For those who have been physically around in 2019. They would have known that wanting to give up and switching a job have been something that is on my mind since the beginning of 2019.
During one desperate moment last year when I honestly sat down to seek God and considered if I should quit and leave without another job. At that point of time, I was given 2 very uncommon things to note.
1. Sequence of people tendering – there were 4 people on the list
i. Tin
ii. Har
iii. Mar
iv. My turn
2. An amount to ask for in my next job
Firstly, when I received this 2 things, I was skeptical. Simply there can be so much uncertainty in the order, I can control when I tender however I can’t control the others from tendering in that specific order. And we all knew, humans, when they are not in control – we panic. Just when I was planning to dismiss this whole plan as “crazy”. God have to convinced me otherwise by —> releasing the new of “Guy i” tendering. Hence I had on to these promises.
As 2019 unfolds, God have shown his faithful to fulfil promises yet and yet again. Even though the wait between the first and the second is so huge that I went back and once again doubt the promises. It still turned out? Exactly like the Lord have spoken. My fellow colleagues officially left the company around the following timing:
i. Tin – mid-June
ii. Har – early-November
iii. Mar – end-December
All of them left for better companies with great pay increment, better benefits and better job scope and prospects. With that said, the baton now, have officially shown that it is my turn.
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Tracing back, how I got into this current company was thanks to a church staff brother that secured the job for me. Also, he have been telling me to get hired to our church as an IT professional in church. Since part 1 of the promise have officially being fulfilled, I went back on 2 Jan 2020 to him to check on the job opening in church. In which, later he said its alright, I should go look for other jobs. With that I was released to applied for other jobs.
This sparked the start of my application on the government job portal. Since I have used the job portal before, the government website actually stores my old resume and when I uploaded a new one it is still stored. Hence, I have been applying with it. To my dismay, only after half a day of applying did i noticed that I have been applying with my resume from 2016. Hence, more than half of the job application that I have applied became invalid, as I am unable to resubmit on the same job opening. Hence, only about 1hr of submission to the different job posting application is valid.
Prior to having an arranged an interview with a 1st company on 6 Jan since the end of last year. Within that 2 weeks I got called up by different companies to go for interviews.
After the interview with the 1st company, I panicked a little as my colleague who wasn’t in the original sequence of leaving tendered on the 6 jan. He was suppose to be my backup to take over my work but it seems like he will be leaving before me. The information interestingly was so rare that it was accidentally leaked.
In the midst of the turbulence of emotions and conflict, the 1st company did say that they were actually really keen and is willing to offer me a job. They did indeed quickly processed through the hiring and sent me an offer on 8 Jan morning. They actually gave me an almost 20% increment (which is rare for their company) and was originally gave me a promotion from my current position as well. However it was missing $300 from the exact amount.
They originally needed me to give a response by that Friday but I was going through the interviewing process with:
1. 2nd Company
2. 3rd Company – Non-profit organisation
So I actually called them to asked for a full week extension to the 1st company from the original, 10 Jan to 17 Jan instead. As well and informed the others that I have an offer and hence, the process for the job search got escalated by all companies.
The call for extension to the 1st company came back with quite a weird suggestion because they gave me choices very interesting and difficult choices at that point in time. The choices came back as follows:
1. The company will pay me $100 more per month if I agree to join them by 10 Jan, or
2. I will get the original amount and I get the extension to give them a response by 17 Jan
However, even with the $100 extra, I was still missing $200 dollars.
So I had a massive debated within myself, which at the end of the day I concluded to go with the extension instead. I asked myself what is the worse case scenario if i extended? I decided that if I am really going to be attending the first company, drawing lesser by $100 per month won’t kill me.
The 2nd company have 3 rounds of interview.
And the 3rd company have 5 rounds of interview.
The most interesting fact for the 2nd company is that I have never met any of the current company people for any of the rounds.
1. We did over phone call interview,
2. I replied their technical questions by email and,
3. the last interview with the client but not the with the direct company.
I originally was having high hopes that the 3rd company would offer. However, I believe I didn’t fare so well on the interview with them on site on 14 Jan, and hence after which their email shows that they are a little not as keen anymore.
On 15 Jan. I actually receive the offer letter from the 2nd company. The original contact have the following terms:
1. It was a 2 years contract
2. The amount was lesser than 1st company by $100 — so actually lesser than $400
I basically rejected it really quickly with a very basic sentence saying that I was offered a permanent position so I won’t be looking for the contract.
The HR girl actually came back to me saying that to give them a chance to re-offer, they would want to appeal to the CEO to draft a contract that is what I was looking for and to tell her which points of the contract that I was not very satisfied with, they would see if how they could fix it.
So I said that the other party gave close to my expected. I was looking for a permeant job and a few other minor items.
They quickly came back at the end of the day and drafted me a perm contract with the exact gross amount I asked for as a base. And an interesting perk is that there is a 20% increment in pay once probation is over. Which is a perk that is not available in their contact staff.
When I saw the promised amount appeared, I submitted my resignation on that day as well. Now I am able assured that I will be leaving regardless of which company I go to. I was also keeping in view that I was worried that if I waited til Friday, 17 Jan, to tender, I would not have enough leave to officially close off this chapter in February. I unblocked my long February break in order to do that.
The 3rd company promised to get back to me by Friday morning SGT, but time went through to 3pm and yet I still hear no news from them. I started calling them at 4pm in worry. They called back at 4.30pm saying that they are unable to make a decision at this point in time that I shouldn’t let good opportunity pass. They would feel bad if I let an opportunity pass because of them. Hence, please do not wait for their results.
At this point of time, based on my personal preference. I have honestly ranked the incline-ness to join the companies are actually in the following order:
1. 3rd company
2. 1st company
3. 2nd company
So while receiving the news from the 3rd company at 4.30pm I considered and decided that I will let go of the 1st company instead so that I can wait for a proper reply from the 3rd company.
So while I placed that plan into action and informed my agent the news about it as well to let him know that I have decided to not take up the 1st company’s offer.
The 3rd company hiring manager called me and told me that I am not selected to joined them, so that completely threw me off my selections. However, I guess if God didn’t threw me off the selections I would have never personally picked to enter this company on my own accord.
Who can I blame for being full of myself and thinking I am spoiled for choice, so the development actually fulfil exactly the promises that God have given so specifically. Nevertheless, God is good and his faithfulness stands.
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Before the start of this episode began, there was finally an amount given to me to save up for the year. Based my current pay in my company, I would have to not buy anything even necessities, I might not even be able to save up the amount required. But with the amount that God have promised and provided, Mar to Dec will be exactly 10 months and I will be able to saved up the amount perfectly with the increment.
So, it is not without reasons that that God asked me to get such a high pay jump, as for my current savings I would still be able to head for missions trips as per usual. That being said, I am still not sure if my stay in this company will it only exactly be 10 months or so, but that is another episode for another time.
But it sure is a long 2 weeks ride during all the decisions making. Thank you Lord Jesus for the constant prompting to make the right decisions and walking me through the whole period.
Add-on:
I really have Christ to thank for the timely switch. For this episode to be encapsulated and closed nicely before the whole COVID-19 virus starting spreading widely in Singapore’s news. I would have been unthinkable to be attempting to attempt to go for interview during the period after. When companies are busy doing counter-measures, splitting workforce and some fearful times in Singapore. It is really true that we can have peace when we walk in the plans of the Lord.
Psalms 62:8 NIV “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”
Everlyse- "The One Consecrated to God" 