Category: Career

Yesterday was my last day in Entellium Technologies. It has been three months plus working in this CRM leader company. In the beginning, it is exciting to me because I was given a small assignment. This assignment is an enhancement feature to the existing system.

But this joy came to an end after I was asked to pass this assigment to my supervisor. From then onwards, my job function is more on support. Support here mean example, providing access to certain user, add/remove licenses, bug-fixing and etc. I do not exactly know why I was given a support and bug-fixing role. Maybe they want me to get more familiar with the exisitng system through this way. Or maybe this is due to my incompetency.

I have to admit to since then, I wasn’t that happy. Maybe the below are the possible reasons:

• Nothing much to do, at times. When I do not have much work, I do not know what to do in my working hour and this usually leads me to surf the Internet and that leads to guilt because taking the salary but not really working or contribute to the company. I feel much time is wasted because of that because when no work, mean I won’t learn anything and nothing to exercise the brain.
• Work not being appreciated.
• Feel neglected

Lost the confidence and low self-esteem
At one point of time, I realize that I have been loosing my confidence. I’m not what I used to be in the past. I felt extremely timid when I’m showing the problem in front of my monitor to my supervisor. My confidence has dropped to the pitt, one of the lowest. I’m like someone just come from college, a fresh grad or worst than that. My self-esteem got much affected seeing the one who joins later than me pick up faster than me. I feel that I’m the lousiest in the company. At times, I imagine my work is like washing dishes while others are doing bigger things like cooking, cutting. I don’t feel valuable to the company. I don’t feel I’m important to the company. I feel I’m redundant. But, I need not to let this continue to reign over me. I need to change these thoughts. I need mind change. I don’t have to be low self-esteem. I need not to compare myself with others.

Back Door
When it is about end of the third month of my probation, I think I can’t pull through my probation. So, I think it’s better for me to start to look for job and I did. I searched some jobs in Jobstreet and applied two.

One more month probation as extension probation
At the last day of my third month, my manager talks to me about my employment status. In summary, I wasn’t perform well enough because I couldn’t contribute a lot to the company, which is due to my lack of expertise in one area. And at the end, he gave one more month to see if I can improve to meet his expecation.

Few days later, I received the assignment from my senior. He asked me how long will I take to complete it. I said two weeks. As days went by, I realize that I can finish this assignment on time and this also means very high possiblity I have pull through my one month extension of probation.

Called for an interview
Remember, I did applied two from Jobstreet? One of them called me for an interview and I went. At that time, I feel hesitated, because I have confidence with my assignment and also I can pull through my probation. Besides that, it has been three long months here. If I changes, I need to start again. Also I saw much strength in Entellium. But, I still went for the interview, in thinking, afterall I have nothing to loose.

During the interview, I purposely put a very high expected salary because of what I wrote in previous paragraph. He also asked if he gave me a project in VB.NET, will I take the challenge. I said yes. About the expected salary, we negotiated. It was little than my expected salary but higher than my existing salary. At the end, the interview felt good about me overall but I need to wait for one week to get an answer.

After the interview and my decision-making time
Meanwhile while waiting for that offer, I continued to work on my assignment. It went pretty smoothly. The module I did got more and more refined and clean.

During that one week, it was my decision-making time. At the end, I have decided, if they willing to offer me, I will take it, with two reasons. One is it is a rare opportunity to be given a project using VB.NET. .NET is where I wish to reach. Another reason is the salary is higher than the existing.

One week has passed, I got a call from the interviewer and he agreed to give me an offer. Few days later, I submitted my resignation letter and the same day was also my last day, which is on 30 May 2007 and I will start my new job on 1 June 2007.

Antipation, worriness and prepartion
These similar questions popped up when I got my both previous jobs, Entellium and GLM. “What kind of atmosphere and culture of this new company? What kind of person my superior is? What kind of person my peers are? What problems will I face there? Will I able to cope with my job functions?”

I wish the atmosphere and culture can be like in GLM or ASLI. I wish my superior can like as mature as Mr Heng and Westley. I think I have best moment working with Westley in ASLI, but under Mr Heng also not bad. I think these two ex-superior are the one I respected the most.

At the same time, I also need to prepare for the worst. No matter what the reality is, I should not be regret because this is the risk (taking this offer) that I have taken. No matter what the reality is, I should not blame anyone because I am the one who make this decision and need to bare whatever consequence of this decision.

The good of Entellium Technology
I should have mentioned about this. Anyway, these are what I still remember:

• Awards & Recognition – Indeed! Check this out.
• Twin Tower – Who won’t want to get a chance to work in the best and tallest building in Malaysia? The view from there is excellent.
• Systematic – I like their process there. Unlike the companies I worked in the past, whereby I did everything, from development to live production server all by myself, here I need to follow the process. Example, you need to get approval from your senior first before you go to the next steps. The process is also not too much or too redundant or too rigid. It is quite ideal.
• Coffee maker – I really enjoy it a lot as you know how much I love coffee. This coffee maker is like those coffee maker at Starbuck, where you can fill in the real coffee bean into a transparent container and then you just need to press a button and, the machice will grinde the coffee bean to produce your fresh coffee. Working there can make you feel like you are at Starbuck everyday.
• RM10 per day car Park allowance – This is a very unique benefits for the staff. They will give you maximum up to RM10 per day for your car park allowance if you drive to work.
• Vending machine – You can get those can drink (i.e. 100 plus) as many as you can for free. But, don’t abuse it lah.

It has been one month plus working at Allianz. Thank God, it has been okay so far. The working environment here is much better than the previous one.

Basically my team consists of my manager and another three more. My manager is a lady and this is the first time I am under a lady manager. She is really a good manager, take good care of us, capable, relational, competent, humble and many other strengths. I can see that she has many friends there. And I respect her because of all these good qualities in her. The other three, one man and two ladies. They are nice people also. Really praise God for that. And praise God, I can initiate (man should initiate, right?) and have lunch with them, though usually every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I won’t due to my workout at California Fitness. During the lunch, we have talk and chat with one another and even crack some jokes at times.

My job functions are the same like my previous job, which is mainly related to software development and over here we use ASP.NET. One of the task I was assigned to do few weeks ago is a desktop application (not web-based). This is the first time I code for a desktop application. All these while, the applications I developed or maintain is web-based. Even though I am just enhancing from the existing system, this is a good experience for me. From the existing code, I learn a little how to read and exports the records from excel to PDF. And hey, I managed to do it. Of course, with some help from senior. Ya, this desktop application task also involve Crystal Report, which is new thing to me for me to learn too.

Another new thing I learn here is Reporting Service. This is the first time I heard about this. Thank God for me having the chance to make changes to existing code. The file type is .rdl. Thank God for my senior helping and explaining to me how to use this Reporting Service if I asked him.

I also improve in my knowledge about setting up, to use an existing ASP.NET project. I learn that if a folder was copied from the server to my local, I need to remove the reference keys and add them back again. This is because the reference keys path is different since the server and my pc stored the project file different location.

I also get a bit of idea on binding Visual Source Safe (VSS) thing.Another thing I notice here is security. Here, security is important. So by looking at the code, I learn a little some security principles and skills.

Thank God also for my past experiences and skill, because those past working experience, skills and knowledge help me to survive here. Without them, there are so much thing I need to learn by myself, example, implementation skill from Entellium Technologies helps. And ASP.NET, visual studio and MS SQL skill at MOL helps.

I was pretty blur in the beginning (I am still) because there are so much things for me to know, digest and remember. Example, the file structure, the policies and procedure, the database design and more and more and more. But, thank God, right now, I’m improving and know what is going on more.

Every Friday, we can wear casual but we need to wear company’s T-Shirt. Don’t feel sorry for me. Actually, I like wear it. Maybe because I’m now happy working here. Then, every month we will receive monthly magazine. I like that too. This company also has this thing called i2s. It means “idea to success”. It is a system whereby any staff can submit their idea and implemented idea will be rewarded. Isn’t that awesome? This shows that the company is open, for improvement always. That’s the way it should be.

My hope now is to be given more tasks to work on, as I have completed almost all my tasks right now. I have completed a quite a big task, right now I just need to implement it for testing. Secondly, I hope to get confirmed soon and thirdly I hope that I can stay long in this company.

Thanks for hearing me. Will update you more next time. 🙂

These are some main problems which has made me dragging my feet to go work recently:

• Working environment. The working environment here has been sickening me. Most of the colleagues around my area were into vulgarity include that four letter word openly and loudly. These kind of vulgarity is not much due to anger type but more on having fun of it. They also like to talk unwholesome/pervert talk or dirty jokes openly and loudly. I have mentioned this to the management but things still never changed.
• Distraction by people passing by. My seat is located whereby more people will pass by in front of my desk. This create some distraction to me. Even though, my eyes are set on the monitor, it is still very distracting due to many people pass by in front of me. I feel this create lust temptatation to me. The working environment problem also creates distraction to me.
• Almost no project management. It is difficult to stay focus and be productive when there is no strong ‘project manager’ to manage the project I’m working on. I wasn’t given any due date. I hope to have better project management for this project. I really need it. Entellium Technologies is good in this area.
• Lunch time dilemma. The most fearful time for me is lunch time, mostly due to the first problem. The bible says that bad character corrups good character (1 Co 15: 33). But, if I totally don’t join them for lunch, this creates some problems also. What other colleagues will think about me if I don’t join others for lunch time every single day? They can think of me being proud or weird and no more asking me for join them for lunch like Entellium Technologies. But if I join them, I always feel uncomfortable with how they interact with each other, the type of dirty joke they joke about, the gossip. I also hated the killing carbon monoxide which come from their cigarattes. Some of them can really smoke a lot.

What should I do then?
Look for another job and quit? Just quit asap? What if the new job I got will have these same problems? Or that new job does not have these same problems but different problems. I think every company and every job has its own problems. Even if decide to work by myself as freelance, there will be problems too.

Conclusion
What what should I do then in this pressing situation? Thank God for speaking to me through his word and his people. Today, Stephen shared about how Jesus did the right thing in his most difficult times, which is submit to God by going to die on the cross. No matter I look for new job, got a new job or stay in my current job, I need to do the right thing. No matter how intense and pressing the situation turn to be, I need to be like Jesus, by doing the right thing and not to give in to situation, temptation and sickening environment.

Blessings, not to be forgotten.
Thank God to helping to solve many problems of this system. I got help from the same source, like I shared before. I got help from my senior and online forum. And, as usually, I have learnt many things from the problems I face in developing this system. I get a hang of ASP.NET more also.

Blessing
Thank God for his blessing to my career. First of all, for giving me a good senior. He is helpful. He always responded when I asked him for help. He has helped me in many way, like to fix the bug and gave me many advices and sharing his experiences about software development. Indeed, I learnt a lot from him.

I am thankful to be given a chance to handle one big part of the project. Even though, this project does not require me to build one from zero because there was an existing system already. This project I’m handling requires me to “re-customize” it. Nevertheless, I’m grateful about it especially when I recall back my support job function in my previous job.

During these moment, I also want to thank Bill Wilkinson from http://www.aspmessageboard.com/. He has helped to fix a lot of stuff all these years especially in Classic ASP. He really gave his heart to help people and his respond was so quick that it is as if I was chatting with him. If I have a chance to meet up, I want to thank him face to face and treat him a good meal to show my appreciation to him all these years.

The module I am doing now is a Customer Care module. When one day, I reflected upon it, I felt so encouraged because my previous company is mainly doing CRM system (Customer Care System and CRM System are the same, just different term). In fact, they are the leader in CRM. Even though, it was just a short period (three months plus) working in Entellium, that duration gave me an idea how world class standard of a CRM looks like. This helps a lot in design my current project. I can make use of previous job’s experience and knowledge. I think it is rare to have your previous job’s experience related to the current one. In fact, both also done in Classic ASP. And I don’t know about it until I joined this company!

Presentation and Stress
On 17 July 2007, few of us went to our client to present the system we have developed so far. The presentation was done by by both my manager and my senior. I felt some stress since I knew about that, but the stress increased on that actual day, especially during the presentation. I felt anxious and worry that the system will hit critical bug during the presentation. But, thank God, the presentation went quite smoothly, thought my senior and I notice a minor bug. I felt so relieved after that. The thing is over here, we do not have a QA or Testing team just like the previous company. And, I realize that it is not that easily to thoroughly test the system because there are too many combinations, if I perform a very complete testing. And, I do not have a lot testing techniques. I believe knowing that testing techniques, will able to test the system effectively.

Challenges I forsee
Up to now, I have one focus in mainly one module and there are a few more to go. What I forsee is there are a lot of tough times I need to go through. I see myself having much hard time to learn ASP.NET / VB.NET. The module I’m doing now is done with classic ASP, while the rest of the module is expected to be done with VB.NET and I am very new to VB.NET. In fact, I have never done any application with it. I think by the end of my probation, things are easier for me. Hope and pray that I can survive until that time. I started to feel very tired of working for this project at this time.

I also forsee that problem of support and maintenance for both Classic ASP and ASP.NET 1.1. Pretty scary when think about it. Hopefully, I don’t have encounter much problems from these two friends.

Two more days. Yes, two more days I will be leaving my existing company, GuocoLand. And I will be starting a new career journey in Entellium Technologies on 12 February, which is around 2 weeks later. It has been one year and seven months here in GuocoLand. Time flies.

It was an exciting journey at the beginning, probably just for the first 6 months. It was thrilling to have a project to work on, eleave, which is a HR leave system. I felt good working professionally with my superior to brainstorm this eleave together. Think, analyze, refine. But, as times goes by, things has started to get tough. Problems came in one by one. (It is too much to explain here and not that good to share in details of some problems). I began to feel not looking forward for the day.

After I completed my eleave, I wasn’t given any new system to work at. I wasn’t sure the reasons. Maybe my superior thinks I’m not competent for another one. Maybe he afraid if I handle another one and if I resign, then he will face difficulty. Maybe the support work are too much at that time. No matter what reasons, I feel that I began to hate my job function more and more. And other problems in life, added more and more anger in my heart. As a result, my heart got more and more harsh. Not just in the heart, but also in my words, as the bible says, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Our words will describe something of the condition of our heart. With this situation, I think I need to make a decision.

I don’t know when I plan to change job but I think maybe around after my confirmation (my probation was 6 months). I remember how I motivate myself with all my self-motivation skills. Last month, I have typed my resignation letter, which is to be given at the right time (means, after I got my bonus). Finally, in the beginning of this month, January, I received my bonus and immediately I tender my resignation letter on the following day. I have started to apply some job since end of last month and more after I tendered my resignation letter.

In the middle of this month, I got a call for an interview. This company is Entellium Technologies. It is a company which provides software for people to use and it’s office is located in Twin Tower, KLCC. From that day until yesterday, I have had 3 interviews for this application. ( Maybe that show it is not easy to cari makan liao now a days. Hehe … ). And at the end, I got the offer for that software engineer position (the name of the position sounds cool but it is just another name for programmer). Thank you God and everyone’s prayer.

When I got my job in GuocoLand, I have some worriness to the uncertainties. “What working environment will be there?” “What kind of superior I will get?” “How’s the the people there?” “What problems will I face?” and some other thoughts. I guess similar thought came me too for this new job. One thought I have is “Will I able to cope with this job?” “Am I competent enough?” I see myself not competent, my programming skills and knowledge. I think I need to work hard for these 3 month probation. Hopefully and with continual prayer, I hope I am able to sustain and cope with this position.

In spite all much stressful and much frustration I have had in GuocoLand, I also have some happy moment working here. I will miss some people there, especially some to treat me like their friend and being kind to me. Another positive side is, I did learnt much too, especially from my superior, his professionalism and also those techincal skills and people skills.

Thank you for reading. Update with you guys next time in the future 🙂