Resolutions Recap

Feb 02

Bit of a wake-up call. I thank the Lord it was so gentle. Over the past month I've hardly been working on anything except my job and video games: PoE league start and then about a week playing LoL. I did a tiny bit of work on weight loss but the loss is barely noticeable; and I've done basically no work on my other NY resolutions. Yet, the year is already 8.33% done. Can you believe it? I certainly can't.

 

The wake-up call came in the form of a colleague. Guy I'm on pretty good terms with. Approached me when no one else was around and asked:

 

"You applying to jobs now?"

 

(Me) "Nope, I'm thinking I'll start at the end of this month."

 

"You should start. The companies like to hire after Chinese New Year. It will be difficult."

 

Right, yeah. Here I am reaping the benefits of COVID restrictions: the traineeship, the reduced work hours, the working from home, the reduced traffic, and all. Not hard to forget there's actually a pandemic out there crippling the jobs market in ways never seen before.

 

Feb 11

Happy Chinese New Year. Family is not visiting this year, which I am very happy with. Seems like most other families are, though.

 

Rather than just sitting around in an eternal work - video game - sleep loop (like I did for most of December and January), I'm getting back into working on things that are important to me in my life. I figured I should talk about them.

 

The Job Search Begins…Again

First of all, I've been updating my resume. Probably going to finish a draft today. There's one open position my dad found that looks vaguely interesting, so I'll submit that either tonight or tomorrow.

 

The job market is picking up but it most definitely still sucks. Definitely I face a problem where most positions for similar jobs are only taking more senior candidates. For example, this opening by DBS bank…

…Is pretty much on-the-dot for my career, as I am already implementing Qliksense (the basic package of Qlikview) in my work. But this opening requires 5 years' experience and some other jazz, and pays far above my grade. Who needs 5 years' experience for this nonsense? You just need someone who can do statistics, has 2-3 years in HR, and has like 9-12 months' experience picking up Qlikview syntax. It's not a difficult thing at all - just difficult for someone like me who started a while ago.

 

Now, my dad's idea is I would write in to DBS and etc. and see if they have a similar-but-more-junior position - with less pay but also less experience required. But while it's something we can try, I expect the response to be limited as I don't think HR operates that way. My idea is to get into more general HR services (e.g. recruitment, business partnering, etc.) and get broader HR experience on my resume.

 

Of course, there's no reason we cannot attempt both, which is what I intend to do. I simply think that Dad's strategy is less useful, and I'm frustrated at the experience requirements in the market.

 

A Heavy Question

Second, my weight…I have not yet solved the gym-is-too-inconvenient issue besides my weekly sessions at the office gym. I have a couple of small ideas, such as a couple of basic exercises at home with my bodyweights and some cheap 7lb dumbbells my folks bought a long time ago. (I did consider just going out to buy heavier weights myself, but you do kind of need a proper floor for that.) But, while beneficial, I don't think doing like 15 minutes of jumping jacks and sit-ups is going to significantly impact anything.

 

More substantially, I have cut down my diet significantly. I think I have actually lost some fraction of a kilo already, but it's too small to tell given the deviation of my lousy scale at home.

 

Sleep

This miserable goal, sigh. There's so many things I want to do with my life that sleep really doesn't make the priority list. At least I have been attempting to get 6 hours a night.