At Last, A Decision Has Been Made.

I was in a kind of a limbo in the past few days. One day I wanted to accept the offer, the other moment, no lah, better to stay put. The next day, change my mind again. Today, the top man in the company making the offer came to Kerteh to, I guess, swing the vote for people to accept the offer. The response, at best I observed to be lukewarm. In our setup, Am, Wan and the boss, I am quite confident, will accept the offer. I wasn't very sure right to the end. I've already got an offer, which is not 100% guaranteed but I'm kind of confident of getting it. However, I do like the job I'm doing now even though I wasn't sure the career prospects with the experience I have obtained in the past two years or so. There are various reasons why I told my boss and my senior manager that I am going to reject the offer. Here are some which I can think of:

1. I'm worried that I'll be only good at general things and don't have the opportunity to obtain specific skills. The boss of the new company said that I'll be doing the same thing I'm doing now for at least another two years. Don't get me wrong, I love what I'm doing now but I need to think of the future because the world is so competitive and I wasn't sure the new company can help me in becoming more prepared for the tough years ahead.

2. The offer and the people in that company are not so enticing to me. Maybe if the salary offered is higher, then it won't be so difficult to make a decision. However, in general the whole package is not so great that everyone is rushing to join the new company.

3. Sentimental reasons. I have been part of Petronas since I finished secondary school at 17 years old in 1993. I joined the 'half' batch which flew to the UK to do A-levels. We were known as batch BTU 9.5 because we started one term later than batch BTU 9. It was one of the greatest period of my life. We were like the centre of attention because we were among the youngest of the BTU. Looking at old pictures, I looked like a nerdish dweeb but nevertheless, I had so much fun back then. And it was all under the Petronas banner. So, even though I've only worked only almost 5 years, I've been with the company more than 10 years. Of course, people will say that in today's age there's not such thing as loyalty to one company but upon presented with an opportunity to resign from this one company, I am not quite ready to do yet.

I don't know what Am and Wan thinks about my decision. I am sad by how things have turned out. The past two years were the most enjoyable in my career so far. To start anew and learn things again is quite a daunting task but I know I can do it. I have enough self belief in myself to say that I can perform well in the new position. I suppose if I just wanted to maintain the good old gang of ICM, I would have joined the new company but there's no guarantee that the setup will remain for long. Any of us could be transfered somewhere else after a few years. I'm not getting any younger and I need to find my niche soon. I thought it is with IT. As it turns out, it is not and hence, I need to make a move again. I pray it will be a correct one.

The Chicken Pox Boys

Haziq got chicken pox!! Guess who was the culprit who gave it to him? :) No prizes for the correct guess. Anyway, look on the bright side. At least he got it while he's small and won't really be scarred for life like your yours truly.

I started work proper today and of course the order of the day is the iPerintis issue. I have a really big decision to make in the next few days. For me, it's really whether the soft issue (job satisfaction, passion) versus hard issue (benefits, compensation). By far, the company, I'm working in at the moment gives better renumeration than the one making the offer. Today I also received confirmation of a department who is willing to absorb me should I reject the offer. Haiya, it's so difficult lah to make a decision. I suppose I'm one of those 'lalang' on this matter.