Today marks the official 1 week of my work. I have worked in this company (www.fusionsystems.org) for 1 week already. And here are my reflections...

It started out with a loud bang. Within the first hour of my first day of work, I was called to a meeting at a potential client's site. Now, I have absolutely no idea what's going on, given that it is my first day of work. So I tagged along and tried to listen as intently as possible to the mandarin conversation conducted by one of the partner. My mandarin is good. I can understand...but it is the terms, or rather the business terms, that I'm not understanding. In addition, I'm in the technology sector, so there are more terms to learn, this time, it is the technology terms. ARGH.

For the rest of the week, I was dealing with an internal renovation project. The company has been expanding rapidly and thus it was necessary to move into a new premise. The same partner was in charge of this because of his mandarin ability. BUT he was going on vacation so I took over this project (just to keep an eye on them). What can I say? Negotiations are tough. I had no idea on what they had previously negotiated, so I had to pull in a few partners and ask for their views and what to do.

And, for that same client meeting, I was tasked with writing the proposal. GREAT. Except that this proposal has to be in mandarin. EVEN BETTER. The whole week has been stressing over the proposal. So I have an initial draft in English...and then we'll (me and another sales person) will get around to translating the draft. I have 2 more days to do it before submission of the proposal.

That's about all that I have been doing...
Not forgetting that I had to look for an apartment to stay, open a bank, book an airline ticket to go to HK to do my work visa permit, sit in on presentations, meet other people..............

And the funny part was that, when I accepted the job, I had no idea on what I was supposed to do. First day of work, I still don't. Second day of work, a better clue. Third day of work, now I know...I am a solutions consultant. Someone who goes and talk to the client and write a proposal recommending some sort of IT solution for their business needs. This position supposedly requires a business understanding (need to be able to talk business and understand the needs of the company) and also a technology understanding so that I can translate the business needs into technology solutions. I do not do the implementations, that will be the responsibility of my company's excellent engineers.

That's it for me...Will update more. The partying over the weekend has been fun though... :)

Just back from Singapore for a week of holiday. It was quite fun, meeting up with old and new friends. Attended a wedding in the process too...ah, those Chinese weddings. Good in the sense that you get to meet old friends...Bad in the sense that there are never a lot of interaction involved with strangers. Hmm...something has to be done to make it easier to meet new people at these weddings...

Tomorrow I will officially start work. So, I have decided to post about all the companies that I have applied to and was DINGED. If anything, this should be an encouragement to all who read this post that if you are experiencing failure in your job search, you are definitely not alone. Keep the faith and you will find something. I am refraining from posting the rejection responses (though some are really comical), for fear that this post will come back to haunt me.

And now, let the list begins...

ABN Amro
AT Kearney
AXA
Booz Allen
Bain
Barclays
BCG
Bertelsmann
Brambles
Calyon
Carrier
Citigroup
Credit Suisse
Deloitte
Delta Partners
Fidelity
Foundation Strategy Group
Goldman
Google
Honeywell
JP Morgan
Lehman Brothers
LEK
Macquarie
Marakon
McKinsey
Monitor Group
Moody
Nokia
Parthenon
Redpill
Roland Berger
Samsung GSG
SAP
Shell
Siemens Management Consulting
Skype
Thomson Financials
UBS
Verified Identity Pass
ZS Associates

So basically I have applied to almost every type of company, bank, consulting firm, industry, technology...and if there is anything that I have learnt from my rejections, it is that the whole process is BS. I have basically found it MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to get an interview if I were to ask someone from within the company to forward the resume. Going through the HR? a waste of your time. Sometimes the resume did not even get to the correct locations...!!!

Just continue and strive. Talk to people...that's the lesson that I have learnt.

A week has passed and my old problem is arising...As time flies by, I would get lazier and forget to update my blog...happened with the last one. Will try to avoid the same thing with this one.

In addition, for some reason, I could not access my own blog site within China. So there's less incentive to blog when I have no idea how it actually looked like.

I'm now in Hong Kong for one night, enroute to Singapore. I have accepted a job offer from a startup in Shanghai. So I will start working next week. This is my last week of FREEDOM before work starts to swamp me.

It is funny how human beings are...and I am totally aware of it even before I experience it myself.

When I didn't have a job, I was panicking and trying all means to get one.
Now that I have one, I am dreading the thought of starting work.

Am sure that most people could correlate to this feeling.......
So I have 1 week left, and will spend it in Singapore with family and friends.

You know, I just have to say it...

There's this thing about China that just irritates me. The metro...a ride on the metro is an enlightening experience on mainland Chinese behavior.

1) the metro sometimes have a smell. it is not the cleanest of metros that i have taken...maybe some lines in Paris' metro system may be worse...but regardless. the people actually use the metro as a form of transporting THINGS. it is very interesting. there are a bunch of people just sitting behind the gates...and they will sit there and wait for someone from the other side of the gates to pass things to them. then they will take those things and take the metro to wherever the destination was supposed to be. and because of that, there is this smell........

2) the metro is also full of litter. there will usually be 2 guys running from end to end of the metro and pass out small advertising cards (usually for airlines tickets). hey, don't get me wrong, i think this concept is quite cool.......except that if you keep doing it, the train gets filled with small cards. and these 2 guys just keep doing it again and again...

3) the queuing to get onto the metro. my goodness, that is truly an experience. say, for example that you are the person seeking to enter...at one end, you have people trying to come out of the train and at the other end, you have people BEHIND you pushing me to go in!!! it is like being sandwiched between 2 immovable objects. despite the calls to let the people get off first, these people just push and bang their way in. it does not help that the doors stay OPEN FOR ONLY A SHORT TIME. i would think that if the doors would be opened A LITTLE BIT LONGER, perhaps there will be less pushing and shoving.

4) last but not least, and the classic, the sitting...why people push to get in, is to rush into the empty seats. sometimes i wonder whether it is because that it is their first time sitting on a metro. i remember this instance vividly...there's a small little gap between 2 passengers. for a local, that space is more than enough invitation so squeeze onto the seat. so this lady made a beeline for it. this girl beside the little space decided to expand herself to remove the space. so this lady could not get to sit. this lady basically stared at the girl and then walked off in anger. my goodness...is it that important??? and the other instance that i'm going to say is even worse. i took the train with my friend who is PREGNANT. NOBODY, and i mean NOBODY offered to give up their seat for my pregnant friend. what's the world coming to??????????? has manners really died in the land of China? and the funny thing is that our culture permeates into other countries like Japan and Korea...and those people took the notion of courtesy to great limits. how ironic!!!

enough venting for a day...
i cannot view my own posts on the blog website for some reason. maybe china does not like blogspot in general.

A few days since my last post...

The blogger website is giving me fits. I cannot really see what I have published. Hmmm...

Nothing much to update. Still going around meeting new people and establishing contact. If I want to enjoy life in Shanghai, I should really get to know more and more and more people. Never thought I say this, but that's the truth. :) Over in China, knowing people helps you to get to different places.

In fact, I met this girl that is the owner of the Coffee Bean chain over in Shanghai right now. Wow...impressive and even smarter on deciding to bring the franchise over here before everyone else.