Take me home, country roads

I've returned from another two interviews. Oh boy, do they take the energy right out from you. If you're wondering why the title of a John Denver song, well, the manager for the first interview at AIA happens to like it. He also likes hip-hop and Yanni (or maybe that was his juniors' favourites). Ever had background music during an interview? It's interesting, gotta hand it to them.

Will be attending there again tomorrow. Kumon on Friday. DAVOS on Monday. And who knows is gonna call up later this week.

Nilai is a great place. Went there for an interview. Food is slightly cheaper than in KL, and can you believe a double chicken burger for less than 4 bucks? Only drawback is the Komuter ticket, which is about 4.70 or so one way. But then again Nilai is in Negri Sembilan, so I guess it's justified.

I haven't been hired yet, so it's not as if I'm getting paid to flog their place, but I gotta say that the Nilai International College is something else. The lecturers are approachable, the staff are friendly and they've got free transport from various areas around Nilai to their college. On-campus food and accommodation, WiFi hotspots, clean (clean! though slightly wet) toilets - about the only thing I found a little off was the colour scheme of the exterior walls. But that wasn't their fault.

Well, I'm enthusiastic because my brother, who by and large doesn't make a lot of mistakes about such things, thinks Nilai is a good college. I pray they'll seriously consider my application.

Greg

Interview with the Vampire... er, Employer(s)

Fresh graduate or experienced management type, interviews can be wearing on your nerves - on both sides! My brother is an interviewer himself and he's got plenty of horror stories about interviewees. Well, I can tell a horror story or two about prospective employers myself.

So far, in my search for a job, I've been to about 5 interviews. One I aborted because of horror stories on the Internet. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, but caveat emptor and I definitely did. Another (Col Shutters) was my first, and I thought it went all right. I guess my interviewers didn't, because I never heard back frmo them. Still, it was a sales job and that wasn't my main intention, so it wasn't too bad.

Subsequently, I've had interviews from Tactics Asia, Kumon and AIG. I'll be having second interviews with the latter two, and another from Nilai International College. It's going to be hectic, but that's a good sign; the more the better, if I can give 100% to all the interviews.

Prospective job seekers; here are a few tips before you attend your interviews. Nothing hard, just common sense stuff.

1. For crying out loud, make sure you don't lie or hide anything in your resume/CV. You think employers can't check stuff out? They can!

2. Going with (1) above, ensure you can verify/prove what you claim. It's not so important if you say you've attended as an ordinary member the Chess Club while you were in Uni. But if you claim your English is superlative, both written and spoken, then be prepared to do some Shakespeare.

3. Remember details of your application. When they call you up, they might want to do a phone interview. It really helps if you can recall (or have handy) what your job description is and what the company is so that you sound like you know what you're talking about. I got burned by this one somewhat, so I speak from experience.

4. Look stuff up on the Net!!!! This is the one single HUGE advantage we have over those of even 10 years ago; we've got the mighty Google. Use it! Look up the company. Look up the industry. Look up the job. Look up whatever you can so that you'll be as prepared as possible going into the interview.

5. Commit everything to God. Most important step. Quite possibly the only one step you really need to be all-out serious about. Man proposes but God disposes. Paul plants, Apollos waters but God gives the increase. In everything go to the Lord in prayer.

Simple stuff, really. Just go in calm, collected, courteous, charming. Smile a great deal. Have a sense of humour. See the silver linings. Good luck and God Bless!

Greg

Serious business! Food business!

So, sooner or later I've got to get down to putting some really serious stuff up. After all, what's the point of having a publishing medium, if you don't publish?

But food is serious business, especially when you're Chinese and you're in Malaysia. Last night my parents, brother (and sis-in-law) and myself went to this all-you-can-eat buffet steamboat place. It's called Restaurant Yuen, and it's located in Sunway Mentari. For RM18.80, you can eat from 5pm-midnight, and it's got (supposedly) 100 dishes for you to choose from.

Well! Those of you who know me know that this is a losing proposition for the restaurant, but not everybody eats like I do. And boy, is there a lot to eat. Forget about their Meehoon and Fried Rice; if you're hungry and can't wait for the seafood to cook, go grab their curry chicken. Every 15 minutes on the quarter-hour (give or take), their world-famous chicken wings come out. True enough, after 1 minute they're all gone, so you'd better be standing there long before.

Prawns, fish, crabs, sotong (cuttlefish), chicken, lala and teckhan (cockles and bamboo clams respectively), wantan (dumplings), yong tau foo, - and that's just for starters! Eggs and mee. Amazing amount of food! I stuffed myself thoroughly in 90 minutes, and so did the rest of my family.

OCFers Unite! We have to book the place (they don't open on some Tuesdays), and be there EARLY! You won't believe the queue...

Greg

Caveat Emptor!

Malaysians beware! There are more than one things to remember when you come back from overseas.

1. Bring your MyKad with you everywhere! A fine not exceeding 20,000 bucks apply if you're ever caught without it.

2. Distinguish between Sales and Marketing. If your prospective job description sales includes 'must have own transport', that means they want you to flog their products face-to-face.

3. Goods sold here are NEVER refundable. Never. So make sure when you buy something it's really what you want. You may exchange defective products but that's pretty much it.

4. EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale) is available here in the form of Bankcard. But very few shops accept this as yet, so bring cash. Related to this, Public Bank now charges an annual fee of 8 bucks for your ATM card. Maybank restricts your transaction limit. Read the fine print! M'sian banks don't have Cirrus or Maestro enabled on their ATM cards, so if you want those facilities, keep your foreign bank account.

Did I say being your MyKad everywhere with you?

1st of the post

 In case you haven't caught it, the title for my inaugural weblog entry comes from the Australian slang for direct election, rather than the preferential scheme they use for most positions there.

Greetings. My name is Gregory Kong and I'll be running my mouth off here from time to time. Those of you who were my school friends will know that I talk the way I write. Those of you who know me through OCF will notice my language is somewhat stronger (but no downright obscene words, still and all). Those of you who don't know me, well... this is a good chance! Anyways, welcome to my spot on the Web.

Nothing major for my first entry, except this - If you think that Christianity is wrong, you better thing again. Better yet, take Pascal's Wager. I can tell you that any betting man would.

[EDIT] If you notice that my blog is in pinksh colours, well, it is. I'm assured that it's relatively easy to change the colour scheme, so don't be surprised if it swaps out from under you. I'll be changing the scheme until I find the few (or the one) that I like from the many.

Hopefully, this doesn't make it too much of an eyesore.