Closing a chapter - Moving on to a new job soon

Hi guys! Hope everyone is doing well. It has been a couple months since I last blogged - even then, this is kind of diverting from blogging about investing and stock market.

Then again, I suppose career is also a form of investing. Sometime back, I've mused about this as well.

A lot of people change job as they progress in their career. For me, the time is now.

A few weeks ago, I submitted my 1 month notice. It will be my last day towards end of first week of June 2019. Reflecting back, it was a bittersweet experience - there were many high moments, as well as hectic moments. It also felt funny as it was the first time I am resigning from a permanent position. Most importantly, I made new friends, some of which are close enough to be family with, and I learnt a crapton of things, and last but not least, meeting my wife there.

Ultimately, a few things drove my intention to move on, key among which are:

(1) Wanting to explore opportunities outside of my current role and outside of the industry
To share, I currently work as a QA Engineer in a manufacturing company (dealing mainly with oil and gas companies) and have been so for the last 3 years. Adding my initial 1.5 years in the same company in an Engineering role, that sums up to 4.5 years.

After some reflections, I felt it is time for me to continue pursue my interest in engineering. At the same time, I wanted to deal with something new (in this case, composites such as carbon fibre) and also part of my interest also and this offers me an opportunity to at least give it a shot. It is a bit of my unknown territory as I have

(2) Wanting to experience a working environment in a larger company
It is expected that in larger companies, one will be more focused on core role and I feel that is essential to develop further as an engineer. Stability and more control of my personal time comes under this consideration also (I have done a lot of OT to help the company meet deadlines). I am also keen to experience for myself how a larger company operates.

It is known working in SMEs will likely involve you putting on a few hats as part of your work - having adaptability is key. Having worked in this current company for 4.5 years, I have developed good understanding of not only my role, but also in a cross-functional manner. This had also benefited me in educating myself as an investor and trying to work with the POV of a business owner.

(3) Wanting to widen my experience beyond my current company as well
It is said that staying in a single company throughout your career can possibly limit your exposure to other ways of doing things, and it would be good to experience firsthand how other companies operate. You will be able to compare the differences and value-add to your new organisation through application of these experiences also.

(4) As usual, renumeration is also one of the reasons.
Being the man of the house now, it is all the more important I push myself to bring my income up, and as of now, I foresee not be able to continue investing at an acceptable pace without doing so. Every additional dollar saved and earned contributes significantly to meet that cause.

The first three reasons above makes it that I will not consider a counteroffer, but perhaps in the future there is still a possibility I may return to the company in the future - hard to say.

In closing:
This is closing of a chapter, only to start a new one. I am excited to start my new role. Having more time and energy (hopefully!) should let me put more time to blog more about stocks and investing, and plan my wedding dinner as well. Haha.