Kesal

Selalunya kalau orang tanya, pernah tak aku menyesal kerana tinggalkan kerja sebagai guru sekolah dulu, aku akan jawab "tidak", kerana aku seronok menerokai pelbagai pengalaman baru semenjak meninggalkan "bangku cikgu sekolah". Mengajar di kolej atau di universiti juga kepuasannya berbeza sedikit - lebih banyak kemudahan dan kurang kekangan untuk berkreatif dalam kelas berbanding di sekolah.

Tapi di saat-saat begini, ketika anak-anak terpaksa kutinggalkan sendirian di rumah sempena cuti sekolah yang mana tak kena pula dengan cutiku... terdetik juga sekelumit rasa kesal... Masa aku meletak jawatan dulu, anak baru seorang dan masih kecil pula. Bila ditanya ibuku, "Tak sayang ke cuti panjang yang ada tu?", kubilang aku tak betah bercuti lama-lama, bisa mati kebosanan aku di rumah. Balas ibuku, "Esok bila anak dah besar, dan waktu cuti sekolah... baru nak menyesal." Dan benarlah apa yang dikatanya...

Nasib baiklah aku suka berkali2 suka kerjaku sekarang berbanding di sekolah dulu. Maka tidaklah aku sampai rasa terkilan atau rasa tersilap membuat keputusan.

An old piece of writing

Found something in my mailbox, something that I wrote a long time ago, but not available on the net anymore - so here it is for sharing.



Things to do (or not do) when you are not satisfied with your job

by Mima Zohds



Step 1: Do not whine!


Whining does not take you anywhere. The most it can do is making you feel so sorry for yourself and bore people around you. Face the facts: nobody likes a whiny person. They can listen to your complaints and consult you once, but if you do not do anything to improve the situation and yet, keeps complaining over and over again - people will get tired of listening to you and will start avoiding you. The next thing you know, they will label you as a “loser”.



Step 2: Identify the problem.


Try to identify the reason for your not being satisfied with your present job. Is it the salary that is bugging you? Is it the seniority of position? Is it the toxic boss you have? Is it because your present job doesn’t allow you to have your own life? Or is it simply because you feel that you are in the wrong career line? Only by correctly identifying the reason for your dissatisfaction, you can plan on the next move you will take to correct the situation.



Step 3: Identify the solution – some suggestions:


Salary/Position

If it is the salary or the seniority of position that is bugging you, you may discuss the matter with your superior and come up with a career plan that may help you achieve the seniority and the salary that you are targeting for. You may also do a market research to get an idea of how much people with your experience and skills are getting paid outside and point it out to your superior. If you find it difficult to achieve, then just update your resume, and start looking for another job that will offer you a more senior position with a higher salary. The only thing to remember is, higher salary and position comes with higher responsibility and expectations, so make sure you are prepared for them.


Toxic boss

Nothing you can do can change your boss. The one that you can change is yourself - how you look at your boss. Try to find something positive about your boss that you can like and try to develop your relationship based on that. Read books and articles or sign up for courses on “How to manage your boss”. Find out what are your boss’ expectations of his/her subordinates and try to comply with them. Treat your boss as your most important client – after all, you are a service provider to your company, which includes your boss and your colleagues. Ever heard of the phrase “Customer First” or “Customer is always right”? If the situation is really unbearable - again, update your resume and start looking for another job. Don’t forget to pray hard that you will not end up having the same type of boss.


Wrong career line

If you feel that you are in the wrong career line, start identifying what is the field that will really make you happy, and start building plans and identifying opportunities that will help you make your career shift. There was one successful accountant who left his job to become a chef, and is a very famous chef today. There was one high-flying engineer who left his job to become a teacher for a quieter life with his beloved family. The most important thing is they are happy with the career shift that they made and leads a happier life now. However, you may want to consider signing up for courses or diplomas that will equip you with the knowledge and the skills you will need for your new job, and you may have to consider starting over with a lower salary than you have now.


Be your own boss!

If all other methods fail, consider building a small business on your own. You will be your own boss, so you won’t have to deal with toxic bosses. You can work towards the kind of income that you would like, it’s all yours to determine. You can work on things that you are interested in and be in love with what you are doing. Building your own business is certainly not an easy job, but the satisfaction you get out of it will be worth the experience.



Important reminder!


Whatever you decide, do not just jump out of your present job. Careful planning of your next step is crucial if you do not want to regret taking the decision. As unhappy as you are now, you do not want to start wandering on the street for a new job or tie up your stomach with stones! However, do not stay too long at your present job if you hate it seriously since it will be destructive for both your company and yourself. Act quickly, but wisely.



Mima Zohds was a teacher in the public secondary school. She left teaching to explore other job options, seeking to discover her hidden skills and talents. Committed to the cause of education and life-long learning, she has tried her hands at writing, editing, working on translations, conducting training and facilitating experiential groups; and is now experimenting on instructional designing. Mima welcomes feedback at mimazohds@yahoo.com


Published in Prodigy – The Promuda Mouthpiece Volume 1, Issue 5, November 2002.

Choosing a career : A personal experience

(This post is a mirror copy of my blog post in Web Writing).

For the last two weeks, the topic for my "Reading and Writing" class in a local university was "career". We read three articles in the textbook - and we ended up with a lengthy discussion about my students' interests and where they think they are heading to.

We discussed the reasons why people would work, and what would be my students' personal reasons. Some of their answers got me to think about myself. Like most people, I work for money - but not for a lot of money, just enough to sustain my life. I place a higher priority on learning. Yes, for me to stay interested in my job, I've got to be able to learn new things - once work becomes a routine and my learning graph becomes static, I would become restless and start looking for a new job.

That explains why in my resume, I only stayed for about 3 years in a place - or simply put as why I job-hopped. And it also explains why I now become a freelancer.

In the class, we also discussed about identifying our personal talents, strengths and interests in order to determine our career paths. And I came across some students who somehow reflected myself - they have too many interests and thus, it's hard for them to decide on a career path. Like them, I want to know and be everything. I used to dream of becoming an architect, but I was also interested in arts - and I had wanted to be a writer too. Due to my family's financial constraints though, I ended up taking a scholarship to be a trained teacher.

I loved teaching, but I had wanted to learn other things too - so, right after I'd completed my 7-years contract with the government , I'd become a web-content writer for a web-designing company, and later a subject-matter experts coordinator cum editor with a company dealing with educational software. That was when I found out that I'm actually a people person. Working in an office facing the computer most of the time had made me feel a bit lonely. I missed noises, and I missed being surrounded by young faces that adore me. So, I went back to teach in a local college.

Teaching in a college proved to be more satisfactory than teaching in the secondary school. Students were more willing to learn, thus I had less problem with class management. I had more freedom to experiment with my teaching methods and approaches too, since colleges have soundproof classrooms. But once I'd taught all subjects possible for all the faculties in that college, and my learning graph had become static again, I just couldn't resist trying on something new.

Being a freelancer, I get to continue doing what I love - teaching - and at the same time I'm free to explore new areas that I'm interested in. I am teaching in three different places on and off, so I get to experience three different teaching environments - one deals with the international students, another deals with all-male technical students and the other one deals with human sciences students from religious education background. On top of that, whenever I don't have classes, I can learn about financial planning, how to pitch for sales and at times be a sub-translator for those who are doing it on a full-time basis.

And being me - these are not enough. I'm still far away from calling myself a "writer", and I want to be one. Plus, I have another ambition that haven't been realized - I want to study interior design, and I want to be a farmer, too.

So... how do I advise my students on how to choose their career paths?

I told them they can choose one area of interest, study it deeper and deeper, and they will be called as "experts" in that area. Famous and rich.

Or they can explore all of their interests for the sake of experiencing and "knowing" about each, but they will be just like me - not established in any field. Not rich, yet content. :D

Yes, that's me - Mima.

We ended our class with a thought-provoking poem by Robert Frost - "The Road Not Taken".