this experience, he would be afraid to recommend me to other employers, namely, the trade credit insurer. I told him that i know this is a good offer if i were to stay in property. But i keep wavering on the offer because i don’t want to stay in property. I think i prefer moving back to insurance.

So the recruitment guy has turned down the offer on my behalf and it seems like Goodland is going to offer their backup candidate. Good for her. Haha.

Sigh. Eon hasn’t called. Maybe they’re waiting for another candidate and i’m their backup…haha. We’re all suckers in the same cycle.

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Just went downstairs to check on Pinky. He didn’t touch the food in his cage from the time we said goodnight at 10:25pm. My dad said that he should have recovered his appetite because he started munching grass at 6:30pm. He also took a few bites of his pellets. (I didn’t witness that for myself because i went to the hospital with Cirrus, who fractured his finger while playing soccer last night.)

Anyway, i thought - 6:30pm was a long time ago and i was worried that Pinky still wasn’t enough right. Thus, I prepared more of the powder mixture i got from the vet & wanted to force-feed Pinky with it. I saw that Pinky’s litter tray had this big damp patch and there was some shit in it… but i couldn’t tell whether the shit was like er, fresh from tonight, or if it was in the litter tray already. The wet patch was definitely fresh… but then again, i wasn’t sure if it was Pinky’s work or did Horlicks use his toilet earlier on the night.

So i decided to go ahead and force-feed Pinky. Ooh… i barely squirted a drop into his mouth when the little chap struggled free & i was forced to put him down on the floor. He ran to his mommy straightaway for comfort. Bet he told her in rabbit language that his nanny bullied him ‘cos his mom started biting the grilles of her cage, demanding to be let out. I managed to chase Pinky back into his cage and almost immediately, he peed onto the floor of the cage. I think he was trying to put his point across - “back off. I’m drinking alright!”

I apologized profusely to Pinky… i felt sorry that i kept pushing him to eat and drink more. But i can’t help but worry about my favourite little bunny!! I always tell Pinky that we all tried so hard to preserve his life when he was a baby so he mustn’t throw it away by starving himself!

Pinky sneezed a few times just now. I believe his cold is back. Maybe he didn’t really fully recover from the last bout of cold. Well, nothing much i can do now. Still praying for Pinky. Thanks to everyone else who did.

Thank You Lord, for Pinky.

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I just entered my bathroom to shower when i saw this HUGE cockroach on my mirror!!

“ARGHHHHHH!!!!!”

I screamed, ran out of the toilet, grabbed the insecticide, and opened the toilet door stealthily and took a peep at the cursed roach. It was perched on my mirror, above my toothbrush. As quietly as i could, i took my toothbrush out of the toilet. Then i took a breath to calm myself down, and opened the toilet door again.

“PZZZZZZZZZZZTT!!!”

I aimed the nozzle of the insecticide at the roach & sprayed at it! WAH LAU EH! Guess what happened? IT FLEW!! So i had a huge roach, with hairy legs, and wings that work!! @%&*)#

I slammed my toilet door again and sought solace from my fren on ICQ. Mustering up more courage, i opened the door a slit to peek into the loo again. Scanned the toilet but i couldn’t see the damned roach. Then i saw it! It was on my window!! I quickly sprayed more insecticide on it and the wretched thing flew out of the window. Phew!! Talk about diehard…

Anyway, i closed my windows as fast as i could… slammed them shut in case the roach was lingering somewhere on the sill… at least that would ensure that it’s squashed. (”Crush it like a cockroach!”)

Now my toilet stinks of insecticide. Darn! How to bathe like that? Jialat… argh… i hate cockroaches!!!

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Pinky - refusing to eat 

Pinky’s not eating nor drinking. Had to coax/force him to take in some food yesterday and he ate - approx. 10 celery leaves, 6 strands of hay, and 2 shreds of carrot the whole of yesterday. That’s very very little. A celery leaf is like 2cm x 1cm in size… and a shred of carrot… think the small pieces u find in your popiah.

I called the vet for advice just now. The vet asked whether Pinky pooped or peed. Well, he peed once the whole of yesterday… and he dropped 1 small pellet this morning. How to shit & pee if u’re not eating nor drinking? But this is a very bad sign because a rabbit needs to eat constantly to keep his digestive tract working. Once it shuts down, that’s the end for the rabbit.

So things are looking very bleak right now. I picked up this powder mix from the vet. (Didn’t take Pinky down in case the car ride freaks him out more.) Supposed to mix it with water to form a paste & force-feed with a syringe. Managed to get 1ml of the mixture into Pinky before he nearly jumped out of my arms. The recommended dosage from the vet is “0.3ml a few times a day”. Great. I’m only getting him to take 1/3 of his dietary needs.

Told my dad that i’m left with no choice but to FORCE-feed Pinky every hour. Even if he drinks only 1ml of the mixture, that’s better than nothing.

Please pray for/that:
1) Pinky’s appetite to return to normal
2) Pinky doesn’t die.
3) Speedy recovery of the wound.

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dear adoring fans of Pinky,

humans are such horrible liars. one moment they tell you that they love you, the next moment, they have you sterilized…

i was tricked into going into the blue carrier with the lure of a great adventure. but i was brought to the vet instead!! once again, i saw the allergic vet. he didn’t seem to recognize me.

while the vet’s assistant and that hypocritical uptowngal was taking my weight, i tried to make a run for it. i dashed out of uptowngal’s grip & nearly got away… but the vet’s assistant was fast. she managed to pin me down on the floor… and the rest is history. sob.

thankfully, the operation wasn’t all too painful. that hypocrite told me that i’m the bravest bunny of all - my daddy cried after his op, and while he didn’t cry, uncle coffee wasn’t too mobile either. but i’ve been hopping around almost like normal - almost. i still don’t dare hop onto the chairs / table. no appetite to eat anything though. the hypocrite tried to coax me into eating carrots, pellets, and biscuits. but i just have no appetite. i know she’s worried. she read something on the Internet that said if a bunny stops eating for more than 24 hrs, the digestive tract will shut down and the bunny will DIE!! sigh… hey, i can’t force myself to eat right? hopefully i’ll feel hungry later….

sigh… i recall my daddy’s wise words when i was a baby… he told me never to let anyone know i’m a male bunny. i asked him why… and he said, “someday u’ll know”. now i do.

depressed,
Pinky

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dear adoring fans of Pinky,

humans are such horrible liars. one moment they tell you that they love you, the next moment, they have you sterilized…

i was tricked into going into the blue carrier with the lure of a great adventure. but i was brought to the vet instead!! once again, i saw the allergic vet. he didn’t seem to recognize me.

while the vet’s assistant and that hypocritical uptowngal was taking my weight, i tried to make a run for it. i dashed out of uptowngal’s grip & nearly got away… but the vet’s assistant was fast. she managed to pin me down on the floor… and the rest is history. sob.

thankfully, the operation wasn’t all too painful. that hypocrite told me that i’m the bravest bunny of all - my daddy cried after his op, and while he didn’t cry, uncle coffee wasn’t too mobile either. but i’ve been hopping around almost like normal - almost. i still don’t dare hop onto the chairs / table. no appetite to eat anything though. the hypocrite tried to coax me into eating carrots, pellets, and biscuits. but i just have no appetite. i know she’s worried. she read something on the Internet that said if a bunny stops eating for more than 24 hrs, the digestive tract will shut down and the bunny will DIE!! sigh… hey, i can’t force myself to eat right? hopefully i’ll feel hungry later….

sigh… i recall my daddy’s wise words when i was a baby… he told me never to let anyone know i’m a male bunny. i asked him why… and he said, “someday u’ll know”. now i do.

depressed,
Pinky

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