First post of 2017

It has already been a month and 15 days since the start of 2017. Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day has already passed and this is my first post for the year 2017. I think this year so far has been kind of a “next phase in life” year. Watching Scandal on YouTube, I just realized that a good decade has passed and the School uniform guitar jamming girls have evolved into young fashionistas. Not to mention, they have gotten more attractive!
I have been thinking what my first post of the year would be. And seriously, right till to this point, I still cannot think of a particular topic to start the year with. I had tons of ideas and feelings and memories that kind of floating around my mind. All of them shouting “Pick me! Pick me!” seriously like a bunch of ladies attending the Ellen’s show.
Scrolling down Instagram, I start to see some couples celebrating Valentine’s Day with their kids and some couples celebrating their successful proposals. Holding Victoria in my hands last December also kind of like “Whoa…this is Sam’s kid”. Totally surreal kind of feeling.
Do I miss the young times? I recently commented on 22 years old as younglings. Crap I am f**** old. In any case, I did spend some time thinking back and I think some memories are loosening their hold on me already and some I can still remember as it was vividly. The emotions attached to my secondary school days are slowly fading; most and even my primary school are now just memories, emotionless memories. Part and parcel if you ask me. Haha.
I no longer have the “Do you regret anything?” faze; maybe I kind of out-grown it.  Or maybe my mindset has changed a little. Might probably because life gotten a little stale. It’s true that one’s growth ties exponentially with tough times.
Someone once commented that as we all grows older, our circles get smaller, and we start to shed the excesses. When in our teens as well as school life, we always have tons of activity going for us. Clubbing, Gaming, Chasing girls and just hanging out, oh and of course mugging.  As soon as we got settled into working life, time suddenly got hyper inflated in value and it begins to be an opportunity cost game for most of us. Leading us to shed our excesses in life and be selective with our social interactions.  It will be further downwards from here once a kid pops up.
Pretty depressing and gloomy right?
Well since 2017 is a year for the dragon, must be more positive! Come on! Hahaha
Yesterday, attended my first introduction to UX design workshop at General Assembly. Pretty cool place, like those tech companies in the states kind of layout. I was rather intrigued and excited about UX design and felt that I can relate a lot to it. However, taking a step back, UX designers are still not considered like hot property in companies yet and I reckon it will take some time to catch on. It’s great to know that local banks have been actively using UX experience to create their products these days. I guess as like all designers, one must have a good portfolio before one can grab a job no matter what your qualifications are.  GK felt that I am more suited to the technical aspect of stuffs though I personally feel that I am not so much with the technicalities. When I created my spreadsheet and macro for settlements team, its true I learn and read up on excel and implement.  However, I need to do a design of the process before able to use the excel formulas to get the results I want. In any case, I am also attending a Data Analytics course on the 27th at GA too, so we shall see how that goes. I am pretty stocked about being able to learn new stuffs for some reason. I am most probably bored.
I am also trying to kick start my CFA mugging sessions again and now am committed to going to office early so to mug for a good 50 minutes before Kok Whee comes in. Seriously, after chatting with Kevin, whom is a hedge fund manager, it seems to me that research analyst in the long run might not be the way to go anymore. As more and more people do their own DD, less needs for research departments. He did recommend me to try to head to Investment Councilors or Services side which we do have in BNP SG. HR told me they usually hire like 8 to 10 years of experience workers, so it's a bit of a challenge for me to enter given where I am now.
That’s partly the reason why I am also exploring the IT industry as well because I believe that my current skillset and even CFAs are not really enough. Besides, I can’t deny that IT is pretty fun and cool and it's the future. Maybe I can get a place somewhere in the FinTech area too.
Time to get the year started! Fighting!!