b3 b0rn.. c0nf0rm, b3 si|3nt .. di3

reading about unemployable (? unemployed) graduates suddenly got me reminiscing on the path that finally guided me to my current job. decent pay, mostly good challenges to face, the standard office politicking that comes with any organisation but at least, i am employed.

i had had a dream – concocted when i was in standard 4-5 – that once i finish school i would open a nursery with my sister (not the nurturing plants type, more of nurturing people type). we would be staying together in our own home and will be monitoring pre-schoolers and having tonnes of fun. just before my upsr exams, when questioned by my class teacher of what my top 3 ambitions were, they were as follows in order of priority:

1. teacher (nursery teacher would count as that)
2. lecturer
3. nurse (for lack of any other choices at that point of time)

after upsr results came out, i ended up enrolling into a residential school. and a whole lot of other opportunities seem to unravel infront of my eyes (notwithstanding the previous options i had seemed a bit uncool .. yeah.. kill me for being such a vainpot). i didn’t focus towards any specific career – but when i fought to be allowed to take art in my final year there as an extra SPM subject – i was pretty sure i would end up in the artsy fartsy design industry.

on the side:
mindboggling how students nowadays are allowed not just one extra subject on top of the requisite 9 subjects (some say only 8 are compulsary). they can even take up 17 subjects, please and thank you!

back to my train of thought – before it derails.

anyhow, come SPM week and papa arrived with application forms for scholarship programs for 3 large corporations in malaysia (namely one oil & gas, one electricity and one engineering). all of course who wouldn’t consider giving this vague dream of mine a chance to see daylight. so when the question of what course i proposed to undertake cropped up in the forms, i told papa – anything can do. ho ho.. so what ended up on the forms, one might ask? 1. accountancy 2. engineering 3. i don’t even know since i just signed the application forms.

needless to say, i attended the routine interviews with the 3 large corporations – most had essays to write, to judge your critical thinking process, nonetheless and i ended up accepting the offer to study at monash. belated offers also came – the one i had initially aimed for had a 1+3 programme, i had wanted to spend a bit more time with the family before gallivanting off to overseas – i had just been released from a 5-year recluse in negri sembilan for goodness’ sake! but a bit of soul-searching and weighing between being able to see kangaroos ( i never did see a live one – pathetic aye?) and being able to spend an extra year at home (how naive can i get – i would’ve had to stay on campus anyways for that 1+3 programme), i opted for the big scary chunk of land down under.

did my foundation year at taylor’s and was tempted to switch unis for a bit – melbourne uni sounded much better (on the social calendar point of view) compared to the suburbia in which my monash campus was situated in. but as life has been quite kind to me in my past 18 years i decided to go with the flow (yet again)

fast forward 3 years later – graduated with a bcomm. degree majoring in accounting & finance (yippie doo dah!) – if there was anything certain in my life at that point was the fact that i do not want to end up as an auditor/accountant. so much for tertiary education eh?

fast forward another 7 months of basically lazing about at home while waiting for the job offer from my sponsor (yes, we are a decadent lot – born with a silver spoon in our mouths) after having specified in my job application that although i hv the background, please… please.. do not place me in accounts/audit, thank ye very much (choosy? i agree)

got a call – and over the phone i was asked – do i use the internet a lot? have i ever heard of ebusines ? affirmative to the first q … a d’uh to the second. a bit of scrambling and googling after having set the date for my interview uncovered the serious – busines side of internet (note: my ventures on the net features mostly web authoring, a bit of figuring out scripting, a lot of chatting and lurking around favourite sites – and some un-favourites required when doing my assignments)

to cut to the chase – ended up being employed by my current company – the specific response i received when i called to follow-up on whether i managed to secure the job was ‘the question is not whether we want you – it’s whether you want to be with us‘ – are you crazy? the chance to work with a company that’s doing something new in malaysia (forget abt the rest of the world – that’s a lost cause anyway) .. gimme the job.

so there.. i’ve put my thoughts to paper.. er keyboard.

morale of the story: nothing . i just wanted to write. d’uh.. if you still can’t figure it out, shoot me. an email of course.