The career God...

either you hit the right job, or you let the job hit you...

Continuing my ‘events’ that have come and gone since graduating from university… The one thing that most graduates dread for: Job hunting. Well, I’ve always prided myself for gaining work experience after major exams in past years, gaining new experiences and knowledge whilst earning some cash for myself. But this is the real deal. Everyone knows the scenario. You look for a job that you can grow and climb up the corporate ladder, get promoted, earn good money and possibly be rich and happy.

So I finally packed my bags and left my second home and went back… home. Yup. I left Sabah back home to Penang, taking with me some much cherished memories over the past 3 years that I will always remember. So after settling back home, celebrating Christmas with the family once again, I finally sat down and started job hunting. Not to say that I wasn’t doing that back in Sabah, but this was me seriously looking through the net, trying desperately to find and hopefully land a job that is related to my course. After browsing through the wonderful Jobstreet, I managed to land a couple of interviews for jobs that WEREN’T related to my field. Oh what the heck, I was just gunning for whatever may come my way. Little did I know that that wasn’t the way to roll.

My first interview was at a bank. Of all places and jobs, I chose banking. Joke of the year in my life indeed. Never got a response for that job opening anyway. Good. Cause I know I’ll suck at it big time. Then came the interview at a hotel for some call center thingy. Didn’t really appeal to me since it didn’t offer even a basic salary. Then came THE job. An interview that sounded good, job scope that was up my alley. Or was it? I accepted the offer to work for a so-called “eco” tour company, hoping that I could practice what I studied in uni. I just found out the hard way that in the working world, some bosses can just manipulate and entice a freshie like me into working for them. Promises of perks like a company car and phone would surely entice any fresh grad into joining the company. But here’s what I’ve learnt from my parents and in life. Work according to your priorities. In the case of being a Christian, the priorities SHOULD be:

i)             God;

ii)            Family and loved ones;

iii)          Work; and others that follow after that.

I’ve always tried to practice working around these priorities. Well, for my first real job, it was rather challenging. I had to work six full days. Monday to Saturday. Saturday. When my family goes to church to serve God as a form of our family time (tires the heck out of all of us but we still enjoy it… most of the time =p). As the days passed, I realized that the values practiced by my then boss weren’t as what I expected. I’ve come to accept that in the corporate world, it’s so damn easy for a big shot to say that he’s going ‘green’ and that he’s trying to help conserve nature or to promote ecotourism bla bla. Some of these ‘eco-friendly’ guys are just looking for avenues to make a quick buck out of an opportunistic opening whilst exploiting fresh grads.

I’m sounding like some activist fighting for employee’s rights, but that’s just how I felt during my short time at that company. I was tossed into a scenario where I was expected to produce results for a job scope that turned out to be NOT in my alley. From there on, I was in total hell. I’m not saying that I don’t like learning new things. I do and I enjoy learning new trades. But the way that company was going, how the boss was treating the staff, claiming that Penangites have a disease whereby they come early to work and clock off at 5.30pm sharp… it was just getting too much for me and I soon realized that this wasn’t a career I wanted to grow in (despite the numerous positive input given to me by mum).

The main point of this post is that I wanna share that God does take an interest in our working life. Some may claim that work and God don’t mix but I beg to differ. I’ve always believed that God was the one that made us have ambitions and dreams of what we wanna be when we grow up. And I’ve always held on to that belief that God will lead me to a job that He wants for me. Face it. If God wants a certain job for you, it definitely means that you’re gonna enjoy it right? So I turned to Him, praying for His hand in leading me to a job that He has planned for me. And what do you know? A friend calls me and says that he’s emailed me a job vacancy that is REALLY related to what I studied. Again, I didn’t stop to ask if this was what God wanted for me. But then again, I had his feeling deep down that this is His answer to my prayers.

So, the point of this long post? Trust God in everything, even your careers. Sometimes we may not get what we want or what we expected. But always have faith that somehow, God has plans for all of us. The thing is… Are we open enough to let Him work in our life? ;).

Don't we see this happening today?