I've Been Thinking...

You know, I think actually, the kind of job that might suit me best is that of a journalist.

You know why? Because I was doing this online career-cum-personality profiling test just now, and some of the questions made me sit back and think deeper about what I really am.

And hee, I think, putting all the pieces together after looking back at my life, e.g. my personality, natural talents and thinking style and past experiences and even personal vision and dreams...

I realised that the following strengths, skills and interests that I have all seem to point towards a career in journalism:
- I'm naturally curious and love to investigate new things... to probe deeper and find out just exactly what people are feeling and why they think the way they do. (Sometimes I go too far, as some of my friends can tell you!)
- I love to read the news, and find out what's going on in the outside world. I have a strong sense of social justice and feel indignant whenever I see injustices being done.
- I did very well for my General Paper, and have consistently done much, much better for my essays than for my programming assignments.
- But that's not to say that my programming experiences have gone down the loo - continuous sessions (we're talking 72 hours in a row) at the keyboard have served to develop a patient mental endurance that is invaluable in stressful and tight deadlines.
- I find it so much more enjoyable to work with words rather than numbers.
- I love to blog. (600+ posts and counting).
- I love to listen to people sharing their stories. Nothing touches me more than a powerful story.
- People have consistently pointed out to me that one of my greatest strengths is sincerity, which hee, yah thank God for that... and actually, I think this sincerity has saved my backside on more than one occasion. Like what HY said before, that when it comes to knowing me, the proverb "Don't judge a book by its cover" is so true.
- And I realise that I really enjoy going for job interviews - not so much the job itself, but the sense of satisfaction in being able to get the interviewer to start sharing more about himself and about his company with me. (I count it a personal victory when I can get the interviewer to talk more about himself than he can get me to talk about myself! *hahahaha* XD)
- And how God faithfully answered my response during the church camp's altar call for people to influence the media industry for Christ.
- And so on.

Wow! Hee... but the main problem with choosing a job in journalism is mainly because of stress, tight deadlines and *ahem* rather low pay. Maybe that's why God blessed me with this software engineer job... so that I can get the necessary moolah for the time being to support myself and my family for the next few years or so. And to save up too.

It's been a circuitous route. But a very wonderfully circuitous route. Kinda like going around and around the mountains and valleys to reach point X, whereas a simple highway would've sufficed. But the view that you experience while on the mountain of the Lord is something that no man-made road can ever offer.

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will."
Martin Luther King