Doing well for myself. That one particular thought keeps appearing on my mind every day. I'm turning 29 years old this year 2021. I'm in early 30s! At my age it is normally expected that I do well for myself. Have I done well for myself? What are the parameters for that?
The main idea is
self-development, I think. However it is quite general and there are many aspects
involved. This is the first entry regarding my thoughts upon "doing well for myself" area. This time will be about my previous and current working experiences.
Now, let's see where I am
right now. I'm living with my parents and 3 younger siblings. Our house is
small. There are only 1 living room, 1 bathroom, and 1 kitchen. There are 3
bedrooms. I share a bedroom with 2 of my siblings. The house belongs to my
mother's friend so we rent and pay it yearly. Any cost regarding the house is
our responsibility, whether it is electricity, water, and maintenance. I
chipped in how much I can towards the house. I also buy basic needs like food,
soaps, and many things. Let's just say that most of my income goes to house
necessity and for the people live in it.
I work as an administrative
assistant in public hospital but it's private. Meaning I'm not a public civil
worker or legally contracted worker. My commitment is only between me and this
department inside hospital that hired me. It's a psychiatric department that
exists under hospital but was lacking in administrative staff. They have asked
many times for an additional but yet being provided by hospital. That's why
they took it upon themselves to find a person willing to work for them. That's where I came in. I
got inside information that they were looking for a staff; then I applied, did some tests, and
finally got hired. I started in May 2018, so I have been working here for
approximately 3 years now. I honestly enjoy working here very much.
Financially, my income is only from salary. They don't give other benefits. No
health insurance and things like that. However, my monthly salary is minimum
wage so it's still good and I'm very grateful. They renew my contract every
year. There are so many things to do, so they still need me. My salary also
increased according to regional minimum wage. At first when I started I got IDR
1800K per month, then increased on IDR 2000K, then increased again on IDR
2720K, now in this current ongoing contract I get IDR 3000K until October 2021.
I'm very grateful. I consider myself lucky because the living cost in Malang
City, East Java, Indonesia, where I live isn't high, unlike another big city.
Also there are so many people work another job that is harder to do but get
paid less than what I get. Now I know this job is not forever. It's been 3
years. Again, I'm getting older so I need to find other ways. It is not
permanent, it is temporary. Both parties can end the contract anytime. That's
all I can tell for now, career-wise.
Wait, it's not finished.
How did I get myself into this job at the first place? What is my real major?
Why didn't I get real job with real contract and benefit? Is it something that
I want originally? There are so many random questions here.
Let's start from the time
when I graduated. I graduated on November 2013 with Diploma on Chemical
Engineering. It's pretty cool, right? I got lucky when I first started because
I got a job before I graduate. So, one day after graduation ceremony I started
to work which was not in the same city or the same province. I went to Bekasi,
West Java, Indonesia where I was hired in a startup company that distribute and
produce metal working oils and lubricants. It was a small company. I was the
only one who they hired. So, I went from Malang to Bekasi alone. I traveled by
train. It took 24 hours. I shed so many tears when I left, mostly because I'd
miss my family so much. Long story short, I worked there for 10 months. I was
their first ever laboratory staff. My scope was everything related to
laboratory testing. I tested all raw materials, finished products, and customer
samples. It went as good as expected. I learned a lot. I like doing my job. It
was related to my major which is Chemical Engineering. The lab was still being
built when I started. During my first week I just sat and studied their company
and product. During second to third week I went to Thailand. Best trip I ever
did and the only time I ever went aboard
until now. I trained for 2 weeks there. I guess it was a mother company
somehow because they have same brand as the company where I worked. I found that before I
joined, the company imported products from Thailand then they repacked and sold
it. The reason why they hired a lab staff was because they wanted to produce
here in Indonesia but the raw materials were still imported from Thailand. At least
some of the raw materials, sometimes later during my time working there, we
used local materials as well so the production cost was cheaper but with the same standard quality of
finished products. Anyway, the lab jobs was started from zero. I learned
everything from zero. Besides the learning, I had lots of fun in Thailand as
well. The people were very kind and helpful. I stayed in an apartment. One of
the staff also stayed in the same building so she was in charge of my
accommodation as well. We went together in the morning to the company; she made
sure I got breakfast before working time started. When the day was over we
went to dinner together before headed back to apartment. For lunch I spent it
with my colleagues in
lab, they helped me order my lunch. I'm a Muslim, so I can only eat halal food.
I explained to them what I could and could not eat. Thankfully, they were all
very understanding.
In total there were 6
people that I interacted with everyday when I was in training. Two lab staffs,
two sales marketing, and two technician. We were all within age 20s and I was
the youngest. They were very friendly and professional. Obviously I spent most
time with the lab staffs but there were also times when I went outside company
with the technicians. I tagged along for a day to learn how they were doing the
product checking in customers. I had one weekend free and we went to Pattaya.
We went to Live Zoo which I forgot what city it was, but it was on the way to
Pattaya. Then we went to Art of Paradise where I took nearly 100 pictures. We
also had dinner in Pattaya Park
Tower. It’s a revolving restaurant tower on 53rd floor and it’s overlooking
the city. It served varieties of buffet. I had to be careful in choosing the food
of course but it was no problem at all. I could still eat a lot. All
in all, I felt like I was living the dream. During the recruitment interview,
the manager prefer a candidate whom able to speak English fluently. So, I guess
I stood out because of my debating experience which I will tell everything
about them later. That will be another stories for later.
The promise of 2 weeks
training in Thailand was one of the reason I interested in applying and I did
not regret it at all. Everything went well after my training. I handled the lab
best as I could. One time we had an urgent production but because our machine
was new and could not be used yet so we had to do it in small scales and
repeated the process several times until we achieved the quantity needed. I and
2 other staffs did overtime from 4.30 PM to 4.30 AM the next day. I went back
and only slept 1 and half hours then headed to work again. I got sick for 2
days after that.
There were 2 reasons why I
decided to quit my first job. One, because of the salary. Two, because I wanted
to experience working in bigger company. The first one salary. I actually got
what I deserve, it was minimum wage. I only got main monthly salary while my
other friends who worked in same area got almost thrice of what I got. We were
both fresh graduate. I felt that I could do more and get more. If I get more, I
could give more for my family. The second one why I quit was because I wanted
to experience bigger company. In my first company there were only 10 staffs. I
only met 3 to 4 of them daily, the rest worked on field. So, my everyday was very
quite. I wanted to feel how loud and busy such as in bigger companies. There
were disappointment from my boss when he knew I quit. He expected me to be more
loyal but he also understood my conditions. I wish I could still get in touch
with all of them.
I found online a job
vacancy still in Bekasi but on different side of the city. I applied and got
invited to do recruitment test. I got picked thankfully, again because of my
English ability. Everything I didn't get in my first company, I got in my second
company. It was a big company, hundreds of employees, and very busy
environment. The money was better. I had a lot more friends. The downfall were
two things. One, the job itself wasn't match with my educational background.
Two, my boss was less nice than my first boss. The position title that I
applied for was "Chemical Laboratory Staff". The fact was only 1% of
my job related to chemical. Basically, because the company implemented a green
program based on RoHS/Restriction of Hazardous Substances free regulation, so
they need a person to handle it. There wasn't much to do. The chemical testing
was only 1 thing, 1 machine, measuring 5 substances based on RoHS. Besides
that, my job was mostly administrative. I communicated with vendors, made
reports, and helped anyone needed assistance in English. I got lucky because of
my hardworking characteristic. I could handle everything well. I even got
promoted from temporary to permanent staff in 1 year and half. I worked there
for total of 2 and half years in Research and Development (R&D) Department.
It was very rare for a young staff to stay worked in R&D for more than 1
year. During the times I worked there, the staff has changed many times. I
counted minimum 20 people came and went only in span of 2 and half years. The
total positions of staff were 13 people. It was like 1 person came, worked for
1 month, and couldn't handle it then just quit. The fastest was 1 day. Really,
one person came and worked for 1 day then quit the day after. It was very
hectic. Everyone was super busy, stressed-out, and highly emotional. My boss
was angry all the time. People were yelling and being loud. It was just so
much.
The company itself was a
different story. It was an electronic manufacture company. It produced some
household electronic equipment but the main products were refrigerator and
freezer. It was a mixed of China and Japan management. The headquarters is in
China. They handle the basic regulation, legal affair, sales, and marketing.
The product was handled by Japan personnel. They are in charge of quality
control and product development. In conclusion the products were based of Japan
technology but marketed by China. It was a strange combination. How the company
runs were also weird. Personally, I thought they did not have strong suitable
applicable foundation. Some things were not regulated well. So many important
procedures were not existed. The daily regular activities which were supposed
to be able to run smoothly did not happen. Every day and every moments new
problems appeared and could not be solved well. One solutions create 3 new
problems. The people in management level who were in charge of decision maker
did not help to solve the problems. When a problem occurs they only blamed it
toward each other and tried to save themselves. I asked around to my some of my
friends from college who worked in another industries, that problematic
condition never happened to their company. Normally a company already had
strong foundation. Everything has regulation. When there was a problem, the
regulation provided a good applicable solution. It sounds I'm bad mouthing the
company but I just meant to describe the actual things that happened there.
Until I finally decided to
stop. I knew I was still capable in handling my works but I chose not to
continue anymore. After 2 and half years I got very tired. I got sick, stressed
out, and I missed my family all the time. The situation was not getting better
but even got worse that before. So, I thought enough was enough and I resigned.
I mentioned that I work in a
public hospital as administrative assistant and what are the conditions. Now,
I’ll tell more about what it is like to work here. I work in psychiatric
department in a public hospital. The hospital is also a learning hospital
meaning some of the medical staffs are students enrolled under university to
get their degree. The English term here I believe are attending and resident.
So there are attending doctors and nurses, there are also resident doctors and
nurses. I can only explain about the doctors system here. I don't know much about the nurses.
The hospital has some departments. Each
department mostly has residents, but not in psychiatry. We still don’t have
enough personnel required to open a medical degree program in psychiatry. All
of our psychiatrist got their degree from universities outside Malang such as in
Jakarta, Solo, Jogja, and Surabaya. Therefore, we don’t have residents. Just
attending doctors. My daily activities are normally not very busy. I do have
lots of things to do but they are not daily. Sometimes I have lots of free times,
sometimes I don’t have free times at all. It depends on how I manage my tasks
and know which task I need to prioritize more. One more thing, sometimes I work
alone, sometimes in a team.
I assist in everything I can, such as psychological
test, researches, filings, reports, schedules, etc. I can’t get into more
details about what I do. I will focus more about the people I work with and the
environment. First the people I work with are all amazing. Each person has strength and weakness but everyone treat another very kindly. No one has like
bad relationship with the other. There’s no one with bossy attitude. We
understand and respect each other. In my department there are 6
psychiatrist, 3 clinical psychologist, and 3 administrative staffs including
myself. The environment is different than what I used to. Before I worked in
Bekasi, it was an industry, big industry. It is a complete opposite with public
hospital. In private industry the main concern is to gain profit based on
goals, but in public hospital it’s focused on the health service. The academic
backgrounds were also different. Those lead to different personalities. In my
experience, I found people who worked in industry to be more hot-headed and
temperament. They were driven more by their emotions, not much their rational, though not all of them. I don’t
mean to insult anyone here. That was just my observation. Here in hospital, the
people are smarter and more logical. I like how they don’t blame on anyone when
a problem happened, how they work together and help each other anyway they can.
The way they communicate towards each other also very different. They are
polite to anyone. There is no seniority. I never felt like I’m being ordered to
do something. When anyone needs my assistance, they always ask me nicely. They make sure first that I’m not busy at the
moment, and then they would ask what they need my help with. There’s no one
yelling or being yelled at. It is very peaceful.
I’ve been working here for 3 years now. I obviously know lots more than when I first started. I get more responsibilities. They trust me with more tasks. However, if I see from future perspective, I don’t think this job is sustainable. Perhaps, there will be a new staff for my position assigned officially by the hospital. If so, then I won’t be needed anymore. Although, even if I still work here for unknown period, I don’t think I can keep doing that nor do I want to. There is no development for me career-wise. I’ll still only be an administrative staff.
I actually thought about this already before for more than once. The more I think about it, the more confuse I become, so I ignored it. I know it's not good. And then I chose to just focus on the present. But present won’t last, future will come, and what will I be then? Clock keeps ticking and moving. I need a backup plan, badly. As of now, I'm still working on it. Yeah. That's all I can say.
Wish me luck!
_Vhee_ ◕‿◕
and some friends ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ ᶘᵒᴥᵒᶅ(•ө•)♡
can you guess what animals are they?
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