15 May 2020

I’m on a roll.

Every week I send my manager a list of completed and upcoming tasks, and never before have so many tasks made their way to the “Completed” column.

Last week – despite it being a 2-day work week due to public holidays – I managed to finish many, many things. And this week – a full 5-day week – I pretty much moved every major task from “Pending by end of May” to “Completed”.

A few bits and bobs remain here and there, but 2 major projects have completed transition to their new owner – with all stakeholders informed.

1 major project is about to transition – the transition pack is just undergoing reviews from the team before being sent to the new project owner.

And my biggest project – the Employee Engagement Survey – is transitioning smoothly with an expected cut-off date of next Wednesday.

I even finished updating 10 articles on the People Team’s Help Page site yesterday, a task I didn’t think I’d get around to until the last week. It took much less time than expected (though it wasn’t any less boring).

Oh, and on top of that, I reviewed 2 learning courses and helped test our new Agoda Careers website.

I’ve ticked off so many tasks that I’ve started asking for new ones, and promptly received one yesterday. It’s an interesting task that will add value – and I appreciate the opportunity to contribute.

A colleague yesterday said that I’m experiencing the “pre-exit productivity high” and she’s absolutely right. I even feel the mental buzz, the excitement of tasks accomplished and (I think) well done.

On the non-Agoda front, I’ve also been spending my mornings before work applying for jobs. (It feels okay to do that now that I’ve submitted my resignation and have a clear end date) The job applying thing began almost as a coincidence, but once I got started the ball continued to roll.

I’m actually quite enjoying updating my CV to highlight achievements tailored to every new role I’m applying to (and the roles are wide-ranging) as well as writing the cover letter to go with it.

I’m averaging about one job a day, though today (unless something really catches my eye) I plan to take a break and catch up on my Economist newsletters which I’ve neglected for much of this week. They’re piling up in my inbox – I don’t like when things pile up in my inbox.

So yes, that’s about where I am right now. Buzzing away at work and on LinkedIn.

How is life for you? Are you also looking for a job? Focused at work?

Love,

Val

6 August 2019

So I stopped for a month. Entirely.

Ooops.

For the month of July, my exercise consisted of walking and chewing. Not bad forms of exercise, but certainly nothing like rhythmic cycling. I could definitely feel the lack of freshness and energy that come with the bike. And also the horizontal expansion of body parts.

Yesterday was my first time back at my gym, doing 45 minutes of cycling with my favourite instructor. (Seriously, he’s awesome). And I was very happy to discover that my muscles, just like the North, remember. I was even able to cycle super fast to double-time beats at some points. That’s about where I was when I left off a month ago.

Though now that I think about it… I’ve done over 30 cycling classes. Is it normal that I’m still not able to follow the beat for the whole class? Hmm…

Rhythmic cycling is a constant battle with yourself. Push yourself a bit harder. Cycle a bit faster. Make your movements a bit bigger. Tap, push. In, out. Right, left. Make a V. All the while getting lost in the music thumping from the loudspeakers. I love it. And during the time I was going 2-3 times a week, I think I was getting pretty toned! Though the enjoyment is so great the getting toned past feels almost like a by-product.

So two months ago, on 3rd June, I wrote about how “things happen over a longer period of time when you’re an adult”. (This did materialise into an unfinished post on my main blog, as promised.)

I also mentioned, in the same post, that I may have good news to share “in a few weeks, maybe a month or two”.

And good news to share, I have:

I’m starting a new job next Tuesday!

Drumrolls. Confettis.

I’m really pretty psyched about this new job. I had written about my application and interview experience in my other blog (I do have a lot of blogs, don’t I) when I verbally received the offer last month. But since no contract had been signed at that point, I didn’t want to mention what company it was.

But now the contract has been signed, my Workday account (a self-service online portal where you do your employee admin stuff – that probably sums it up) set up, photo and bio provided to the CPO to share on their Facebook Workplace (no idea what shape or form this takes, guess I’ll find out next week!). So now I’m very happy to share that:

I’m moving to Agoda!

Drumrolls. Confettis.

To be honest, this move was completely unexpected. It’s really quite remarkable how a casual browse on LinkedIn turned into a proper application. And the series of interviews which I’ve described in detail in my other blog were a whirlwind.

I’ve gotta say this: their application process is watertight. Everything moves like clockwork. There literally is no time for the candidate to question their decision or waver.

Not that I would, question my decision I mean. I was pretty decided early on that I wanted to join the company. For four major reasons:

1. The people – they’re sharp as a knife and talk straight
2. The industry – getting to work in the fast-moving online travel industry is a pretty attractive prospect. Plus, I love hotel booking sites
3. The data-driven nature – this is an aspect I’ve always felt was lacking in my current job. In fact, in all my past jobs. I’ve never been much of a data person. And I think a data person is a good kind of person to be
4. The role – an expansion of scope to cover talent management as a whole, not just learning and development is unequivocally a good thing

I could probably name more. But those four alone are enough to seal the decision.

So I’m now in my last week at work, in fact last three days as I’m flying off to Hanoi to be with my partner on Friday. A four-day weekend. Flying back on Monday night and starting at Agoda at 9am on Tuesday. It’s going to be intense. But I didn’t want to sit around doing nothing for a week and start the following Monday.

I don’t think it’s fully hit me yet. I got an e-mail from Agoda yesterday about my first day. Also yesterday was my handover meeting with my boss at DKSH. But apart from that it’s business as usual. We have a team farewell dinner tonight. Which should be fun – I’m looking forward to it.

So yes, big news. And I am very happy.

Hope you guys have been well in the past month.

And oh, spending three weeks with my partner was absolutely fantastic. It was the longest amount of time we’ve spent together yet, and it bodes well for our future life together once we move to the same city next year.

Love you all and until next time,

Val

19 September 2014

No one told me job hunting would be fun.

So. Much. Fun.

No. Really. I’m not being sarcastic. I’m actually really enjoying the process.

This enjoyment comes completely unexpected – I had pictured job hunting to be a long and torturous process, a soul-destroying endeavour that takes and takes and never gives, and that ultimately saps away all your confidence and self-belief, leaving you with an empty shell, an unemployed empty shell.

Granted, my expectations were rather exaggerated. And deep down I knew it couldn’t possibly be that bad. But still, I had expected the process to be a negative one: time-consuming, energy-consuming, confidence-draining, so on and so forth.

It has turned out to be quite the opposite, which has taken me by surprise. But a good surprise, the kind of surprise you get when your boyfriend gets you a gift for no apparent reason (birthday, Christmas, etc.), just because he wants to.

*pause so you can go awwww*

Anyways, to get back to my point, I’m finding this job hunting business to be surprisingly stimulating and self-affirming. For starters, producing customised CVs and cover letters is turning out to be an extremely rewarding process. It gives me a legitimate reason to sit down and spend hours thinking about all the good things I’ve done in life and how I’ve learnt and grown from past mistakes – something you don’t necessarily have the time or the inclination to do when you’re busy studying, or working for that matter.

And then, with each job application comes a whole world of possibilities. I happen to have applied for very different roles. Picturing myself in these different scenarios is, I think, one of the few times in my life where I’ve come close to actually understanding the saying “life is full of possibilities”. And it’s an extremely empowering feeling/realisation. It’s amazing.

Of course, this brimming optimism is most likely due to the fortunate fact that I haven’t had an application rejected yet. So of course life is full of possibilities. Get back to me when I’ve had my first rejection – we’ll see how full of optimism and self-belief I’ll be then!

On an unrelated note, I got back into teaching. So I was rooting about in my teaching folder and discovered my teaching log from when I was giving English lessons – and what on earth was I writing in that log?!? I had painstakingly come up with a system of notation that must have seemed clever at the time but now just gives me a headache. Over-complicating things – how typical of old me. I’m all for simplicity now – simple and effective! That could be my rallying cry. I should start adding that as a tagline in all my job applications – what do you think? *chuckles Sheldon-style*

On another unrelated note, I walked into a plant today. And it hurt. Yes, it really did. The leaf (you’ll understand when you see the picture) hit me right in my left eye socket, missing my eyeball by an uncomfortable 5-millimetre margin. I was sweeping the leaves on the patio and thinking about which long article to work on for my other blog when BAM. There I go for not paying attention where I walk, for letting my guards down in the perceived safety of my own garden. I’ve learnt my lesson.

Meet the offending plant.

The ‘leaf’ in the middle of the picture is the one I managed to poke my eye with. It’s like walking into a block of wood.

I’m lucky to have escaped without a black eye. To have escaped with both eyes, even. So yes, sweepers beware – look before you walk. It’s not for nothing that they say most deaths occur from accidents in the household. Just think, I could have lost an eye. *shudder*

With love,

Val

p.s. Oh and do wish me luck for my job applications. I am taking my time, as I so emphatically wrote in my last post. But still, it’d be nice to have some offers for me to take my time considering. Choice is bad, but money is good. *evil grin*

p.p.s. How random was this post? How did I go from the empowering effect of job applications to a murderous plant?! I must be a torture to read. Thank you for putting up with my writing antics!