So I Found A Job (And Thanks For The Support Y’all!)

Before I tell the story of how the reading from the milometer of my car helped me to decide which job offer to take, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friends, family, and the avid readers of my site for keeping me going throughout this seven months long “sabbatical leave”. I know it is not easy to hear those I-need-to-find-myself and I-have-no-idea-of-what-to-do over and over again, days after days, months after months. I can even imagine on the other side of the MSN chat, you must be busy Alt-Tabbing to the work you need to finish or busy conceptualizing some really cool approaches to solve real life problems. I now for once fully understand why housewives tend to call up their husbands in the middle of the day talking about trivial stuffs. Turns out that triviality is to the eyes of the beholders. And because in this half a year or so I have spent much of my time building contents in my site, thank you for all your visits and your kind words of encouragement – both on and offline. You guys have kept me going days after days …

So why have I finally decided to look for a job? There are many reasons, many triggers. Ironically, that one reason, that final trigger turns out to be an invalid reason as I found out later. But still, I am glad that I did. At times I think my friends and family have much faith in me than I. Out of the blue, I told one of my dear friend that I have this idea of looking for a job. My dear friend’s immediate response was that once I put my mind into something, I will get it done – fast. I didn’t quite believe him but now I do.

In these months of wandering, I have gotten a few who are close to me to think of taking a long career break – as young as someone who has worked for a couple of years. Even one of my recruiters who own the business wishes to take a long break. Then I realised, that this break of mine has to end soon. Least I will get more and more people doing the things I did. Who’s going to pay the income tax in that case and sustain the Singapore economy?!

When my sabbatical leave hit the 6-month mark, I checked my bank balance and did a mental calculation on how long I could sustain without financially relying onto anybody. My savings has shrunk quite a fair bit, much more than I have anticipated. “Incremental Retirement” at that time was a good idea. No one can tell how long one is going to live so how can you decide how much money is needed for your retirement based on the statistics from other people? That was where the idea of “Incremental Retirement” comes into picture. However, I must remain relevant to the current job market to make that work. No point not being able to return to the workforce and continue where I left off. That way, I may not even have a retirement!

Looking at the dwindling saving triggered another thought – opportunity cost. That number has more impact than the reduction in savings. Adding both numbers up – expenses and opportunity cost – made it a more compelling reason for me to do something quick. And since all the rest of my potential money making ideas are going nowhere, it was only natural and logical to go after what the market will pay me for – my past experiences. Turns out that because Cynthia has not been transferring money into my account since the beginning of the year (we have a very complex financial system whereby majority of our expenses, including Cynthia’s personal expenses, go under my bank account), my financial situation was way worst than I though. My real expenses throughout these seven months was not that alarming after all. In fact, we looked at the numbers last night and agreed that I am actually quite “cheap” to upkeep. Just a couple of hundreds of dollars a month on average is enough to keep me a happy man.

The rest are history. I zigzagged between the two job opportunities and one night when I returned home after the final interview of one of the opportunities, the mileage of my car read 20,951km. I remember vividly one fine day back in December last year. I parked my car at my condo and the engine was still running. The sky was bright and sunny. I looked at the milometer of my car and said to myself: by the time I service my car, I will find myself a job. And I was supposed to service my car when the mileage hit 20,951km – the exact mileage when I got home from from that final interview (click here to see the milometer reading and the service reminder). Call this coincidence? My life can be so full of it sometimes. Now you know why I can so relate to the character played by Audrey Tautou in the movie “A Very Long Engagement”. Future conditions as imagined in present time do mean something to me.

So what’s next? I guess if there are two things that I keep on doing over the years are songwriting and just writing in general. Hence, the site will continue (though longer turnaround time for comment replies and possibly less frequent blog posting). I look at the clock now and I am just 9 hours away from reporting to duty. By the time this blog is published, I shall be back from my first day of work (still need time to vet this blog). Expect a whole new series of story from a new cubicle dweller. Stay tuned.

PS. A big thank you to my sister Lora in getting me such a wonderful gift for my new job. I wanted to send you a MMS on the result of the final engraving but it was too much hassle trying to take a good picture using my wireless phone. I used a camera instead. I love the picture so much that I have decided to put it into my site.

Edit: Erm … thanks to Choong Yoong to point out the difference between speedometer and milometer (or odometer). Ha ha ha.