Last night, a friend from Ernst & Young (EY); my first full time employer, got married. Unlike any other wedding party, I was a little bit nervous on my way to the wedding venue. I was going to meet the people in my first professional job. Even though I only worked for EY less than three years, my short tenures with this Company was still a major contributor in my career achievements.

Working for EY has taught me how to be tough. You may be tired and lack of sleep, but deadline is deadline anyway.

I learned how to be confident and went talking to the clients even though I was just a fresh graduate (read: a newbie).

I also learned how to build a decent working paper, how to solve accounting problem efficiently, and some other survival kits you need to fight on finance and accounting battlefield.

I even still remember some of my seniors’ advice:

1. Not documented, not done;
2. Do not let anything pending on you. It has to be pending on someone else, always; and
3. Fake it until you make it.

And did you know? I would never get my jobs at the two companies after EY if I didn’t have working experience at EY written in my CV.

Resigning from EY was another milestone of my life. I loved the Company, I loved my team, but I just couldn’t stand working as an auditor. I used to tell my teammates this and that about my dream job and then I truly left. I knew, I just knew, auditing was not made for me.

It’s been more than five years since I left EY and almost everyone in my former audit team have left EY as well. And then last night, I met them again. I only stayed in touch with a few of them and it was really nice to meet many familiar faces from the past again!

Most of my friends came to the party with their spouses and kids, of course. Intimidating? Apparently not! None of them asked me when I would get married, and nearly all of them asked me about my career instead. We talked about how I liked my current job, my bosses who really trust me to run the Company, and the most discussed topic was about my business trips (they know how much I love traveling). Last night, the more I realized… I’ve got everything I always wished for in my career.

Finding in a dream job is pretty much the same in finding myself. I’ve got to try everything the Company can offer to me, the ups and downs, learn from the mistakes and restart from the scratch again. And then when I find “the one”, it does really make my life feel complete. I know what I want, what I’d love to do more, I know where to keep up and where to improve myself.

People says that I’m already good at my job, but the truth is, I’m still learning. I still have a lot of flaws that I’ve got to work on. Having said that, it’s still nice to know that I’m already on the very right track. It’s nice to know that I left EY for something better; for a brighter future, for a path toward my dream job. Insyaallah! 🙂

Staying or leaving your current job, either way is okay, as long as you know that you would do awesome in whichever decision you make.