This is a guest submission by Sueann from OffbeatGirl.com

Last year, I quit my job again. It was a big relief for me: I was at the worst possible position that any junior client-servicing executive could be in.

My direct boss was the business development director, who hid behind me whenever clients were dissatisfied with certain projects. “Just ignore them,” he would advise me, “That’s the way they are.

They’ll go away after a while.” My boss didn’t like accountability, but I knew that this could not be the case with client management. So I often took the front line at battle, while that coward continued to stay out of sight whenever clients came calling, looking for him.

Un-Valuable Asset

The three months I spent in the company were the loneliest months of my life. The owners of the company doubted me since I was inexperienced, despite my managing multiple accounts at once. I was the only client-servicing executive in my team.

There was no team support in the company, even though I had asked for it many times. So I chose to resign. I gave a month’s notice, and to my shock, the management turned around and said, “Hey! You can leave this week. We don’t need you to fulfill that notice. Just hand your projects over and you’re done.”

I was not a valuable asset to them, even after I kept the company afloat during the times that my direct boss refused to speak to our clients.

Quite a story, eh? In fact, I have so many stories to tell about my various full-time jobs.

Culture Shock?

I’m 23, and I’ve been in 8 full-time jobs since the age of 19. Is that shocking? It’s a big shocker in Singapore. Some friends know my employment history and constantly chide me. “Can’t you settle down already? Do you realize how bad it looks on your resume?”

To be honest, I was once ashamed. I thought that it was me being fickle-minded. Maybe I was a quitter (literally) who would run the moment I was faced with adverse circumstances.

I found myself having to always explain myself whenever people asked me how come I always changed jobs. Every time I met a friend, their first sentence to me would be, “So, what are you doing now? Every time I meet you, you are somewhere new.” How could this be a compliment? I was quite embarrassed about my behavior.

Bad Bosses

I think people wouldn’t believe me, though, when I tell them that I’ve come face to face with some of the worst managements in my country. But that’s probably the truth.

I’ve had bosses who, threatened by my very existence (it must be the brilliance, ha ha ha), spent every second of the day plotting a way to expose my flaws to their superiors. One of my creative directors would sit at his desk, writing complaint letter after complaint letter about me to the boss.

I’ve also been an employee for very disorganized men and women. I would have to sit in the office till 11pm every night, waiting for my boss’s response, while he decided to head out for Happy Hour drinks with his girlfriend.

I was also a victim of groupthink. Many situations could have been handled differently if I was not so afraid of speaking my mind amongst some employees who believed that things had to be done ‘a certain way’.

For instance, I was not allowed to speak to Mr. Happy Hour till 11pm because “In this company, we just wait for him, that’s how it is here. No one questions.”

So many weirdos out there, I tell you.

Job Hopping 101

But what is my point of this story?

I am here to tell everyone that job-hopping is not a crime. It is not as bad as society puts it out to be. In Asia, everyone believes that they should stay in their job for their whole life before moving on.

Naturally, I’ve become a black sheep in the industries. Most people might be embarrassed, and I admit that I was, too, at first. But I’ve learned to be proud of my job-hopping experiences.

In fact, I probably take more pride in my work than some other lady who has stayed in her job for five to ten years but has gotten jaded.

Job-hopping has given me so many experiences. They say you start learning only after a year in your employment. Well, I’ve learned about different industries, management personalities, and project methods.

I know what kind of personalities I work better with, and the ones I shouldn’t even touch with a ten-foot rod. I’ve been involved in so much office politics that I could teach a course on how to manage it right.

But the bottom line is: Job-hopping has made me realize that I do not settle for less. To put it very simply, I leave a job whenever I know that staying another day is going to waste my time.

When I know that being in the company no longer will benefit me, I resign. I keep looking for better opportunities.

My Startling Realization

I started to think, “I can keep hopping from job to job, but I might never find the perfect employment. So why not create my own dream job?” It finally dawned on me that I should start working for myself. It was high time I ended the grind for good, and set my own rules.

I know for a fact that there is no company out there which would make me 100% happy, so why not pave my own happiness?

The digital agency from hell was my last straw – I didn’t want to go on a never-ending journey to prove my worth to others who didn’t want to trust me just because I was a greenhorn.  I wanted to prove to myself that I could be good at something, even on my own.

So I took my best skill and passion – my writing – and started to blog. I just blogged and blogged, unsure at first about the direction I was heading. I also flirted with many different business ideas. I attempted different projects. And I taught myself new things. But the beauty of working for myself was that I had time to write. This set me free.

At Last, a Job I Love!

It’s been almost a year, and I have never been happier. To this day, spending so much time with my own skills has helped me define what I should really focus on.

My job-hopping experiences have helped me to channel my writes into my current site, Offbeatgirl.com, where I promote unconventional jobs, and challenge people (particularly Singaporeans) to break out of the 9-5 to pursue their own passions.

All I’m hoping for is that my own experiences will inspire others in my country to do something for themselves. It is still a slow and steady start, and I don’t earn a lot right now, but the journey has been more rewarding than any job I’ve had in my life.

Oh, yes, and I’m not planning on quitting this job anytime soon. 🙂

Sueann is a passion advocate and believes that everyone should be happy and do what they love. She hopes to reach out to the world (starting with Singapore) and inspire them to follow their dreams, through her simple blog OffbeatGirl.com.

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