rejections

This blog was begun with the intent to document my career change but more pressing matters seem to have taken over. I’m going to keep blogging about my Dad’s surgery, just to have a journal to have for reference, and also so my friends know why I’m just not that keen to go out and have a laugh as much as usual. Sorry, guys.

In any case, here’re some updates on my job situation, which is pretty much as non-existent as it was when I quit. Granted, my last day at work was only last week, but I started sending resumes out since October and I’ve only had 2 interviews so far.

1st interview – MINDEF
So to fill you in, the 1st was for Nexus, the National Education department of MINDEF, back in November. Basically it’s PR for Total Defence lah. I had a lot of fun doing the psychometric tests, and got called in for the interview – my first ever – and went in pretty relaxed about the whole thing.
Way too relaxed…

So I’m being my usual charming self, chatting up the nice ladies, when they ask me why I’m leaving my job as a producer. For some reason, it didn’t occur to me to prepare an answer for this question, so I throw them one of my carefully composed thoughtful expressions, a calculated raise of the eyebrows and say the first gem that pops into my head –
“Sometimes, you know, the juice is just not worth the squeeze…”

The most senior lady gives me a bit of a stare and it dawns on me that The Girl Next Door is not one of those movies you quote from during job interviews. Yeah, I got one of those ‘Thank you for participating’ emails a week later. Serves me right, actually. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise, I don’t know, cause I’m not really cut out for that kind of job. Still… I could’ve done a much better job with the interview if I’d bothered to prepare a bit.

2nd interview – Singapore Poly
This was just yesterday and it went alot better, actually. But… still no result.

Basically, I was recommended by an ex-colleague (thanks, Jeanine) to be a lecturer for video production in the School of Media and Infocomm Info-Communications Technology. I’m pretty qualified for the job, except for the fact that I look more like a poly student than a lecturer.

Anyway, I get there and it turns out what was a full-time post is now a part-time post. Someone who was resigning gets cold feet and opts to take a semester off instead, so I’m only needed for 16 weeks. Now, it’s pretty lucrative being a part-time lecturer, the amount of money for the amount of time spent working is a pretty steep inverse relationship. But of course, there’s a catch. There’s only a set amount of hours part-time lecturers are allowed to work a week. So when it all adds up, it’s really just not enough.

I could be Part-Time dude, and do all sorts of freelance work along with lecturing, but where does that leave me in the long run? So… thanks to the ladies who interviewed – it was an enjoyable interview – but I think I’m not going to take the job after all.

So I’m back to square one. Again. Still submitting my damn applications to the library and others, trying for the Information Studies scholarship – which I bloody submit late cause I forget about reading RECRUIT between spending full days at the hospital – and spending all my time reviewing books and finding album art for iTunes.

There’s usually a bumming or honeymoon period after quitting your job and before reaching a state of panic about being unemployed. I think I’ve skipped straight to panic stations, DEFCON 1. Fuck.

Still got a last resort, which I’ve just deployed. But I’ll talk more about that trap when it’s got me properly caught and maimed.