how much is your time worth?

a big 4 financial services firm may say that you are worth 3000 a month.
 a ministry arm in the government may say you are worth 3500 a month.
  someone else might tell you that you are worth at least 4000 a month.
what then do you say to the other organizations that offer you a job, and negotiate on pay? how much do you believe you are worth?

if you decide to work full time in starbucks as a counterhand or barista, will you demand for 3300?

 of course it depends on what job you are hired to do.

when i was fresh out of uni, i would go for whatever job that paid decent and had a good brand name. it would always be 'which brand was better?', or 'which one paid better?'. I'll just take whatever pay they give me. i dont know how much im worth anyway because freshgrads are apparently all the same - out from a factory, some kind of university.

but now i've tasted working in an environment where my strengths and likes are matched as closely to my work as possible, i know what it is like to be in my element and be valued for it. there is challenge as well, thus growth. i know this is one of a kind, and there may be no place else like this because it is quite the dream job. people like han cheng wont see it, they wont understand it. the recruiter from the social services organization wont understand it. maybe because they dont know how much i learn, and maybe because they dont value the things i value.

i've never thought about learning anything in construction or architecture. but the thought of going into something so foreign excites me a little. haha. i know that i will be taught well. and i know that i will be mentored well by people around me (not necessarily from the team). maybe being taught well is what attracts me, and knowing that what i'm learning matters to people who matter to me. haha talk about keeping personal away from professional right. i'd like to think that i have a proper sense of that.


 i know the long term goal is to reunite the two seemingly separate entities, and i know that there is a small push for change in that direction. but if i am working for people who are resisting the change, and the change does not happen, meaning that im just there to fill a gap in the current system, one year will pass very quickly and i will finish it with regret. then again, who do i expect to be the agent of change? if i want change so badly, what will i do about it? i'd hate to just sit and whine and not do anything because.. you either whine and act upon it, or suck thumb and make the most out of it.

and so.


three layers of choice making happening here..
it's not just the job.


1) which country will i choose?

2) which people will i choose?

 3) which job will i choose?

and the umbrella question would be.. how do i make a good choice?

ideas?