The scene on Piccadilly as thousands of cyclists involved in the World Naked Bike Ride cycled a 10 km course through Central London. It was a “bare-as-you-dare” event but most people went all the way. If you were wondering, I took this on a slide colour film with my Holga, and then had it cross-processed onto regular negatives. This is why the colours are over-saturated. The vignetting and the strange focus are down to the Holga.

 

The WNBR started off as a protest against the dependence on oil and was designed to draw motorists’ attention to cyclists. But for most participants, it was just another “cool” thing to do. And there were tens of thousands of spectators, who even if they had not heard of the event before-hand, had lined the streets to cheer, ogle, take photos, etc. It just goes to show that if you had one guy cycling naked through the streets, he is mad. But if you had a thousand naked cyclists with funny hats, it becomes cool and something that you have to do to say that you were there. The purists of the climate change movement might decry this as “dumbing down” their arguments but if it gets more people out of cars and into bikes, even for a fraction of their journeys, then I think that becomes a success.

 

Last Wednesday marked the one-year mark since I left Singapore. At that time, I had given myself 12 to 18 months to find a full-time position. The plan was to have no plan but to try as many part-time jobs as possible to broaden my exposure and expand my networks. In the last year, I have pitched for jobs in Libya and Qatar; worked on a consulting project in Abu Dhabi; looked at entering the UK childcare and respite care markets; and talked to candidates about working in Singapore. On the flip side, I have also had my fair share of rejections. What actually hurts more are the non-replies. But after a while, it did not hurt as much because I stopped taking rejections personally and tried not to allow the rejections to eat at my self-confidence. That’s the only defence you can adopt because the name of the game is to get the one acceptance that is right for you and not worry about the rest.

 

What many people who make career transitions (I wanted to say people in my situation but I have quickly realised that there are very few people who leave the Civil Service to look for a job in another country) don’t readily admit to are the periods when all seems lost and you question why you did this in the first place. Because we only read biographies of successful people who inevitably spin or sub-consciously look at events in hindsight, we tend to think of life as a series of inter-connected events, one leading seamlessly to another. But I think life is not a smooth series of S curves, but something more closely resembling to a series of trading data where the overall trend might be upwards but if you look closely at any period, you will see small peaks or troughs. I only realised that I was not alone in having such periods of self-doubt until talking to others who have made career transitions and more importantly, have the self-confidence to talk quite openly about their personal trials.

 

Given what I said about my 12-18 month timeframe, it is seductive to think that things are going according to plan (as I wrote earlier, I had no plan) because I have just received a pretty good permanent job offer. It is from a smallish  company and I will be working with the founder to grow a global business. At the same time, I have been invited to a second round of interviews with one of the largish global consultancies in a practice that I have always been interested in. It is premature to talk about any offers from that consultancy but ultimately it will come down to a question of whether I want to work in a small, entrepreneurial set-up with all its ups and downs; or in an established consultancy which will open a lot of doors in my future career --- many companies want to see that you have had a stint with a top strategy consultancy before they even shortlist you for interviews. At the same time, after working for 10 years in a large bureaucracy, I don’t think that’s the type of life for me. And after having led a small unit for the last 2 years of my Civil Service career, I actually grew to enjoy the seat-of-the-pants entrepreneurial life.  

 

But my one-year has not only been about career. I have spent lots of quality time with GG and Tabea (when she chooses to tolerate me); expanded my photography repertoire; watched a UEFA Cup final; kept up with friends whether through facebook or when they are passing through the UK; and discovered the streets of Cambridge and London. If there is anything I wish I could have done more of, it would be to have read more.