Job Offer

Recently i was offered a job at a well known MNC. It came as a surprise and indeed i was very excited about it. Good pay, good benefits, flexible working hours and you would think only a fool would give up this opportunity. The only downside was that the job position and responsibilities (computer programming) wasn’t what i really like doing, the job can get quite stressful at times and also, i had to move to Penang.

I’ve never left home in my 24 years of existence. I got all my early education here in Kuching and since my family couldn’t afford sending me overseas for my Degree, i opted to study locally at Swinburne. I know it’s always good to go out and ’see the world’ but not everyone of us get a chance that easily. So to say the least i was a bit worried about moving, especially i would have to get accustomed not only to my new home but also a new workplace. Still, i knew it could have done it, if given the chance that is…

…because I rejected the offer.

I rejected it because of personal family reasons. Yeah, i have to admit that it was a bit confusing to me and even now i think (not doubt but think) about it once in a while but i have made my decision after thorough thinking and looking at it from different aspects. The thing is that when i told my friends about this, most of them couldn’t understand why. Some of the reactions i got when i told them i was going to reject the offer were having them laughing out loud or giving me the most uncomfortable face they could make. *Appreciated all the honest opinions though.

But i understood because i did not relate to some of them the reasons for rejection, i mean even i would have showed my uncomfortable face if someone told me something like that…although there were a few who still couldn’t understand after i told them my reasons. Nevertheless, i accepted that…because they are not in my shoes and so they may not see it from my point of view. I understand…

I think a friend is not only person who would be there for you but also someone who will tell you the truth and walk you through thick and thin. It’s one thing not being able to accept my decision but it’s totally another thing to not be supportive at all. Of course i cannot force my friends to support my decision if they really don’t want to but it’s disappointing and it hurts bad as i have supported them in the past even if i was against their decision/choice, of course as long it’s not about doing something bad. Matter of fact is that we are all different and so how we make our judgment or decision is absolutely different, unique in our own way. But this doesn’t mean i would not support any of my friends if what they want to do is not what i think they should do. I believe as long if they thought it through and they are happy with it, i definitely will give my support. It’s not about supporting what we want them to do, it’s about what they want/can do. Especially if i know having me there means a lot to them and at times when they need it the most.

My other option besides joining the MNC and moving to Penang was getting a reasonable paying job locally and pursue my education further. I mean, it’s not that i don’t want the job, and getting another degree it’s not such a bad thing after all. Im sure it’ll help me get a better job in the future too, no? I’m not asking my friends to support me to go for drugs or anything bad, is it that hard?

Anyway, we can only have ‘one’ family but jobs, we can always find others. Giving up a chance now doesn’t mean the end, it doesn’t mean i’ve failed and it certainly doesn’t mean i will not succeed :) Of course we do wonder about what would happen if i were to choose the other road/path. But these things, we never know. I guess it’s all up to fate. I’m sure joining that MNC would bring me good but still it would not guarantee everything too and money doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the love of your family and friends.

I read a book – Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. A dying professor was telling his student “People who are hungry for love are always embracing money and material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can never substitute money or material things for love or for the gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship. Money is not a substitute for tenderness, power and status is not a substitute for tenderness and neither both will give you the feeling you’re looking for no matter how much you have them.” There’s also a chapter on family and it did help me look at life from another angle. “The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t for family. Love is supremely important. Love each other or perish. Without love, we are birds with broken wings.”

Therefore, i get to pursue a Master, i have the respect and love i can get and yeah i may get a slightly lower paying job, but it’s really not that bad at all and so i have reasons to be happy. (Only if i had a girlfriend :P) Besides, the job is only temporary but what i gain from my studies will be there forever. Randy Pausch in his book The Last Lecture wrote, “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” We can’t have everything we want in life.

Do you agree?

Classes start this weekend…i hope it wont be that bad because it’s been a while since i sat in a class for a lecture.

Will you still hold my hand?

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.