I FINALLY got my offer letter from Sime Darby yesterday morning. Yay! Went home after that, had a good look through documents and benefits and everything, got a nice surprise when I found their benefits are better than Accenture's and promptly emailed my resignation letter in to my HR representative. And even though I am 'supposed' to serve one month's notice, she said I don't have to since I'm not on a project. Whoopee! No more stupid posts written out of complete and utter boredom about automated toilet flushes and Weird Al videos! Now it's back to the normal stupid posts that I write that are not written out of...um... less boredom. Hmm...
To be honest, I do think God totally threw this new job into my lap, and also taught me a few things about my expectation from God and my faith...or rather, my lack of it. Some people already know the basic story of how I got the job, but here is the super-longwinded version. It's pretty long, but I think I need to tell the details in order to fully appreciate my story, so bear with me!
In March, I went for my church camp at Bintang Hotel, Seremban. The camp was for ALL my church branches, but none of my cell group people or my closer friends at church were going. Yet I decided to go anyway since I haven't been to a church camp in ages and I thought it would be a good chance to get to know people from other CBC branches, especially since I had no real 'clique' to hang out with there. I was also hoping to get some new spiritual insight from the speaking pastor and just be refreshed from the whole camp.
On the counts above, church camp was a bit of a disappointment, coz' as 'interesting' a speaker as the pastor was, his over-flamboyance in speaking made his messages overly draggy and caused me to tune-out, so unfortunately I didn't get anything from him. I also did not meet many new people from other churches at all as they did not arrange any icebreakers. On a positive note, I did get a lot from Reverand Ron Choong's message during his workshop... and also enjoyed another workshop on basic first aid. But I still couldn't help wondering if it was worth it to go for the camp, especially since I did not get to stay for the whole camp as the third camp day was on a Monday and I had to go back to work on that day. Plus on the first night, my buddies who were not at camp had a steamboat party/ sort-of sleepover... and I couldn't join them! I was a bit bummed about that and had to regularly remind myself that being at camp to grow spiritually is more important than a party.
Being the only person from my sort-of-gang in church to be at camp also meant most of the time I didn't bother to sit with anyone from my own church... we were all divided into groups with people from different church branches anyway (for reasons I fail to understand coz' all we did as a group was sit together during sermon but we didn't mingle AT ALL), so during word, I usually sat around people I didn't know.
During the second day, I plopped myself down next to another girl who was alone. She turned to me and introduced herself (her name was Swee Yin from the Kota Damansara CBC branch) and we started chatting. We got round to asking the usual boring question of where we work and all that blah. But this time is wasn't so boring for me, as I found out she's working in Sime Darby's plantation unit, doing an Environmental Management kind-of job that I was hoping to get. She told me the not-so-interesting basic work related to the plantations, and also told me that they had some conservation projects going on. That REALLY perked me up coz' conservation is also something I'd love to do. And I got really excited when she told me about their Orangutan Project, Hornbill Project and Marine Reef Project. And then she told me that they sometimes they do scuba diving to check up on the reefs, all on the company's expense. I think I was quite ready to die at that moment. Getting paid to scuba dive??? I know it's probably not that often, but still.... I was SOLD. I've always wanted to try scuba diving, but never did before coz' it was just too expensive (also, I have a slight fear of getting the Bends and the possibility of some strange marine creature with big teeth popping out from some dark crevice on the ocean floor and taking me down... but I'll get over it ^_^). I jumped to get down her contact details and her boss's details so I could email them my resume pronto... which I did on the Monday night after returning from camp.
The ONLY thing that worried me was when she told me the starting salary, which was about RM1000 less than what I was getting at Accenture. I would still have considered it, but I knew if I took a job with a lower salary, my folks would hang me upside down. So when I sent in my resume, because I did not want to scare the manager with a high amount, I put my expected salary as a few hundred higher than the number Swee Yin told me... which was still significantly lower than my current salary. My expectations were so low, even when I prayed, all I prayed was that the salary they would offer would not be THAT low.
Being the only person from my sort-of-gang in church to be at camp also meant most of the time I didn't bother to sit with anyone from my own church... we were all divided into groups with people from different church branches anyway (for reasons I fail to understand coz' all we did as a group was sit together during sermon but we didn't mingle AT ALL), so during word, I usually sat around people I didn't know.
During the second day, I plopped myself down next to another girl who was alone. She turned to me and introduced herself (her name was Swee Yin from the Kota Damansara CBC branch) and we started chatting. We got round to asking the usual boring question of where we work and all that blah. But this time is wasn't so boring for me, as I found out she's working in Sime Darby's plantation unit, doing an Environmental Management kind-of job that I was hoping to get. She told me the not-so-interesting basic work related to the plantations, and also told me that they had some conservation projects going on. That REALLY perked me up coz' conservation is also something I'd love to do. And I got really excited when she told me about their Orangutan Project, Hornbill Project and Marine Reef Project. And then she told me that they sometimes they do scuba diving to check up on the reefs, all on the company's expense. I think I was quite ready to die at that moment. Getting paid to scuba dive??? I know it's probably not that often, but still.... I was SOLD. I've always wanted to try scuba diving, but never did before coz' it was just too expensive (also, I have a slight fear of getting the Bends and the possibility of some strange marine creature with big teeth popping out from some dark crevice on the ocean floor and taking me down... but I'll get over it ^_^). I jumped to get down her contact details and her boss's details so I could email them my resume pronto... which I did on the Monday night after returning from camp.
The ONLY thing that worried me was when she told me the starting salary, which was about RM1000 less than what I was getting at Accenture. I would still have considered it, but I knew if I took a job with a lower salary, my folks would hang me upside down. So when I sent in my resume, because I did not want to scare the manager with a high amount, I put my expected salary as a few hundred higher than the number Swee Yin told me... which was still significantly lower than my current salary. My expectations were so low, even when I prayed, all I prayed was that the salary they would offer would not be THAT low.
Fast forward a week and a half, and on March the 18th, I got a call from Sime Darby asking me to come for interview the next day. However that particular week was especially busy for me, and if I even took half day off, I would be leaving my teammate with extra work. I decided to tell them I couldn't make it due to work, and was a bit worried when the lady said I was the ONLY one who could not make it for the interview. I thought, crap, if they find all the people they need this round of interview, they may not ask me back for another one. But I stuck to my decision and missed the first interview, albeit a bit worried that I had missed my chance. Prayed like crazy for another call, and was still worried, even though I shouldn't have. After a week I called them back to remind them that I would be available for interview from the following week onwards. They called me back for an interview on April 8th, a Tuesday. By that time, I had completed my project at TM and was about to start a new project at Media Prima.
On the Sunday before the interview, I was at lunch with my church mates and had a talk with Theng Terk (my cell leader) and Chi Hui (cell member) about my interview. When I told them about that the salary I might be offered was lower than what I'm getting now, they launched into a long motivational speech about how I shouldn't be expecting so little. God is so great and He can provide us more than we can even dream... so I should be praying for MORE than what is expected. And I was sitting there kind-of dumbfounded until it went off in my head...Holy crap! They are SO right! What on earth is wrong with me?? Why are my expectations of a great God so pathetic? I started to pray for bigger things to come out of my interview. When I went for the interview and was asked to fill in my details, I put my expected salary as slightly higher than what I'm getting now, hoping they wouldn't notice the significant increase from my resume. I still didn't want to ask for much more... I suppose I was still a bit afraid to ask for too much lest their eyes pop out of their sockets.
The interview went well, they said they wanted to offer me the job and would have the offer out within the next couple of days. The best part was when the HR lady said they would match my current salary, at least! Of course, I was ecstatic, and decided since I'm probably leaving Accenture, I'd better give my new project manager the heads up so he can find a replacement for me. He was VERY quick, and got in a replacement the day after I contacted him. After 3 days on my new project, helping out with some simple stuff, he told me that I could go back to the KLCC head office since I probably was leaving and he did not want me to start something I wouldn't get to finish. The offer was still not ready yet, but I thought, it's ok, I should get my offer letter by Tuesday or so the following week, which would be around April 15th. Then I can straight away send in my resignation and get a break for a couple of weeks.
The offer letter did not come the whole of that week. And that was my period of extreme boredom since I wasn't doing ANY work. Just muddling around on my laptop, waiting for my offer letter to come. Every couple of days I would call the HR lady who interviewed me to ask about the offer letter and remind her that I was still alive. She kept saying it should be ready within the next couple of days. I was getting rather annoyed. And got even more annoyed when on Friday I called the lady, she said she would call me back by the end of the day to confirm whether I could come on Tuesday or Wednesday to get the letter. By the end of the day, there was no call. Argh! At this point, I had already ranted to God quite a bit about wasting my life sitting at office doing nothing and being totally unproductive. I kept praying the offer would come quick, but it wasn't happening. My excitement for the job was fading fast.
Finally, the following week (which would be THIS week) on Monday, she called me back to say I could collect the offer letter on Wednesday (though after some discussion, I ended up collecting it on Thursday. Reasons why are not important). After getting the letter and cd with a soft copy of the benefits package (They use cd's instead of printing it out! How environmentally friendly!), I went home, poured over the document on my computer, comparing it to my current company's benefits, and the rest is as I wrote at the beginning of this post.
Looking back at all this, I'm quite amazed at how everything just fell into place. Like how out of all the hundreds of people at church camp, I met this one girl who told me about this job opportunity that's right up my alley. Who knows, maybe it was God's 'reward' for choosing to go for camp and trying to have the positive outlook even when I was disappointed with it. And then even though it didn't seem good at the time, I think there was a reason why I had to postpone my interview and was kept waiting for the offer letter. IF I had gone for the first interview and IF they had been extremely fast in preparing the offer letter, I probably would have resigned on the 15th and bummed around for half a month. And I would only get half month's pay. But because of the delays, even though I had to go back to office and be bored out of my mind, I still get full month's pay. Accenture can afford it, so I don't feel so bad being a leech now. *grin*
I also learned quite a few things from this too, especially that I should not have such low expectations of what God can provide. I thought I would get a lower salary but ended up with a slightly higher salary PLUS better benefits. And I was thinking, this is too good to be true... what on earth did I do to deserve this?? And I remembered that if God only gave us what we 'deserved', we'd all be destined for a certain very unpleasant hellhole. If He could go through the trouble of getting Jesus to die for us and save us from that very unpleasant place, even though we all really deserve to be there... wouldn't He be just as willing to provide me more than I deserve in other areas of my life? I just learned from a sermon recently that we need to be blessed before we can bless others. And I think some Christians are afraid to ask God to bless themselves coz' it seems selfish to do so... but really, it's perfectly fine to ask Him for what you want. He can give above and beyond what you imagine.
Another thing I learned is that worrying and complaining is a freakin' waste of energy. Well, I kind of knew that already, but it's one of those things that I 'know' but is hard to practice. I didn't need to worry about getting the second interview or getting the offer letter... but even though I was pretty sure that the job was so mine, I still worried a little. Didn't have to! And when I was going to my period of extreme boredom and kept praying / begging / ranting to God to let me get the letter soon, it took me a few ranting sessions before I decided to give it a break and trust that Him. And He delivered! I suppose at times like this, it's normal to worry and complain a bit, and I know I will do it again in the future...but hopefully it will get to my head faster that I should just shut my yap and trust that He will handle it right.
So now that I've resigned and have couple more days of leave and it's Labour Day on Thursday, I only have to go through one more day of extreme boredom on Monday before I'm off for the week and can enjoy a few days of.... doing nothing and bumming around at home. Oh well, at least I don't have to pretend like I'm busy with work anymore. :P
On the Sunday before the interview, I was at lunch with my church mates and had a talk with Theng Terk (my cell leader) and Chi Hui (cell member) about my interview. When I told them about that the salary I might be offered was lower than what I'm getting now, they launched into a long motivational speech about how I shouldn't be expecting so little. God is so great and He can provide us more than we can even dream... so I should be praying for MORE than what is expected. And I was sitting there kind-of dumbfounded until it went off in my head...Holy crap! They are SO right! What on earth is wrong with me?? Why are my expectations of a great God so pathetic? I started to pray for bigger things to come out of my interview. When I went for the interview and was asked to fill in my details, I put my expected salary as slightly higher than what I'm getting now, hoping they wouldn't notice the significant increase from my resume. I still didn't want to ask for much more... I suppose I was still a bit afraid to ask for too much lest their eyes pop out of their sockets.
The interview went well, they said they wanted to offer me the job and would have the offer out within the next couple of days. The best part was when the HR lady said they would match my current salary, at least! Of course, I was ecstatic, and decided since I'm probably leaving Accenture, I'd better give my new project manager the heads up so he can find a replacement for me. He was VERY quick, and got in a replacement the day after I contacted him. After 3 days on my new project, helping out with some simple stuff, he told me that I could go back to the KLCC head office since I probably was leaving and he did not want me to start something I wouldn't get to finish. The offer was still not ready yet, but I thought, it's ok, I should get my offer letter by Tuesday or so the following week, which would be around April 15th. Then I can straight away send in my resignation and get a break for a couple of weeks.
The offer letter did not come the whole of that week. And that was my period of extreme boredom since I wasn't doing ANY work. Just muddling around on my laptop, waiting for my offer letter to come. Every couple of days I would call the HR lady who interviewed me to ask about the offer letter and remind her that I was still alive. She kept saying it should be ready within the next couple of days. I was getting rather annoyed. And got even more annoyed when on Friday I called the lady, she said she would call me back by the end of the day to confirm whether I could come on Tuesday or Wednesday to get the letter. By the end of the day, there was no call. Argh! At this point, I had already ranted to God quite a bit about wasting my life sitting at office doing nothing and being totally unproductive. I kept praying the offer would come quick, but it wasn't happening. My excitement for the job was fading fast.
Finally, the following week (which would be THIS week) on Monday, she called me back to say I could collect the offer letter on Wednesday (though after some discussion, I ended up collecting it on Thursday. Reasons why are not important). After getting the letter and cd with a soft copy of the benefits package (They use cd's instead of printing it out! How environmentally friendly!), I went home, poured over the document on my computer, comparing it to my current company's benefits, and the rest is as I wrote at the beginning of this post.
Looking back at all this, I'm quite amazed at how everything just fell into place. Like how out of all the hundreds of people at church camp, I met this one girl who told me about this job opportunity that's right up my alley. Who knows, maybe it was God's 'reward' for choosing to go for camp and trying to have the positive outlook even when I was disappointed with it. And then even though it didn't seem good at the time, I think there was a reason why I had to postpone my interview and was kept waiting for the offer letter. IF I had gone for the first interview and IF they had been extremely fast in preparing the offer letter, I probably would have resigned on the 15th and bummed around for half a month. And I would only get half month's pay. But because of the delays, even though I had to go back to office and be bored out of my mind, I still get full month's pay. Accenture can afford it, so I don't feel so bad being a leech now. *grin*
I also learned quite a few things from this too, especially that I should not have such low expectations of what God can provide. I thought I would get a lower salary but ended up with a slightly higher salary PLUS better benefits. And I was thinking, this is too good to be true... what on earth did I do to deserve this?? And I remembered that if God only gave us what we 'deserved', we'd all be destined for a certain very unpleasant hellhole. If He could go through the trouble of getting Jesus to die for us and save us from that very unpleasant place, even though we all really deserve to be there... wouldn't He be just as willing to provide me more than I deserve in other areas of my life? I just learned from a sermon recently that we need to be blessed before we can bless others. And I think some Christians are afraid to ask God to bless themselves coz' it seems selfish to do so... but really, it's perfectly fine to ask Him for what you want. He can give above and beyond what you imagine.
Another thing I learned is that worrying and complaining is a freakin' waste of energy. Well, I kind of knew that already, but it's one of those things that I 'know' but is hard to practice. I didn't need to worry about getting the second interview or getting the offer letter... but even though I was pretty sure that the job was so mine, I still worried a little. Didn't have to! And when I was going to my period of extreme boredom and kept praying / begging / ranting to God to let me get the letter soon, it took me a few ranting sessions before I decided to give it a break and trust that Him. And He delivered! I suppose at times like this, it's normal to worry and complain a bit, and I know I will do it again in the future...but hopefully it will get to my head faster that I should just shut my yap and trust that He will handle it right.
So now that I've resigned and have couple more days of leave and it's Labour Day on Thursday, I only have to go through one more day of extreme boredom on Monday before I'm off for the week and can enjoy a few days of.... doing nothing and bumming around at home. Oh well, at least I don't have to pretend like I'm busy with work anymore. :P
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