VirtuaLife

“wow, you really like staying at home, don’t you?”
sarah, when I told her about my awesome weekend gardening feats.

you’ve got to feel the sarcasm inherent in that statement. I’m 24 years old, single, newly graduated, and if you asked me what i like, i would respond without a moment of hesitation that my passions are 1) houses; 2) creating nice gardens, and; 3) cooking. hmmmmm! that was 1 month ago. incredibly, though i’d registered the sarcasm, it took a little while for the actual ramifications to sink in. and when they did,… well, hahaha, i was one sheepish teddy. lemme explain…

before i came to love gardening, houses and cooking, they were an anathema to me. they wasted my time, my energy and my effort. i have to be ordered – and sometimes, literally dragged – out of the chair in front of my computer to perform such menial work as mowing, throwing the rubbish, or helping to prepare dinner. disgusting! yet, over the last 18 months, i’ve come to enjoy these things for what they stand for – independence, wealth, establishment, and order. good things, right?


(the house&garden, 6 months ago. antithesis of independence, wealth, establishment, and order...)

only, one must remember that too much of a good thing can kill you, or, more applicably, that balance must be maintained for the system to be in ‘harmony’. and let me tell you, when one is 24, single, potentially looking and just into a job, doing ALL these things in your past-time does not give you a lot to talk about with a prospective audience! gahhhh =__=

i had the opportunity to leaf through some of my blogging history as well as other memorabilia from the older days (around 2002-2006). As i did, it became apparent how much i had changed and why, now more than ever, i’m finding it hard to meet my social objectives. here, i’ve identified three relational barriers that seem to have crept up on me.

1) i don’t care about my appearance. although i’m tuned to my physique, I’ve alienated the fashion and self-pride component (i blame that as an ongoing backlash from my metro days). i mean, i don’t care what i wear, or if it matches, or how it fits… i’d taken the motto ‘anything goes’, ridden it too far, then beat it into the ground and kept on jumping on it long past it’s use-by date. Unfortunately, while guys generally don’t mind, girls do notice these things…

2) i have withdrawn. my curiosity isn’t outwardly directed anymore. i ask the questions inside and find answers indirectly. although that helps me synthesize my thoughts better, it doesn’t exactly make for engaging table talk. oh, granted there have been times i’ve done otherwise – thinking namely of queenie, louisa, orangey, ray and cathy – but those times are now few and far between, whereas they used to be de rigeur.

3 i’m prejudging people. it happens instinctively in most people, but normally there is a kill-switch of sorts that can retard the input. for me, i seem to have lost that switch. and i figured out the greatest source of my frustration is that, the girls i really like, i am inclined to instinctively reject!!! (because of certain stereotypes) aiyah…

those three things change today. well, they changed as of last week, once i realised what i was doing to myself. And what was I doing to myself? hmmm, i guess you could say it was a very abstract, yet functional suicide. Or, given that without a girl I can’t do certain things, maybe genocide. hahaha ^^ i will still like my gardens, houses and cooking, but they are now second to the ME; the self-investment that needs to be secured before all other things can be added onto it.

"where do you see yourself in 10 years' time?" orangey asks me. we all laugh ^^

funny for our context (she was interrogating me about girls) but a question that rings so true. we speak of ambition, and as far as i can discern, my ambitions are a few sizes to big for my boots. but i don't want to dwell on what should be; that would be jumping the gun. instead, let me talk about what is.

2009 was my graduation year. 2 days after graduation was held, i was already overseas on other commitments. miraculously, i managed to secure a job with an old acquaintance, a dutch physiotherapist with whom i'd performed a significant amount of placement in previous years. despite the lengthy gap between my interview and my available time (almost 3 months) she decided to accept me. Not the best job in the world in terms of specifications, hours, pay, etc., but it was 5 minutes down the road from me, a wealth of familiar faces and, dareisay, a decent environment to start working.

strike rate for job application was 50% (applied two jobs, was accepted for one)

in march 2010, one month after commencing work with the dutch physiotherapist, i was offered a contract position with a doctors' practice, far to the south of brisbane. i didn't realy like what the job entailled, and the position was even less attractive but the margins seemed quite high and it seemed to be invaluable in giving me the experience to eventually set up my own clinic. walked in, had the interview, and after fumbling with papers for over a month (their fault, not mine) i was in. still am in, in fact. but looking to wrap this one up, soon.

two more job offers came along, one of which which was rather out of the blue. just last month i was approached by a friend and advised that a space had opened up at his work. i was encouraged to apply. without thinking too much on it, i did apply, and before i could even think of the consequences of what i did (remember i am holding two jobs at this point, yeah?) i was having a phone interview. oops! Even more dismaying was that this job.. price, time, education, personality-wise, seemed to be exactly everything i was after. and more! the agongy of refusing the job! but i had to. however silly i get, i will not make the mistake of biting off more than i can chew, again.

one final offer that is current as of today is a physio instructor position opening up in central brisbane. the clinic takes alot of athletes, dancers, and other people in their prime as well as the regular gamut of DVA, post-hospital, and etc. i got name-dropped the australian athletes/teams that go to this studio and needless to say my mouth DROPPED. impressive! the place is upbeat, staffed by youngish people, and funky. i really like it! this is my prospective replacement when i wrap up the contract physiotherapy.

in terms of meeting my working criteria, i'm currently lagging behind what i anticipated. my earnings goal by the end of the year is 75K/year while doing no more than 50 hours per week, or 65K/year with 10K professional development. i need the money to fund my further job(s diversification)!

so, the good... no, the GREAT thing about my life is the immense amount of job security. employment has never been hard, merely umm, tedious? haha. but the bad thing is, i'm not meeting my targets.

perhaps... perhaps it's time to upgrade job lane to job street =)

"The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one."

i guess i'm one of those lucky people who, when it comes to jobs, gets what i want. within reason of course; i can't exactly see myself applying or a CEO position at the moment and being successful for it! no, but for jobs within my scope, in-demand jobs, jobs that i WANT... my strike rate has generally been pretty good. It is God's hand on my life, truly; and made possible because I dared to dream of this security as a blessing unto others.

Even as the memories fade, I'd like to take a trip down memory lane and pay a tribute to the jobs that were, that defined me. The interesting jobs,the silly jobs! And other notables in-between.

1999 (12 years old) - being the fat tub of icecream that i was, i got conned by by sister into delivering leaflets for the local news distribution. pay was a glorious 6 cents per household. or was it 4 cents! Yukkk! do the math, there. I'm not even sure if 6 cents of food gave me enough energy to walk between each house! if it didn't then, well, i guess the weight loss objective was always a safe one. i did that for 3-4 months, until i gave up folding leaflets and walking with a stupid raincoat on the dodgy delivery days.

2001 netted my first real job. after being rejected by Coles to work in their stocking aisles (apparently i was too slow on the visual recognition test - i call that a load of bull!) i went for a spin with Dick Smith Electronics. got offered a job at Bunnings warehouse, too, and had to make a choice between them. i sided with air-conditioning. for that choice, i paid the consequences for 6 years. well, i got paid, rather, and this time earning significant amounts. i really relished the period of 2004-2005 where i was basically working at doublt time all the time... 3-5 hours of work per week would net me about $120-200. now that was SWEET. made me rather lax, unfortunately.

2004 I also had a contract as a database analyst and market researcher with Smorgan Steel. glorified telemarketing role, really, but it was scarily autonomous. i had my job description, got given a desk, endless supply of coffee, stationery and free roam of the compound. and $18 per hour. not bad for a still-17 years old tyke who hardly knew what he was doing. i rmemeber some of the workers offering to take me out (some were motorbike enthusiasts and others liked... THOSE clubs) I finished my work brief in 2 weeks that they'd allocated me for 6 weeks so they had to scramble for more work. Damn, i was an honest bloke back in those days... didn't even think to lengthen my working time =P

2006-08 saw a whole plethora of jobs fall on my head, with 100% strike rate in all of them. I was getting pretty deep into physio at theis time so the nature of the jobs became more focussed. In no particular order, i started sports training as a L1 trainer, did a stint of mystery shopping (and found out kat was doing the same thing as me! arghh) worked with the AUS govt's after-school care program as a children's educator, was a university tutor, followed a football team for a whole season as the not-yet-physiotherapist, became admin for the (UQ) university's biggest library (as well as the more mundane of shelving books), worked as a statistics compiler with a uni professor, and did volunteer work at greenslopes hospital and workplace helath and safety queensland. wah! i still feel so touched looking back at that list. and i will still never know why i was accepted so quickly into some of these jobs, despite my relative ignorance of the required skills... which is why I give this period as a testament to God's work in my life at this point. Any job I wanted, i could have...

well, okay, now i remember one job that i did not get. it was to be the day spa manager and client servicer for a 5-star hotel based in the city. i applied too late (the position was already filled) and they never got back to me about further vacancies. maybe that was God's way of saying to me to keep my eyes off all the cute girls coming through O.o I've always maintained, without substantive evidence, that God has always been a bit wary of my predisposition towards girls. Hey, if I were God i would be too! now... what am I saying...

for the 2009 period I was, for the first time since 13 years old. jobless. I killed dick smith (6 years service!), let go of sports training, wrapped up my contracts with uni, shelved mystery shopping, and ... the list goes on. many friends jumped into that boat... i think kat gave up her job as well, sarah stopped working at the bookstore, quite a few physio students killed their income stream to concentrate on studies. i lasted 12 months whittling away at all the black (about 7K + 1k government stimulus grant) in my bank and ended up with a mere $32 in my account after paying off the post-holiday credit card debt! arrrr.

updates on the current job situation next time ^^