This is most likely to be a 90% work post! The week was the usual home-work-home week…

I went ahead and applied for the position that I wrote about last week, even though the chances I don’t get it is higher than I get it!

I did speak to both my ex-boss and current boss about this – my ex-boss was actually excited about this, but again, the position advertised is slightly more senior to what I am doing. But I feel, I have given out signals here – either here or elsewhere, but in 2015, I am hoping for a career breakthrough!

Another thing I want to write about – though not a rant, I want to put this here, so I remember…

There was this senior person I was working for R, whom I was helping a few months back. Now she continued to take my help and I helped her as I was interested in that field – I thought this was the best way to get some knowledge and experience in the field. She completed 100 days at work and had a review with the regional chairperson and I helped her put the deck together. Around this time, my current boss came on board and one day she mentioned that she had spoken to him about me – about what a great job I was doing, what an asset I am to the department and so on. I didn’t ask her to do that and if she did it but didn’t tell me, I would not know and I am ok with this. After her review with the chairperson, she came by to thank me and also mentioned that she told the chairperson that I helped her and what I great job I was doing. There were other regional leaders on the review, along with her boss and this has been told in front of everyone. Then the chairperson said to tell all this to my current boss and she laughed and said she already did that.

Now last week, when I pitched my candidature to my boss, I mentioned this – when I mentioned that everyone whom I work with always give me great reviews – and I mentioned R saying that she has spoken to him about me. My boss had this real blank look on his face and it looked like R has not spoken to him at all! I felt a bit funny and we laughed it saying maybe she will do that in the near future.

Now I am wondering why R did this? I didn’t go and ask her for the endorsement, but if she didn’t do that, why tell me she did it? I was going to ask her to be a referee for me when I start going for interviews as she is local, but now I may have to rethink this.

Ok, not-rant over! Have a great Monday and an awesome week…

Another humdrum week!

But the next one could be a one with excitement…While typing this post, I was also checking my work email and saw the position that E had mentioned some time back being posted. Only thing I was told it was a manager position, but now has been posted as a senior manager position. I checked the job scope and I am currently doing around 70% of it already. I have already written to the recruiter to say I am interested, and what the next steps are. I am also going to speak to my new boss about this. This is the make-or-break decision. If all goes well, I will be here in this company, doing something I enjoy doing and getting well paid for it with a position I am proud to call my own. If I am not considered for this position, then I am going to start my new job search aggressively. Either way, I have decided this will be my breakout year!

Actually I am very nervous now…..Please pray for me and hope things go the way I want them to go….

Happy Monday people! May this week be great for you….

A very short week due to the long labor day weekend and quite a boring one too!

My ex-boss came to Singapore for a set of meetings and on Wednesday we went for a dinner with him, my new boss and one other colleague. While waiting for said colleague to bring his car around, my ex-boss was casually talking to me and I suddenly had this epiphany – for some reason I don’t want to go in too much detail here, the scales suddenly fell from my eyes and I really saw him for what he was. And I realised I gave him too much credit for my growth here. Yes he was responsible for what I am today compared to two years ago, but a major reason is also my work, my credentials, my achievements and what I brought to the table. So now I have more respect for myself and what I have achieved, so major, major thanks for that ex-boss! He’s still a very valued friend and mentor, but just not on the pedestal I had put him on earlier…

We had one moment of happiness yesterday when GG passed her Hindi SA1 (see yesterday’s post) and now hopefully this will spur both of them to do better in the coming SA1 exams for the other subjects.

Happy Monday and have an awesome week filled with positivity! I know I am going to have just that….

One of the better weeks in recent times! Like I said last week, my new boss finally came in last Tuesday and he seems to be a nice guy – similar in temperament to my previous boss with whom I got along well.

We had a staff meeting this week and things I am working on seem to be taken up well. So far (touch wood) things are going well and hopefully this will lead to better opportunities within this organization. This is the biggest reason I am not taking very concrete steps to leave – I really like what I am doing here, if only people’s perceptions of what I do change – and this will happen when I get a formal title to what I am doing – then I can see myself having a fruitful career here. Ah well, let’s see how things pan out in the next six months or so and I will make a decision. PSLE will also be over by then, allowing me to take decisions I would otherwise not take.

We attended S’s cousin’s daughter’s first birthday yesterday and boy was it different! A mash-up between a corporate D&D (dinner & dance) and a wedding reception! All this in an HDB void deck. The loud music which made talking and thinking impossible, the MC who behaved as if he was in a D&D, the hosts who were most un-host-like and I could go on and on…They even had the baby change clothes three times in the hour she was around just like in a wedding!

Anyway, this was something we had to do as noone is S’s family was there. I would have loved to spend some time with the baby, but could not as the mom was busy with her relatives and so did not come near our table at all!!!

I can go on and on about this, but don’t want to inflict you with negativity….

Have a great Monday folks!

Another ho-hum week….

I started on my new job search this week, applying to jobs I may be interested in. I do not want to take very concrete steps as I love what I am doing here, but it’s the impermanence that I don’t like. My colleague E mentioned that there is going to be some openings in my department soon and that I should apply for it, as it is basically what I am doing, ramped up a bit. I will do that (Thanks E) and if I don’t get it, then it’s bye-bye company….

Oh, we’ve had a new colleague J who joined from a nearby country in Feb and he is so insecure! Technically he is the highest ranked among the three of us, but the lowest in terms of experience (he has this rank because that was his rank in his home country and they can’t downgrade him when he moved here). So he behaves like the king of the hill – wants all plum assignments and brown-nosing people. He is lucky that he has his fellow country-men around and in senior positions, which helps I guess.

I have to pen this incident down – last week, with all the problems my laptop was giving me, IT finally decided to give me a new one as it was long overdue. They gave me a temp laptop to tide me over till the new one was ready. Now this temp laptop had a privacy screen filter and immediately J wanted to know where I got it from and how he can get one. When E and I told him, these are not really useful he said “But I can’t see your screen from here”. For reference sake, E sits at my back (we both sit facing away from each other) and J sits on my side on the other side of the cube.

Now this makes me wonder – what else does he see on my screen and is he keeping tabs on me? Need to check this out soon….

Also our new boss is finally coming in next week – this was another reason I didn’t want to leave immediately – as I wanted to see if him being here will make any difference. My ex-boss will also be here the week after next to handover, so it will be good to see him too…

Ok, end of my verbal diarrhea….Have a great week folks!