It has been an interesting first week spent on navigating the first job in my life.
What have I learnt thus far? (do note that this is a preliminary one-week “report” and subject to change after i accumulate more experiences)
1 ) There’s no pleasing everyone in the world. Best thing you can do is just to live and let live.
2 ) The somewhat crude chinese saying “jian ren shuo ren hua, jian gui shuo gui hua” is absolutely true. No matter how open someone tries to act, they’ll always rather you step on the well-worn, trodden path.
3 ) There’s no escaping the culture of wayang-ing even after leaving a university which prides itself more on wayang skills than actually technical skills. It’s embedded in human nature – the need to impress and the need to keep up – whereby both factors act synergistically to form an unpleasant result.
4 ) My university is making a huge mistake by emphasizing more on style than substance. A “decorative flower vase” can only stay “pretty” for that long and even the most beautifully-presented fluff will be exposed for its vacuousness sooner or later. There’s nothing bad about being socially adept and eloquent…. as long as it is backed by actual substance.
5 ) It’s unpleasant to face a black-face daily. No matter how nice the person actually is, it gets tiring when you have to deal with a “i couldn’t care less” expression on a daily basis. It’s normal to get a little preoccupied when busy with work but the Libra in me frets endlessly at the thought of what may lie beneath those still waters. I guess it just takes a little lot of getting used to.
6 ) I have somehow devolved from being a “cheena kia” to a “kantang kia“. I apparently speak English with an accent too. I would have assumed that accent to be fully Sgporean (lah, leh, lorh, meh and the works) but apparently it’s not local enough. Have I unintentionally turned into one of those awful pseudo-non-locals with fake accents without even realising it?! Oh, the horrors! >_<
7 ) I hate condescending tones from people who have no right/authority to judge. It’s fine if, someday, my boss thinks I’m screwing up things cuz he is in charge of warning me when I start lagging behind. Not you though. I know my technical foundation is akin to crap as of now but I am by no means dumb at all. Give me a little time and I’ll be the equal, if not the better, of you.
8 ) I’m probably sinking into cynicism by this point in time but I lost faith in the old adage of “Ask when you don’t know”. It probably should be edited to read “Ask people whom you know will help you without judging you when you don’t know”. -resigned shrug-
***
I think I focused too much on the negatives but being lessons for takeaway, I guess the negatives always have a way of sticking around in your mind longer than the positives.
After all has been said and done, I really do love this job nonetheless. People are generally nice, the office is generally politics-free and my love for my function has not decreased by any bit at all. If anything, everything I’ve seen has reinforced my initial choice (minus a little unpleasant cha1 qu3 on Day 4).
Now, if only they would agree to send me to more courses to satisfy the nerd/geek/bookworm/academic-wannabe in me. I NEED those mugging sessions to make me feel like my brain cells aren’t dying out. >_<
