31 Sunday Oct 2010
Posted in Totally random... it may not make sense
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29 October 2010
Xiong offered to make cup cakes for me to distribute to my colleagues on my last day. I took up the offer because I always believe that people who do not treat will always end up coming back (I did not treat the first time I left the firm)
Take a look at her work:
19 Monday Jul 2010
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This blog is not dead. I just have not been travelling hence there was nothing to update except that I convinced my staff to organize a diving trip to Tioman in August. And so, I have been jogging and I am finally running 4KM in under 34mins quite consistently just to make sure I am in the best condition for the dives.
Anyway, it has indeed been quite a while since I conducted interviews. It has been even longer since I met some out of this world characters during the interviews!
Just last week, my HR executive, Mel, handed me a huge pile of resumes for me to choose which I am interested in meeting. I plough thru the stack rather quickly and shortlisted 12 in the end. Yah, I have 12 interviews in the pipeline.
If you happen to be a fresh grad reading this, just bear in mind that all fresh grads are really the same, made using the same mould in some self proclaimed world class factory call NTU, NUS. SMU, SIM or sometimes, in my context, ACCA.
So how does the damn interviewer identify suitable candidates since everyone appears to be the same? Language ability lo.
Many a times, a candidate would include a nicely drafted cover letter to the resume. Frankly, we all know such sample cover letters can easily be obtained from the internet. But for god damn’s sake, when you kids copy cover letters, can choose one with proper use of the English Language or not?!
If you think carefully, resumes are all in point forms, its difficult to pick out the weaker candidates just from the look of the resume. If you do not write in point form, you are killing the person doing the selection process. Nobody has the time to read thru your so-called achievements. All the interviewers most probably achieved more in their lives than you can imagine else there is really no point in you working under them. Most importantly, everyone wants to go home before the dot!
And so, I selected the candidates I wanted and Mel graciously called each and everyone of them to fix an appointment for the interviews. The first one kicked off last Friday.
At fresh grad level, there is not much you can really ask except thing like tell me about yourself? what do you know about us? why us? blah blah blah
I did the usual and this was how the interview went:
Me: What do you know about us?
Interviewee: I know you do alot of china assignments
Me: Why us?
Interviewee: Because I want to travel
Me: You say you have a friend working here, so what have your friend told you so far?
Interviewee: She told me there is a lot of entertainment in China. A lot of drinking.
Me: ok
Interviewee: But I don’t drink
Me: Why?
Interviewee: Because of my religion
Me: Har? What religion are you?
Interviewee: Christian, a conservative Christian
Me: Har?
At this point, I was stun. Here I have a Chinese Singaporean chap sitting in front of me, telling me he does not drink for religious reason. In the first place, simi si conservative Christian lei?
Me: We do not have a choice whether we want to drink with client or not. Drinking is just their gesture of welcoming us. I cannot guarantee that I only send you to clients that do not drink.
Interviewee: So China is not an option huh?
I nodded.
The result is obvious. I rejected him and Mel informed him on Monday morning.
Guess what?
This young Chinese non drinking chap called up Mel and asked,’ Can I know what I did wrong during the interview?’”
ARGH……………………………………….
We know we are not suppose to discriminate but hey, don’t you think you should have assessed your own suitability before applying for a job?
I just felt like I interviewed a non Chinese speaking chap telling me he wants to join us to go China. So what you want me to do? Be your personal translator?
19 Friday Feb 2010
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Recently I was thrown a joint project with the HK office. Out of kpo-ness, I checked thru the contact list the moment it arrived in my mailbox. My responsibility in this assignment does not start till March and I was extremely busy during this period, so I was really wasting time doing bo-liao stuff.
To my surprise,, the partner in charge in HK is NT. Ok, NT, if you know what It means, is a pretty common name in HK.
I went to the HK affiliate website to confirm is this NT is that NT I know!
YES, he is!
There is a reason why I remember NT so well. He was the man who introduced me to the world of IPOs when I was in the Ex firm. He was the SM and I was a senior then. He was the one who taught me how to check a prospectus, which I am still doing today. He walked me through the how-to of checking board memo aka profit forecast.
In short, I learnt some really useful skills from him during my short-stint in the Ex-firm.
And my role in this joint-project? To check prospectus and board memo of cause!
02 Tuesday Feb 2010
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It came and went.
The locksmith came to unlock my door. I found the keys in my room. Decided to let the matter rest. But my poor luck did not stop here.
This morning, we were informed the per diem will be dropped from $60 to $40 per day.
It was meant to be a discussion, meeting or whatever you call it. But it did not turn out the way its meant to be. We were forced to accept a paycut by some asshead.
And he tried to make it sound like we all agreed to it.
I hate this more and more.
I really need to start counting down….
30 Saturday Jan 2010
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I had a lousy first day back in Singapore.
I happily went back to work after a session at the hairdresser. Today is Saturday mind you. Just as I was driving into my office car park, the security came over to tell me I can no longer park at lot 56 come Monday!!!
Someone from my office had bought season parking and was allocated that lot from 1st Feb onwards!!!
For those who are not aware, I have never bought season parking for my office car park all these years, I have been paying on a daily basis since I am not in office all the time!
I am evil, I hope that person who bought my lot get his car boot ramped… FLAT!
I took the lift up to my office, I found the door to my unit unlocked! I couldn’t be bothered to think too much. The door to my room was closed but I was not concerned at all until I tried to turn the knob!
BLOODY HELL!!!! ITS LOCKED!!!!! WHO THE HELL LOCKED THE DOOR TO MY ROOM!!!!!
I went up to the admin floor hoping that someone there can help me get the master key!
I was very relieved to see my admin manager in her room. She opened the key cabinet where ALL the keys to every single door in my office are kept!
!#$%^&*(#$%^&*( My master is not in there!!!!! It has always been hanging on my own bloody door!!!!
We went thru much action thinking of ways and means to open my own door. My admin manager even asked if someone was trying to sabo me or was i working for the infamous partner. In the end it was decided that the lock smith will be called in on Monday…. ARGH!
But the unlucky day did not end there. The piece of plastic connecting my lanyard and my access pass SNAPPED a few hours later!
ARGH… I really do not know enough vulgarities that are readable to describe what has happened today. If not I will be swearing away in every sentence of this post!
17 Sunday Jan 2010
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| This week, I had the opportunity to be a recipient of an anonymous mass email sent to the entire organisation. This came from someone who claimed to be an ex-employee. Obviously, there were some unhappiness over the behaviour of a certain top management and the low pay that triggered this act. The sender had quoted an on line article on how some global competitors had re-instated the pay cuts. The sender hopes our management would do likewise (I was loss when I read this as we did not suffer any pay cuts, nor did we cut down on promotions/salary adjustments, all due promotions/salary adjustments were promptly given out despite all the reminders from top managements to do otherwise) I will not dispute what was written in the email even though I do not agree that it is 100% factual. Everyone has the right to display their unhappiness in anyway they like although we are constantly being reminded that this shouldn’t be done at the expense of others. When I read the email, I can’t help but feel disturbed. How low will one scoop to ask for an increment? It’s an open market out there isn’t it? OK, I admit my company has some practises like bonding a new-joiner for the first 2 years and the penalty for breaking the bond is pretty harsh. But everyone signed the employment contract on a willingly basis, is it not? And for those who are not bonded, the competitors are recruiting aggressively, aren’t they? The sender mentioned that the semi-seniors in competiting firms are being paid 4k, shouldn’t the writer be spending valuable time writing a nice resume to the HR manager of the competitors instead? Which leads to more questions. If you had been unhappy in an organisation, and now that you got a new job that pays much more, would you waste time sending such an email? You will just be glad to get out, wouldn’t you? The email says a lot about that person, the level of maturity and the mental state. Nobody in the top management of any organisation will allow themselves to be threatened by such an anonymous email. Even if they had been thinking of adjusting the salaries upwards, such an email would have thwart such plans. Giving you an additional $500 today would means you will send another anonymous email to ask for a $1,000 increment six months down the road? I am disgusted, it means you, the sender, had ruined my chance of getting any increment this year! In case you are not aware, my rank had indeed not been given any increment for the last twelve months! How old are you may I ask? If your parents do not give you enough pocket money to buy the next pair of Nike shoes, you can go ahead and leave anonymous notes around the house. They will relent. But your employers are not your parents. They do not owe you a living. If you think you are not earning enough, any mature/capable adults will seek alternate employment. Not sit around and hope the situation will change to his/her favour. If you are really an ex-employee who thinks you can shake up an organisation just by sending an anonymous email on your departure, I pity your new employer. You are definitely childish, thinking you, as ONE individual, will be able to change the world.You do not understand unity is strength. You will not suceed in life! You are most welcome to prove me wrong when you have made your mark, but I am very sure that day will never come because you do not have the brain matter. Which leader has ever led a revolt by writing anonymous letter? You need to stand out, in front of everyone and convince your compatriots that your idea works. If you dare to walk up to a certain door, knock, introduce yourself and state your wishes, I will look up to you. Clearly you are not able to do that. Even more apparentnt from the email, you do not even know which is the right door to knock on. But I cannot deny that your anonymous email had perk us up during this busy season. It was an entertaining week indeed. |
22 Wednesday Aug 2007
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