I wanted to blog about it a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I was too tight up with various tasks and issues that need to be settled first. I have resigned from my job as a process engineer. My last day working as an engineer was 30th June 2008. The next day I was officially working as an educator (I like to use educator more than lecturer because it sound better). I would like to take this opportunity to share my experiences on the few last days as a process engineer and my first few days as an educator.
Previous job chapter….
After being accepted as an educator I tendered in my resignation letter to my superior. It was a really mixed feeling that time. Is this really true? I really wanted to be a lecturer and I've been trying hard for 5 years. I could not believe it when I received the offer letter in my house mailbox. I thank God for providing me a chance to fulfill my wish...
What happen to my previous work place… Oh…my plant operators gave me a Parker Pen. I haven’t use it yet because surprisingly there is no ink in the pen!!! Maybe they just bought the pen, wrapped it up and gave it to me. BUT the most important thing is the thought. I missed them and I believed they missed me too… 
On my last day, my boss arranged for a surprise lunch. I did not expected that. We enjoyed the lunch but I did not ate very much because I was sitting exactly in front of my boss!!! So, although my desire ask me to eat some more, but my right brain asked me to stop consuming more food. Uhhh…. what a waste…..
After lunch, with some assistance from my wife, she helped me ordered 8 pieces of 12? pizza online. It was a lot cheaper ordering online compared to calling them. You should check it out if you still don’t know about it. On top of those pizzas, I ordered “pisang goreng (fried banana) and cendawan goreng (fried mushroom)” delivery. All those pizzas, fried banana and fried mushroom were courtesy from me… a person who is going to leave the company… I treated my friends, operators, fitters, technicians, store people and others who have been very cooperative to me during my stay at the company.
At 5.30 pm on that Monday (my last day at job), I shook my hand with my office colleagues. But when I shook my hand with one of my senior colleague which has been close to me and mentored me a lot… I felt very very extremely sad. Suddenly I felt so sad that I could not help it. Without realizing, tears dropped while I was driving home leaving the company I served for 3 years and 22 days. It wasn’t a long time but honestly I felt like working at that company for 5-6 years. I’m finally free from that type of “factory pressure”…
Before this, I have to be 100% alert all the time on everything that is happening at my plant. I have to know and ensure smooth operation of the plant 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. When ever there is a problem in my plant, I need to ensure that it is settled as soon as possible. I must answer my superior and sometimes to the head quarters for any problem or downtime occurring in the plant.
Please don't be mistaken. I'm not saying that I don't like my job as a process engineer. I liked it a lot very much, indeed. I've learned various aspects of technical knowledge, project management, management skills, manpower management, social, political issues throughout my position and my stay there and I've been sharing some of them in this blog. However, I think I can contribute more when I'm in the academic line. I can educate the young going to be engineers, I can do research work, I can become a consultant, I can do publications, attend conferences and the list simply goes on. I'm more flexible and I know it is going to be a better career for me.
Being an engineer for almost 6 years have given me the real exposure on how to be a good profound engineer which is indispensable for the company. Hopefully, I can educate the students better based on my experiences in the oil and gas field and also the refinery life.
My New Job
I have been in my new job for almost a fortnight. It was quite a solid pact 13 days as I was assigned a lot of tasks. So far the job is not really relaxing but it is still better than my previous job as a process engineer which has more intense pressure. I realized that my new job as a lecturer/educator requires me to be more discipline compared to my previous job. We have the time flexibility and we must know how to manage it wisely. We cannot misused the flexibility given to us. I have my own room @ office, and It is mean for people like me to work more effectively and efficiently. I have my own large working station, sofa, huge rack etc. I just requested for a 2 drawer metal rack to lock my important stuffs, just in case. My wife’s office is just 20 steps away from mine… 
. Oh yea…we have the magnificent wifi facilities and that means I’m connected to the net all the time…
However, besides all that, the real challenge for me are preparing for the class and also deciding on the research I'm going to do for my pH.D. I need to do some extensive survey on what research I should conduct for my pH.D this coming semester. This is going to be my future because my career will be based on what research niche area I’m indulged in. I need to be an expert in certain area so that I can easily develop that area without competing with anyone locally. So far, I have brainstormed, searched and listed a dozen of research title. Most of them are directly related to renewable energy and reaction / catalysis engineering.
If you have any idea what field I should research in, please feel free to tell me. It should be something meddling with chemical engineering > reaction engineering. Some example of the research is hydrogen production from H2S splitting or from syngas production, biofuel production using catalyst via catalytic plasma reaction, and biodiesel production using heterogeneous catalyst instead of using NaOH which is a homogeneous catalyst.
Special note:
Although I'm no longer working as a practicing engineer in a plant, I'm still an engineer serving in the academic and research arena. I also associate myself with the industry and other engineering institution society. It is my goal and objective to share my knowledges and experiences to engineering students, young engineers and other practicing engineers so that they can benefit positively from this blog.
This is a newspaper cutting from a local paper "Utusan Malaysia" 5th July 2001. This was when I'm doing my Masters in chemical engineering - "Single step conversion of methane to gasoline using zeolite catalysts".
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