More job searches underway

If you've noticed that the timing of this post to the previous one is super close, and that it is impossible for me to write such a long post in such a short time, you are right, hahaha. I had wanted to post this together with the previous post, but at the last minute I decided to create a separate post instead.

You guys know that I've been actively looking around for a job lately, I've been posting quite a few blogs on it. Yesterday morning went to BAT for the first round of interview, it was a test of english and maths. The first paper was the english paper, we had to read several short passages and answer yes/no/don't know questions. It is mainly to test how well we can abstract information from readings, given a short time frame. The second paper was the maths paper. For this they gave us many different types of graphs and index and we're required to answer questions that need us to abstract information from the tables. It is to test how well we can process information and our analytical ability.

The first test was actually not as difficult as I thought it would be (remember SIA), but I guess time was a big factor. I didn't have time to look through my paper after I had finished. And I could not find answers to some of the questions. The maths test, erm I wouldn't say easy, but its not difficult. Again the main issue is the time. Most of the question were do-able, a few needed more thought, but overall it was not difficult. Sadly I didn't manage to finish the whole paper, I think I left like 4 questions blank. Haiz, but I'm really not banging on getting a position at BAT. Not that I'm not interested, but that competition is very high. There so many people taking the test yesterday, and we are not the only batch. There have been a few batches ahead of us already. So I guess that would be the last time I see BAT. Haiz~ Another job opening is being recommended by Aunt Susan. Her ex-colleague is working in Morgen Stanly, so she helped to ask if there are any openings there. Well, it appears that there are openings and Aunt Susan ask me to see if any position interest me, so she can help to submit my resume to her friend. I've just sent to her my choice, but again its interest vs practicalism. I hear from my bro that his friend had applied to Morgen Stanly before, and they had 13 rounds of interview. His friend failed at the 8th round. OMG. What a waste of time. Seriously I cannot think of a reason of having 13 rounds of interview. I know that every one wants to be able to hire the best candidate, some one who can fit into the company culture straight away and work hard for the company. But is 13 rounds of interview really necessary? I agree that just one interview might not be sufficient to see how a person is going to fit into the company, but I think 5 rounds is a pretty good gauge already. For 13 rounds, its like you are getting interviewed by every department head in the company and even before you join the company, you've already know everyone there. Okie just based on the perception of one interviewer is not enough, but don't you think 5-8 or 9 or more people (and mind you, when I say 1 round of interview, it does not mean that everytime its 1-to-1, it can be 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 or even more) is pretty assuring. You can have up to 300000 interviews, there will always be something that you don't know about the interviewee, so why don't we just give them the benefit of doubt. I know that a lot of companies will disagree with me on this, but I don't care gonna say it away. Having so many rounds of interviews is a waste of time for both the interviewee and interviewer, it is also a waste on resources of the company. I think it should not be a case of asking for an interview for the sake of having an interview, but only call for more when absolutely required. If by level 5 or 6 is enough, then stop there, there is no need to do 13 rounds just for the sake of making up numbers.

After being in the job market of quite a while this year, I must admit that it is a little demoralizing. I've applied to countless companies. Very few replied, even fewer had asked me to go for an interview. And I almost failed through all my interviews. When I sit down and think to myself, I really don't know what is wrong with me that makes no one want to hire me. I know I do not have excellent grades (well they always say that grades arn't everything, and that they don't just look at grades), but I think my grades are decent. I do not look good, but I don't look terrible either to make them dislike my appearance. I think I do present myself alright in front of the interviewers, giving them almost whatever information that they need about me. So what is wrong with me??? I think I'm suffering from the median problem. I'm like in the situation where I'm not the best candidate, but neither am I the worst. So I'm like part of the group of people who fall in the center of everyone. And it just happens that this is the largest group. Haiz~ And the biggest problem is if you try to apply for a job in a big company, they only want the best (which is not me), and if I lower my expectation to apply for a lower scale of job I get funny comments by people around me on why I choose this type of job when I am a graduate. Sometimes I'm a little tired by all these comments made by others. I know that they mean well, but it just gets annoying when people who do not seem to understand the situation. Just recently, my youngest uncle (xiao gu), was talking to me and he told me,

" aiya don't look for job already lah, come out and ping yourself."

Come on lah, thats your idea because you have the money to do it. My reply was of course,

" Please leh, no money I use what to start."

Then we were talking about the job market, and they were asking me on what I felt on an engineer's job, so I told them what I felt. Things like its mundane and dry, and that the pay and bonus are usually not very high. And Xiao gu had to comment again. He said that why are we asking how much the company can pay us for our bonus. Right now you should be looking at what job you are doing and learn as much as possible then change to another job, and then your pay will rise. Please, you think I don't know that. But again its back to the question of practicalism. Ideally for a first job we would like to choose a job that allows us to learn as much as possible. But if this type of job is only to pay me $1000 a month should I take it up. You can say that in the long term it will benefit you greatly, and ultimately you'll probably be earning more, but who knows about the future. Many times he makes comments based on his own family financial situation. He is rich, he has the money, he has his own company, but that is not the same for us. We have to be practical, at the end of the day we need to be bringing the dough home. And its not like he has not been in the same type situation before. Before his company got off, he was in a similar situation (only a little better than our situation, my family is not the richest around, but we are not poor. You can say its stable). So I am expecting him to know better than to say things that are so irritating. Even though I know that what he says makes sense and that it will be good if I can follow. But it gets annoying when you come to feel that he seem to be making comments solely based on his perception that all of us are the same financially. I think he should try to be a little more tactful in his speech because what he says can not only be annoying, sometimes it does hurt a little.