Blackmail...

Interview went well. Better than I had expected...I think. Actually, I don't really know...

So, I've been musing around....

My "current ex-boss", KK, was not as supportive of me taking on this new job, not as much as I had hoped. I was quite taken aback, from all that he said during the talk we had a few days before I went for the interview. Not that he didnt think I would be doing a good job out of Finance, but that I'll be getting limited exposure due to certain circumstances surrounding that job. As such, he thinks that I would not be able to carve my career path in that direction in the long term, and if I do return to Finance line, my years spent outside of Finance could work against me.

To a certain extend, I agreed with what he said, especially on the circumstances that surrounds the job which requires negotiation and persuasion skills...and yet, I cannot agree with him that I would not be able to maximise and use this exposure to my advantage in the long run. I am of the opinion that there are ways to work around those circumstances, and still play the cards to my favour.

Fortunately, my boss, Andy, supports me and thinks otherwise, that this exposure will be extremely useful to me later as I would be able to learn the mechanics of the O&G industry. This would be valuable knowledge, and together with sharpened negotiation skills, I would be able to give value-added advisory services which any O&G company will find useful.

I'll take my chances, whether the "game" I play turn out in my favour or otherwise in the end. Life is always a gamble anyway...but being an accountant, I'll make sure that I'll be taking "calculated" risks as much as possible.

The interviewer called KK up immediately after our interview. Apparently he was quite impressed by my background, and KK thought I was so "d*mn good at impressing" the guy...Of course, what KK meant was, that he thinks I "talked big" to the guy just to impress him. Actually, my interviewer merely asked me what kind of work I did when I was in UT and in the merchant bank, and whether I was involved in negotiations before. I explained what I did back then, and told him what negotiation deals I was engaged in and the specifics of the work involved. Nothing extraordinary.

KK had never asked me about my previous exposures, as he didnt care much about it. To KK, I am accountant, and the Accounting line best suits me. Never mind that I hate doing accounting work, because I am good at it. After working for KK for 8 months, he acknowledged to me, Andy and Mike (our Finance Director) that he was impressed at my steep learning curve and the in-depth knowlegde I have about SAP.

But he forgets (or rather, choose not to see) that I also have other skills and exposures not accounting related (although could be finance related), and this is where my interest lies. I truly believe that if we have a passion for something, we will learn very quickly about everything there is to it, and as a result, we'll do a great job on it, and hopefully, come out of it largely satisfied.

Finance in my company consists mainly of accounting and reporting work, 85- 90%. I try to spend about 10-15% of my time to perform system and process improvements to enhance accuracy and efficiency in our financial data and reporting, while developing and instilling in my staff the importance of understanding the end-to-end processes. I am fairly good at trouble-shooting because I always try to make sure I understand the principles behind the set-up, which not many people bother about.

However, that is not where my passion lies. I enjoy doing research and valuation work, looking for angles where approach can be used to maximise value for the company. Perhaps if I had not done corporate advisory work in a merchant bank before, I would very likely be quite happy doing what I do now.

Nonetheless, I am working towards trying to steer my boat in the right direction.

Sadly for Andy, since he came on board last month, several vacancies are in urgent need to be filled as the budgetting cycle will soon kick-off in March. As a result, Andy has tried to negotiate with me a "deal", where I need to help him out to fill another urgent vacancy for a couple of months. This will hold me back from my transfer for about another 6 months. I am not keen to help him out this time, because he has, on one too many occassions, thrown me into the choppy sea and expected me to swim out of it towing the boat behind me.

This is not a vacancy I would want to fill even if I was in dire need of a job to pay my house mortgage!

I'll have to figure out a diplomatic way of worming myself out of this one. I don't want to seem like I am ungrateful to him for helping me to get the transfer, and yet I don't want to get my hands dirty with the pile of garbage waiting in that position. I hope he doesn't "force" me to do it in exchange for that transfer...you know, like blackmail?

So, again, wish me luck so that I dont end up having to do another "rescue" job for Andy...at my expense and unhappiness.

Direction

It was in November 2006 when my 2nd quarterly probation form was due for completion to be signed and handed in to HR.

My boss had then wanted to confirm me in my employment although officially, the probation period for a new hire was 12 months. It was apparently, not uncommon that management would want to confirm a staff earlier than the 12-months timeline, unless that staff was exceptionally bad in his/her performance.

At that point, it dawned on me that I should also be thinking about my career direction. Up until now, I had gone along with the flow of things, unsure of where I wanted to be or what I wanted to do.

After 6 full months of managing a staff of 6, doing cost management accounting and reporting (50%), budgeting (30%), cost recovery advisory work (10%) and process improvements (10%), I find that I had benefited in many ways. I now understand the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) environment better, have a better feel of the cost and system setup in the SAP system, stumbled upon many faulty areas and fixed up about 80% of these (the 80-20 rule applies, good enough), trained my newly graduated staff in analytical skills, and fostered better relationship with the more veteran staff.

KK was the boss I worked for when I first came into this company. Andy, my ex-boss 5 years ago, is now my boss again effective Dec '06, as KK has been transferred out to do special projects and Andy has been transferred to take over KK's position. Both my bosses have been giving me positive feedback on my team's performance, and commented on the driving force behind my team's improvement.

However, almost 9 months has passed since I came over to Miri. Overall, work has not been particularly exciting for me, pretty mundane stuff although I managed to make a few improvements and changes here and there. I am, not surprisingly, already itching to look for something more challenging to work on. At the moment, the most challenging part is to try and get the people around me to co-operate to get results. While there are some who are eager to listen, contribute ideas and work together to make improvements, there are others who cannot seem to want to get out of the "old ways" of doing things, and worse still, many do not even know why they are doing things the way they have always been doing it!

My bosses tell me that I have to do some form of "expectation management" within myself, so that I may handle situations better, and be more patient with the responses I receive most times. True, I confess that expectation management is an area I very much need training on.

All these had played a role in my recent decision... to reject confirmation of my employment. I have never done so in my entire 10-years of employment history, rejecting early confirmation.

The way I saw it, why commit myself to the company when I cannot yet see the light at the end of the tunnel? Talking to both my bosses, KK and Andy, has not given any results. I had asked to know how long more I needed to be in my current job before I can move on to something more business-related, less accounting- and reporting-related. I had gotten wishy-washy responses, non-commital replies, that they will look for something which might suit me more "soon". When they asked what I was interested in, I was very specific in my respond (Investment Finance or Mergers & Acquisition team) but was disappointed again to be told that the job I am interested in is for "high level" people, so is therefore, currently out of my reach.

First, they tell me that they are "very impressed" by my steep learning curve, and my strong leadership qualities which lead to my team getting back their sense of direction, and that they are happy that I was able to make improvements especially in the system which, in some areas, had not been properly setup for the last few years, causing reporting hiccups and countless manual adjustments.

Then, they slap me with the anti-climax statement that I am "not ready" to be in the Investment Finance or Mergers & Acquisition team. I am "too young", I dont have enough industry knowledge and my CEP (Current Estimated Potential) points (an appraisal system currently practised) have to be assessed at "Senior Management" level before I can even think of being positioned in those teams.

Well, if I'm outstanding in the normal operational jobs, but yet, not good enough for the "high flying" jobs, is there anything else in between for me, to earn that "mature credibility" and "industry knowledge" they are looking for, to move on up?

They could not give me an answer...instead they asked me in return what other jobs I may be interested in (more "realistic" jobs).

Last week, I finally decided to go and have a chat with my Finance Director, Mike T, to find out what other kind of jobs there are in the group of companies globally. He told me a few, which sounded relatively more interesting than the usual accounting and reporting jobs, but ended by saying that, again, I am "too young" and do not have enough industry knowledge. I left his room feeling more down than before.

I have, hence, decided to continue to look for more suitable jobs elsewhere while "serving my time" here for as long as it takes. In the meantime, I shall make the best of my situation and get the most out of my experiences.

Seeing my lack of enthusiasm in the career track the company offered, my sudden chat with the Finance Director, and my hush-hush phone conversations outside my office grounds (KK and Andy happened to stumble upon my secret rendezvous), Andy and KK has quickly reacted to recommend me for an upcoming job opening, which I acknowledged interest in.

I am due for an interview sometime soon, so I may find out about the job scope. I hope this job can offer me that in-depth industry knowledge I look for, so that it''ll be beneficial for me in ANY oil & gas company... and I hope that accounting and reporting functions will only form a minor part of the job scope, if at all.

I am supposed to keep this confidential until the matter is settled. So wish me luck in my upcoming interview! Hopefully I make it through with flying colours. Otherwise, it's back to my mundane management accounting role!