Where do you see yourself in 1/3/5/10 years?

Whenever I hear the question 'Where do you see yourself in X (usually an odd number, unless it's a nice number like 10) years?', my head voice goes:

Congratulation! 

You just hit my top most hated question for an interview! 

I got it several times during my job search days last year, and memorably once with this particular hiring manager of a reputable MNC. I don't think she liked me right from the beginning, cos I certainly didn't. She was so unbelievably full of herself, folding her arms, sizing up people  from the corner of her eyes and all. 

So when that 'WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 5 YEARS' question came along, I just couldn't take it anymore. 

I looked at her - I think my disdain for her professionalism (or lack of) was rather evident as this point - and said, "If you are really looking for a honest answer from me, I would have to say I really have no idea. Right now I am a fresh graduate, I still have so much to learn about the job and the industry, let alone discovering my forte and potential. I -" 

"Alright in that case, then I don't think this role is very suitable for you", she said, cutting me off mid-sentence. 

Seriously, she went through a formal education on Human Resources Management (well that is an assumption ofc) and THIS was the best she could do?! 

Alright I GET IT. She might have wanted to see if I was a realistic yet ambitious person, and to judge if THAT level of ambition was appropriate to the role. But asking that question was just downright meaningless. 

First of all, the candidate would never have the full information to give you either an honest or meaning answer. How was I supposed to know what I would be doing unless I actually start doing the job? It's like everyone perceive the task of being a teacher is to teach, but the truth is Singapore teachers spend almost an equal amount of time doing paper works. So was she asking me to give her an summary of my career plan based on my fresh-grad understanding of the job?

Second of all, let's say I actually said boring things like "I plan to get my basic skills and knowledge familiarized enough for the first year. For the next two years, I would aim to challenge myself by moving beyond my stipulated responsibilities and be more involved in the decision-making process. Next I would....(insert vague-sounding bullshit that has no basis)". Would she then tailor the progression of that role to my answer? Well yes, only if I am that one (or 10) person in the world who can do that particular job. So if she's not going to do that, wouldn't it be more meaningful for both of us if she were to tell me honestly what the company has in plan for the role that I was applying for? 

To be honest, if I were a hiring manager (and I was actually forced to ask this question) and someone actually answers with a full elaborated x-years plan, I would offer him/her an agreement right on the spot based on exactly what he/she just said - nothing less nothing more. I can be 100% sure that it would make them doubt their answers RIGHT AWAY. 

Why?

COS NO FUCKING PERSON CAN KNOW WHAT THEY WANT TO DO IN THE FUTURE UNLESS THEY ARE JUST FUCKING BORING! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I FEEL LIKE EATING TOMORROW, AND YOU ARE ASKING ME MY PLAN FOR 365 x X DAYS?!

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND?

All in all, HR managers who ask that question give me this impression that they are just too lazy to do their job - which is fundamentally to use their professional eye to sieve out traits in the candidates that would be a good fit for the role and also the company. These traits could not be derived from their resume, nor by a mere one-liner question like that.

To cap things off, here's a video by Anna (yes you are right, we are on first name basis. If you count how much of my life was spent listening to her) on the same fucking question. UGH.

Please Don't Stop Wandering

For the past 9 months, I have unconsciously morphed into the typical corporate person that I had detested the most since my school days.

1. I wear light makeup to work everyday - those kind just enough to tell the world that I am presentable and trashy.
2. I wear booooring office dresses - black, grey, navy, knee-length, pleated, tweed... and blend in perfectly into a iStock office photo.
3. I wrap myself with a shawl at work due to the merciless air-con and when I get out for lunch, I avoid outdoor places cos the heat is out to bake me.
4. I get bored at work most of the time and start to blog more frequent, but at times I get so busy that I can hardly squeeze for time to gorge down my lunch.
5. And the sad truth is, I busied myself out doing absolutely valueless things most of the time - gathering news, updating database, generating excel tables, sending chaser emails etc.

So when I came upon this photo of myself wandering along some Norwegian streets, I felt something in my mind. Something that feels really distant but nonetheless precious.

How I miss that self of me. 

I was inquisitive, my mind was fresh and energized. There seemed to be meaning to my every day and every day was passed memorably. 

Is that kind of life only possible when one is young and carefree?

Does growing up mean to become dull and losing that shine in one's soul?

It's hardly a year, what would I be at the end of my life?

What would time do to you

"time is TIME" installation at MDW2016 by Citizen. 

On this date a month ago, I was having a day that could only be described as agonizing at the very least. 

A month later today, I am here sitting at my desk, pressing on my chin pimple and feeling my pulses underneath it (which is making me slightly irritated. It's as if my pimple is silently morhphing into its own life and devising an eventual coup d'etat against me). 

One more month later on the 15th May, I will be having a severe post-holiday blues from a 2-week Taiwan trip (IMMASHOEGGPSYTA!!).

Such, is the nonchalance of time. 

It has no concern of your state at the current moment, let alone promising to give you the same thing again after a fixed (yet insignificant - cos really, what makes one year so remarkably different from one year and one day) interval of time.

Thinking on this line of thought, it seems like wedding anniversaries are as commercially manufactured as Valentines' Day. 

OKAYZ REALISATION ON HOW LIFE HAS CHEATED US ALL ENDS HERE.

NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE WEEEEKEND!

On this note, isn't it funny how human pretend that they only have 2 precious days of weekend by voluntarily depriving themselves and planting their asses in offices for the other 5 days? And yet they are always overjoyed when they claim back the 2 days which they already had in the first place.

somebardy stops me here plz.