2016 - Not many travels but lotsa learning

At the end of each year, I go through my customary look back at the year.

I travelled to only 2 places in 2016. But there were many learning opportunities throughout the year to improve my career prospects, health and just for the sake of pursuing passion. Here goes:

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Travelled to Nepal (again!). Was supposed to do Everest Base Camp but was unsuccessful because we couldn't fly into Lukla where the trek begins. You can read all about it here.

View of Kathmandu city from the rooftop of Hotel Yambu.

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Travelled to Kuching, Sarawak for the first time. Went there to participate in the Kuching Marathon.

Also took the opportunity to visit some interesting sights in Kuching and gluttoned all the way with Kuching food.

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Took part in 2 fun runs: Kuching Marathon and Score Run.

Finishers medal.

I also registered for the Precious Ladies & Men's Possible Run on 12 December 2016 but didn't go because it was raining that morning.

Will be doing my first 10km on 8 January 2017 at the MPI Generali Run. Keeping fingers crossed that I'll be able to complete the race within 1 hour 15 minutes which is the time limit I've set for myself.

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Enrolled for the Chartered Bankers course offered by the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers. 

I completed my first module, Marketing and Selling in Financial Services on 20 November 2016.

I've got 2 more papers to sit in April 2017 before I move on to the final level, i.e. Chartered Bankers level.

This is how the study text look like.

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Started taking up tai chi and completed learning the 37 steps, Cheng Man Cheng style on 19 October 2016.

Attended push hands technique workshop on 21 October 2016 at Cova Square in Kota Damansara. The workshop turned out to be a self defence class instead of push hands which was a disappointment. What a bloody waste of RM399.00.

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Completed a Basic Nail Course where I learned to give a manicure, pedicure and buffing amongst other things.

Somehow I've developed an interest in making nails look pretty and healthy. I still need to work on my nail polish application though, to make it look flawless.

My manicure/pedicure kit which is included in the fees. 

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Added 4 Hard Rock Cafe bottle openers to my collection, i.e. Amsterdam, Helsinki, Pattaya and Yokohama.

I could have added Lisbon, Macau and Munich to the collection, but was on a cost discipline exercise. Hard Rock Cafe bottle openers don't come cheap, you know ...

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Started embracing a minimalist lifestyle because we actually don't need much to live. Having less stuff also means more space to free my flat and mind. Cleaning my flat is also so much easier with less stuff lying around.

I started this minimalist lifestyle by slowly decluttering my stuff using the Konmari method. It's a slow process but I'm getting there.

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Happy New Year 2017 everyone !

My New Pursuit - Chartered Bankers Course

I recently enrolled for the Chartered Bankers course offered by the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers (AICB).

The course has 3 levels, i.e. Executive Banker (EB), Professional Banker (PB) and Chartered Banker (CB). Candidates must pass 3 modules (subjects) in each level to move on to the next.

While studying for my first EB module, Risk in Financial Services, AICB announced the accelerated route entry and I was lucky to get 'promoted' to PB level and skipped EB completely. I was overjoyed because having to pay for this course myself, being able to skip 3 EB papers means money saved!

On 20 November 2016 I sat for my first PB paper, Marketing & Selling in Financial Services. It's been more than 10 years since I sat for a proper exam. However the whole process of preparing for an exam came back clearly to me - from mugging non-stop 1 week before the exam, getting my 2B pencils sharpened and last minute note browsing just before entering the exam hall. I even used the same pencil case that I used when I was in Form 6 and college!

Now that my first PB paper is completed, I plan to register for 2 more papers, i.e. Customer Relationship Management and Business Lending for the next exam in April 2017. If I pull through I'll move on to CB level. Wish me luck!

2011 - A Year of Change

And so we come to the end of another year, a year of many changes in my life.

The biggest change happened at work when the company I work for divested its business in September 2011. As a result, half of the workforce were transferred to the other company and a restructuring took place. My Corporate Communications department changed name to Marketing Communications (Marcom) and got parked under the Business Development & Marketing division.

After the divestment and restructuring, I was (and still am) the only person in Marcom and was afraid my new boss would not approve my 2-week leave to travel to Europe since I have no backup staff. But she's a gem and approve she did my leave and that's why I managed to travel to Europe recently.

Visited a few places this year:

• Phuket, Thailand
• Paris, France
• Barcelona, Spain
• Madrid, Spain
• Thurles, Ireland
• Killkenny, Ireland, and
• Few other towns in Ireland like Templemore and Cashel.

All those travels made me a happy woman :-)

Now that 2011 is behind us, what will 2012 bring?

"What will 2012 bring?" The famous gargoyle in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France pondering as it looks out to the city of Paris.

I'm looking forward to new work challenges, the London Olympics, Euro 2012 and more travels (for sure!).

Here's to a great and wonderful 2012 !!! 

Happy New Year !!!

Desperate Headhunters

Since we're on the topic of headhunters, let me continue by telling you a story of how some headhunters resort to get candidates for their clients.

In my previous employment, a headhunter called up the Corporate Communications (Corp Comm in short) department looking for the person in-charge of Corp Comm. She introduced herself as a "conference organiser" who wants to promote a Corp Comm conference to the person in-charge of Corp Comm in my company.

When the departmental secretary put her through to me, the secretary explained to me briefly about what the "conference organiser" wanted.

When we finally connected, the "conference organiser" told me she's a headhunter and asked if I would be interested in exploring a Corp Comm position with another company. I was irritated at the way she lied her way through and I politely told her I was not interested.

Do you think that was a correct way for headhunters to look for candidates?

How Headhunters Tempted Me

Even since I started my new job 2 months ago, 3 headhunters have contacted me to "explore opportunities", as what they always say.

One headhunter was looking to fill a senior position while the other 2 were looking for small fry positions. I turned all of them down due to various reasons.

And then the biggest question starts forming in my head:

What if I didn't turn those opportunities down ...?

... which leads to other smaller questions:

1. What if I had explored the senior position, impressed the interviewers and given a package that is better than what I'm currently getting? Wouldn't I be tempted to leave my 2-month-old employment?
2. What if I leave my 2-month-old employment to join the new company only to find out that the company is shitty to work for with bosses from hell? Wouldn't it be too late to go begging for my old job back again?

Eventhough I'm happy in my new job, all these "What Ifs" leads to temptation and confusion at the same time!

But I guess I need to stick to the decisions I've made and make the best of it.

What do you think?

Greener Pastures

I submitted my resignation letter today, or rather yesterday since it's already way past midnight now.

When I joined this company in March 2008, I thought I would stay for at least 3 years after changing jobs a couple of times before. But as fate has it, my new job came looking for me instead of the other way round.

A headhunter came knocking at my door at the end of October. When he explained to me the package which is better than what I'm getting, I became interested in "exploring opportunities", as what headhunters would say.

By mid November I found myself in the interview room doing a few written tests and undergoing an interview. In less than 2 weeks after that, I was called for a second interview and my fate was sealed. Things were moving in such a short time I can't believe it's happening!

I will definitely miss my current colleagues, some of whom I've built good relations with rather than a hi-bye kind of thing. The close proximity of my current office to the Monorail station made it easy to get to work, and I'll miss that too.

I'll be joining the new company on 1 March 2010. Hopefully it would be a good start to the New Year.

Career in a Rut

Today is Monday, the start of another nothing-to-do-at-work week.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been literally shaking legs at work. Every morning I come to work, switch on the computer and surf the net till I knock off at 6.00pm.

This total lack of activity is driving me crazy!

I wonder why my boss decided to employ me in the first place. Does she need that many people in the department when almost all of us are lazing away?

I know I should be grateful that I have a job, especially in this economic climate where there's unemployment everywhere. But I can't help feeling redundant and stupid.

I feel that my skills and knowledge amassed through the years will deteriorate and wither away, leaving me incapable of performing up to expectations in my next role, wherever and whenever that may be.

I miss the adrenaline rush of planning and organising an event. I miss writing a press release and the satisfaction of seeing a high media value for a campaign I've worked on. I don't get to do all that in my current employment.

I think I seriously need to take a good, long, hard look at my career. To see where I'm heading in the next 5 years. And hopefully I'm able to salvage what's left of it.

Why I Won't Do An MBA

There was once I asked my god daughter if she was interested in doing an MBA. She said "definitely not". She came to that decision after having close encounters with an MBA grad whose realm of knowledge consists of handbags, handbags and only handbags.

I used to have a deep yearning to study for an MBA. I thought having an MBA would open career opportunities for me. I also bought books on MBA and spoke to many MBA students to learn from their experiences.

As I grew older, my interest in doing an MBA started to lapse. This is because of my own experiences with many MBA graduates who did not live up to their name of MBA grad.

I personally know of MBA grads holding senior positions in big corporations who:

• Thinks that a Six Sigma Black Belt is a martial arts qualification.


• Argues that in accounting, if the actual amount spent is higher than the amount budgetted, it would be a positive (+) sign instead of a negative (-) sign. OMG!!!
  
  
• Have never heard of Blue Ocean Strategy.

• Is in-charge of Corporate Social Responsibility but doesn't know what's 'OKU'.
  


• Consistently copies what other departments and companies are doing in related areas of work.
  


• Speaks like an uneducated person.

(I could go on and on ... but it would only embarass MBA grads everywhere.)

I wonder what did they learn in the 2 years or so studyng for their MBA. Did they use the time to play marbles?

On the other hand I personally know of many non-MBA graduates who have made a mark for themselves in the corporate world without having an MBA tucked under their belt. They are intelligent, well read and matured in their thoughts and actions. Kind of reminds me of the movie Good Will Hunting (look below for a brilliant dialogue from the movie about acquiring knowledge without having formal education).

I'm not saying that doing an MBA is a bad thing and that all MBA graduates are ignorant. It all depends on how the student uses the opportunity to learn as much as possible and make him/herself a more knowledgeable and better person during their MBA studies.

And more importantly to always keep abreast with current affairs by reading, reading and reading after graduating. Learning is something you do from womb to tomb.

At this point in life, I feel that it's not having an MBA that matters, but how interested I am in acquiring knowledge. And I can do all that through many avenues like reading, surfing the internet, attending courses, exchanging ideas with friends, etc.

But also at the end of the day, to climb the corporate ladder, it's not what you know, but who you know that counts.

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Brilliant Dialogue from Good Will Hunting


Chuckie: All right, are we gonna have a problem?

Clark: There's no problem. I was just hoping you could give me some insight into the evolution of the market economy in the early colonies. My contention is that prior to the Revolutionary War the economic modalities, especially of the southern colonies could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre-capitalist and...

Will: [interrupting] Of course that's your contention. You're a first year grad student. You just got finished some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison prob’ly, you’re gonna be convinced of that until next month when you get to James Lemon, then you’re gonna be talkin’ about how the economies of Virginia and Pennsylvania were entrepreneurial and capitalist back in 1740. That's gonna last until next year, you’re gonna be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood, talkin’ about you know, the Pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization.

Clark: [taken aback] Well, as a matter of fact, I won't, because Wood drastically underestimates the impact of--

Will: ..."Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social distinctions predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth..." You got that from "Work in Essex County," Page 98, right? Yeah I read that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us- you have any thoughts of- of your own on this matter? Or do - is that your thing, you come into a bar, you read some obscure passage and then you pretend - you pawn it off as your own - your own idea just to impress some girls? Embarrass my friend?
[Clark is stunned]

Will: See the sad thing about a guy like you, is in about 50 years you’re gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you’re gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One, don't do that. And two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a fuckin’ education you coulda' got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the Public Library.

Clark: Yeah, but I will have a degree, and you'll be serving my kids fries at a drive-thru on our way to a skiing trip.

Will: [smiles] Yeah, maybe. But at least I won't be unoriginal.