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$1300 less

Some people would call us plain stupid. That’s the amount of monthly salary KK is giving up - the difference between one job offer and another - because he aspires to get behind an office desk and draw up building designs for the first time in his life, instead of getting all hot and sweaty on a work site which he's done for 10 years. 

In a nutshell, his Masters (if it comes through and it should) has finally opened the door for him to join a design consultancy and with a year or two of designs under his belt, he will then be able to try and become a certified Professional Engineer which is, I gather, the top echelon of the profession and which is where I hope he will finally make big bucks to feed us all. 

Come Monday he dons his spiffy new work shirts and heads off to an air-conditioned building somewhere in Thomson to work, for the first time in his life, as a Design Engineer. 

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God bless, in the last three weeks since we returned he hasn't even had to browse through the Classifeds. Potential job openings came unexpectedly fast and furious from his marvellous network of engineering friends, whom he had simply called to say hello after his year-long disappearance. 

Four out of five, however, were for site jobs - the kind which require wearing of hard hats and work boots and tramping around very dangerous construction sites for six or seven days a week. 

One particularly hard-hitting and unreasonable interviewer was, I reckon, so desperate he demanded KK take up the job on the spot. His offer was admirably high. 

KK called me for an opinion. I said: Site jobs are always available but this may be your only chance to get into a design firm. Admirably (in my opinion though some people would say he is stupid) KK stuck to his guns and decided to start from scratch on the design board.

 Thankfully, his new taskmasters think the same. Even though he's got absolutely no design experience, this is what they think (as worded in an email to him): "Your interest to move into design is admirable. To take on design after over 10 years in the field is usually very challenging. However, I can see that you have the determination to see this through, just like the way you did your Masters." 

And even if KK is getting less than his last-drawn pre-Sydney salary, I'm just glad he got his foot in the door. To good times ahead ie a Professional Engineer husband who is also a Master's degree holder!

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