Today is my first day at work. It was exciting and nerve-wrecking at the same time. I am excited to meet new colleagues but I do worry whether I would be able to get along well with them. Hopefully, everything would turn out fine. I almost ruined my first day by entering in the wrong direction on the PIE expressway. I then proceeded on to turn out from the Bukit Timah filter lane and headed for the ECP expressway instead since this was the route that I took to go for my interview. Luckily, I was in time for work and there were two other colleagues who arrived much later than me.
It was surprising to meet boss at the lobby waiting for us. He introduced a south korean gal to me and asked me to guess what her nationality was. When I guessed correctly, I think the fun was gone. Yea, I am a fun dooper. I have always been that kind of person, I guess. He (not my boss) used to describe me as the gal who enters a lively party and sapped all the energy out of it, making it dark and gloomy. I cant help it, can I?
So after everyone has arrived, we started to fill up those forms required by HR. He started acting all secretive as he tried to separate all of us and prevent us from getting to know each other's salary. Despite me really wanting to know others' salary, I dont have the intention of letting others know. This reminds me of the Nash equilibrium and the prisoners' dilemma situation. Yes, I majored in Economics during my undergraduate years.
Having filled up all the required forms for both HR and Singapore Polytechnic, we proceeded to Bedok Green Primary School for our Lego Training session. We were quite late then and so, it was almost tea session by the time we arrived. Lipton's milk tea was pretty good in my opinion, although some claimed that it was too sweet for their liking. Char siew buns were served for morning tea session and we then proceeded to continue with our Lego training.
The Lego training was quite interesting, though the lecturing parts were slightly boring. I was just more interested in getting into action and play the Lego toys rather than sitting through the lectures. Lunch was on the house, so that was one good thing about the training session. Nonetheless, only a spicy dish was served -- curry chicken rice. I usually enjoy the normal type of curry chicken but for this stall, it was too spicy for my indulgence. I barely touch my plate despite me feeling terribly hungry. For afternoon tea session, we had sweet potato soup which I skipped as I wasn't feeling too well then.
Eventually, 4pm came and we knocked off from work. This pretty much wrapped up my entire first day at work.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Phone Day
It was nerve-wrecking today. As I have mentioned in my earlier post, I am making a decision that is likely going to change the path of my life. I sure do hope that I do not regret making this decision.
It took quite alot of nerves for me to reject my employer whom I have signed a contract with. Of course, they certainly weren't too happy about it and requested that I send them a formal email. I did so and all I could do next was for them to direct the email to the management to decide my fate in penalty. The next thing to do was to inform my new employer that I would be accepting their job offer to be a kindergarten teacher. It was less nerve-wrecking than the previous call, of course.
And so this is it, my fate is sealed. My path in life is chosen.
It took quite alot of nerves for me to reject my employer whom I have signed a contract with. Of course, they certainly weren't too happy about it and requested that I send them a formal email. I did so and all I could do next was for them to direct the email to the management to decide my fate in penalty. The next thing to do was to inform my new employer that I would be accepting their job offer to be a kindergarten teacher. It was less nerve-wrecking than the previous call, of course.
And so this is it, my fate is sealed. My path in life is chosen.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Decisions and more decisions
Today is the day I am faced with a big decision to make. A decision that would change my life forever. Decision making is always tough. I tend to lose sleep over making decisions and today is a perfect example of one such day. I went for medical check up at raffles medical centre at north bridge road. The check up took pretty long, approximately 2 hrs or so. When it was finally my turn to meet the doctor, I realize he wasn't exactly as smart as how I imagine a normal doctor would be. I approached him about my split nails problem and he advised me to seek advice from a nail manicurist instead -_-". Perhaps I couldn't control myself and rolled my eyes at him. He proceeded on to mumble about other suggestions such as taking nail calcium tablets. Very smart indeed. I am sure it wasn't the issue of lack of calcium as one hand of mine has perfectly normal nails whereas the other hand seems to have nail problems.
For lunch, I decided to settle it at Coffee Bean within the hospital. The chicken pasta was so-so and wasn't fantastically nice for its price. What was enjoyable was the atmosphere, since I got to web-cam him with free wi-fi. Momentarily, it felt like he was just sitting across me, accompanying me to chill at the cafe. But of course, that wasn't the case.
At that time, I was wondering whether I ought to proceed on for an interview at the headquarter since I have already secured an analyst job then. Nonetheless, I followed my heart and decided to just attend the interview with an open heart and mind. In a way, it paid off, I guess. It was more of a getting to know you better session and he started plotting a career progression path for me. It sounded tempting, especially with an increment in pay that exceeded the pay for the current job that I had secured. Furthermore, I would be getting an advanced diploma in early childhood education, not that I am in need of such a certificate, considering that I do have a masters. Perhaps the most seducing temptation of all was the acknowledgement and appreciation of talent. The swiftness and openness in offering a pay that was actually pledged to my qualification, without even bothering to take a double check at my certificates. I know, I am shallow, but I do appreciate being appreciated at times. I am sick of hearing about how I lack working experience and therefore I have to be assigned to a fresh graduate pay. That is how society works, especially in the local scene. It works so well to crush fresh graduates' dreams, in particular, those who dare to dream big. It is ironic indeed.
And so, this is how I found myself wandered into the world of a mixture of children and political party, with a pending burden of an upcoming breaking contract penalty. A surprise to many and myself, but that's me.
For lunch, I decided to settle it at Coffee Bean within the hospital. The chicken pasta was so-so and wasn't fantastically nice for its price. What was enjoyable was the atmosphere, since I got to web-cam him with free wi-fi. Momentarily, it felt like he was just sitting across me, accompanying me to chill at the cafe. But of course, that wasn't the case.
At that time, I was wondering whether I ought to proceed on for an interview at the headquarter since I have already secured an analyst job then. Nonetheless, I followed my heart and decided to just attend the interview with an open heart and mind. In a way, it paid off, I guess. It was more of a getting to know you better session and he started plotting a career progression path for me. It sounded tempting, especially with an increment in pay that exceeded the pay for the current job that I had secured. Furthermore, I would be getting an advanced diploma in early childhood education, not that I am in need of such a certificate, considering that I do have a masters. Perhaps the most seducing temptation of all was the acknowledgement and appreciation of talent. The swiftness and openness in offering a pay that was actually pledged to my qualification, without even bothering to take a double check at my certificates. I know, I am shallow, but I do appreciate being appreciated at times. I am sick of hearing about how I lack working experience and therefore I have to be assigned to a fresh graduate pay. That is how society works, especially in the local scene. It works so well to crush fresh graduates' dreams, in particular, those who dare to dream big. It is ironic indeed.
And so, this is how I found myself wandered into the world of a mixture of children and political party, with a pending burden of an upcoming breaking contract penalty. A surprise to many and myself, but that's me.
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