You who became demoralised and burnt out from your current job. You who have since found no satisfaction in what you were doing and wondered, “What am I doing here?”

So you think “Maybe I should try other lines…” and you start exploring other fields. At this point you may be lost and wonder, “what do I want to be now?”

Take a step

It takes one step to walk a thousand miles. Start searching both in your soul and in jobs. Don’t limit yourself to your qualifications or prior experiences. Soon you will actually find a pattern in the kinds of job you are searching for. See, during job searches, you will find that you almost always click on the same category! Doesn’t this mean that this is where your passion lies? Maybe you should consider a career in that category.

But then, you will have doubts like:

How should I follow my passion?
What if I don’t have the correct school qualifications or job experiences?

Possible solutions

Very frankly now I tell you the paths you can take:

1. Take a pay cut now and work from the bottom up again. Nobody would ever fault you for taking such a courageous leap. But are you willing to sacrifice your time to work from the bottom up again?
2. Stay where you are and volunteer your skills to build up experience, at the same time, further your education in the desired field (if you can). It is hard to break into a new industry. Oftentimes you have the passion, but no avenue to build experience from. Volunteering is the key. Volunteering will show recruiters two things: that you are passionate in what you do and you’ll do anything to achieve your dreams.

Volunteering

NVPC is Singapore’s national body for volunteering and philanthropy. Look through each organisation and try to volunteer your services to build up your experience from scratch. Volunteer organisations are always in need of people! Go to the following website and click on E-MATCH (on the left navigation bar) to begin your search.

http://www.nvpc.org.sg/pgm/others/nvpc_f_default_public.aspx

Social connections

Never forget that you can never be who you are without your social connections. Check with your circle of friends, society or social organisation that you belong to whether they need any help in the field you wish to expertise in.

Stay on track

Volunteering is not going to have instantaneous effects or net you a job immediately, so be patient!

Set small, realistic goals that are actually achievable  and work towards it. Take your steps one at a time, and relish in the freedom you have given yourself. If you dare to make a career switch, the results can be gratifying and life-changing. Stay positive!

1. This is a personal blog. It logs whatever I feel like writing at that time. So, read it or take the advice with a pinch of salt. If I have helped you save your time, I’m glad. If you feel happy about your experiences with this agency, feel free to write about it.
2. Your comments may take some time (up to a few months) to appear. The sole reason is because I rarely log in. Whatever comments you readers decide to post is completely transparent, and you are free to share your views and experiences.

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I received a call on 22nd February 2011 from Grace (98374814) for an interview appointment. She marketed herself as a representative fron Holborn Consultancy, a recruitment agency under Prudential. I mentioned that I was not interested in financial advisory positions, but she emphasized to me that they were a recruitment agency and have many openings.

I called Holborn Consultancy’s office on Wednesday (23rd February) asking what kind of openings do they have. A malay guy replied me with a vague answer, “we have many different types of openings.”

On 24th February, I went down for an interview. I was asked to do a personality test, then somebody came in to talk to me. He introduced Holborn Consultancy as part of Prudential and that they have openings for 4 positions only. All positions are for Prudential, two of which is management trainee and financial advisory. I forgot the other two.

Of course I rejected the offer as I wasn’t interested in such job scopes at all. Then I left the office after he evaluated my personality traits for me.

I then called Grace to complain about this dishonesty. When I advised Grace to review their recruitment strategy, she retorted that they’ve been doing it this way for years and there’s no need to! Can you imagine the number of fresh graduates that have been cheated into working for Prudential like this? Lying and misleading people like this will only waste the candidate’s time.

And, she had the gall to argue to me, “You’re not qualified anyway!” after I told her off. Such a horrible behaviour from Prudential’s recruitment agency. What a disappointment.

Is this dishonesty something that should be left on it’s own? No. The young ones should be warned of agencies like this. Let this story be known.

Common Practices

It’s sad to know that Holborn Consultancy is not the only such agency. Holborn Consultancy and other recruitment agencies for Prudential do have a similarity that you can be aware of.

1. Firstly, they would set up an appointment with you through a phone call, explaining that they found your contact from monster.com or JobStreet.
2. Then they will SMS you the location and meeting details. Note here that they will never use email even after you request so.
3. Typically, they will give bad service as they are going through a long list of phone numbers everyday.
4. They will not have a credible website to their name.

Be careful of such traits if you don’t want to waste your time. I hope I have helped to clear up some things for you.

Unfortunately I have to credit this to my upbringing. My family was quite well off when I was young. On top of being a rich and pampered brat, being the favorite child in the family also means I got everything I wanted, the way I wanted it. Things were presented before me on a silver platter, garnished with fresh flowers and fed to me on a matching silver spoon, while I sat on my throne (wherever it was at that point of time). I was living the life of a princess. I didn’t have to answer to anything or anybody. I was spoilt and content.

Such an idealistic living standard, frankly, do not require much brain activity.

Let’s fast forward to real life, 25 years later. The problem I’m facing is rather sad. Whatever feedback that I receive, I am unable to weigh the consequences on the spot and give an appropriate answer. When I am talking, my brain stops thinking. It will be only after the event (The Conversation) that the brain would start it’s processing.

And the moment this mental block comes up, catastrophes almost always occur. I’d shoot my mouth off and offend somebody. Or I’d agree to pay a hefty sum for some product I don’t really need. I remember in an interview last month, the interviewers could see that I was nervous. They thought they scared me. I lamely told them, “No… I am naturally nervous.” I wonder if they believed me.

Is it fear holding me? I wouldn’t know. I’m used to it.

It is because of this handicap that I think better when I’m alone. I am able to burrow into the logic behind the idea and look at it from different fronts. I can ponder alone for long periods of time.

So I conceptualize. And then I write.

And I’m in fact comfortable this way. Tama said this a few days ago:

Fear can be a terrible thing. But this much I know: you are invincible within, stronger than you know, softer than you know, and more carried than you know.

Accept who you are. Work on those characteristics that you love. Excel at what you love to do. What are you living for? Yourself.

It took me a month of job searching to find out what I really want – or was it soul searching?

Over the past month, I applied for jobs, I went for interviews, I sold myself, I may have embarrassed myself. I clicked through all the categories in job portals, I went through recruitment agencies, the choices I made were vast in diversity. My job requirements changed everyday. One day I was looking for administrative posts. The next I was looking for a managerial post. The requirements changed as fast as my thoughts turned.

I looked for jobs where I had prior experience in, and thought by doing so I’ll secure a career advancement or at least a stable income. After the interview was finished, I rejected the offers, telling myself they’re not what I want.

So what do I want, really? I lost focus after a while.

I started looking elsewhere. I applied for jobs where I had entirely no experience in, and where my interests lie. There were two companies who put me back on the correct path and stopped my wandering. It was from the beginning failed interviews when I didn’t have any experience (they were managerial posts). Of course I didn’t get any offer. Interest doesn’t get you your rice bowl. It’s qualification and work experience.

One day I started crossing out things. I don’t like to service customers. Here, I don’t even like to socialise. Do I look like a networking person to you? I don’t have experience in marketing, in sales. I don’t like boring, menial administrative jobs.

What then, do I like?

What do I come back to, time and time again over the course of my life? Ever since young I do know something. And I do like something. It is something that I have always done and was always proud of. It has been staring at me in me face all this while. A revelation dawned on me one Wednesday morning.

What’s the first thing I did when finally, finally, I looked at this one thing I know – so neglected, in a dusty corner – and this one thing I did love?

I did something that I’ve always done on and off throughout the years.

I wrote.

More specifically, I wrote this post. And I could not stop. Ideas flowed through my hands, and I still could not stop. I remembered the list of topics already lined up in my notebook, demanding to be put to words. My fingers trembled, my heart pounded – and I wrote.

Discovery is powerful. It invokes euphoria in a person. I am still reeling from the after effects. So I’ll leave this post here, or else I will keep on typing. Which is not healthy, because I need to start planning my career path and studies now.

I donned my sister’s hand-me-down clothes, and prepared my documentations, and left home with my parents, who wanted to offer me support.

Earlier, I’ve been to one or two interviews and I didn’t like them. But this one, this one, it seems promising. There was a constricted feeling in my chest. Like something was stuck and yearning to get out. Change, is coming.

Ubi Techpark looked magnificent from the outside with my inconsequential work experience. My parents loitered around outside while I stepped into the building.

I was 45 minutes too early – I scouted the place, went to the toilet, and walked around until I couldn’t anything else to stall time. I buzzed the bell. A lady answered the door and soon I was whisked away into a meeting room.

I sat facing the door, waiting for the interviewee. It was cold. I waited. My hands were sweating, my feet hurt from my shoes, and my heart was pounding. I rehearsed my lines, I read the Corporate Values hanging on the walls. I waited. And I systematically worked myself into a knot.

Then a man in his twenties came in, and we shook hands, and the interview started. He introduced his name but not his position, and we went right down to business. I might have gone on auto pilot somewhere during the interview. Sometimes I forgot the answer I knew should be there somewhere in the depths of my mind. I might have stammered a little.

One vivid memory I have of that time is how a voice broke through the bundle of nerves I’ve became and said, “Don’t be nervous.” It was the interviewee. I blinked, and took a deep breath. The imaginary miasma of murky nervousness that seemed to be choking me appeared to somewhat fade.

There was a personality test at the end of it. I did what I do best – I wrote, and then the interview ended. I left the office, heart strangely filled with gratitude.

 The day after, the job offer came through to me. And that, my friends, is where the Verztec journey began. To you-know-who’s, for giving me so much opportunity during my tenure.

For now, just for now, let us fall into a world where images are shared freely, for nothing but peer enjoyment, encouraging one another to share their life.

Instagram is free app solely for the sharing and appreciation of photography. It is a world full of positivity and brimming with love. The community is very active and extremely generous with feedback.

Something intangible and powerful is also at work here.

These photos don’t speak just a thousand words. They do more than that. These photos invite you into their world, and make you /feel/ it – the drama, the beauty, the utter strangeness, the symmetrical harmony of nature and architecture. They tell stories.

Here is where all that matters is being able to share joy and bliss. It’s my little secret paradise.

If the rest of the world is like that we’d all be way happier.

The day where I finally transitioned from a lull of inactivity – the reluctance to mull about anything pertaining to my future – to a burst of energy and effort worrying myself sick about it.

It’s like a reboot has happened. I’ve had my rest. I am ready to go now.

This is the day I left office home feeling so… Light.

The day I had an urge to run — And I ran till I couldn’t anymore.

The transitory period has ended. It is time to have fun.

I trust that time will uncover the path for the next phase in my life.

Such is a classic tale of how, in our rush for bigger and better things, we forget the minute details that make up the achievements.

Tonight, while I strode across the fields to my house, it was easy to miss the flowers blooming in the trees, the snail inching it’s way across the path, the tinge of cold air upon your skin, the distant sounds of crickets. Near midnight, these things seemed magnified in the absence of daytime clutter and thoughts. And I stopped in my tracks and realized – such small things are amazing miracles in itself.

Through the steady rhythm of everyday life, let’s take a break and spare the finer details some attention.

Stop rushing and appreciate the small things happening around you. Stop right there, and spare some moments to appreciate the people who are closest to you. I think it’s a wonderful sense to cultivate. It brings a state of peaceful solace into my mind.

Regardless, Verztec brought a hidden part of me out and taught me to soar. They trusted in me without questions. They constantly pushed me beyond what I thought was my limit. And each time I come out scarred but victorious. In 4 years I have learnt so much more of human relationships and management than I could possibly expect.

Luck and grace brought me this far. I shall stand up on my own and see how life goes on from here, I thought.

To have come so far, the best I could where I was, and to put an end to that chapter, it would have been so easy if not for the heart-wrenching ache burning a path in my heart.

Each person I met wove something different into my way of thinking – either for good or for bad. Letting go of the connections that have forged me to who I am now – excruciating.

Yet at the same time, my heart yearns to go and find it’s passion.

I have started on the journey to fulfill my desires and follow my dreams; but it is my closest friends who are hurt. And to see this tremendous concern, somehow it makes it harder to move on.

But human beings are in general, selfish, no? To be selfish is to love yourself. And who better to love foremost, other than yourself, who is made up of and defined by so many people you love?

Do not be sad, friends, for a cherished part of you are here with me that will never fade.

Do not despair, friends, for time and fate and life will grant you gifts that will wash away the shores of my departure.

Do not hold me back, friends, for I go to follow my heart, and you to yours.

Do not lament my departure, friends, for only a celebration is deemed fit for such a grand exit.

Now that I look at it, do I rather like being in the background? To be inconspicuous, to not cause so much emotional mayhem?

No, I rather not.

Because life is more interesting with these ups and downs, comings and goings!

れん‐けつ 【廉潔】
［名・形動］私欲がなく、心や行いが正しいこと。また、そのさま。清廉潔白。

Integrity. Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character. Honesty.

最近覺得這人格很重要。話要直說：沒實力別亂吹喇叭；不要欺騙、不要敲詐。

最近はどんどんそう思います。直接に言えば、力がないときホラを吹いないで。嘘をつかないで。詐欺をしないで。

I have been thinking about this lately – that integrity is very important to myself. Basically, one must refrain from lying or cheating. And don’t show off when you have nothing to boast about.

要以誠信為本。一定會成功。

清廉なキャラを中心にして、きっと成功になれる。

Integrity will surely breed success.

也不該和不老實的人混在一起。不然會像癌細胞一樣把心都給腐爛掉。

信頼できない連中に近づかなくてもいい。心が腐るかもしれない。

And don’t mix with dishonest people. It will only corrode my heart.