My Ex.

Next week, everything will be official -- I am back to doing reporting.  After almost 5 years.  In the finance world, this is crunching the numbers and making a report out of them.  Yes, I will soon be spending hours in the office month by month, ensuring all adjustments are passed and breaks are cleared.

You see, my ex-assignment was a start-from-scratch to a fully operational global process.  It deals mainly with finance architecture and because of the fast-paced culture of my employer, we do both projects and operations at the same time.  It was indeed a up and down ride so I credit my ex-assignment for the the maturity that I have now.

And to pay homage to my ex, I am listing down some of the notable learnings that I will carry for the rest of my career.

• You can work well with a person even if you don't see him or her.  You don't even have to be in the same timezone.  My former big boss is in London, one expert in London, too.  One more expert is in Sydney.  And the Manila team coordinates with a team in Tampa, which is literally at the other side of the earth.  We burned the phone lines most of the time just to coordinate.  See my overused office phone below.

From Iphone loads

• I learned to be a good time manager.  With my little boy, hubby, and the household, I still managed to join conference calls at night.  See my typical daily outlook calendar below.

From Iphone loads

• Managing a team zaps the energy out of you and it's hard work but it does make you a better person.  The hardest decisions I made in my career were not about me but about other people.
• You don't have to love your job to good at it.  And I would probably end up not loving any other job for a long time because my greatest dream is to become a historian.  With whatever job you have, you need to not hate it.  Your energies should be focused on the long term goals you have set for yourself. 

It has been almost a month since I started drifting away from my ex.  I am officially missing my old job but it was indeed time to move on and hop on another bus.

See you around, ex!  Cheers!