The journey so far

Life after graduation hasn't been emotionally easy for me. Since I finished my final exams in early May, I have been trying to find a permanent job to settle in. In fact, I began applying in like February or March, a few months even before my final papers. It has been quite awhile...

God has been playing quite an interesting role in my life since then. It all began with my volunteer participation in the Rainbows program at Farrer Park Primary School. It is a program designed to interact & counsel primary school children who come from divorced families. Although the program name was later changed to 'R Club 7' (something that I didn't fancy at all), I guess this program did make an impact in my life.

Looking back, I'm not sure how this program did some 'work' in my life... but one thing's for sure, God brought Ellen & Wee Liang into my life. Through Ellen, Wee Liang hired me as a research assistant cum admin executive at Singapore Management University. It lasted about 1 month (August) coz I had a SIM project mate who was desperate to leave her temp job at StarHub... & I wanted to enter in, hoping for better prospects since I don't intend to stay in the education line. Honestly, I didn't see much prospects in it, since I'm not working & being paid as a teacher or lecturer, which is the 'backbone' of the education industry.

Through God's grace, I managed to 'ace' the interview & got employed in 10 mins! Sharon Wong, the Business Market manager told me that this was the fastest interview ever! Yup, I think so too... definitely God's grace. Winnie Tan (my project mate) began coaching me in a 1-day crash course on StarHub corporate mobile services. If not for Wendy Ng (also my SIM course mate) sitting beside me & helping me along, I would have literally 'drowned' all by myself on the second day.

I took 2 weeks to stabilise myself in the fax-in sales team. Thereafter, I gradually progressed in efficiency, though not as efficient as the rest, but I was happy with my progress. I stayed in the fax-in team for about 1 & 1/2 months. Later on, I moved onto doing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the department. That lasted another 2 - 3 weeks, before I moved on to do a bit of roadshow application forms checking, concurrently with fax-in sales. After another 1 - 2 weeks, I was transferred to the number management station, which is under Rebecca's Dad - John Seow Thiam Cheong. There, he coached me in the management of SIM card numbers, where I worked for the next 4 months.

In between the months at StarHub, Uncle John tried to recommend me for a few perm positions, but to no avail. I tried for (1) customer service executive, (2) marketing executive, (3) operations executve, (4) business process executive & (5) product executive. It was a sad time for me, as I barely had enough to save, after giving to parents & supporting myself. Not to mention, a couple more rejections to add on to my life history of job seeking.

Then, finally... in mid February, after going through THREE rounds of interviews with 4 staff, having my initial job position as sales support executive taken from me... I finally got selected & accepted into the Wholesale & International division as an 'Internal Account Manager'. Don't be mistaken, I'm not holding a managerial post... I'm just an entry level executive. But the location is at Paya Lebar, nearer my home & I've been blessed tremendously by God with a salary offer of $2,000! Marvelous! I was so shocked when Kareen Lai for Tai Seng HR called me! Although I played it cool over the handphone... Hee... =)

So right now, I'm waiting for a new temp staff to be recruited in, so that I can train him / her. My official start date is 7th March (Monday)... 2 weeks advance notice based on company policy. Much apprehension that I'm feeling about the entirely new job scope, new work environment, new colleagues, new journey to work, etc. But I'm trying to take it within my stride & pray along this journey. God be with me... Amen!