Welcome to the Working Life

I have been meaning to blog about my new work but every time I think about it, I am overcome by sadness. Oh, well, here goes.

I received the phonecall last Monday from SMART taxi saying that I was hired. I was quite excited, though, so I just agreed to the job offer and cancelled my other interview with a 'feng shui' company.

On Wednesday, I began my duty as a Operations/Claims Assistant (that's what the appointment letter says) in the Insurance & Claims Department. My working times are 9 pm to 6 pm for 5 & a half days every week. To summarize what I do; I am in charge of doing accident reports, which includes everything from interviewing the driver to finally engaging a lawyer for them. It's actually a lot of work and since I am still inexperienced, I have to keep asking my colleagues for help. Every day, I pray that that the roads are safe so that I don't have to handle any accident cases. Unfortunately, I learnt that Singaporean drivers are very careless. So far, the accident record has been: WED (1), THUR (4), FRI (0)

What really came as a shock to me was that, on my first day of work, I was made by my colleagues to handle one accident case already. I felt it was inappropriate since I was still new, but come to think of it, such 'arrowing' has always been viciously prevalent everywhere, even during NS days. And so, I now already have numerous cases on my hands. I find it even more appalling that one of my colleagues is getting transferred out next Wednesday and she happily told me that she will be handing over all her cases to me. What the 'F' is wrong with these people?

Anyway, I also cannot really say that I like my job for now. True, I was quite happy initially that I have gotten a proper job at last (after 18 months!), but come to think of it, I was job hunting just because it was deemed the typical thing for most people to do. If given the chance, we would all prefer to idle at home everyday, doing the things we want to do. I already miss playing WoW reguarly. Now I only have about 5+ hours to myself every night when I get back, then it is bed time or else I'd be too tired to handle the stress from work.

I hope that I will be able to get used to it soon. I am guessing my current state of depression is due to the my body's adjustments to the new lifestyle. In the meantime, everyone should keep on praying that our country's roads are always safe so I don't have to handle any accident cases. I am already looking forward to Tuesday because it is Labour Day.

A Surprising Wednesday

I was up on the whole of Tuesday night because I couldn't get to sleep. I just idled in WoW, chatted with all those that were up and dueled a bit. I hope it is not insomnia again. Before I knew it, it was 8 am on Wednesday. I had a McDonald's breakfast then went to sleep.

I was awakened by my phone ringing at around 12 noon. It turned out that I was asked to go down to Tampines for a job interview at 2 pm. I tried to remember which job this was for but it was impossible since I sent over 10+ applications over the past week. I was grumpy from the lack of sleep. I went to print out my resume and prepared my results slips before going to lie on the bed a while more. It was soon 2 pm and my mother offered to fetch me to the Capital Building at Tampines since she knew where it was.

I found out that the company was SMART. I just know they have something to do with taxis or something. The receptionist gave me a form to fill out and I noticed that there were other applicants queueing for the same admin assistant job. And they were all ladies. Doesn't look good for me being the only male.

When it was my turn for the interview, a guy invited me in. He was quite a lively and cheerful person. And as with all my previous interviews, the first thing he said was "you are over-qualified for the job". The only difference was that he didn't say it in a chiding manner; it was more like he was surprised. This guy was different. We chatted and had a few good laughs. He was looking for someone who could handle accident reports and going on-site to talk to people. He said some of the taxi drivers were real rough and the job required some working under the sun. I felt that this was the best time to mention my Military Police experience. The interviewer seemed pretty pleased with what he was hearing and brought me to meet another lady to take down more of my particulars. She said they'd call me back in a few days.

For a moment there, I think I have a pretty good shot at the job since the rest of the applicants I saw outside were ladies. Oh, well. The interview left me in good spirits for the day.

I arrived home at around evening time and collapsed on the bed. I woke up at 8 pm, thinking I could attend my WoW raid but I felt totally lethargic by now. I apologized to my raid group, saying that I had totally no sleep at all for the day. Then I went to bed. Before that, I continued watching Code Geass and chatting a bit on MSN. I didn't want to feel like I didn't do anything on the computer for the day. hehe.

The Jobless Penguin!

I was considering seriously hunting for a new job after my birthday. I thought I could take my time with the resume-sending but it looks like I now have to step things up a little.

I think I am out of work. The office haven't called me down for 3 weeks already. So these pass 3 weeks I have been idling at home. I only called on the 3rd week (I was enjoying life as a free man for the first 2 weeks, thinking it wouldn't hurt) only to learn that the boss was overseas. I still do check the company's e-mail from home and, from what is going on, I believe that their e-mail account got hacked. I wonder how did a SingNet Business mail account got hacked.

It's back to mailing my resumes again. I'll pick up the Straits Times every Saturday now and look out for Admin Assistant positions. If anyone knows of any job openings that does not involve too much people-to-people interaction, let me know.

Birthday Weekend

Saturday was the 31st of March. It was my birthday. I didn't really plan to celebrate it, though. What I was really looking forward to was the Dark Portal Sneak Preview on Sunday. So I stayed home and played some WoW. Our guild got pwned by the Curator. That defeat, coupled with my excitement over the sneak preview, made me couldn't sleep all night.

I surfed the net till 8 am then prepared to leave for Suntec. I joined the first flight at 9 am with most of the gang. It has been a long time since I have been out of the house. I saw a lot of familiar faces and marveled at the new cards. I managed to go 3-1 in the first flight. We then decided to break for lunch.

This was when I suggested Curry Favor. I actually came across it while surfing some forums. The place was a little... underwhelming, I would say. The atmosphere didn't really match the prices on their menu. Nevertheless, I was yearning to try some Japanese curry and this was probably the only place I know of in Singapore that serves it.

After lunch, we returned back to Suntec and prepared for the last flight at 5 pm. It was pretty much worth it as the organizers always gave out extra products for the last flight. I scored 3-1 again. Everyone enjoyed themselves for the day.

As for me, I was totally exhausted. It was only around 11 pm when I got home but I took a quick bath and went to sleep immediately.