Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Windows of Opportunities


Amidst the busy bustle of ensuring that plans for my new account's media launch run smoothly, a phone call came through on my handphone.

It was basically a job offer for the position of marketing manager for a chain of nightlife joints here. I was midly bemused and asked where they'd gotten my contacts before and I was told that I was referred via an agency.

Which begs the question of course, don't such agencies contact you themselves so as to control the process of hiring and in the end, earn the commission?

Anyway, I was rushing for a meeting and despite my repeated tellings that I just settled into a new job, the HR Director (who was on the other end of the line) refused to take "no" for an answer. She kept insisting that it's be a "casual chat". Ok FIIIINE. I guess respect has to be afforded given her sincerity. I made an appointment for 4pm this coming Thursday and walked into my meeting 2 mins late.

Today during my first minutes of work I was mildly irritated by my senior manager. She means well but sometimes I feel she gets too bogged down in the nitty gritty and this morning was one of those examples.

Frankly I hate things like paperwork. Once a contract / quotation is signed I move on and leave the filing etc. to well, administrative colleagues lah! But here in my current job I have to share an executive with my senior manager and the poor thing has barely time to breathe for all the work she has to do, much less keep up with the paperwork.

It's not a big deal but things like that make me irritated because they crop up as an obstacle that stands in the way of my momentum of work. While she (my senior manager) droned on and on about which coloured copy of the contract goes into which file and which has to be submitted to whichever department and make sure I make a photocopy for filing under YET another system, I found myself tuning out for a moment and caught myself thinking "I wonder if that new job would be the same..."

(Speaking of insane filing and file naming system, my shared server is a thing to marvel at. At times I feel daunted trying to save a document for fear of breaching a naming convention or placing it in the wrong destination. I once counted pulling out a file 12 levels deep from the main folder. )

Anyway, it's bad I know but I really shouldn't be thinking about changing jobs at this juncture.

But I have to admit, throughout my day at work and on my way home, my mind drifted to the possibilities should I attend the interview and procure the job offered.

At this point I can pinpoint alot more "cons" as opposed to "pros" when weighing up the options. But I confess that the possibilities of a new position, a new product, a new working environment and a new industry excites me.

Overall I feel it is a bad character trait and a flaw in me. I detest the mundane, I despise routine for being routine just for the sake of it. That is one reason why I have always worked in the "vendor" or "contractor" role of a given industry, namely because I get to work with multiple accounts and variables are always changing.

So I mentally told myself, "be sensible, settle down and give this job a chance". I'll probably forgo the interview this Thursday. But my mind WILL drift from time to time (especially when the droning begins) to thinking "what if...."