2015: A year in review - Challenges and Regrets

I have become very lazy about writing; perhaps I have been too busy at work. It is already August 2016 and I haven’t put any reminiscences of 2015 on my blog. Let me start. 

2015 started with a slow routine. I was working for a client whose office was near my home. For the first time in my Australian life, I started commuting to work by car. Because of my previous work locations, I used to catch a train daily for work, and in Australia, it’s more convenient to use public transport as compared to using a car. Anyhow, I have developed a few friendships at work, something that always helps me to get accustomed to a new environment. One of my colleagues had issues with my manager, and he resigned. Even though that incident happened in December 2015, its effects were still felt in the early days of 2016. For the rest of the first quarter, there was nothing worthwhile that happened which I can share. Let me jump to the second quarter. 

In May, I was contacted by a recruiter and offered a job at the Wyong shire council. This place was more than an hour away from Sydney. The salary was very good, and the timing was flexible, and, besides, it was a government job, so it was expected that there would be little work pressure. But because of my overthinking, I decided not to take that job as I thought it would break my routine as I had to relocate and blah blah... Anyhow, I decided to stick with my current job; a decision which I regretted for the rest of the year. 

After a month, my manager resigned. Later, some more colleagues resigned. My company was not doing very well in the market. They also started firing employees. The project on which I was working also had a road block. There were commercial issues between my company and the client. There was not much for me to do at work. I was mostly sitting idle in the office. Somehow, this made me lose interest in my current company, and I started to lose motivation to work. 

During that time, my parents visited me in Sydney. It was June 2015. Before their arrival, I changed my car and replaced my Toyota Camry with a Mitsubishi Outlander. That was a very impulsive decision. In fact, an hour ago, I was not even thinking of replacing my Camry with an Outlander. But somehow the sales guy was very good and I fell for it. Later, I regretted this decision a lot. My parents stayed with me for 2 months, and that was the longest time I had spent with them in the last 5 years. It was time well spent. During that time, my father planted an idea in my head that I should buy a house in Sydney, something I had never given serious thought to. Houses in Sydney are very expensive. Melbourne was somehow less expensive to buy a house in and, besides, we had already lived there last year, so I decided to relocate to Melbourne. For that purpose, I started looking for a job in Melbourne.

In July, my sister was visiting Pakistan from the UK. I hadn’t met her in the past 3 years, so I decided to visit Pakistan in August. I got a week to spend time with her and her family. I stayed in Pakistan for 4 weeks. I didn’t have a very good time there on that trip. I had an issue with my father about some petty things. He felt I was rude to him in front of everyone. Also, while remaining there, I was contacted for job interviews in Australia, which didn’t go anywhere. However, I was glad I was able to close a chapter of my life on that trip. But it did mess up my personal life for many years to come. I seriously regret it. Anyway, I returned to Sydney in September. At that time, I was still looking to switch jobs, so I resumed my job hunt more actively. I started applying for jobs in Sydney and Melbourne. I gave almost a dozen interviews, but I was not able to get through even a single one. I started feeling helpless. I also started losing the confidence and zeal required to perform in job interviews. In parallel, I also started having issues with my manager. In December, I was interviewed at PWC for a job, and I got affirmation from them that they were keen to hire me. They asked me to wait till January of next year to receive formal acceptance. In parallel, I also got a contract opportunity in Canberra. I don’t know why I didn’t refuse that contract job, but I decided to keep that option open too. I just wanted to make sure that I had at least one offer in hand. I decided that once I receive formal acceptance from PWC, I will decline this contract offer. But for this, I have to wait till January. What happened next? Read that in my reminiscences of 2016 :P

Overall, it was a very challenging year for me. I felt demotivated and depressed, mostly because of my work life.