Four Years After Quitting My Office Job: A Personal Reflection

As I write this, I can’t believe it’s been a little over four years since I’ve held this confusing job title. I say confusing because every time someone asks me a question, I tend to change my answer. Even my mother often struggles to explain what I actually do when someone asks.Doisometimes answer“I don’t know what I do for work, when I’m at home I just sit in front of my laptop. But sometimes I suddenly go abroad.”.

Sometimes I explain that I’m a freelancer, odd-job worker, or just to sound a little cooler, a freelancer. Sometimes I also explain that I’m afull time travel blogger at catperku.com. It’s not uncommon for me to introduce myself as a content creator to clients offering to collaborate on video projects.

However, I feel more suited to being called a worker.“palugada”, whatever you want, I have it. Besides sometimes I accept jobs just on a whim, it’s also because I have so much to do. But what’s clear is that any job can be done as long as it’s halal. Right?

However, I’m not saying that for no reason, because I’ve worked from the beginning.Software Engineer, SEO Specialist, Digital Marketer, Writer, Blogger, Video Editor, Speaker, Trainer, tocar washer And cake maker (Baker) my time in Australia. If you seemy portfolio is here, so I’m actually confused, I’mmulti-talentedor even oneMaster of NoneYes?

Experience While Still Working in an Office

Ps: The video above is just an illustration, as I’ve never worked at Pertamina. It was when I was invited to a site visit to a Pertamina field as a blogger.

As an Electrical Engineering graduate from Brawijaya University with a passion for the internet and software engineering, I started my office work as a Junior Programmer at an office in Bali. The office is calledPT Mitrais (www.mitrais.com), and this is my first and most enjoyable office. Why?

First, Mitrais is located in Bali, so while working there, I don’t feel like I’m working. Furthermore, during my time at Mitrais, there’s almost no overtime (in my two years at Mitrais, I only got two days of overtime on Saturdays and Sundays, which were then compensated with two days off. Plus, when clients came to Bali, my friends and I who worked overtime were treated to unlimited sushi! Isn’t that crazy?).

And Mitrais’s average closing time is…teng goAt 5 p.m., after I got home from the office, I could head straight to the beach. Even though I was often late, I felt like the work was still completed on time. Because the time allotted for each project seemed to be carefully considered, tailored to the programmer’s level. At least that’s how I felt when I worked there.

The downside to working at Mitrais was that the salary was fairly standard, slightly below the standard programmer salary in Jakarta. I don’t know what it’s like now. I worked at Mitrais from early 2011 to mid-2013. Furthermore, because it was located in Bali, I tended to be extravagant and hedonistic, and my savings were often wiped out (I spent a lot of it traveling, before I could work and travel like I do now).

Even though Mitrais’ salary was…standard, my side job was flowing quite fast. There was even a time when the income from my side job was alsoprogrammerThat’s much more than my monthly salary at Mitrais. Oh yeah, while working in Bali, I was also able to write a travel book about Bali.The Traveler Note Bali The Island Of Beautywhich may now be just a versionebookSo book royalties still come in, albeit in small amounts.

I actually really enjoyed working at Mitrais Bali. However, as a young person still hungry for experience and a small raise, I decided to leave because I found a new job. I was accepted to Samsung MSCI, now known as Samsung R&D Institute Indonesia, in Jakarta. The office is in Wisma GKBI across from Semanggi. I still have the same position, as a software engineer working with the .NET Framework.

At Samsung, the salary is decent, the holiday bonus is decent, and the bonuses are also good. In fact, after just three months, I suddenly received a profit-sharing bonus transfer because Samsung was making a large profit from product sales. But I only lasted about one year and four months at Samsung. It wasn’t for nothing, but I just didn’t really like living in Jakarta. Simply put, for me…Jakarta is a city that I hate but I can’t turn away from it until now.. What else, most of the projects come from Jakarta?

After moving to Jakarta, my network expanded. And the number of jobs related to travel blogging and digital marketing also increased. This is also what made me brave enough to decide to leave my office job and pursue a career.“odd jobs”Until now. Skills and portfolio are key, and networking is the catalyst.

Actually, after resigning from Samsung, I worked and was contracted as a travel blogger at a company called Reservasi or PT Reservasi Global Digital. My job description was to promote a reservation website that wasn’t even ready at the time. The way I did this was by creating a travel blog fromzero page views until hundreds of thousands of pageviewsper month. The blog is still there, the address isblog.reservasi.comIf you want to see.

However, I don’t consider working at Reservasi to be an office job. Although I sometimes work in the office, I can work from home freely. At that time, I was often invited on famtrips as a travel blogger. There were always one or two trips every month, and sometimes each trip would last one or two weeks. I could work from home too, because that was the deal I made when I joined Reservasi.

I only worked at Reservasi for about eight months and left in December 2015. I resigned from Reservasi aftermy Australian work and holiday visa was approved. What else could I do? This visa can only be obtained once in a lifetime, and with this WHV visa, I could also work while vacationing in Australia.

I called it a gap year, and also a survival test to see if I could continue working as a freelancer. It turns out, since returning from the WHV in Australia, I haven’t worked as an office boy again, and I have no plans to do so anytime soon.

Experience as a Freelancer for Over 4 Years

I’ve actually been doing freelance work since my final semester of studying Electrical Engineering at Brawijaya University in 2010. However, I’ve been working as a freelancer without an office since leaving Samsung. My work at that time revolved around travel blogging and travel-related work.

With my travel blog, catperku.com, I was able to earn a living and enjoy it a little. My initial income as a freelancer might not have been as much as when I worked in an office, which was in the double digits. But since I moved from Jakarta, my expenses have dropped significantly. The income I earn is commensurate with the freedom I enjoy today.

Yes, because being a freelancer means I don’t have a boss to fear or an office, so I can freely decide when I want to work and when to take vacations. I can also be picky about clients; I can cross off those who pay slowly or offer excessive offers. I can do this because I also have income from Google AdSense, which is actually enough to cover my monthly expenses. The only things a freelancer has to fear are laziness, the occasional deadline, and God Almighty. That’s all, because I believe that God has already arranged our fortunes, as long as we’re willing to work hard.

But of course, being a freelancer isn’t as easy as it seems. The consequence of not being paid is that you have to innovate every day. Innovating here means I have to keep learning every day.

However, compared to when I was in the office, frankly, I enjoy life more now. Besides still being able to earn money, I have more opportunities to learn and meet new people. Of course, that’s because I travel frequently as a travel blogger or influencer. Here, I have the opportunity to meet many great people and learn a little bit from them, which I can then use.

Working odd jobs has also successfully boosted my weight. When I was in the office, my weight wasn’t even 60 kg, averaging around 55 kg. But last time I checked, it had shot up to 70 kg. This is actually quite a lot, so I shouldn’t gain any more. It seems like I should also start exercising more regularly, like when I was still living in Sydney, Australia, in 2016.

How Long Do You Want to Be Like This?

I’m still enjoying my current situation. Even though I might not be getting paid, I don’t want to quit yet.

As of now, I have no plans to go back to the office again.. ( Update: Now I’m back in the office, the office name is Mekari as a Content Strategist, coincidentally I can also Work From Anywhere, and I’m quite happy there.(). I’ve previously thought about trying an office job in a position related to digital marketing or SEO specialist for a few years. I just wanted to learn and add to my LinkedIn portfolio. But that would only be if the salary was significantly higher than what I’m earning now.

However, for the foreseeable future, I’d probably prefer to work in my current job while learning to become a fish farmer in the village. There’s still so much I want to learn, so much I want to do as a free person. I don’t feel ready to wake up early, deal with Jakarta’s traffic, and come home after dark.

Rather, I’d rather work hard for myself. By the way, if there’s a project related to my skills and you’d like to collaborate, you can contact me at[email protected]Yes! Thank you for reading. I hope some of my life experiences will be useful to you.

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