I have resigned!

I have resigned from my post as a Program Administrator in my company in Nov last year. The reason I gave to my boss and others is that I have to take care of my 2 daughters. Somehow people find it hard to believe and kept on probing me to tell more. They even thought I have been going to interviews on the sly. Some colleagues thought that my husband must be so capable to be able to provide for all our expenses.

The truth is ............ resigning in order to take care of my daugthers is one of the reason.
Another reason is that I will be helping my husband and his business partner (his brother) to manage their company's account, HR, income tax, KWSP, Socso, banking etc. In other words, I will still be working but in the comfort of my own house where I can help my parents-in-law to take care of my girls after 5:30pm everyday.

However until now, I am still working part time in my company due to I am kind hearted. Gag!! I agreed to work on mornings to train the new PA until she is familiar with her job. So my actual resignation day will be on 7th May. (Checked on Chinese Almanac that day is an auspicious date. Hehe.) I don't think there are any other people who takes half a year to resign. Reason I agree to help out is that I can still cope with my workload at home and I do not want to lose touch with my 'outside world' so fast. Not because of the salary but it won't hurt. I do feel more relaxed to go to work everything morning knowing that I can be home in early afternoon.

When I was working full time, it was just horrible. When i saw the icon on the bottom right of my monitor showing 5:00pm, I will get panic and think 'How can I complete today's job? What task should I leave out so that I can go home at 7:00pm? Should I e-mail some of my files home so that I can continue to work at night/ on weekends? Will my parents in law feel tired having to take care of my kids for so long? Am I a bad Mum because I do not accompany my kids the minimum recommended 3 hours every day? Etc etc' It was a horrible experience to go through the cycle everyday. Let's just say I am very lucky indeed and I am very grateful to be able to escape from 9 to 5 job. (or should I say 8 to 8 job?)

Crossroads in My Career

An asistant manager from Engineering Department asked me last week if I was interested to be a Product Engineer. I asked him 'Why?'

He mentioned that he saw me doing my job well that includes stepping into technical details and co-ordinating among departments. When he found out that I was from engineering background, he told me to let him know anytime I would like a switch in my career.

His offer really made me think hard. Should I go back to a career involving technical requirements again? If this is really what I have wanted, I should have stayed to be a QA Engineer 2 to 3 years back and I would be in senior position by now. If I make a career change, have I wasted 2 years in Business Unit department in my current company?

I am trying to analyse the reason why I would even consider this.
1) I was not given an upgrade/ promotion during my last performance appraisal although my superior has been recommending but it was disapproved by top management
2) I just found out the salary increment/ promotions for executive level is far too low/ slow as compared to engineers
3) Being a Product Engineer is also a right career path to achive my goal in my career. It is more high profile and noticeable to top management so reason no. 1 will not happen

However, I like the job I am doing now but am I under-achieving? Although I am very busy in my work that requires for me to stay back until 7:00pm some days, can this be done by anyone else? Is my job easily replaceable?

If I stay at my current job, how soon can I reach my goal?
If I switch to engineering department, will I have to start from scratch again in terms of positions and grades but will this allow me to get promoted faster?

Nothing is decided, I will just wait for another performance appraisal end of this year and see how it goes.