If you ask for it, you may just get it!

A big tip for all job seekers.

After your interview, let say the company told you that they will get back to you in 10 days time or so. After 10 days, you heard nothing from them. The next best action to do is to send them an email or just give them a call. The purpose is to thank them for the interview session you had had and the other main reason is that you can probably ask them of any particular reason you did not make the cut. The outcome of sending such thank you note is that you are showing your keeness towards the company and probably they may change their mind and hire you instead.

I learnt that by experience. It was a surprise and I'm looking forward for this.

Highlights!

Man, I practically exhaust myself throughout the whole weekend. So, I went for the walk-in and the highlight of the day was:

- a really cute and handsome Indian guy sat beside me at the waiting room and we talked for a little while. He's the fair , hidung mancung kinda guy and man, my heart leaped! Hahaha...tapi satu jer yang tak best, ade B.O! So I ended up, switching place when Pritima finally walked in the room.

- Marloo, the interviewer is a really nice and down to earth person. Somehow or rather we ended up laughing on something and that was pretty good. I managed to blurt out more than five questions although he only asked if I have A question to ask. I was pretty satisfied with his answers and that helps for more insight about the company.

- I was already starting to have a sore throat on Friday morning, things got worse yesterday and I was almost out of voice. Today, I went for my second visit to the doctor and I got a 2 days MC. I really can't imagine those workload waiting for me in the office. UWAAA!!!! HELP!!!

Right now, I'm practically out of voice, my last recorded body temperature this morning was 37.5, yesterday was 38, and swallowing is really painful. After a few gargle from the medicine I got, it kinda clears the throat a bit. I'm hoping to have my voice back by tomorrow.

Feels like banging my head on the desk over and over again...

A friend of mine asked me if I enjoy my job. My answer was a quick ,"No, I don't." The rest of them who were listening looked startled.

Hmmm........

I hate everything I'm doing here and I need to move on.

Monday Blues

Another boring day. I thought of doing some self-study on the Portal Development using RAD but I only went on the application for like 5 minutes. I'm totally demotivated to do anything because when I asked for jobs to do, someone will say that 'I'll assign you the job later' and when I asked for a RAM upgrade, no one bothers to request for it from the support team. So what am I to do????? Sit down and relax until I rot????

God!! It's sickening enough to be overloaded with jobs and it is even more sickening to be doing absolutely nothing day in and out. This has been going on for almost two months now. I'm demotivated to work what more enjoy every single bit of coming here but the only smiley factor is that I'm getting paid. Still getting paid.

I wonder what will happen when they check out on my performance when appraisal month approaches. Oh what the heck, I don't think I'll be here anyway when it comes. The heck with the appraisal craps because I know I'm doing nothing here.

Hmm....

So time and again, I keep on thinking on what I really want to do in life? I've gone through many jobs and experienced a whole lot too but nothing seems to stick by for that long. But by far, I think I enjoyed the when I was working as a teacher for a month. The satisfaction level was almost a 100%. But then, come again certain factor like trying to exceed my limits and capabilities in doing things.

I've always dream big on things. I want to be able to be a somebody. But the road is not easy. I think I'm getting there somehow or rather but how long can I hang on??? I know that I don't really enjoy programming that much. I'm doing this because this is what I've strived my ass for three years in my degree program and six months in the ACCP program. I think that this is the only job that I can get hired as and probably be good at.

And the last time when I turned down the Siebel job so that I could be in this company, I think that's where I made a mistake. I should be brave to take on risks. Probably at that time, I was already sick and tired of taking risks in my job. I thought taking the safest way out will be okay, but nah. It's SO NOT.

I should take risks in things. Just go for it. If I've always wanted to venture into Consulting line in IT, then, I should just go for it.

But the question is now...how do I get into that line of work? I know of friends who are doing them, but I still have no idea on where to begin. Probably the best resort is to get the hell out of here. But the three months notice period is driving me mad. I'm even saving up on my leave days just so that probably I can use them all in one shot soon. Heck, some planning I have.

Oh God...I'm utterly clueless. Please HELPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!

Give me ideas. I'm hungry of them.

but thankfully, my weekends for the past few weeks were awesome and have always been greeeeaaatttt....I'm looking forward for the weekend and it's only just Monday!

Rays of Light!

Getting back on pure programming after having to leave it for 2 months is making me really struggling hard. I am also getting this occasional headache for God knows what.

Currently, I'm trying to juggle between learning how to use NetBeans and doing some dynamic Javascript for the menu tree. This is good and I'm expecting to be reaching home late and later soon.

On a side note, there'll be a NetBeans Day in KL on the 6th March. Last day of registration in on the 28th February. Visit http://www.netbeans.org/community/news/calendar.html#104 for more info.

Hangin there...

After much thought and discussions with fellow friends and those who are more experienced that I am, I've decided to be very very patient with the current situation at 'arbeit' and just hang in there for as long as it takes...

It's part and parcel of a working life I guess. Like you get frustrated when you are overloaded with work and getting underpaid, or you are getting paid for doing absolutely nothing, you get stressed for having to do jobs clearly is not your job, having to face with unprofessionalism while at work, and many more.

So...I shall and must face all these obstacle just so that I'll have a damn good resume to market about by year end. At the meantime, I need to be smart in doing some self-learning to make up for all the free time I have. Chaiyok for me and may I will hang in here...

Loathing moment

By this Sunday, I'll be officially working for two months at this place. The amount of productivity gained since stepping foot in here is close to nothing. Oh hang on.

I have successfully learnt to be an English editor for the project documentation and once in a while, I have learnt to be the secretary by jotting down minutes of a meeting. How 'awesome' is that!!

How about my skills in Java programming? I've learnt nothing much on that. Just on theory on most J2EE stuffs. Other than that, I've always been doing a daily RnD on SAP, sometimes ABAP. Hmm...what the heck right.

I am seriously contemplating on my career path being here at this place. I'm trying hard to be patient and wait if there shall be any progress by mid year. If the chances are again close to none, I should consider moving on else where.

It is not worth it to be here for the whole one year tenure by gaining nothing. Doing documentation is not part of a career path to be a skilled Java programmer. It doesn't help the least bit.

I'm certainly not happy about this and I'm not hiding it from my superior too. Who bloody cares if it really shows how bored I am with this so-called position I have. I'm always honest and hell yeah, this job simply sucks big time.

I also wonder if this has always been the case with other software house in Malaysia? Is the situation really this bad that most programmers end up spending months and months of solely doing documentation. No wonder we can never compete with those expert Indian programmers.

This is sad. I am not happy about this.

But on the other hand, on the brighter side of things, I get to really sit down and think on what I really want to do and gain in my career. It has given me time to really study up, research on possible career path in the future. I am currently eyeing to break into the SAP/ Oracle job market. I'm learning everyday on what are they really all about because all that I know, the market is huge for both SAP and Oracle. If it is not that big in Malaysia, it surely is big elsewhere besides Malaysia.

The end and I'm counting minutes to swipe my access card for home.

P.S: I have to be at work before 7.45am tomorrow just so that I can attend that compulsory breakfast session at the office. Heck!;(

Frustrations!

For the past 1 month plus I’ve been at work, I keep on wondering every day what and how much I have accomplished since then. The truth is I’ve learnt something like 3 % of everything. That’s just something I cannot accept especially when I am the kind of person who lives up to being on the run and productive whenever I am at.

I’m frustrated that the only job I’ve been doing since coming here is to work on the documentation of the project a.k.a document reviewer/reader/editor for some lousy English grammar/vocabs someone else had made. It sucks when at the very beginning I came in here, I was hoping to learn as much as I could within my 1 year tenure as a Java developer. As much as I don’t really fancy that much on programming / staring away at codes, I’m beginning to hate more on doing review works and making umpteenth times of amendments on some really fucked-up system functional design of a really fucked-up system. I don’t think I’m going to enjoy doing the development (coding) on this system.

It sucks not being able to perform. It sucks not to be able to show your potential. It sucks when I end up doing someone else’s job. It sucks that you get to shake leg and get paid for it. Trust me it sucks. It sucks no being able to move yourself forward as though being directionless. It just plain sucks.

Job/ Training Interview!

Tomorrow will be it!
If I don't get any result for tomorrow's interview, then I'll be eyeing for some others for the next weeks to come. I've been sending out applications since last week but no news from anywhere just yet. I'm hoping for the best.

I want a job and not just any 'cikai-cikai' job. I want a great job so that I can have, for once a good kick-start for my career.

After almost six months studying in this programme, I guess, it's really worth it. I've gambled my way through kinda well as for now.

IT Professionals...wait up! I'll be among one of yous in no time at all. All the best to me! ;)

P.S: I wish and I really wish that I could somehow work in a consulting company and travel or work abroad. Yep, I'm up and confident enough for that kinda thing right now.

Six Months Of...

After much thought (which took me a year to think through things), I am back on my feet doing some serious studies. To be exact, it’ll be a six months study. Is it worth all the time, money, effort, study and risks??? I’ll know the answer only after 6 months later starting from next Monday.

Seriously, I have no expectation on how things will workout. My first day in class, I had the lousiest impression that it is going to suck big time. But on a brighter side, I get to meet and talk to almost everyone in the class. Each one of them with their unique character and I’m getting a hint that I’ll be enjoying the company of selected people in the class. I sussed that they are of my contemporaries. ;)

I skipped class today. The reason being ...Hmm...let me see. I think I could make up hundreds of excuses if I wanted to. I am pretty good at that. Thanks to my previous job experience as a customer service agent, I learnt to lie, lie again, swear behind customer’s back, make up believable excuses and pretend to empathised on ones problem.Thus, I self-proclaimed myself as a good actress and sure, communication is not a problem with me.

Whatever it is, I still think that I am going to need some backup plan in case this one does not work. I’m talking about jeopardising my future here. I think that I’ll need a part-time job or something to earn some side income in the next six months. I’ll think about that and definately I’ll need to spend my whole weekend to think up of a good excuse for not attending the class today. Yeah that’s right and I also need to study.

Are you seeing where things are heading now for me? I am heading more and more towards a boring person who read, study, programme, create and learn. Oh, whatever!
I am just going to have to learn looking things on a more positive tone everyday.That’s definately a lot of learning to do!