I saw the tree against the red wall and realised I had a shot worth capturing. All I needed was a person walking past to make it work. Heh, this was a lucky shot with no traffic in the way and I snapped it quickly. I didn’t realise that I left my camera on manual focus as well, but it was set close to infinity, so that saved the shot.

* * *

So I’ve been at work a few days now. There are differences I have come to realise.

This is a big organisation. Things are confounded by the levels of paperwork and bureaucracy that needs to be prepared to get things done. It’s the first time I’m working with a team that’s not so personal or close knit. Maybe I haven’t had time to gel yet, but my permanent office is 3 people in a tiny room, away from the core group stationed elsewhere, so it may take a while to get to know everyone.

I think I’m sort of the youngest in the group of analysts I am associated with. I’m also the only one who doesn’t seem to have any prior accounting work experience. I’m not quite sure what to imply from that. I’ve learned a few things over the past few days, and find that things seem to make sense easily, as opposed to the first time I started in my previous role, where I had no idea what anything meant. I’m learning to ask more sensible questions these days, so maybe it helps me understand things more quickly.

I have lost that timid response into getting things done, especially things that required me to interact with someone else to get an answer, hoping that anyone would point or help out with things. These days, I try to be proactive in finding out what I need to do to integrate myself into the running of things.

* * *

Other trivial things include the really pricey cafeteria food in hospitals, so I’ve been needing to pack lunch this first week. I see that my colleagues bring their own lunches anyway.

I personally dislike driving to and from work. Car maintenance costs and soaring petrol prices aside, I liked the time to and from work where I could just walk or take public transport. These activities require little hand eye coordination, so it allowed me to just think through stuff on a daily basis while waiting for my legs to carry me home. With driving, it’s a little bit more tricky and I have to be a lot more attentive with the road. I’ve counted it takes 35 minutes on a good traffic day to get from home to work and vice versa.

My previous role was a pretty decent one. We had our own kitchen to prepare lunches/tea, or in the case of New York, access to very cheap but tasty food. The hierarchy was small, so work was easily allocated and accomplished. If only I knew back then what I know now, I’d have been able to implement much better system changes to save everyone time and effort.

That brings me to an inkling I have on what I’d like to do in a future role. Heh, working again for a hedge fund would be nice. I’d like the role my prior supervisor had, implementing back office processes and checks for position reconciliations. Her method was more traditional and manual, I’d like to do something a little more automated. The idea of designing an efficient system for doing these things excites me, and while I’m not quite ready for it yet, feel that my current role provides a lot of background knowledge in key processes. A role I’d look forward to, if I don’t end up being a professional photographer sometime down the road.

The work schedule is pumping energy into my system again. I’m counting the days to Fridays again. Heh.