First job, first interview(s), firsts experience. Cheerios!
2010-08-26, 8:34 p.m.
Today has been a surprising(ly and) smooth day! After a semi-depressing night, today has become the happiest in a long while, and i love how everything seems to be premeditated and paved for me.
This goes back to 2 days ago when i met up with a uni course mate who's been looking for a job. When i met him, he passed me this piece of advertisement torn out from the newspaper which i found out today was from the Sunday times. At that time he said, he remember hearing me say that i want to be a stockbroker, so when he saw that advert which was CIMB having an open house cum seminar. I was interested in the seminar, and last night when i finally looked at the newspaper proper, i realized it was this morning! So i went this morning, despite having slept at 5.30 am, and having to wake up at 8+am, my mother wouldn't let me off if i missed it anyway.
The seminar convinced me that my original plan is flawed, and that i really should start by being employed by them in the equity sales section, which would give me a chance and time to build up a decent clientele base. There was an application form attached with the seminar notes, and until i walked out of the seminar room, i was still wondering if i should submit the application form. And i did eventually, since they said it's alright if one didn't bring a resume along, so my application form was resume-less, cv-less, ic photo-less as well, much less whatever proof of certification for my educational life. Waited 2 hours instead of half an hour for my interview, there was a major delay. Just before my turn, the interviewer had to go, and they had to find someone else from the HR department to screen us. There was only 2 of us left, this pretty cool uncle who was applying to be in Proprietary trading, he gave me good hints to my upcoming 1A exam and put my nerves to rest. =)
So i met Julianna my first interviewer from HR, apparently she's a very thorough interviewer who sieves us recruits out for the 2nd interviewer...whose name i didn't catch. >< And since it was running late, she actually started with saying will probably call me back for another interview once she gets a chance to talk to Julianna more about me, then by the end of the interview she changed her mind and said she'll check if Carol the CEO of CIMB is free to interview me for the final decision. While waiting for the last interview, i was thinking, so what if i don't get the job, i really should be glad i made it this far, much further than how i thought i would, considering that they actually told us the applicant goes through 2 interviews then will receive job offer (or not) within a week. I grinned from ear to ear when i heard Ms/Mrs Fung say, i guess we've no reason to not take you. Whahaha! I think 2 main factors led them to accept me, one that i've actually tried trading, so that makes the learning curve a little easier, the second was that i actually had applied for the relevant exams, which displayed my passion for this industry. They did ask multiple times as to whether i had applied to other banks and such, and i gave my honest answer. All in all. Interviews aren't as scary as how our many teachers mentors painted them, and Julianna reminded me very much of oral teachers, the friendly ones.
Cheerios. Now to wait for the letter and to frame it up.
Sapph
I hope my joy reached you. :)
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