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Saturday 10 January 2015

Popular Question

Some readers wonder what I do for a living, other than the obvious Domestic Engineer/Chef/Driver/Bibik/Madam-do-it-all-by-herself post I have held since 09.09.09. 

Well, in 2011 I obtained my Companies Commission of Malaysia license to practice as a Company Secretary and the license is renewable every 3 years on condition that I complete 60 hours of continued professional education, inter alia. 

Since then, I have been working with a private investment company. Majority of my drafting work is done late at night, after my kids have slept for the night. That can range from 8.30pm on a good evening, or never on a particularly difficult evening. Imagine the stress of looming deadlines, laugh not!

During the day, I try to schedule my meetings around school runs so that I can be as productive as possible. About 4 days per annum are spent in formal training workshops so my PIL help me watch and care for my children from 8 am to 6pm. For that, I am thankful.

Smartphones and 3G has indeed mobilised my office to a large extent. Board meetings are still conducted face to face but almost everything else can be settled online, fortunately!

This position pays my bills, and keeps me in the loop indirectly with corporate legal work that I have been professionally trained for and have had 10 years working experience before "quitting" the rat race in downstream oil and gas. I call it the ember of my career where given the right condition, it can spark and burn wood well again, figuratively speaking (imagine the hazard of an actual fire in an oil and gas company - no x infinity!).

My other job is pro bono for a charitable education trust. It is a cause close to my heart and keeps my passion alive through helping underprivileged students. Together with other advisory council members, we select beneficiaries, review performance of beneficiaries, device polices and plans to assist beneficiaries achieve more out of schooling life and generally support them until completion of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.

It doesn't pay my bills, but this portfolio feeds my soul and keeps ennui at bay. I feel that it is important for my children to observe and participate in this education trust from young so that they can always be thankful for whatever little they have, knowing that love and family unity values are important, appreciate good education, value education as a way out of poverty for many people and that it is our obligation to help as best as we can. I really pray for my children to recognise that this is His Blessings ultimately and that we are just vessels to channel His Blessings to deserving persons.

That sums up the answer to the famous question *smiles*. What about you, my lovelies? What do you do for a living? Do you have causes that you support? Please do share!

4 comments:

  1. Hi Mummy! How u doin? thanks for the post..heheheh..nampak sgt kepochi kan..hahaha..dont take it wrongly, i admire u so much that u get to take care of your children and able to work from home, that makes me wonder what do you do exactly.. myself, am an engineer by profession.. Works with the only commercial satellite in Malaysia.. remember we talked about me quitting and stuff? well, that did not happen. After series of serious discussion with le husband, we decided, i have to continue working. And the babysitter? it was disastrous!!! Sigh... We are still working on it. Hopefully my son will be okay soon.

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    1. Dear Dash Darus,

      Wow, an engineer! You have my utmost respect as I don't feel I can balance a work-home career!!

      Not KPC at all, pardon my long post in reply. It would have looked too long a comment in reply to your question.

      Thank you for stopping by. Do you blog too? Please let me know so I can link it :)

      Have a productive week ahead! Hope you will find a suitable babysitter soon, in sha Allah.

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  2. Assalammualaikum Hampshire Mummy,

    I was a litigation lawyer before I decided to cease practice 4 months back. I was taking my time off for the first couple of months to spend time with my family.

    Now that I am all recharge, I am currently looking for in-house job and at the same time, very much interested to apply for the SSM license like you. I discovered this post when I was searching for info about the license.

    Well I am still at the early stage of filling in and filing my form 48B, so pray for me~!

    If it is not too much to ask, I hope that I can ask for your guidance on this matter in the future.

    Lots of love,
    Wani

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    1. Wa alaikumsalam Wani,

      I hope you are well on your LS journey since this comment was posted.

      xoxo,
      HM

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