.Monday, August 31, 2009 ' 10:43 AM Y
actual phone interview!
phew! just ended my phone interview with my senior manager, and my heart beat is still fast! this is one of the toughest interview i had out of the 4 formal interviews i had. HE REALLY TESTED ME! i was like when is this conversation gg to end???? while fighting hard to understand his super-ultimately strong indian accent and the constuction noise going on downstairs! his accent can just pass off like some background noise if i did not pay full attention to him. some of the questions he asked:
1. do you know the structure of PwC? (i got it correct for this, full marks!)
2. do you know the hirachy of PwC? (yep i did my research, socre points!)
3. what will you do if 2 managers come to u same day same time to ask for things to be done and its humanly impossible to finish it by the same deadline? (i wished i could say all things are possible with God!)
4. what big events have you been involved before? what if 2 different partcipating organisations come to you on the day of event and told you that they are unhappy about the arrangement and they insist their way, what will you do? (haha TOO BAD! (i didnt say that) i gave a professional standard answer about explaining to them the win-win situation and how each other can benefit fr the project)
5. what kind of questions will you ask if you were to audit a bank? (HUH! im not applying for accountant position leh. and the question is so vague. but i think i gave a good answer for this. i replied: i will first asked my superiors and colleagues about their past experiences with the bank, what are some of the common and usual needs this bank might have and ensure that i can provide a consistent service to the bank tru meeting their needs to build a long-lasting relationship with between them and our company (yep OUR, confessing that i can get in!)
6. how do you handle stress? (i said i run and jog! hahahahhaha)
7. what is your definition of client portfolio, audit, data analysis? (i wished i could have time to wiki the standard meaning of it on my laptop! but he commented me for the part on data analysis. prouding myself to be a science student. data analysis = not taking data for granted, but to understand how the numbers speak and from there, begin to foresee and predict that are the possible situations might happen in the time to come )
phew im just glad that its over. he bombarding me with so many questions in 35mins with no punctuations in between. meeting him in person tml and meeting his BOSS tml! a woman! hope its better...
still managing my expectations. dont want to have too high hope on it first. adam khoo interview that day was good. and the pay is ATTRACTIVE! hopefully he will call me up this week soon. (PS: Adam khoo himself didnt interview me, his managing director did)
pray for me pls =)
. ' 12:56 AM Y
phone interview
while preparing for phone interview with PwC tml, read up some phone interview tips on google and some of them are really funny. in bold.
Since you cannot be seen through the phone, take advantage of your anonymity by setting yourself up for success:
- Prepare and organize all of your notes, research, questions, and interview responses ahead of time. Make sure everything is at your fingertips and that you know right where everything is located.
- Feel free to refer to your notes during the phone interview – just don’t read them.
- Take notes during the interview – just don’t allow your notetaking to interrupt the interview or distract you in any way.
- Manage your body’s needs in advance of the interview if at all possible. If you need to take a sip of water during the interview, have one ready. Ask permission to take a momentary break so you can put down the phone to drink, then thank the interviewer when you get back on the line.
- Write down the interviewer’s name (verify the spelling) and title. Ask them how they would like you to send your thank you letter, and collect the contact information necessary to make that happen.
- Surround yourself with images that inspire confidence in you.
- Call a friend before the interview and have them cheerlead you and get you pumped up and enthused.
- Have your opening and closing statements prepared in advance. Do not read them or memorize them, but feel free to refer to them as needed.
Remember that 90% of all communication is body language. Without the input that body language provides, phone interviews can be tough to manage. Make sure you go out of your way to communicate effectively through the telephone line:
- Vary the tone, pitch, and speed of your speech throughout the interview. No one likes to listen to a monotone voice.
- Pause after you stop speaking and before you begin answering so you can avoid being interrupted or interrupting your interviewer. If you inadvertently interrupt, quickly apologize and allow the interviewer to continue speaking.
- Smile on the phone at any moment that you would likely smile in person. Smiles definitely communicate through the phone line and help your personality to transmit, so use them frequently.
- Sit while you listen to the interviewer so you can take notes. Stand when you talk so you can marshall your energy and share your enthusiasm more readily. Standing will also help you to breathe from your diaphragm, thereby projecting your voice more confidently.
- Use the interviewer’s name (first or last, whichever they have invited you to use; if in doubt, ask) frequently in the interviewer. But don’t overdo it!
- Match your voice to the interviewer’s as much as possible. For example, if s/he gets a little philosophical and lowers her/his voice, then match them in tone and softness when you first start to speak.
- Be alert to any commonalities between you and the interviewer, and be sure to comment on them.
- Place an empty chair near you where you are interviewing. When you speak, direct your answers to the chair as if the interviewer was actually sitting there. This may seem silly, but it helps you to project your personality to the real person on the other end of the telephone line.
- Try to be aware of when you would use punctuation if you were writing, and use your voice to indicate the pauses, stops, and emphasis that punctuation provides. For example, slow slightly where you would normally write a comma in a sentence, or stop momentarily where you would normally write a period. Inflect your voice at the end of a sentence where you would normally include a question mark. All of these little inflections and pauses will help your listener to follow along as you speak.
- Use concrete examples and numbers wherever possible. You’ve surely heard that resumes and cover letters need to be as specific as possible. Well, the same is even more true of interview responses, especially phone interviews.
With a little ingenuity and preparation, your phone interview performance can be as strong as your face-to-face interviewing skills. Good luck!
pray pray pray.... waking up early tml to pray to "wake up" my spirit and "wake up" my voice. nights!
.Thursday, August 27, 2009 ' 1:08 AM Y
Jonah chapter 4
1-2 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, "God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That's why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness! 3"So, God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead!"
4God said, "What do you have to be angry about?"
5But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.
6God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.
7-8But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah's head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: "I'm better off dead!"
9Then God said to Jonah, "What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?"
Jonah said, "Plenty of right. It's made me angry enough to die!"
10-11God said, "What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?"
isnt it funny? alot of times, we do not know what God is doing with our lives. sometimes He come with a shelter, sometimes He come with a worm. Sometimes life is looking up, sometimes life just isnt the way u wan it to be. But God always have His way with us. He is wise and humorous enough to teach us a lesson in His loving and Fatherly ways. It's no use fighting God =) no matter how far we run and hide, what is to be will be =)
. ' 12:14 AM Y
fulfilling day
ytd.. no this morning i slept at 430am and woke up at 1130am! wad was i doing so late at night? checking out online shops and do some you de mei de.. it was so late, no early, that i heard the sound of shutters being pulled up from the coffeeshop downstairs my house. all the uncles aunties are ready to start a new day downstairs when i just ended my day upstairs.
but i had a fulfilling day today. woke up and decided not to on the computer (which is always the first thing i would do) and decided to pack my "ransacked wardrobe". threw away lots of stuff and found my reli old old ezlink card, fr primary school to sec school and i still have my sec sch library card! and found those mrt card which we used to used, the one with one punched hole, blue for adults and red for children. YESH that one! keeping it to sell at high price when im reli reli old. anyone still has that?
when shopping with myrna at town and bought shoes, belt and a top. this is my first buy after i came back from tw/hk/sz. great time catching up with her. she's the crazy sort too as well. haha oops!
went to watch final destination 4 with some dev zone leaders thereafter. to think of it, i have been catching so many movies recently. 4 movies in 2 weeks! Where Got Ghost, UP, District 9 and final destination 4! weekdays price which is oli $6 per tix!
out of the 4 shows, my fav was district 9. alien vs human show with subtle racism meaning underlying it, sth that goes opposite the mainstream kinda thinking. i'll give it 4/5 (though myrna rate this movie reli low =( think she was too tired while watching the movie. haha ) warning, the show is abit gory.
talking abt gory, nothing is more gory that final destination 4. there were scenes where human is being flattened and nails punctured into the head and legs being rolled over by escalators and eye ball being hit hard by a flinging stone.. but it was more funny than scary. some plots are reli ridiculous and impossible. but i feel there are subtle revelations that we can take away, like live life to the fullest, be at the right place at the right time, how different ple deal with death when they know they are gg to die, to bow down to fate or to fight to live.... it'll give 2/5 to this show, no doubt that the graphics are v real.
on the extreme end, it was UP. an animation abt balloons and devotion to a partner and the spirit of adventure to live your dream. typical heart-warming animation. brings you back to your childhood and simplicity of life. a good show to watch alone. if you are emo-ing, catch this alone. 3.5/5.
a more down to earth kinda show would be Where Got Ghost. i'll give it 3.5/5. 3 different stories, 1st one which talks abt pride, 2nd one abt being diligent and do not risk short-cuts in life and 3rd one abt filial piety. to me, common grace show. but gona analyse more in depth to get wad Jack Neo trying to depict, if not, will be just a more funny than scary show. one part of it i was the oli one screaming in the whole theatre! good try for this show, its reli hard to mix humor and horror tgt in one show.
if you only have $6, catch Distrct 9.
if you have $12, catch District 9 and UP.
if you have slightly more time, watch D9, UP and Where Got Ghost.
if you have nothing else better to do, entertain yourself with some fear and laughter by FD4.
.Wednesday, August 26, 2009 ' 2:09 AM Y
job hunt 2
this morning............
handphone vibrate loudly at 1051am... (my hp has been mute by me since a year ago? haha it has been in the silent mode since then. i do not like the sudden ringing of the hp which always give me a shock!) a lady from HR of PwC called to arrange second interview, this time round with the BIG BIG BOSS, a woman! frankly, i do not like interviews with women, they always make me feel that they are there to observe every part of u (YESH! every part of u!) and always purposefully ask difficult questions and u cant dress up as nicely as them just in case she feels that you are there to fashion show.. ok thats all my perception. haha
in the afternoon.........
hp vibrate again at 214pm while i was napping... i tried stretching out my hand with my closed eyes to groped for my hp.. and i cant find it and i was in a super semi-conscious state.. and i picked up the call. when i woke up, i realised that there was a missed call and realized that just as i tot i have picked up that call, it was just my dream~! haha!
called back and realised it was my BIG BOSS (not BIG BIG BOSS this time), calling me again to just to check out how i was doing and asked if his hr dept has called me. wow! he actually took the time to call me personally! honored. or maybe he is just testing my phone conversational skills. there were a few awkward moments when both of us remained silent. haha
really hope to get into this company! its a place where i feel the people are sincere enuf. at least thats what i felt. heard that pwc is the most welfare among the big 4.
in the evening........
went shopping with dear dear before meeting. now that our meetings are different, its kinda rush for us to rush to diff venues, so we oli shopped for an hr. but found so many nice office clothes in town! how i wished that i could buy them "officially"! returning to town tml with myrna for more shopping! and movies with dev zone leaders- final destination! its gona be screams and yells! haha
only 2 more lessons before the end of my pilate class! kinda sad cause thats where i feel enriched! need a balanced lifestyle. before i got the finances to sign up with a gym. thinking of joining aerobic dance! anyone?!!!!
need to pack my wardrobe! it looks like a cat just went in and ransacked the whole wardrobe! haha...
.Saturday, August 22, 2009 ' 2:22 AM Y
the journey of faithhihi! shall update about my job hunt.
went to PwC for interview as client account executive today. got shortlisted for 2nd interview! =) well, actualy i dun reli noe wad this position does as it is a brand new position in that company. hope i'll be able to "pioneer" this position. well, im not realy super over the moon when i got shortlisted, cause it was kinda of like i-expected-it. somehow when sometimes u go for interview, u somehow will just feel if you are able to get it or not. actually talk abt it, the whole "job-hunt saga" started way before i graduated last november...
it was during the BF period which i felt that God spoke specifically to me regarding my giving and my future job even before i grad. so even though i have been hunting for 3 mths since i grad until now, i am not exactly kan-jiong, but i have an assurance in my heart that God has alr prepared sth for me. but still, sometimes the sian-ness will just overwhelm you as u begin to go to the same website everyday to check for posting and when you have too much spare time!
im not exactly sure of what i reli wana do if u ask me, but i believe that God has a plan for me. and i mean i really believed, not just a convenient way to brush things aside. so pls pray for me that i will reli get this position, reli quite sian of interviews alr. and i think i love the company, the international feel and i felt that the env was sincere and real enuf. the guy who interviewed me says his job sucks, but he love the company. haha.
these few days are tiring! it has been so long ever since i felt physically tired. thursday was a job hunting day with the agencies (look at Myrna's blog for photos), went around door to door to register myself with them. as much as i dun like job agencies, well i still their help. prepared for interview at night, read up about accountancy and finiancial sector till 3am! and couldnt sleep cz was too excited for interview. went interview on friday morning and was so so tired that i came home and toook a 3 hrs nap!
its reli nth to be a degree holder now. just close your eyes and anyhow point your finger at any directions, you will be able to point out a degree holder. but still, education is impt. job hunting is really a humble experience, where u dun reli get to pick, but ple pick on u! as much as you thought that you have conquered half of the world with your degree, u are just stepping out at your doorstep. for now, i just wana do my part in searching and be diligiently looking out for opportunities, and God shall direct my path.
this period is reli a time of building my trust in Him.
anw im happy for woman that she got into some research conference! =) when she shared this with me, i just felt that indeed we are entering into diff phase of our lives. there are times which we are lost in NUS, not reli knowing what we wana do as Science students, sharing abt ministries and doing ministries tgt, those were the days of our youths (ok we are not so old afterall) and now i felt that the "marketplace feeling" is coming so near and real. but greater things have yet to come.
have been reading abt successful ple at their young age. was pretty amazed by the story of the founder of Spa Espirit Group. also saw 2 of my classmates interview on the newspaper regarding them getting prestigious scholarship. all these stories are so inspiring, makes me feel that opportunities are always there, its up to you to grasp. sometimes, we just gona push ourselves a lil more.
opportunities can always be found and people are always there to help u. as much as ple say that the society is cunning and cruel, it still provide ample chances for ple who reli wana excel and make a difference.
do something for yourself today.
.Thursday, August 20, 2009 ' 1:43 AM Y
Don't live on borrowed revelationsjust out of boredom, i began to youtube on some sermons and chance upon a particular grace preacher and his whole series of sermon. if you know who i am talking about, try you-tubing his sermons, its pretty interesting and entertaining.
some of the stuff quite make sense and some of the stuff are really hilarious. great charismatic guy who can capture the attention of the crowd.
as i began to listen to his sermons, there are really some grey areas which we have to decide for ourselves in lives. but what really shaken me wasnt his preaching, but the ignorance of God's words that Christians can have. very often, Christians are so busy and we zoom into services, received a second-hand revelation, borrowed that revelation and began to think that we are more "spiritual" after every sunday. but when we are challenged with doctrines and ideas which are different from what is being preached on every sunday from the pulpit, we began to fumble and stumble on our own faith. we do not know how to explain to people why certain things are so and certain things are not. in other words, well-fed Christians with no working digestive system to create an output.
It is so important that we take the time to read the Word ourselves and understand it by ourselves, and allow God to speak to us a revelation which we can call it our own. if not, with so many grace faith markeplace messages going around, we will be just confused and do not know which stand to take. It's always good that we listen to the leaders in church and follow their directions to flow tgt, but it is always better if we have a double confirmation by our own revelations.
personally, i feel sometimes Christians can be too ignorant of the Word. only knowing how to quote a few famous handy verses to use for counselling and preaching is not enough, we need to know and experience the Word in our very own lives.
lets not be lazy Christian. how much we love the word of God is how much we love the God of the word.
so, read your bible now and STOP blog surfing! muahahahhahahaha =p
(ok i shall read mine too =))
.Wednesday, August 12, 2009 ' 1:03 AM Y
The underworld- the other world
today after leaders meeting, we had free horror stories contributed by Yohandi over fellowship. Stories of deliverance and experiences, inclusive of headless bodies, casting of spells, wall paper of faces, high-tech spirits which send sms and fax and what not, which made my way home today more eerie.
and just so nice the moment when i reached my block, there was a funeral wake going on there. creeps!!!!!! arghhhhh....!!!! (shikarabababababbaba.....) to those who dun understand what this means, its just my way of expressing my fears. haha
anw i saw those paper offerings which are ready to be burnt. just wondering a few things...
1. when its burnt, how does the "ghosts" identify which ones are theirs? dun tell me they actually write names on those "properties"? if not, will the "ghosts" be fighting over them? haha
2. i saw a merc car (paper offering of cz). but what if the "ghost" does not have driving licence while he/she was alive on earth? is he/she still licensed to drive in the other world? if yes, this is not fair! caused i've failed 2 times so far =( anw i think the seller can come out with a promotional marketing idea, sell it in a package, merc comes with a chaffeur and additional life-long licence with no COE.
3. i concluded that another benefit of being a Christian is that Christian funeral is cheaper, saving on all the paper offerings. so its good to be a Christian. (no offence to non-Christians!)
ok this is a random post. interview tml at NYC for Executive Officer for Youth Network. Really hope to get this position. its like the "dream job". Pray for me!
nights!
