Winza

The end of my second contract is approaching and my third contract will start soon. Looking back over the past two months, I have learnt a lot about the water industry and how it operates. My concentration and my adaptation to the workplace has improved, my attitude to work has improved and I have greater confidence in dealing with large volumes of data. What I need to work on though, is my expression - how I express my problems verbally. I have trouble explaining things to people, I struggle to present my problems and feelings verbally. Maybe it is to do with my speech problems when I was a lot younger or maybe I haven’t gained enough confidence to ask for help. I will need to work on this in order to get a permanent job.

I have finished my studies over six months ago and I still haven’t got a permanent position. I love what I am doing and where I am working now but I am working on contract after contract. At the moment, I know that I will be staying in the same organisation for the next three months. But then what’s next after September? Nobody can give me a definite answer. I am reluctant to search for another job at another organisation because I really want to stay where I am at and I don’t want to adapt to another work environment. I often find myself worrying about it and I often ask my team manager if there are further opportunities available. I know that worrying will not get me anywhere but I can’t control myself. Job security and career development is a big thing for me now. While six months ago, my main goal was to work in any field for a year before applying for a PhD; now my goal is to get a permanent job that I like and enjoy life. I might do further studies in three or five years time, but at the moment, my goal is to expose myself to the water industry and to get as much experience as possible.

In the midst of worrying about my job and my career, I am still seeing friends, talking to people on the phone, reading and learning. I still attend Buddhist study discussions every few weeks and I tutor my friend for free on weekends. The Ford festiva at home is getting old, so my parents and I are looking for a replacement. So far, we have looked at the Honda Jazz and the Toyota Yaris at the car dealers in Oakleigh. I have test driven both of them and both are very similar in terms of price although the Jazz is slightly pricier and has a better quality than Yaris. My father has offered to lend me the money to get the car and I have promised that I would have to pay him back within two years of purchase. This is yet another reason why I need a permanent job or a longer term contract at where I am now.

Work is becoming a very important aspect of my life. If I am without a job, I would be very unhappy.

I had a busy week - whether it was personal life or at work. I first found out on Monday that I would be staying in the GIS team for another two weeks, but things got a little bit confusing on Thurday, when the decommissioning date of the old system got all mixed up. As a result, things got tense at work and everybody was hurrying with their jobs before the system shut down at the end of the week. The other contractor in the team decided to end yesterday instead of working for another week. I had no choice but to hang around in Asset Services for another three days before I am tranferred into the Operations dept for database work. Work has been getting busier but I am not exhausted from it. Next Thursday, things will be all new to me again - meeting new staff, new procedures, new commands and new software. As long as I am learning something and getting the experience, I am happy.

My personal life has also been a bit hectic this week, with my brother and his fiancee coming from Hong Kong to visit us and my graduation on Thursday evening. Wednesday, we went to the Melba restaurant for the dinner buffet to celebrate my gradaution. The food was great and they have heaps of seafood, sushi, roast pork and lamb and stir fry. The greatest of all was the chocolate fountain - a fondue thing with strawberries where we got to dip the chocolate sauce ourselves. Thursday night, I attended my graduation ceremony, which I didn’t really want to go as it was a waste of time. But mum made me go and it was the only way to get my brother and sharon to come and visit us. My uni friends came to congratulate me and gave me a gift. I ended up weeping the whole night because I never believed that I could study at uni and graduate from it. On Friday, I had to attend an interview for a permanent job as a GIS officier in Lilydale. The recruitment agent called me about it on Wednesday at work and I didn’t really have much time to prepare for it, so I had to go in unprepared.

At the end of the week I am tired, sick with a sore throat and exhausted.

To family and friends: Without you, I probably won’t be sitting here and typing this. Without you, I would not have graduated on Thursday.

1. My contract will end in two weeks. I was offered (and have accepted) another month of contract work in the same organisation, but different team. However, this isn’t confirmed as I haven’t heard back from the person in charge. . I probably have to start doing some job search within the next few days otherwise I would be out of work again.

2. I am addicted to Whirlpool Forums

3. I am addicted to Prison Break

4. I am addicted to Heroes

5. I am addicted to Game Music. In fact, I began listening to Game Music since 1995, when my brother got Sim Isle and played it’s soundtrack on a CD player. I also remembered designing a website in high school back in 1999 with a game music theme with downloads. The music was pretty awful back then.

6. I am addicted to the Wii.

7. My graduation ceremony is in less than two weeks. Not that I care.

8. My brother is coming to visit us in a week.

9. The leaves haven’t really turned red yet

10. Three out of five New Year’s Resolutions have failed already and I have no intention of keeping it up.

I don’t know what is wrong with me today, but I haven’t been feeling too well today. Usually, I have a reasonable productivity fixing 40 data records per hour, but today it sharply fell to only 10 per hour. I was alright for the first two hours this morning and felt very ill from 11:30 onwards. At first, I thought that it was simply not enough sleep, so I made myself a cup of coffee and kept going for another 30 minutes. All of a sudden, I felt pain in my abdomen - like stomach upsets. Since then, I had to visit the bathroom often and felt dizzier and dizzier in the aftenoon. I still kept going and stayed till 5:30 because there was a lot of work to get on with and I waited till I got less dizzy so that I could drive.

I don’t know what it was I’ve eaten that made me ill, but all I know is that my productivity had declined sharply today…

I can’t answer things properly!!!

The only thing I could answer properly in the interview was the definition of GIS and what I did for my thesis. The teamwork and the goal questions sucked!!! I kept blabbering on about Outward Bound for some reason.

So well. What can I do? Back to full time job searching I guess…