Tag Archives: 2016

2016 Week 40 Update

Posted on by
Reply

Another month has gone by and I am still jobless! I did get an email from the not-for-profit organisation I wrote about last week letting me know that they are not considering me for the position I applied for. However, the person mentioned they have something I could do there and they will get back to me around the end of October. I also have another interview set up for later this week, but the position I applied for and the position I am interviewing for seems a bit different. They called me the other day asking for work samples – I wonder what kind? I’ve never been asked any before and I told them the work that I’ve done before all belongs to the companies I’ve worked for, I can’t show it to them without permission. I’ll just go for the interview, but have zero expectations here.

Other than that the week has been pretty mundane – housework and working on the blog is all that I seem to do these days. Am feeling depressed too with some money issues popping up now, especially with BB’s thread ceremony on the horizon. When we planned this, we expected to be comfortable, financially as I was still working and earning a decent pay cheque, but the contract ending was very sudden and not working 5 months down the line is making our savings reduce at an alarming rate!

Anyway, I am of the ‘glass is half-full’ camp and so believe that everything happens for a reason and that these testing times will go away soon….

Have a great weekend folks!

Secondary 1 Week 40 Update

Posted on by
Reply

Nine months are done and we’re now in the last quarter of the year. The children are in the midst of exams and the school year will end by the end of this month.

GG had a small incident on Friday in school. For a few months now, for no real reason, she has been constantly kicked out of her class WhatsApp group chat. Initially, she used to ask friends to add her back in, but later gave it up when it happened one too many times. On Friday, when she came back from school, she looked very upset and when I asked her what happened, she burst out crying. When I was able to calm her down and get the details, I found that the previous evening, the Maths teacher had reached out to the class chairperson and asked the class to bring some specific books to class. The class chairperson then put this request in the group chat. Since GG did not have access to the class group chat, she did not take the things needed and got a ticking off from her form teacher. Her form teacher also told her about certain other things she and other teachers have noted about GG and reprimanded her saying, if this continues, she will ask the school to take away her student councillor badge and position. This upset GG, and by extension me as I knew how GG strove to be a model student in school. I texted the teacher asking if I could speak to her and the teacher called me almost immediately.

I texted the teacher asking if I could speak to her and the teacher called me almost immediately. We spoke and I mentioned about the class chat group and also wondered if GG was being cyber bullied as one of the first instances of such bullying is to kick out the person being bullied from these chat groups so they don’t know what is being said about them as well as allow the others to talk trash about the person. The teacher also mentioned the other things she spoke to GG about and in those, I did agree with the teacher, GG had made some mistakes, but these were small ones, not big enough that the badge is taken away. However, small mistakes can add up to become big ones and after the talk, I did spend time with GG talking to her and explaining why the teacher spoke to her about those instances. Within 5 minutes of the teacher speaking to me, GG got added to the class group chat again. Hopefully, this incident will teach Aditi about accepted behaviour from the school on part of student councillors as well as be a learning point for her.

 

 

2016 Week 39 Update

Posted on by
Reply

That’s it, I just give up….for the moment al least! When I wrote my weekly update post last week, I was full of anticipation regarding the interview I had done the previous week. I was supposed to hear from them regarding the next round of interviews latest by last Monday and I got ghosted again! I waited till around Thursday and when I did not hear back, I texted the person who interviewed me, followed by an email to the same individual. I also (inadvertently) sent him a LinkedIn request, which he accepted over the weekend! I really don’t know what to make of this? If they have decided not to proceed with my candidature (and as an employer, they are fully within their right to choose the best fit for their organisation), but it left a slightly bad taste when this person did not choose to respond to either my text message or email. A one liner saying they were not considering me would have sufficed. Anyway, I am going to write this away too and probably just reach out to this individual again maybe at the end of this week or next, but I will not hold any hopes. I am also not going to apply anywhere else till I am back in December, no point in going for any interviews now, right?

This was pretty much my week this week…..I am super excited about my India trip and the poonal and it’s all systems go in our home, preparing for the function. But before that, we need to finish exams and then there’s Navratri and then Diwali to look forward to….

Can’t believe that September is also coming to an end soon…

Hope everyone has a great week….

2016 Week 38 Update

Posted on by
Reply

This week was a good one I think. I started the week with news about a job I applied to and ended it with a small party at home to celebrate BB & GG turning 13!

I had applied to this position in the not-for-profit sector towards the end of the week before last. Last Sunday, while waiting for the children to come back from their grandma’s house, I idly went through my spam folder in my email and lo behold, the email from the person who advertised was there. I have no idea why it went to the spam folder and more bizarrely I don’t know why I checked that folder on that particular day because I almost never check the spam folder! I quickly wrote back and we agreed to a phone conversation on Tuesday which was the next working day (Monday was a public holiday in Singapore). I spoke to him and I may have convinced him enough that he wanted a face-to-face meeting soon. Since I was free, we agreed on the next day, Wednesday. We met just before lunch and contrary to what I usually encountered, he insisted we have lunch (I thought the most will be coffee somewhere) and we had quite an interesting conversation. I know he will be meeting/talking to other applicants and if I make the cut, I have to speak to a couple of advisors to the organisation before the final decision will be made. I also mentioned about my India trip and he brushed it saying the real work will start only from January, so it should be ok. I can use the time to read up and do research or visit partners. Salary also seems not to be a big issue. So now I am keeping all fingers and toes crossed as if this does not work out, I am going to take a hiatus from looking for a job till the new year. Usually, around this time of the year, people do not leave their jobs as this will affect their year-end bonuses as well as the annual wage supplement. I know I lost out on the contract position I wrote about last week because of my trip – the recruiter was nice enough to let me know the reason and not blow my away!

The poonal preparations are coming on fine and we got the cards from the printers last week. Later today, I am going with S and S’ mum to give the first card to the temple. Then I need to send a bunch to my parents and the rest need to  be posted to people here and sent via email to others.

Have a great week folks!!

 

 

2016 Week 37 Update

Posted on by
Reply

This was holiday week for BB & GG, and the children were at home most of the week. Except for one day when both had school, either one of them was at home each day and so the week seemed to go by quite fast.

I’ve been having a very serious case of writers’ block for the past few weeks and am just not able to write any post. Every time I sit in front of the computer with a half-baked post in my head, I can’t seem to move beyond that. I really hope that this block goes away soon.

On the work front, I’ve given a couple of initial interviews but have not heard from them after that. One is a temp contract position in a big MNC and the other seems to be a permanent position in a local NGO. I’ve written to both of them, so let’s see what happens. I am seriously not happy with the way this job search is going on and this writers’ block, is to a very large extent, based on being continually rejected in my job search. My self-esteem is also quite low these days and I find myself self-talking myself down. I am not buying anything for myself, even for basics, I need to convince myself to buy. Luckily, I stocked up quite a bit of personal care products before my redundancy and so I am not so bad….

I need to get out of this funk and become more positive. If anyone reading this prays, please do for me….

Have a great week!