Don't be afraid to leave your job!

Before I begin, I shall mention that this post isn't anything about Traveling nor Food, which was my original intention of setting up this blog. Today is my first day of being unemployed! 'Unemployed' may sound bad, but I'm actually very happy. There's no need to set alarm, no need to procrastinate and drag myself to work. If you are indeed dragging yourself to work, then what's the point of doing the job that you are doing now? However, there are people who really dislike their jobs and even have to balance multiple jobs. I understand that they have to persevere on for financial reasons. Do note that I'm not saying that I'm so rich that I can survive without a job, in fact I'm just living in an average household. But trust me, opportunities do come to you when you stay true to yourself.

Many of my friends would have known that the first company I joined upon graduation was an airline. I worked as a Revenue Analyst and I totally loved it. The job scope itself was really interesting and challenging. How cool was it to control the flight fares for each individual flight according to demand? Moreover, the working environment was really awesome with a nicely furbished office, friendly colleagues and minimal politics in place (maybe I wasn't aware). Well, such wonderful situation will not stay as it is forever. Things happened, changes here and there, blah blah blah and thus I chose to leave the company after 2.25 years 'for good', I thought.

My second job was Pricing Analyst in a US company, let's call it X. I was neutral about this job before I began. My team had a welcome lunch for me and it was an enjoyable lunch even though it was only my first day. My colleagues were friendly and nice to me which made me thought that I've entered another friendly zone. :)

As X is a big corporate, there were many policies in place and I had to go through some e-learning to understand the rules in the company. I'm fine with that definitely. So, what exactly made me choose to leave the company? My training started within my first few days in the office whereby my supervisor sat next to me and guided me. As she was very busy with her work as well as new project, she could only train me for awhile and would be gone for a long while. Thus, the training I got was pretty choppy. I had to consult my colleagues about how to go on doing pricing requests that were assigned to me as my sup wasn't available.

I don't blame her, really. She's a very nice and patient lady. My thoughts were that even though the company is very reputable, from what I experienced, I felt that there's no proper plan for training a new employee. Also, my sup planned to train me by herself when she's already very caught up with work. She did asked another colleague to train me but that guy was also very busy. (I had to thank you everyone who took their time to give me training amidst their busy schedule.) This was where I think my first company did better. When I first joined the airline more than 2 years ago, I had training sessions with different analysts and we truly followed the scheduled plan. I did feedback to the company regarding this and I hope that they will improve on their training process for new comer. Adding on to that, I was so bored during my employment in X that I had to voice out to my sup/manager that I have nothing to do and please give me some work. I know the reason why they did not overload me with work as I still haven't learn things that are enough for me to work on my own.

Talking about job scope, I really don't fancy what a pricing analyst does in X. Other than doing analysis and giving discounts to clients (which was the better part), I had to be a coordinator and email other stations (e.g. India, US, Japan, etc) to help to price certain requests. And it is my job to follow up if they do not get back within the day/few days. There are people who complete their task within the time limit and there are also people who don't. Those people are the ones who make every coordinator 'screams'. Roar! Job scope was the main reason for me to leave. It doesn't suit me. Of course, I cannot neglect other small problems which would eventually add up to cause discomfort.

Small problems:

1. Water supply contains chlorine smell/taste. Yucks! I told my colleagues and they said they did feedback to the management. Some of them even brought electric kettle to boil the water on their work desk. I took the water (already boiled twice) from the kettle, the chlorine taste was still there, albeit not as strong. I had to bring my own 1 litre water bottle, fully filled, everyday to work! 1h+ journey from home to work including 15min walk from mrt to the office, carrying that bottle was a chore! Plus the haze! 
2. The first chair I got was faulty. It couldn't maintain at an adjusted height. I wasn't that tall... To my horror, the chair was delivered on 1991! I requested to change to another chair, it was better but a little shaky and yes, also delivered in 1991. 
3. Lights in the office was too dimmed. (Personal preference)
4. Politics (definitely exists in a big corporation, I shall not elaborate on this)

All in all, those were the reasons why I chose to leave, job scope being the main reason. I wanted to tender after my first week in X. But I told myself to persevere for a least a month so that I have more time to adapt and maybe start to love the place.

There's a saying that you should only quit after you've found a new job. I disagree with that. If you are unhappy, leave. UNLESS you can't. I've already decided on my 2nd week to quit on the last day of my 3rd week, after completing the orientation and attachment program which happened on Tuesday and Thursday of that week, WITHOUT securing a new job.

I thought I'd be jobless for a few months before I can find a new job. However, I got lucky. I managed to get a new job during the 3rd week. My new job will start in October and I'm really looking forward to it. Now, this is what everyone should feel before you start your new job, EXCITED. Not neutral.

If you managed to hit this paragraph, I'd like to say thank you as this post is pretty long. I'm not a spoilt brat, I earn my own money, spend my own money and support my family with quite a huge % of my monthly salary. I could only afford to be jobless for a few months but I'm glad that I can rest for a week before I start on a new journey. What a twist! I hope X will not sue me for saying all these in a public platform as they are really very concerned about their image. =x

My advice is that, don't be afraid to leave your job, you may chance upon a better opportunity. Most importantly, do things that make you HAPPY.