Change is good

People change, things change. Life changes. Change is inevitable. Change is constant. Change can be bad. Change can also be good. And that’s what I hope is happening with my life now. The good change. For those who are on my facebook, would have seen some updates on me going thru changes at work.

Here’s a brief of what’s happened- happening. The good and bad part of my change. For the last year and a half there has been some expectation for me to relocate to Singapore for work. While I managed to put it off for a while and a lot of discussion, it came to a point of go or no-go. for which you obviously know I took ‘no go’ road. hence the change. The bad part of it is that I do like what I do right now and am going to miss it. Not to mention a terrific boss. The good part is, I'm staying within the organization and moving to another great team. a team i'm rather familiar with.

All this happened within 2 weeks. From feeling a little miserable-annoyed with the fact that I may have to move, I then got another opportunity which has turned out well. Not one I expected but decided to explore anyway. Looking for opportunity outside was also there as an opyion. But I thought, discussed with various people and after weighing the pro’s and con, decided on the internal move. why? mainly staying back in KL, not changing my pretty much settled life without having to start all over in a diff firm was a selling point. But I did rationalize other factors too. I have to like what I do, as i pretty much have for most of my career life. I’m sure we all want the same - not to wake up each morning hoping we didn’t have to do what we were doing.

Dad being admitted in the hospital couldn’t have come at a better time either. While family always came first, it did help set my priorities better. I'm saying this because I did consider moving to SG at some point. It would have been a good career move should I stay with the current team. SG was afterall a mere 3 hour drive from home with more than 10 flights a day from KL. I can come back every weekend. $$ would have been fantastic. BUT as we know, it wont be the same. as SJR said, do not come hoping that you’ll be able to go back every weekend. Expect the worst and be prepared for it, he said. He has been in SG for more than 5 years now and said how he still doesn’t like it there but have learned to adapt. That kind of did it i think. I have a much lower tolerance level than him. I complain about anything and everything. I will be a very unhappy person. A satisfying career alone wont be enough to make me a happy person. Not to mention the living like a nomad again. I’m done living on a suitcase. I need a proper shoe closet. The car trunk doesn’t do anymore. So thats how I decided. thanks to SJR in a way. I'm not mving. which left me with two options. The internal offer or move elsewhere altogether. Since

I wasn’t sure about moving out and starting all over again, i'm staying back. People know me here. I’m comfortable with the firm. and not sure if I’ll get to do the exact stuff if I move either. The new hiring Director, (or my future director) is someone I know pretty well. He was the first person I met in the firm 3 years ago. He interviewed me for the same position he is offering me now, but to be based in Belgium. Since he couldn’t afford to have the position based in Asia then and I for obvious reasons was not able to relocate (I was coming back from London to be with family at the time in case you didn't know) I turned the offer down. He understood and asked me to be in touch if I change my mind. and i told him the same. 2 weeks later he contacted me saying my current boss was looking for someone in APAC and my CV seems to be a fit. He asked if I’d like to give it a thought and that’s how I ended up where I am now. I’ve always kept in touch with him, meeting him for drinks when he is in town or when our paths crossed during business trips. Honestly, I never imagined going back to Audit, not within the firm at least although I have worked with the team in a couple of projects in the last few years. its a small team of 3 and now 4 with me going onboard in July. i guess things happen. for the best i hope.

So anyway, after talking to him on what he has in store for me and the kind of projects there are, bla bla. I decided. No kiasuland, no commuting. no new firm. I know the team. plus, unlike the typical audit requirement, the travel will not be more than 30%. I’m past the point of living out of suitcase for 60-70% of the time. And then there was the better $$ too.. who can resist that eh? :) with the audit team, i'll get to learn new stuff and broaden my perspective within different areas in IT too.. of course there are some minus. most people move from Audit to Global IT and I’m doing the reverse. But when I think of it, if I didn’t come back to MY when I came unexpectedly 3 years ago, I would have spend another few years in audit anyway. So take it as a payback or learning period. . So, anyway, thats it. I’m going back to audit. Yes, audit. the good old audit. It is a bit scary but I’m also excited and looking forward. Lets see whats in store. Maybe I’ll do another post after the move, thanking God for the right decision I made. :) Fingers crossed.