what do you say to taking chances

there's nothing more refreshing than a short break from.. well, i was gonna type work, but i guess a short break can get you refreshed from just anything. ok especially from work. it gave me time to think things through.

i should have this interview for the job transfer on my last day of work last week. however, it got postphoned at the eleventh hour because the interviewee had an urgent meeting to attend to. so off i went for my holiday while few of my friends signed up for the new company during my leave.

the thing is, the more time i spent with family and relatives, the more it got me thinking how i'm gonna miss this kind of leisure time at my new job. how i'm gonna miss hanging out with friends after work every friday. how i'm gonna have to throw my tibet and yemen trips next year into the drain and decay.

see, things happen for a reason.

to put things a bit onto perspective now, here are the reasons why i want this new job.

• it's a start-up plant, so i'll be among the pioneers. rare opportunity.


• big career growth potential. in current company,most probably i'll stop at principle engineer. i could move further up.
• whole new areas of technology to learn. it's where most of the actions are.


• valuable experience and entree in my resume.


• rumours of uncertainty on the future of my current department

and here are the cons.

• long hours, probably up to 12-14 hrs a day plus O/T. now i work 8am-5.30pm.


• high paced fire-fighting environment. stress stress stress.


• 5-days shift, tue-sat or sun-thu (more pay on weekends though)


• far. it's 30km from my house = $200 extra petrol + 15 minutes longer journey.


• hard to take leave, let alone long ones.


• almost comparable pay. more O/T money though but in expense of my off-time.

now tell me should i go for it?

i just wish there's a sign from the sky or something that could help me decide. one moment i think that this is all just work, something we do to make a living. do i really want to push myself to the limit and suffer just for status greed? i'm fairly happy now, with my own condo and car in metropolitan singapore with plenty of time to do other stuff. after all we work to live, not live to work.

but then, i don't want to grow old and look back with regret that i pulled out not because i'm not competent enough, i'm not qualified etc etc, but just because of fear. because i fear the extra hours and commitments. plus, i can never have enough money until i can afford my dream-SUV bright-coppered nissan murano V6.

do i still want to use this dice?



...ed