by Kristine | Jul 1, 2014 | Finance Matters, Super Secret Kristine Project
For those playing at home, that phrase comes form a local tv ad advertising the End of Financial Year sale for some cars. It is that time of year again & it has been a bit of a kick start to some new habits & a project. I used to be really good at keeping track of my expenses, but have dropped off as money wasn’t such a giant issue as time went on.
So I took the opportunity to kick start my expense tracking again. I’m using this app on my phone called Xpensy, which is really nifty & shows how much I spend in each category. Really helps me identify where I’m bleeding money the most or spending unnecessarily. Always good to know as I always seem to think I have more money that I actually have. Heh.
Also, have begun my new project, slowly setting things up and getting ideas onto paper and into motion. It’s rather exciting as I’m hoping that this project will be an outlet for my creative side that I’ve always felt has been rather under utilised. It’s all under wraps at the moment for good reason, I’m wanting to give it the best chance to succeed when I finally reveal it. But I am very, very excited about it to say the least.
So far, it’s been nearly 2 months that I’ve been in my not so new job now. As each day goes past, we keep finding more and more documents to be digitised or hardcopy archived, I’m still amazed at the amount of documents generated in the 7 years. The aim is to get everything cleared by end of August or early September but we will be doing it till we finish everything so when the actual finish date is anybody’s guess. My colleague’s initial contract at another project was 3 months, but it took her 1 year and 2 months to finish. I must say, now that I’ve slowly adjusted to my colleagues and settled in, the human interaction side of things are improving considerably. Actually talking to my colleagues is helping the time go past at work so much quicker, which is awesome. The amount of work I’m doing each day is also relatively high, so things will get done eventually, I’d say it’d be around the September mark. I’m actually looking forward to finishing up to be honest & move on to other things.
by Kristine | Jun 2, 2014 | Working Woman
I’ve done 2 weeks of full time work at my new job & I must say I don’t particularly love it, but I don’t hate it either. I’m a bit meh with it. Checking that physical documents match the scanned version & typing in codes to say that it matches for 7.5 hours a day is enough to make me see stars. I have to type in “DIGP0019” on each document and by the end of each working day, I’m starting to call it digpooig in my head. I have to find amusement in such things, or else I’ll go insane with boredom.
On the bright side, I’m allowed to listen to music or radio while I work, which is nice. I made it through the 1st week without listening to music as I was a bit unsure if that was allowed, but seeing that my colleague was watching anime while he worked, I’m pretty sure listening to radio is fine. Plus, I was outputting something ridiculous like close to 400 documents per day.
I can’t say I see myself in this position past the September deadline, it is way to mundane for my liking. It does pay well for the work I’m doing though, but I really miss the human interaction part of a job. Staring at the screen for almost 8 hours a day with barely a word spoken to colleagues really isn’t me. I know I am shy and don’t talk much, but going mostly the entire day without talking to anyone is starting to do my head in. They’re aiming for about 4 months for us to archive & digitise most of the documents left behind after a 7 year project, which isn’t too bad given that I’ve worked out that they’ve got about 30000 to 40000 documents to complete and aim to do 2000 per week. Those numbers scare me, but I’ve worked out in my 2 weeks there, I’ve done just over 2000 documents, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I’ve decided to stick out this 4 month casual contract, I was told that there might be work till December, but really have to play it by ear. Not sure that after 4 months of staring at the same types of documents, I’d be wanting to sign up for another 3 months of it. If any interesting library jobs come up after the initial 4 months, I’m going for it. Being on a casual contract isn’t entirely the best & I definitely do want to get back to a permanent role somewhere. But for now, this will suffice 🙂
by Kristine | May 16, 2014 | Working Woman
As the title will suggest, I’m finally gainfully employed! I managed to score an informal chat with a potential employer on yesterday and next thing I know, I’m being asked to fill in paperwork & induction forms for a Monday start. I am truly thankful for the job as I’ve been sitting at home, doing nothing for most of the time for the longest time and it has really started to take its toll on me. The job is not the best of things, but it definitely is a step in the right direction and the pay is not too bad. There are worse things that could happen I’m sure.
At the moment, I’ve got a bit of first day nerves and just want to go in and have a squizz at what I will be doing. From what I understand, it is a bit of data entry along with matching documents and ensuring compliance to the client’s documents and verifying things. It is rather vague but an opportunity is an opportunity. It is a step into the records management field, which is pretty awesome looking on my resume. Only downside is that it is casual work till end of September, maybe till the end of the year before being rotated if there are projects available. Am looking forward to finishing my Grad Dip & then fully throwing myself into library work when it is all done.
On the bright side of all this, is the opportunity to get some #ootd shots & to try on new looks! I will be working in the city which is rather dangerous when it comes to shopping. I’ve been really good for the past year or so, I think I deserve to splurge a little every now & then. Plus being Asian, I’ve already written up a list of things I will reward myself with, plus a budget to stick to. Can’t say I’m not prepared! 🙂
by Kristine | May 9, 2014 | Super Secret Kristine Project
I just had an interview for a part time position at my local library yesterday. I’m going to tentatively say that it went well, I don’t want to jinx the whole thing. After the interview, I ended up at the local regional museum, just so I could get out for a bit. I love museums to bits! Was really interesting to learn about the local history in my area and how the area came to be what it is today. I also ended up buying a cow shopping bag from the museum, just to add to my ever growing collection of cows 🙂
Anyway, after a bit of thought with the whole unemployment thing and the way the state and federal budget is going, I set myself a goal for a Super Secret Kristine Project to keep myself busy while looking for more work plus who knows, this might evolve into something and take on a life of its own. I’m hoping anyway.
Not giving out any details, but starting to project has gotten me motivated to blog more & to throw myself into this new goal. As an Occupational Therapist by trade, having no occupation at the moment is really throwing me off kilter. When I went to the optometrist the other day to get my eyes tested, the optometrist asked what I do for a living & it was a bit awkward to explain my situation. I didn’t want to say unemployed, so I used my fallback strategy of what I used to do & now I’m looking for other work. Beating around the bush isn’t exactly my thing, so it threw me a bit. This kind of is how the idea of the project started. I’ve had ideas in my head for a while, but no real push or drive to get things done. No time better than now, right?
Anyway, I thought I’d write that down somewhere so that I can look back & see the exact day I decided to take my future into my own hands & do something about it. Wish me luck!
by Kristine | Apr 27, 2014 | Eternal Student, Working Woman
Some of you might know that I’m a qualified Occupational Therapist (OT) but have never worked in a hospital or traditional OT role since I graduated 5 years ago. I fell into my previous job with a Disability Employment Service as I did my prac there and loved the job so much, that I never left. It wasn’t your traditional OT role, but I did enjoy the OT aspects of the role which included researching new equipment for clients and assisting them with obtaining funding for it. By the time I left, my traditional rehab type OT skills were non-existent, shall we say.
In my final year at work, I took the plunge and seriously explored library work as an alternative career. Why? Cause Matt made it look so enticing and to be honest, I’m a book nerd. Hey, I was always told off for reading at the table and actually tried to run my own library at home. Surely that was a sign? Anyway, it took me about 6 months to run the idea through before actually taking the plunge to start a Graduate Diploma in Information and Library Studies. I’m in my second semester (just over halfway through!) and I’m loving it. Ok, maybe I’m not loving all the assignment and essay parts of it all, but I’m enjoying that I’m being stimulated intellectually (oh, the irony!) and have goals to work towards.
I suppose it is quite tough moving from one career to another and I can attest to that. I’m currently unemployed and looking for work mainly in libraries as a library officer. Starting from the bottom, yo! I actually don’t mind it. Some people have the impression that I’m just settling into whatever job I can find, but honestly I love it. When I completed my 3 week prac, I was over the moon with what library officers to. There was little to no stress and pay was higher than my previous position (if you don’t look at the car and petrol part). I’ve put in some applications to libraries and hoping to hear back from them. I’ve also put in some applications for non-library roles, which are actually higher paying, but I’ll have to see.
Changing careers in your late 20s isn’t the easiest thing. But I figured, if I’m not happy where I am, I should do something to change it. I might not make the most money or be a millionaire by the time I’m 30, but I’ll be happy. And I think that’s the most important variable in this all. Plus, since I won’t be so stressed, I’d have time to pursue hobbies and things I like doing, rather than having sleepless nights thinking about things I need to do at the office or worrying about how my clients or their families might hate me and blame me for what’s happened to their kid. My health cannot take that kind of a lifestyle anymore. I’d rather be happy and do the things I love.
Recent Comments