Whenever you ask someone “So..what do you want to do or be when you grow up?”, they always have an answer because that’s something they have been thinking and decided on for years and years. “I want to become a lawyer!” “I want to become a doctor!” I want to become an accountant!” or “I want to become an engineer!” are usually the most common answers. When I got asked that question eons ago, I confidently said. “I WANT TO BECOME A BOXER!” Excuse me???
Over the last year and a bit, this question has been hovering around in that brain of mine. Having left medicine at university (Manchester) and then graduating with an Economics degree instead, to working for one of the Big 4 (PricewaterhouseCoopers Dubai) only to be let go at the drop of a hat after giving 5 years of my life after attaining my chartered accountancy as well. Now, I work in a job in the field I love but will I get anywhere here? I don’t think so.
From the time you are growing up and each year of school is gradually getting more and more important hence the parents’ more intense interest in what marks you’ve brought home. My parents never cared about what the other kids’ parents thought or how they were doing. They just wanted their son to do well and get into a good university, hence get a good degree and wagera wagera wagera (etc etc etc). My attention span has always been on the short side hence EASILY distracted but the parents still put me through tuition after tuition in biology, chemistry, physics, economics and calculus. Quite a lot eh? It helped. Got through A Levels eventually and then at Manchester University and back in Dubai in 2011.
I am constantly wishing i was like others, who are probably more settled in life and seem like they have direction and have a plan for themselves. For me, things are a lot different. I thought I would enjoy auditing and I didn’t. I was working very hard in the role I was in, yet appreciation was actually quite hard to come by. Accounting has never been my strong suit yet I think I gave it my best shot. On transferring out of that department into advisory services, things seemed to be looking up. I got to travel to the Maldives (ON CLIENT WORK OF COURSE) and also worked on some high profile clients. Yet, one day in March, it was rumored that heads were going to roll at the firm and all were saying “NO WAY THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN” and then post one lunch time people were called in one by one. I happened to one to be one of them. Walked in, sat down and heard this crap about how they wanted some people to take 3 months of unpaid leave with a view to come back to work post that.
Like the many idiots around, I had this strong feeling that I would be back at work in 3 months but on 30 July, I was told not to bother. So, from having a steady job and new fiancé, I went to being unemployed and this carried on for pretty much a year until I got accepted in to a B school in the UK, only to defer the acceptance for year to take my current job where things are definitely not as rosy as they appear to be, and so I am heading out for a year for my MBA and hence resigning from my current post.
I know the year in the UK is going to fly especially since my wife and I will be studying together but then what after that? People have their careers planned out and know where they are going to be and then there’s me; unsure of what lies ahead and yet hoping and praying I get to do something I love. Only time will tell.
Over the last year and a bit, this question has been hovering around in that brain of mine. Having left medicine at university (Manchester) and then graduating with an Economics degree instead, to working for one of the Big 4 (PricewaterhouseCoopers Dubai) only to be let go at the drop of a hat after giving 5 years of my life after attaining my chartered accountancy as well. Now, I work in a job in the field I love but will I get anywhere here? I don’t think so.
From the time you are growing up and each year of school is gradually getting more and more important hence the parents’ more intense interest in what marks you’ve brought home. My parents never cared about what the other kids’ parents thought or how they were doing. They just wanted their son to do well and get into a good university, hence get a good degree and wagera wagera wagera (etc etc etc). My attention span has always been on the short side hence EASILY distracted but the parents still put me through tuition after tuition in biology, chemistry, physics, economics and calculus. Quite a lot eh? It helped. Got through A Levels eventually and then at Manchester University and back in Dubai in 2011.
I am constantly wishing i was like others, who are probably more settled in life and seem like they have direction and have a plan for themselves. For me, things are a lot different. I thought I would enjoy auditing and I didn’t. I was working very hard in the role I was in, yet appreciation was actually quite hard to come by. Accounting has never been my strong suit yet I think I gave it my best shot. On transferring out of that department into advisory services, things seemed to be looking up. I got to travel to the Maldives (ON CLIENT WORK OF COURSE) and also worked on some high profile clients. Yet, one day in March, it was rumored that heads were going to roll at the firm and all were saying “NO WAY THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN” and then post one lunch time people were called in one by one. I happened to one to be one of them. Walked in, sat down and heard this crap about how they wanted some people to take 3 months of unpaid leave with a view to come back to work post that.
Like the many idiots around, I had this strong feeling that I would be back at work in 3 months but on 30 July, I was told not to bother. So, from having a steady job and new fiancé, I went to being unemployed and this carried on for pretty much a year until I got accepted in to a B school in the UK, only to defer the acceptance for year to take my current job where things are definitely not as rosy as they appear to be, and so I am heading out for a year for my MBA and hence resigning from my current post.
I know the year in the UK is going to fly especially since my wife and I will be studying together but then what after that? People have their careers planned out and know where they are going to be and then there’s me; unsure of what lies ahead and yet hoping and praying I get to do something I love. Only time will tell.
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