Food and Career

Its taking off.

Had the best CNY Dinner this year at this Teochew restaurant yesterday with my colleagues. Treat from the vendor. I have been having a few of these treats and I guess that is the perks of being with this department. HAHA.. The company yesterday was good.. I never laughed so hard for such a long time le... haha.. and moreover it is over scrumptious delicacies. I had the best YU SHENG of my life.. it is a japanese styleone. as in there is wasabi in the premixed sauce and the salad was so good we didnt stop eating. And having dinner with a table of married man.. they are just very funny. Talk about life, wives, role as papa and as an employee.

Here goes the menu:

Raw fish salad
Abalone with Chinese Spinach
Asparagus with scallop
Buddha Jump over the wall (This is the BEST dish of the night)
Garlic baked Lobster
Steam white Promfret Teochew Style (My FAV dish in general)
Fried Noodles
Chilled Harsima with Coconut Juice (I was "forced" to take home the extra 2 servings after dinner)

SO YUMMY.

I need to stop eating!!

Just had a similarly big(in terms of the no.of courses in the meal, but not as exquisite as this)on Mon with another vendor.. This will not do... SO MUCH FOOD!!!! FEEL SO FAT!!! When i went blood donation that day, the doc says my blood pressure is low.. AHAH Im VERY SURE that now my blood pressure has returned to NORMAL if it is not HIGH now

Hmm.. I was thinking about it yesterday. I guess I was pretty lost the past few weeks with regards to my career because I didnt really think about my prospects, as in alternative career after this job. I came into this job before I really spent time thinking things through. I like this job. I enjoy what I am doing and Im excited about it actually when i look at this job. But I got stuck and scared after I began to think further, like what if, things dun turn out the way I expected them to be. And say 2 years later, after that few rounds of rotation, or for some reason, Im not going to stay in the management of this company then what should I do? Where do I go? How can I leverage on my 2 years here to build another career path. When I rotate, I only stay for about 3 months in each department. I am not specialised in anything you see. So the risk is that after two years, if Im not here, I cant really go anywhere and claim that I am experienced in certain areas for at the end of the day, I am a generalist.

BUT

Now i know that at least i am a generalist in a Specialised industry.

Things began to change when i start to have more information about the industry. I was totally new to the marine, offshore and shipping industry. I was afraid that if I stay 2 years here as a generalist, I might be stuck. But now at least I see another path that I can go should things take a turn. I can go into shipbroking and all my 2 years of experience will be relevant.

It is not so much of the details of these decisions but the fact that I needed to know how I can better position myself after 2 years when I am no longer a fresh grad and since I do not have any other experience... I dun wanna be stranded. HAha...

So a word of advice to all of you searching for a job out there... Dun just look at the job that you are applying, think of what happens if say you wanna move on from there, are you still able to move on to do something that is what you want and leverage on ya stay on ya first job because things are very different when you start a job.

Of course before that... Please make sure that you really get the job that you want. That being said. Know what you want. Cos once you start talking to people, you will start to compare. No matter what you will. And if you are not happy with the pay, the jobscope, the company, and you keep hearing people talk about their job, and maybe after a while you realise.. hey... what ya friend is doing is something that you really want afterall... you will be in MISERY. HAHA.. be realistic. You have bills to pay too. And you would also want a job that allows you to progress and that gives you the ability to advance both in terms of increment and fulfilment. Both are equally important.

The biggest advantage as a fresh grad is you HAVE A CHOICE. Make use of that. Cos once you are stuck in a place, a jobscope or a certain industry, you are stuck.

Im now happily enjoying myself in the shipping industry. Cos right now, Im exposed to a spectrum of information the different responsibilities from different departments that i am shouldering makes the whole experience more holistic. Froom ship building, offshore construction of rigs, the way this shipbuilding business is run, the procurement side, finance, business development, HR, marketing to estimating. Im beginning to see the big picture clearer with the small parts coming together. And I am also beginning to see the different business in the marine industry. There is the container business, the logistic shipping, the equipment suppliers, the freight forwarders, the crew taking care of ships, and how the name "captain" is important to a real captain the way "DR" salutation is important to a trained Doctor or PHD holder. There is of course the finance aspect of shipping. And there is the derivatives trader, commodities trader and I realise that banks like maquarie and ABM are pretty involved in that. So if I wanna branch back later into finance. I can.

What excites me most about this industry in the fact that it is extremely international.

Although it is cyclical. It is ok. That was what people who have been in the industry and whom have witnessed a few cycles told me. And there is a need for trained people. They are always short of human capital.

Most importantly, haha.. I think i have less competition here. I dun have to fight until the cows come home with the rest of the peeps for banks, for financial institions for the same jobs. My ship is sailing off now... I sort of know my destination but whether I will really dock there is not for me to say for sure at this point in time. So in the meantime, Im having a good time enjoying the sun, sand, and the sea and having a good time chatting and learning what I can from the captain and his crew...

Though this is a pretty male dominated industry... Im comforted by the fact that we still refer to a ship as "SHE".