Thursday Twist

This is going to be a long post...

I had went for a briefing by some Market Research Company to be a part-time survey interviewer on thursday morning but the whole thing didnt pull through eventually. The main reason is because some of us who attended the briefing felt that the personnel at the company did not honour what they had promised.

I am ok with the part where their 10 min face-to-face survey escalated to become 15 minute survey becos, having been a marketing student, I can empathise that a survey could sometimes exceed the stipulated interview time. I am also cool with the fact that the questions are lengthy. But the ultimate factor that made me change my mind on accepting the assignment was when we each of us had a personalised quota form, stating the specific no. of students which we need to approach-with a criteria where the students that we are supposed to approach have to be from their specified faculty under the respective varsities. We are also only allowed to find only final year students who have just finished their exams and who are heading towards the working society.

I was even more surprised to learn that I was only given a quota of 7 participants fr SMU, with 10 to be fr NUS and 3 fr NTU, when evidently, it will be more effective to assign smu quota to me and another guy who is also from SMU. When asked if we could swop the quota ourselves, the lady handling the survey demographics said that we are allowed to do so, but the ultimate responsibilities will still be traced back to their original allocation. So what is the point of swopping?

Since there are so many perturbing factors to consider, I decided not to go ahead to do the assignment for them even though at that point of time, I was hard pressesd for cash (actually, I am still hard pressed for cash now, I still got abt 800 bucks of outstanding dental bills but I am glad to have an elder sister who can pay for me first.haa).

First reason for not taking it up is that the 2-week deadline is just too risky a time frame to find those students esp when most graduating students have either gone holiday right after their exams, or at home dutifully sending out resumes in this recession-hit economy. Second reason- I feel a strong sense of disgruntlement over their way of handling things; ignoring our concerns and feedback.

But, a good lesson that I, as a job finder can learn, is that there is no such thing as easy pay. Now, in the viewpoint of a market researcher, a word of advice is, if you want others to work for you, remember to listen to what they want to say.

After stepping out of that office, I can still recall that I was very dejected upon facing another failed attempt in getting a work assignment. But I still believe that it was the right thing to do. So, I called my sister out for lunch that day, hoping to forget all the disappointment and melancholy. Too bad she only have 30 min to spare that day.

It happened that I had arranged a coffee appt with my coffee kaki- josh, that day, so eventually the day turned out to be pretty much enjoyable. During that whole afternoon, I was complaining to him how bad the economy was, how I failed those analysis tests, interviews blah blah... In fact, I had predicted that I would be turned down again for a job because I didnt have honours. Josh felt surprised that I could still sound so optimistic after going through these obstacles. Ha... well, maybe it is because I am trying to put up a false front.

But towards the end of the day, a miracle happened. It was a moment that I was looking fwd to. I finally received a phone call telling me that I was accepted for a job and whether I would like to accept the job offer. Hell, yes of course! I was so overwhelmed by the news but in contradiction, my face expression at that point was pretty cool and calm so josh was like trying to guess whether it was good news or bad news. Haa... I think the news just came too suddenly and I was caught off guard. I was so excited that I didnt noe who to inform first, apart from Josh who was beside me when I recd the call! Josh was telling me that it was a blessing in disguise for me, and things happen for a reason. Maybe he is right. The events that took place all these while could be just obstacles to test my endurance. What doesnt break me makes me stronger. So at the end of the day, I guess faith and determination is the key to pull through the obstacles especially in this period of tough time. To my friends out there, I know you can do it too and I believe your ideal jobs will come your way soon too! Gambate!

JobsDB.com Career Expo 2009

Went to the JobsDB Career Fair this morning. There wasnt a big crowd perhaps because we went early. Among those employers who are present at the fair includes Singapore Police Force, Navy, SBS Transit, Comfort Delgro, MediaCorp, SG recruiters, and several financial planning companies like AIA, Prudential etc...

Some of the companies didnt have suitable openings for us. Yet, somehow we still managed to apply abt 20 positions, of which most of the companies didnt even have a physical booth at the fair. We applied for them through the online station where we could just scan the barcode of our registered card and perform a quick application, meaning that we didnt even need to prepare cover letters. Thank goodness!

Hopefully, we wont need to wait long to be called up for interviews. But looking at the job market, things are not promising. the news reported that the economy might take 2-3 years to recover instead of the orginally estimated 1 year recession. But to despair now is useless. So, yes, yes, I am going to start sending out resumes again.

By the way, I managed to spot a rainbow outside my window today. The saying goes that you can't spot rainbow without rain. So I hope the 'rain' will go off soon and a beautiful sight shall await in front of us.

JobsDB.com Career Expo 2009
Details:
20 - 22 March 2009
Suntec Singapore, Halls 602 & 603, Level 610am to 7pm Daily

October 2009

oh gosh.. is it really October? I hadnt had much clue on how these 3++ years had just gone by so easily yet so laboriously... (ok, a little exaggeration here)

what triggers this tot is becos after the end of digital media meeting yesterday, yx, fiona and jac were buzy snapping photos in gsr, along the corridor, inside the printing room. They wanted to keep some memories before the end of our last semester in sch. actually, I had plans to do the same too- take snapshots of different corners of smu: my secluded locker, biz block vending machine, fav hangout locations and most imptly, best frens of cos!

But then, it suddenly occur to me tat my journey at SMU is almost ending soon. 4 more modules and I can say goodbye to classes, projects. To be truthful, I am delighted but fretful abt this. Delightful becos there wont be worries of exams, tests, participation, projects. But fretful becos I am afraid of not securing a good job or rather- a career. Everyone knows how bad the economy is now- the pool of employees is big but the no. of positions are limited.

So it is really wake up call for our batch to start job search. Over sat, I had gone to a career fair at Suntec convention ctr with lixian and geri. It wasnt very impressive actually, and there wasnt much choices for us. A govt agency wanted Honours Degree, (for god sake, how many honors do u think an uni can produce huh) and some wanted immediate employment or wanted experience. So it wasnt a fruitful trip.

In the end, we bumped into a fellow who is promoting upgrading courses. He approached us and asked if we are looking for education courses. We felt flattered when he first tot that we were fresh poly grads... but not when he realised that we are fr smu and asked why we are at the roadshow. He commented that "I tot 90% of SMU grads are headhunted?" Speechless here*...

Well chap, there are still 10% who are not and do u really think that employers would crawl, begging for u to join them? There really need to be some efforts at your own end to get what u want. If you dont impress them, do u think they will notice u?

Anws, I prefer to go look for companies rather than wait for them.

Good luck to myself.