Photo by Studio Republic on Unsplash

Here's a little bit about me before I start my post. I have graduated from medical school since June last year. Unlike the foundation year program in UK that starts in August every year for medical graduates, medical graduates who wish to work in Malaysia usually have to wait for about 9 months or more in order to start their internships. Hows and whys I do not know but that is the way things work here in Malaysia. (Most probably due to excessive amount of medical graduates)

The long wait is certainly daunting, considering the fact that our friends have already started working for the NHS in the UK shortly after graduation. Apart from that, we cannot have a fix plan during these periods as we might be called for work anytime. Not only the balance in our bank accounts are approaching to a devastating one figure as months passes by, our skills and knowledge in medicine are slipping away from our brains as well as we are not practicing them at all.

Having said that I have tried to revise my books from time to time to keep the knowledge fresh in my head. While waiting for my internship I am fortunate enough to land myself a part time job as an administrative assistant in a small hotel. Of course, more often than not I do get peculiar looks from people and being asked for the reasons I am not taking up jobs related to medical field instead such as research assistants and clinic staff.

The reason is quite simple actually. I want to learn more about management and business skills that I am considerably lacking as I have spent most of my time studying medicine. Though the skills are not really connected to medical field at all right now, I believe I will be able to put them into good use in the future. Aside from that, I am really keen to experience the normal 9 to 5 jobs before embarking on long hours of working hours as a doctor in the hospital. (in actual fact I am in dire need of money to support my superfluous appetite)

So far, I have to admit that I have learnt a lot from my fellow colleagues as well as my boss. Perhaps lady luck was on my side, as all of them have not lost their tempers (yet) and are kind enough to guide me along while I am going through this steep learning curve. My current job is not entirely the most fun and exciting job in the world so I will handpick the most interesting one to spare you from boring contents.

Just like any other health freaks wannabe, I woke up around 7 in the morning (6.30 at best) and started my day with 15 minutes of meditation. Then I would do some light weight training exercise before getting myself prepared. After having my breakfast I would go to the office by car. Upon reaching office (about 9 in the morning) I got my finger scanned for attendance before heading to my cubicle and started my work by checking my emails.

After sorting the tasks for the day with my colleagues (we consist of team of three) we would spend our time doing the allocated jobs. When the clock struck (nearly) twelve, we get hunger pangs and we would crack our heads trying to figure out an answer to the most difficult question in the world, “Where to have lunch?”. Today happened to be my turn again. Dang it! Chinese? Malay? Western? Indian? Alright we would go for western (to cater one of our colleagues who is a vegetarian). Phew, survived another day.

We went back to office around one in the afternoon. We continued doing our jobs. Most of our tasks were based on projects that the boss was handling at the time being. For instances, we helped to set up several business startups after getting some novel ideas from the brainstorming sessions. Besides, we also constantly working to set up standard operations procedures for the entire company to increase productivity and efficiency of the staff.

I usually finished my job before 5.50 and cleaned my desk, rearranged my notes and turned off the computer before heading back. Occasionally, I would stay back for a while if there were  meetings with the boss to update him on the things that we have done since he rarely stayed in the office for more than an hour. I was back home around 6.30 in the evening, later if the traffic was bad.

Got home to enjoy a home-cooked meal by mom. Nothing is better than that. After dinner, I would watch the television for a while to catch up on current news (I sounded like an old man) and drama (back being youth) before doing some revision (always failed doing it because I was often  preoccupied by mobile legend game but I tried to. It’s the effort that counts right? #excuses). Also I would do some light readings on non-medical related books before heading to bed.

Overall, I would say that I am quite content with the job that I am having now as I am fortunate enough to have not only great colleagues but also an awesome opportunity to learn things that I have not been exposed to while I was in medical school. That being said, I will end my post here and hopefully tomorrow will be another great day for us to discover and learn more stuffs. Do stick around for more posts. Till then, cheers.