First post of the new year! I just reread the first post I wrote in 2012 were I reflected on what happened in 2011. In a way, 2012 was vastly different from 2011 in that I really adjusted to life and work in HK. I spent a lot of time in the office that year, probably 1.5-2.0x more than I should be...
Highlights of 2012:
January. Visited Oat and Mahalia in Thailand and had a pretty relaxing trip.
February. Ran the HK Standard Charter half marathon. There were too many people and I was way out of shape.
April. Parents visited. We went to Thailand and Singapore and did a lot of sightseeing.
May. Coworkers started leaving. The team became pretty bare boned at one point.
June. Started working super overtime. Went to Guilin for a long weekend.
Sometime between June and October: 2 all nighters in consecutive weeks. Hit milestone at gym. Got below the daily fee rate!
October. Went back home for a month to take exam and then road trip to Seattle with friends!
December. Went to Shenzhen for a weekend trip. Went to Taiwan for Christmas
I think overall for 2012, I did a good amount of traveling and made use of the distance between HK and other places in Asia. Hopefully I can continue this for 2013. I got a 1 year visa for Mainland China sometime in June so really need to make use of that a few more times.
I also changed roles really rapidly at work. When I started, I happily adjusted to the role of assisting other engineers in my team. I learned a lot and made a lot of progress as far as learned technical knowledge. But as soon as my coworkers started leaving, I had to pick up a lot of work that I didn't have to deal with before. To complicate things even more, a bunch of fresh graduates arrived just as everyone was leaving. So not only did I have to pick up a lot of coordination (non-technical) work, I also had to train other people. Just as I was able to walk steadily on my own, I had to guide other people along in unfamiliar territory. We always ask people how long they have been working and it is really comparable to babies and toddlers. A few months makes a world of difference.
1 comment:
Haha yes, good comparison. Especially at the beginning of one's career, it's very much like being a kid - you learn so much at the beginning. I saw a baby yesterday and thought - nevermind learning facts, this baby still needs to learn to be potty trained and to walk!
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