Sunday, November 2, 2008

Au revoir, French for farewell.

The reason why I got that weird feeling when our CTO called me up, I mean the reason why it felt uneasy when they gave me a pay raise was because I have decided that I will be leaving the company. I have been thinking about what's good for my life and my family lately, and an opportunity came knocking on my door. I was accepted for a job in Singapore. I believe that the hands of the Great Divine has made the map for me already.

To elaborate, what really happened goes like this.

I was really super busy with work. I remembered that I wrote in my facebook account the words, "kagibunshin no jutsu". I took these words from Naruto, a Japanese anime which means, a thousand clones. I had to virtually tell my self to be cloned so there will be plenty of hands that would be doing the programming adventure.

Anyway it was a Friday and as I have mentioned, everyone was silently working a hard labor. You could hear no murmurs or any voice except the continues taps on the keyboard. People were programming so busily and at 3 PM, there was a brownout in our office and not just the office but the entire building. A water pipe in the building was broken and it has affected the power supply. The management or RDI(company name) decided that everyone be dismissed early from work. After our manager dismissed the teams, a meeting was conducted. After that seemingly caucus, our manager who happens to be the lead in my new project asked me to work on a Saturday. He proposed that he will pay for it. I got confused of the proposal or was I maybe, just maybe did not hear him correctly, and just said that I don't like to work on a Saturday. There was no taking it back as I had made a stupid facial expression and a firm no. Though my head was joggling still the thought of what I heard, it was still a "NO".

When Saturday came, my condominium mate's boyfriend, who came from Cebu had an interview for an employer in Singapore. Well, I woke up around 10 AM and my condo mates were playing the idea of going to the interview as walk-in applicants. Upon knowing what they were up to, I have spoken out that I want to go and told them that we can go. There were discussions but no need to write all the details here, because there were information which might be self incriminatory. Wahahaha. So off we went to Mandarin Oriental Hotel located at Makati Avenue. We came there with a pen and our curriculum vitae (CV). We were excited and kind of not prepared, but, with high hopes. We had brunch by the way to fill our empty stomach before we actually went to the venue. When we came to the hotel, we looked lost and I felt lost and good enough the girl asked as if we were walk-ins. And so a smile was drawn in our faces because we were not even sure if they are going to allow us to hop in. They got our CV, gave us some sheets containing information of available positions to choose. I chose "server applications engineer" and "tools and applications engineer" using Java. It was 1PM already and they were interviewing us one by one initially before we will be interviewed and be subjected to a battery of tests by the technical panel. Mandarin Hotel was cozy and we were hungry. Good thing there was food being served. So we eate there and told ourselves that we need to fill our stomachs because, just what if we won't be accepted at least we were filled. I ate three or four pieces of uber delicious small sized siopao. Well, it was 3PM and were still waiting or should I say queuing and the lobby was filled with more applicants and all of them were not walk-ins. We thought that were not going to be interviewed but we were wrong. At around 5PM my mates were called and lastly it was me. The interviewers were two French guys, an Indian HR Manager and one Singaporean guy. Ofcourse I can't spill out the names because it's confidential or I just thought it is. Hehehehehe. So I got up my seat and shook the hands of the French guy who has a weird English accent. I was having difficulty talking to him and I just put up a smile on my face even if I looked dumb already. Anyway the other interviewers were okay and I understood them. The first part was a practical exam. Prior to that he asked me if I know SQL. I told him I do but I am not an expert. He was going to give me Java threading but he decided to give me Java SQL. He showed me the Java codes and good thing I knew how to solve it. So I filled the missing snippets and explained to him why's. Good thing I got it right. The next one was he let me solved the fibonnacci problem :) I got it right as well. By the way you can't say it was easy because the set-up was weird. While you were actually answering the technical question or solving the problems someone on the panel would radomly throw questions at you from personal to something anything which was confusing and weird. Anyway it was a little stressful as they were bugging your focus. But I tried harder not to lose it and got the idea that it was their way of interviewing. After a few moments intense pressure, the HR manager tapped my back and he told me to go with him on the next room. He then shook my hand and gave me a job offer. I was happy, really happy. When I got out of the room, my mates were there smiling as they had their offers as well. So that was what happened and the rest is history as they say.

Last Friday, October 3, 2008, I talked to my manager privately and told him of my plans. It was not an easy day for me. I just thought that things will be alright and things will be better. And yes Cashmere was right in her predictions.

Au revoir!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow congratulations! :) things will never be easy to an employer who sucks! :D itataas nila swldo mo kapag aalis kana. hay naku

Anonymous said...

Thank you Jules. Well that was my first impression but they told me that it's just business but for me it's personal.

Wen said...

wow! singapore... congrats, xgenesis! =) you must be really good in programming. :)

Believe Achieve - Hugo and Roxanne said...

Congrats, again!! We knew there was more to the story!! We're so happy for you!! You seem to be much happier with this decision.

Many Blessings....Roxanne and Hugo
~ Believe Achieve

Anonymous said...

@@ hugo and roxanne

Thank you. Yes I am happier with this huge and life changing decision.

God luck and God bless to your family :)

Anonymous said...

Hey! Congratulations on your job here in Singapore.. You're a programmer too huh? Cool!

I wish you all the best in your new job and who knows... you might see me walking down the streets! :P

Now that you've quit your job, I wonder when's mine.. I have a bigger issue currently and I don't think it's wise to blog about it.. But I will definitely post it after I tender in a few months time.. ;)

Anonymous said...

@@ cashmere

Thanks,heheheh. See you when I see your there walking in the streets of SG.

Hmmm. If it's a little negative and points to your company, just don't go the details :D

Well good luck and God bless to your adventures too.