Job change

I'm a business reporter now.

Last Wednesday my editor pulled me aside and said there was an opening at the business desk, and was I interested? She listed a few advantages of moving to the business desk, the chief one being better prospects for my future. She gave me two days to decide.

In the two days I spoke to several people, including two reporters from the business desk who told me I should join them, my friends from the general desk who practically begged me to stay and the Russian, who said I should do what I wanted.

Eventually I drew up a list of pros and cons. Well, I was going to, but then I realised there was no point -- there were only two cons against many, many pros:

Cons:
Sitting far away from my general desk friends (though still in the same office)
Having to buy a different set of French textbooks for the Saturday classes

Pros:
No more working weekends
Learning new skills
Not having to bug my friends for soundbites anymore
Better career prospects
And many more factors I shouldn't enumerate on a website

When my editor told me about the opening, it felt like a very important moment. For the first time in my life, I felt a very strong feeling of opportunity come knocking. It came looking for me. I didn't have to do anything. I wouldn't have to sit for a test, not even an interview. All I had to do was say yes. And I also had a very strong feeling that saying yes would open many more doors ahead.

A few months back I wrote about how my dreams were dying. When this opportunity opened itself up to me I felt my dreams surging back to life. There were options and possibilities now; I could choose not to be at a dead end anymore.

And so, obviously, I said yes. I had my first day at the business desk today. It's still too early to tell whether all those visceral signs were just chemical misfirings in my brain or if this is really the start to something good. But I did have a fun first day. I am learning new things, and getting intimidated all over again, but also excited. It excites me to know that in a couple of years I'll be an expert on business and financial issues, issues that I've usually been so afraid of.

I don't know if it was just that this opening came by right at the time when I was fully and truly cynical about general news reporting in Singapore, or if it's maturity, or that I've become a full-fledged bourgeois capitalist myself, but for the first time in my life I feel no fear or distaste towards learning about business and finance. It all feels like it's happening at the right time.