Dance like no one's watching

A rather busy first week at work. Felt a little stressed mid-week when a number of enquiries was given to me to handle but thankfully, I managed to sort things out by Fri. Most people assumed it’ll be a honeymoon period since it’s a new job… but the thing is, I’m doing the exact same work I used to do… which means I’m expected to hit the ground running.

The good thing about this new place is that I get to deal with less admin issues. There’s a Foxconn who assists the rest of us with things like tracking of new enquiries & premium adjustment dates. Churning out of debit notes is also “outsourced” to another department so we brokers get to focus on the real job – brokering.

Colleagues have been easy to get along with. Surprisingly, I seem to click more easily with Android than Apple. Haha. In any case, they’re both not difficult people to work with so I don’t think there’ll be much office politics. At least I pray not.

My 3-week break is OVER!  Starting work at my new office tomorrow.  Sian.  Break not long enough.  I haven’t nuah-ed enough.  Sigh.  Gotta go pack some essentials to take to office tomorrow… on the MRT some more.  Bleah!  I hate public transport.

If you like to eat local food, you’ll know that no 1 local dish is exactly the same.  There’re many places selling char kway teow but every cook will have his own style of preparing the dish.  This is probably why once a Singaporean has grown to like a particular stall, the eater will make much effort to hunt down the stall if it moves to another venue.

Angmoh food, on the other hand, is a different story.  Whether you buy a Fillet O’ Fish from the McDonald’s at Bedok or the one at Jurong, the burger tastes the same. 

Which I think is why some angmohs & probably some MNCs fail to appreciate the uniqueness of a local dish & the value the cook brings to the table.

This is how customers are lost.

As of 5 Feb 2012, I will be officially “in between jobs”.  A pity I only get to bum around at home this week before I fly to USA for a 2-week holiday.  Will be back on 17 Feb & will start work at my next company on 20 Feb 2012.

Many people have asked where I’ll be moving on to but I’ve not told anyone except for immediate family & a few close friends.  I was asked by my new boss, henceforth known as Microsoft, to keep it quiet to avoid any tension that may arise in my soon to be ex-company as quite a number of people have jumped ship (for different reasons).

There have been many guesses as to where I’m going.  Some colleagues thought that I’ll be joining Upsize at another multinational broker.  Some guessed (correctly) that I’ll be going to this specialist brokering house.  The PRI & Structured Trade underwriters think I’m joining one of them.  Whenever anyone asked me if their guess was correct, I have refused to confirm or deny.  I maintained that if you’re confident that you know where I’m going, then so be it.  Why do you have to ask me?  If you’re not sure, then just wait for my new company to announce my appointment. 

A rather funny thing happened today.  An ex-colleague of mine, who’s currently working in the company that I’m about to join, called Bigmac (who joined my new company ahead of me) to ask if I’ll be joining soon.  As Bigmac knows that I don’t wish to spread the news, he replied saying he wasn’t sure – to which the ex-colleague replied, “her name is in the telephone directory”.

Bigmac was totally caught off guard.  He glanced at the telephone directory & indeed my name was on it.  Nonetheless, he denied knowledge of when I’m starting work & clarified that I wouldn’t be reporting to him in any case.

When Bigmac called to tell me what happened, I couldn’t stop laughing.  I told him that my new company is really too efficient for their own good.  Kind of odd if you ask me – I mean, what if I don’t turn up for work in the end?  After all, I have been approached by another broker as well as an underwriter.  So until I step into the office to start work, there’s no knowing what may happen right? 

Anyway, I’ve got to admit I still feel rather sentimental towards my soon to be ex-company.  It has been a good 5.5 years, of which I really enjoyed my time there the last 2 years.  I was happy with the clients I had, the processes in place, the colleagues I have (most of them anyway) & the progress I achieved.  The 1 big push factor that drove me away was The Empire but that’s another story for another day.

I’m looking forward to my USA trip next week.  I really hope I’ll get to see snow (not too much – just a bit will do!) but the chances are quite low.  Can’t wait to wear my new boots.  Heehee.

Here’s to new boots, new gloves & a new job!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!!

Enjoying my 3-week break before starting work at my new company. Had dinner with my new colleagues last week. I think it’ll be good. It’s a lean team but everyone is technically strong so i believe this team will rock the market.

Two underwriters told me that they’re glad the 3 of us left my old company… Cos we dominated the market and could pressure the underwriters. They said it was good to “spread the talent pool around”. But the way i see it, my new company will be even stronger than my previous one… Except our focus is in Structured Trade & PRI.

I’m looking forward to my upcoming holiday in NY & to start work at the new company. The Empire needs to be taught a lesson.

Everytime it rains, ants take shelter in my toilet and they don’t leave even when the rain stops. So annoying. I hate ants. I hate cockroaches. I hate all sorts of bugs. Argh!

Ever heard the saying 钱不是万能，但没有钱却万万不能? In the past year, i have been approached by a few companies who felt that i may be able to contribute to their business. I considered joining a bank, insurer, reinsurer and brokers. Ultimately, it came down to a choice between taking up the position as head of department in my current company and joining another brokering house. I decided on the latter due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to the the job scope, the office politics (or the lack thereof), the colleagues and so on.

Having said that, i have to admit that the luxury to mull over these qualitative factors was anchored on the fact that i was going to get a decent pay increment at my new company. Although the HOD position would have paid more, if the pay at my new company was not to my expectations, it would have been unlikely that i would want to make the switch.

If you think about it, it’s very similar to how we spend money to buy things right? Why do people fork out top dollar for a BMW? A Kia would also take you to from point A to B isn’t it?

What i’m trying to say is that there’s no free lunch. You want something good, you gotta pay for it. Although choosing to serve the nation requires one to have the passion (similar choosing your career), remuneration, while not everything, is still an important factor.

So the hot topic today is how our ministers’ salaries will be cut. I’m quite indifferent about it. After all, bringing down their salaries isn’t going to increase mine right? If people feel they’re earning too little, then they should focus on finding ways to increase their income, be it find a new job or take on a side line. Heck. If u’re good enough, go be a minister & u can earn that high salary too.

I read that a politician from an opposition party said that the new politician is not money motivated. Really? I think the old guards are not money motivated. Fighting for independence from British rule is driven by an idealism & belief that we should have the right to govern our own nation. Politicians these days? Would top brass from the private sector join politics if their remuneration was pegged to the bottom 20% of wage earners? Come on man. Get real please.

My mom’s been badgering me for a new handphone ‘cos she wants to use Whatapp (she was using the SonyEricsson T707, or at least I think that’s the model number).  She lamented how her colleagues & friends would group chat to arrange lunch/ dinner appointments & how she always was the only one who had to be informed by SMS.

She also complained that her phone’s so old that she feels embarrassed to be seen with it on the MRT.  So I scouted around for a new phone & finally decided that the new Nokia Asha 303 would suit her. 

Got it from the Nokia Store at Century Square at SGD249 (without contract).  The S40 OS was easy to use – didn’t take much effort before I ran through with my mom how to use the phone.  I think she should be able to copy fine.

My mom also wanted to find out how to download games so I showed her how to navigate the Nokia Store.  I think it’s good that my mom isn’t a techno-phobe.  Heh. 

Now I’m thinking of getting a new phone for myself – but there’s no phone out there that inspires me!  First of all, I highly doubt any handphones in the market now has a better camera than my Nokia N8.  In fact, apart from my ancient Nokia N82, I don’t think there’s any other phones that has a Xenon flash installed.  Once you’ve used a Xenon flash on a handphone, you would never want to use a LED flash ‘cos the latter just whitewashes the picture.

I also want a phone that can multitask, which means the iOS is out.  I find Android hard to use (struggled with the interface on my dad’s Samsung) so that pretty much leaves me with buying either a Symbian or Windows device.

Nokia hasn’t really launched any Symbian phone that can trump the N8… so that narrowed down my consideration to the Nokia Lumia 800 which runs on Windows.  Sadly, although the Lumia 800 has a much faster processor, the camera pales in comparison with my N8’s… and Windows doesn’t allow users to customise the phone as much as Symbian (I can’t have multiple profiles, ringtones, message tones, homescreens, wallpapers, etc installed on Windows).

That brings me back to square one.  Sigh.  How how?  Nokia, will you launch a 2nd generation N8 please?

I have resigned.

I have lodged a complaint against some people in my company who made derogatory remarks against me.  Seeing regional HR on this matter on Fri.

I feel sad that I will not get to work with some colleagues, at least not for the foreseeable future.

I will need to get used to a new work environment, new boss, new colleagues.

Although I feel bad for Mr Minutes, I can’t help him much as I have to stay out of the politics in my soon to be ex-company.

Sigh.