Lilypie

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Professional Bummer At Work

This is the first time in my life I slept until so late in the morning. I woke up only at 11:30 a.m. I do not even sleep until so late even on a weekend! The latest so far was 10:45 a.m. Looks like the professional bummer in me is surfacing already.

Back to job hunting again. I have done nothing but sending out resumes and going for job interviews the past few days. It is a little disheartening when you realise that your degree does not seem to be of much use nowadays. You are either under-qualified for certain jobs, or over-qualified for other jobs. I really wish to be able to do something soon. Although this is a long-awaited break, but being free with too much time on your hands can be very boring too. It is also hard to call friends out as they are all working. Besides I need to save cash as I do not know how long I have to bum around. It is a difference being free with a job (ie cash coming in) and free without a job. I rather be free with money coming in.

I have friends who ask me, why do I even bother looking for an office job? Why don't I just be a full-time tutor or music teacher? I can work at my own hours and earn so much at the same time. The fact was, I had considered that option when I resigned from teaching. I wanted so much to take a break that I did think of just being a tutor and work flexible hours yet have money coming in. As a trained graduate experienced teacher, my marketability as a tutor is much higher than normal tutors. I can command about S$40.00 per hour. An average tuition session is 3 hours per week, which means I can easily earn S$480 per student per month. Imagine if I have just 5 students. I will be earning more than what some office workers are earning.

Even as a music teacher with ABRSM Grade 8 qualifications, I can command S$160 per month for just an hour per week. So if I work 10 hours per week with just 10 students, it is also quite a fair sum. Good money indeed, with just minimum number of hours. So why did I not consider going into it full time?

Firstly, when I left teaching, I wanted to take a break from teaching altogether. Thus, I did not think I could stand tutoring so fast after I left. Secondly, I wanted to try out the corporate world. I wanted to be more exposed and see more of the society, instead of being so closed-up and confined. Being in a classroom day in day out really makes one loses touch with what is going on outside.

Thirdly, I wanted to take the opportunity that I am still relatively young and single to learn as many things as possible. Being out in the corporate world will enable me to be more exposed to different kinds of people and how society functions. Just like if I did not go out and work, I would never have known that such a mean autocrat like my most recent boss existed, and how to better handle people like this. I told myself to give myself about 10 - 15 years in the corporate world, after that I will leave.

What do I plan to do after that? Hopefully I will be married with kids. I want to stay home and take care of my children. I will not be a full-time homemaker, but that will be the time when I can finally take on freelance work like tutoring or music teaching, or being more involved in performing arts and charitable works.

I want to be free for my family. I do not wish to work my life away and then realise I am never around for my family. But what if I never settle down? Although that will be hard for me to accept (but I must admit the possibility is still there), I will still work freelance after I have enough of working in the corporate world. Afterall, I like to enjoy my later years, instead of being a slave to society.

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