Journey through life

2007-06-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

10 June 2007.

Just within this weekend, I had attended parties for 2 friends that are leaving Shanghai for Singapore...

What can I say? Shanghai is truly a transitional city. People come and people go. Maybe that also makes it easier for everyone (especially the non locals) to mix around and get to know people. These two friends, I have only known them for like less than 3 months...but still I consider them friends because we have had lunches, dinners, parties etc together.

I'm going to switch to a new job very soon. After an agonizing week of deliberation, I decided that it is time for a change. Will I succeed? I have no idea. But I decided to take on even more risk now and see where that road will lead me to. Perhaps at the 5 year reunion for my INSEAD class, I will declare myself to be bankrupt...:)

2007-05-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Wolfowitz is guilty.

To be honest, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this.

He works for the World Bank and am sure of the laws. So what could have led such things to happen?

1) he really thinks that he is ABOVE the law and could break the laws/rules and not be punished.
2) he is very dumb and didn't bother to cover his tracks. I'm sure we have watched so many cop-thief shows to know that we have to cover our tracks. I mean, even the lowest person in the government knows the importance of covering our tracks.
3) he really think that he did no wrong...Well, I applaud his bravery and wonder where his warped sense of right/wrong comes from. If you have read my post before about Paris Hilton, you will understand that I'm very concerned over this right/wrong thing that pervades our society this days. What I would say as "relativity"...we are all wrong and right, all depends on which perspective we are looking from.
4) and of coz, just for fairness sake, he did not commit any wrongdoing (but the World Bank seemed to refute this suggestion).

Well, for one, I'm glad that such people are caught and punished.
But I'm not glad about the fact that there are such people in such institutions.

Okay, I can understand if there are corrupted people in private institutions and how they conduct insider trading. Let's face it, anyone that works in the financial institutions is well aware that insider trading happens all the time. It is just so hard to prove insider trading. If someone were to investigate all the suspicious activity, I doubt a year will be enough...

We are talking about the World Bank here, supposedly a non-profit organization...surely you would expect people of integrity to be present in the higher levels of the company. Then again, if you can have corrupted people working in some of country's government, then perhaps I should never be surprised...

2007-05-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

There's this time about China and its well known great firewall. If you readers believe the bullshit about the non-existence of a firewall, think again.

I have not been able to access the homepage of my friends at blogware or xanga for like ages...

And guess what, time do pass you by...

My good friend Amy is engaged...woohoo!!! Her boyfriend finally proposed. See, how time do passes you by. Congratulations Amy!!!

Somebody need to do something about this firewall of China. Sure, I figured out ways to get around it and most people know that...but sometimes I feel so cut off from the world, without the readily access to all information. That's just China...

Anyway, this blog is dedicated to Amy. A lovely lady who always seemed to end up with the wrong guys...well, this time, she ended up with the right one. And I could still remember her telling that she was hesitant about dating the guy, some female instinct thing, I told her..."you have been trusting your instincts all this while and look where you end up...time to ignore your instincts this time"...

and this advice also goes to all you girls who always seemed to end up with the wrong guys, when the right guy comes along, do not trust your first instinct to reject the guy...give the guy a shot. :)

2007-05-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton...

Have been meaning to write about the recent Paris Hilton being sentenced to jail incident.
If people are reading and are going to be offended, then stop reading this and go somewhere else. This is purely my opinion.

My initial reaction upon reading about her being sentenced to jail was..."Good!!!".
But then I had to take a step back and try to rationalize my feelings and understand where they were coming from and whether they were justified.

So after much deliberation and thought, my reaction was still "Good!!! and more importantly, this is the right thing to do!".

And here are my reasons.

Though I'm very impressed with the recent support for her to be freed from her jailtime commitments, I find her reaction to her jail sentence very disturbing...

"What? But I told the truth.......", er, excuse me, regardless of whether you are telling the truth or not, you have to face up to the consequences of your actions.

In fact, I find it very disturbing that in this day and age, a lot of people do not face up to the consequences of their actions. Perhaps because they like to ignore it, because they believe that they can get away with it... I mean, if very obviously guilty criminals can get away with everything, what does it say for normal human beings that committed a small crime???

So, lets go into a hypothetical world now...supposed that Paris Hilton continued driving, without being caught and hit a person and killed that person. What's going to happen? Who's going to be responsible? How does one deal with that? The rationale for punishment is so as to prevent future worse crimes from happening, or even deter such behavior in the future...If going to jail for 45 days will teach her to NEVER drink while intoxicated, then I think that 45 days is justified. That's not to say that the whole ordeal has not drummed that into Paris' head.

Anyway, was just so disgusted with her reaction, implying that because she told the truth, she should be let off. Telling the truth is the right thing to do...unless in this world and age, nobody cares about the truth....................................

2007-05-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

It has been a long while since the last post. For that matter, I'm seriously considering retiring this blog like what my other friends are doing. Maybe I'll just keep it and update it from time to time when I feel like it.

The main purpose of this blog at the time of creation, was to have a way of keeping track of my time while I was doing my job search. Now that I have a job, that purpose is gone and though I can use this to keep track of my life during job search, I feel like it is unethical to post details of meetings with random friends.

Weekday activities after work includes the following:
Playing mahjong. If you do not know how to play it, go look it up on the web.
Meeting random people for dinner.
Clubbing on the weekends.
Going for massage.
Exercising.

I have not even gotten around to moving beyond Shanghai, goes to show the extent of my activities with different groups of people.

However, what I have found to be an issue would be having activities with different groups that clashed on schedules. That's understandable as my group of friends expand into different circles. For that matter, just counting the Singaporeans alone, there are like 4 different groups that I'm aware of...There are potentially a dozen more groups that I'm not even aware of. Just those 4 groups can kill me based on activities alone. And it is never ever possible to get everyone together...because someone will hate someone else and would not like to go out with those people etc. Sigh...I would think that we are old and mature enough to put aside these childish feuds.

So I have been in my work for half a year now. What's there to update? My responsibilities have increased, sales, consulting, project management and even bits and pieces of HR. I'm enjoying certain aspects of it, while other parts could be a chore.

Winter was long...Spring was short (like 2 weeks) and now summer is upon me. Let's see what happens in the summer. It is going to be one HOT summer... ;)

2007-02-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

Had a conversation with a friend over the weekend...and it just jolted me...

I had always known that I'm one of the more fortunate people in the world, being able to leave my home country of Singapore and head overseas for studies. Being able to experience life in different countries ...but I never truly fully appreciate the extent till I chatted with my friend.

My friend was someone from the countryside of China, one of those people that are poor. Her mum left her when she was young. She was raised by her grandma and not her father (probably busy working to earn some money). She only had secondary school level education. She did however have an older sister. When her grandma died, she left home since her dad didn't really want to take care of her. At that time, she was only 16/17. She had been travelling around, working odd jobs here and there. And that's her life ever since........

I cannot help but realize how fortunate I am...and in this melting pot of Shanghai, I'm guaranteed to meet people like her. What can I do about it? Can I do something about it? Sigh...

2007-02-02T17:30:00.000-08:00

Felt compelled to write down something since the last post.
Now that things are almost to a routine, there's nothing much to update except to talk about random stuff that happens to me.

How about negotiation? I have been doing that since I joined this current company. I am in charge of the moving my company to a new location. The location has been picked. What's left was to settle the contract with the landlord and then with the fitting out companies. Man, this is real life experience.

As I am the "buyer", so they are much nicer to me and want to get my business. I have learned so much from talking with my colleagues on the various tactics that they have used in the past. In the end, I grew accustomed to using the good cop bad cop and "it's my boss' demands" to attempt to get my way with various clauses in the contracts. It has not really been smooth, there had been a lot of conversations back and forth without any headway. But in the end, everything was done........

Contracts had been signed. All's left was to make the wire transfer and I could get the new building....WRONG. The wire transfer would have to wait A WHILE. Just when I had promised the landlord and fitting out company that I could deliver on the wire transfer receipts, I had to go back on the promise. I felt very bad...and could only lament to my counterparty representative for the landlord. He felt the same way...at the end of the day, we are just doing our jobs for our bosses.

This whole process taught me a couple of lessons.

The "buyer" has a lot of leeway in getting what he wants.
I should have nailed down all the issues on the contract instead of going back and forth each time with my boss. It was just so hard and time consuming. Negotiation TAKES time. It never ever finishes within a deadline.
There are various tactics to use, learn and use whatever's comfortable for you.

2007-01-21T04:35:00.000-08:00

It has been a month since my last update.

My life has gotten into a routine now. Working hours are good so far, wake up around 8.30am and then go to work by 9am. Leave work around 6-7pm.

Lunch, I will try to arrange with friends that are working in the same nearby area, preferably, a different person each time.

Dinner, I will also arrange to have dinner with friends. Also a different person each time. Despite this, there are still a lot of people that I will miss out. Sigh. This maintaining contact thing is a 24 hour job. :)

On friday nights, I will meet up with a bunch of Singaporeans for dinner. After that, I will meet up with another bunch of Singaporeans. That group usually go to clubs, so I will go there too, just so that I can meet up with all of them at one shot.

Saturday, I leave it up to myself to arrange lunch/dinner with other friends.

Sunday, it is church time. Today, I bumped into a few more Singaporeans that are Christians. How nice. Now I can start to have a regular church going crowd. Helps to keep one another accountable too.

Once a week, I will also frequent a massage place. The master is very good and can help to solve some of my back problems. At the same time, he has also become a good chatting companion, teaching me about working in Shanghai in general. So I'm very appreciative of that. As the massage is near my friend's place, I will also visit him either before or after the massage.

This coming weekend, I'll be in california, to deal with some administrative matters and also bring back some of my personal possessions.

2006-12-23T20:17:00.000-08:00

1 month has already passed. Am going to stop updating about work on a weekly basis. I have gotten accustomed to the working environment. My job role is slowly being defined. At the same time, I'm trying to handle the renovation project. It is very interesting negotiating with the local dealers. I doubt that I'm a good negotiator, both in terms of the language and also skill wise. So this is definitely good practice for me.

The only part concerns meeting or digging up new prospects. That's a little bit harder. The market here is very competitive. Just the past week, I went to the Fortune Cookie Christmas Party. Met some interesting people there:

1) This lady that works at this company which turns out to be a competitor of ours (well, in the sense that we are dealing with the same practice)
2) This lady whose last name is Cheng. When she saw my namecard, she was like, wow, same last name. Except that hers is really CHENG (程)
3) This lady's friend whose last name is Zhan. When I saw her namecard, I was like, wow, a fellow kin. Finally, someone with the same last name!!! How rare is that...

So, I'm still frequenting these networking events to talk to people, meet other people. Definitely headhunters are also lurking around. But I'll pass for now... :)

Had a Singaporeans Christmas party yesterday night Met a long-lost friend from 12 years ago (back in the JC days). She was one of the Chinese Chess players from Temasek JC. She came to Raffles JC for the competition and we met. Such a small world...And it was also the first time that I touched mahjong after 1 year? or even more. Wow...it sure feels great to play mahjong again. I'm not into gambling. Just like how intellectual the game can be. Ha.

Christmas is coming, so Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. Shanghai does not celebrate Christmas, so I'm working on that day....What a dread...

2006-12-15T18:45:00.000-08:00

Another post within the same day...
Better get some stuff down before I don't have time to jot it down.

Friend from New York was in town again on a business trip. In the short week that he was here (left this morning), I met up with him 3 times. Actually correction, I met hm 4 times.

The first time was at my company's building complex. I walked out of the lift and turn towards my office. Saw a bunch of rounded well attired old people around the corridor...and lo and behold, my friend was there entertaining them. Before you get the wrong impression, he is only in his early thirties, super smart and super capable.

2nd time was at a bar on the same day itself. Had a short drink and chat.

3rd time was playing cards at another friend's place. I thot we were playing mahjong, which was the reason why I went over there. I had not touched mahjong for a while. Turned out that we were playing big 2...and the loser would drink. My goodness, I have no idea how many cups I drank. Not as much as the rest, that's for sure (for they have been drinking veterans). I believe I had 5-6 cups of green tea + whisky. I was drunk. I laid down on the floor and started puking. They came to my "rescue" and I was firend with the toilet bowl for the next 2 hours. After that, I managed to get home, with the help of my friend. Woke up with a massive headache the next day...

4th time was last night, where I met up with him again to chill and hangout at a club called muse. This time, I avoided getting drunk for I have a meeting wtih my boss the next day. Phew...

When he's in town, everyone starts drinking...and boy can they drink...And I have this question on my mind, why do the Chinese like to drink so much!!!??? Wait till they get you to drink the bai jiu (white wine literal translation)...that's when you would die very fast. The Chinese' 百酒 is very potent...not recommended for the light hearted... :)

2006-12-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

Third week had passed and I'm into my later half of the fourth week now. Have been late with posts...

So what happened?

During the third week, I went over to HongKong to do my work permit registration. At the same time, I took the opportunity to visit my good friend Melvyn again together with his wife and kid. My goodness, baby Michael is getting cuter by the day, and was definitely more responsive to attention now. He could follow my hand movements and turn his head.

On the sunday before I left, I met up with a whole bunch of friends. There was a friend from Singapore visiting. She came with her bf. I also managed to combine my Singaporean and INSEAD friends together. So hopefully next time I'm in HongKong, I can get everyone to come out together.

Third week was also the week that they finally nailed down who I was reporting to...and what my responsibilities and projects were. Have 3 projects on hand to work with. Let's see how that goes...

On a diffferent note, you have to be constantly be amazed at the brave cyclists in China. They are the KING of the roads. A bicycle against a bus...a bicycle would win, if the rider has the guts to cut in front of the bus. I have seen him and I am very very impressed. But ultimately, the true king is still the pedestrain, as long as you are brave and not care... :)

2006-12-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Second week has passed and I can say that things were more relaxed in the second week.

I managed to finally finish the negotiation with the landlord's management to get the LOI the way that we wanted it to be. Man, it has been a tiring process and a very good learning experience. How could I have prepared myself better? I should have asked more questions from my manager before he left for vacation. I was not prepared with all the information and that made things harder. In some sense, it was also easier because I basically had to run all things through another manager. Anyway, I should have known better and found out more about the things.

Finished the proposal draft in English. My colleague then took it and translated it into Chinese. At the moment, there's still some areas that need to be expanded upon, meaning that I had to work on it from now till the end of the week.

Partied with some friends on Friday night till 5am. My goodness...I didn't believe that I could last till that long. Basically, it was just sitting down, chatting with friends, dancing etc... :) On saturday, I met up with another bunch of friends. This time it is the Singaporean crowd and with the exception of one person, I basically did not know anyone else. Ha. How fun.

I moved into my new room on Sunday, so I spent the afternoon at Carrefour getting stuff to furnish my room. Just needed the basic stuff like pillows and bedsheets...

Now, 2 weeks have passed, I have moved to my new room, so I'm ready to dive into work...but first a minor thing with the work permit which I'm handling it over in Hong Kong.

I think my updates will be less frequent and just put things that happened to catch my attention.

2006-11-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

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... :)

2006-11-21T05:37:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-11-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-11-04T01:29:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-11-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-10-29T05:52:00.000-08:00

Man...my first official official drinking session has begun...

Went to meet a friend from out of town. He used to work in Shanghai and is now posted to New York. Was back in Shanghai for some work and I'm lucky to have caught hold of him...The venue is the Cash Box KTV place...

When I arrived there, it is all good...until they say I have to drink!!! especially given that I am coming to Shanghai to work. Damn...this time, there was simply no way out. Back in INSEAD, it was easy...could just escape out and know that I will see my friends again. Or that I would be taking photos around the parties...This time, no such avenues presented itself...

And so I drank. I believe it was a concoction of whisky and green tea. Dunno why people like the taste of alcohol...anyway, thank God. I was not drunk...it reached a point where when I closed my eyes to rest, my head will spin, but if my eyes were open, I would be fine.........

Anyway, there you go. I have drank. I'm sure there are some people that must be very excited to read this....hahaha.

2006-10-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Attica in Shanghai...

My first party in Shanghai...Went there with my friend from university days and met up with his friends too...

Having NOT gone to the one in Singapore, I cannot do a comparison between the two places. But having been to Bar Rouge, this Attica is much bigger than that one. According to the cab driver on my way back, Attica is the biggest nightclub in terms of size right now.

The crowd...wow, a lot of different people i.e, foreigners. And then you have your crowd of asian females over there too. Makes for very interesting interaction. Maybe I am being too honest or cynical here...The foreigners go there to look for girls. The asian girls go there to look for foreigners. Perfect combination. People like my friend and I, we are like stuck in the middle, neither here or there. In fact, one foreigner even attempted to pick p my friend's friend. So that's the impression that the foreigners get in places like Attica.

Oh well...life's like that. Just happy to observe this first hand in Shanghai now, despite reading about it on various web sites.

2006-10-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hooray...

I got my first job offer 2 days ago. Right now, I am still debating over the offer. The company is good...I like the people that I'm going to work with. The role that they want me for is interesting. But the only downside, in my opinion, is the package.

Definitely I should not be expecting expat package...but at the same time, there are certain things lacking in the package. Time to put my negotiation skills to work now........and earn back a bit of my MBA investment.

Haha.

2006-10-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Yet more thoughts on job search. My brain keeps turning around and around, and this is when I don't even have a job offer on hand...weird huh...

As people have seen me on skype or msn, the nick has been job or career.
What do I value more? A job or a career?

My friend asks, what's the difference. A job is something that you do to just bring in the money. It is probably something that you have done well and should continue exploiting that ability. A career is your aspiration. The best combination is that your career is your job, but sometimes it may not be the case.

Take myself for example...right now, I have neither a job nor a career. Should I head back to doing what I was good at (software development, or dealing with things that I have done before)? That advantages of doing that is to bring in some money at the moment...and I can have more time outside of work to pursue what I want to do...or should I just go ahead and venture forth in a different direction/industry/scope and hope to make something out of that?

Everyday I wonder...and I don't even have a job offer yet. Weird huh...as my friend would say, just try for everything and see what happens. Only thing is that to try for everything requires a lot of effort into researching that industry/role to prepare for the interview. sigh...so I keep wondering and wondering...............

2006-10-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

Shanghai...

This is probably one of my last stops in my search for a job. After this, if I cannot find something, it is either the States or Singapore for me. No idea as to my preference...

Have been doing more thinking and wonder what should I do...But for some reason, I feel a sense of optimism at least when I am in Shanghai. I just hope that I can find something...

At least one can point to the fact that Shanghai is as smoky as Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Nothing much to compare. The costs are definitely lower in China than in Hong Kong. Comparatively 15 rmb for a McChicken Meal versus 24 hkd in Hong Kong. That's quite substantial huh...Ever since I learn about the Big Mac index, I have been checking out the local McDonalds to figure out what's the local living costs... :)

I did meet up with a bunch of INSEAD friends...What can I say? Their very presences made me feel that I'm not alone in Shanghai...How comforting...

If there's one thing that INSEAD has helped me, it has certainly brought the whole world into my life, having friends in almost every single country in the world. You can never beat that with any OTHER mba programs in the world.

Incidentally, INSEAD's ranking has dropped to 6th in the Business Week rankings. On one hand, I wonder at how the rankings were done and on the other hand, I am glad that it has happened because perhaps this would be the only way to make the administration take note and do more to improve INSEAD. Compared to how a US business school is, I sincerely believe that INSEAD is really lacking.

2006-10-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

What is a job......?

During my search for that elusive job, I have been getting different opinions as to what a job is. A job can be...in no particular order

1: something that you enjoy doing.

The people that believe in this, are those people that try to make work as part of their lives. If they are going to invest so much time in their lives in their jobs, it better be something that they like to do.

2: something that just puts $$$ on the table

It is true. All jobs theoretically should put $$$ on the table. There are definitely people that have families to take care of and hence a job is more about just doing something so that one can bring in money to support the families. And in the words of my friend, "achieve financial freedom and then you can really go and do what you want to do in life".

3: something that will make a difference in the world

These are probably the people that have ideals and want to help the world. They would make their jobs a medium by which they can achieve their goals and ideals in life.

Who do I belong to???

I was at 3...am tryng to combine 3 and 1...but more and more, I may be forced into 2...

As my other friend would say...

"Very few people get to do what they really want in life. Most people get to do what they have and need to do"

2006-10-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

For those who know me, they know that I have been out of a job since my graduation from MBA school...and I am still looking for a job right now...

The process has been very humbling, and also letting me understand more about myself and more about what I want to do and what I DO NOT want to do. And every day, I would revisit the decisions that I have made with regards to what I do not want to do...and sometimes consessions would be made.

It has also let me understand more about the realitites of the world. Understand that I have been blessed with a job before college graduation, so job search was not necessary. And........now there's this job search thing that I have to do, writing cover letters, CVs, networking...all totally new to me (in some ways).

And here's what I have learnt...may be true, may be false.

Hiring companies like to put you back at where you come from, for that's where your value lies. Only certain companies like consulting and banking institutions are willing to take risks on you, but even then, getting into them is not an easy task.

Life's just like that. I had it too easy and now I'm going through the hardship...Been blessed with a group of friends that have encouraged and helped me along the way. And I certainly hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel............