Second Phone Interview with UOB

Results out. Decided to go out to celebrate with Dear Dear.

Before I left home, got a call on my handphone. 635xxxxx. Wondering whether its from UOB. Cos normally 635xxxxx will be someone from UOB. Picked it up. Sure enough. Its Jun from UOB. Didn't catch her name initially. I tot it was Joan or something. Only later did I realise its Jun. I actually spoke to her during the Campus Career Forum and she remembered me. Heard from Sarine that she is actually the person who will be in charge of recruiting people for the call centre.

So, she called to ask me how was the interview with Sarine. And she asked about what is my career aspiration and what I noe about the call centre and whether I have any concerns and such. Basically similar questions to what Sarine has asked me but my answers were not exactly the same. The way she asked it is a bit different.

Then, later she proceeded and told me she wanted to do a mini role play with me. I was thinking,"Again?" I tot I had gone through something like that in my first phone interview. But this time round it was in English. And the situation she posted to me was much more difficult than the first one. This one is about taking funds out before the stipulated date. She is a customer and asks me difficult questions which of course I do not know how to answer. So I replied, "Mdm, I need to check with my manager about your status. I will get back to you as soon as possible after I got an answer. I will give you a call tmr. Is that ok with you, Mdm?"

Customer seems not satisfied. "Tmr is too long. What about today?"

"ok Mdm, I will go ask my manager now and when I get the answer, I will give u a call?"

"How long later? 5 mins can?"

"Ok sure. Mdm. No problem."

"Bye."

Ok. This is the gist of it. The conversation went on longer. Haha. I am not sure whether I did ok. I seemed lost. Haha. Dunno what to answer.

Jun says she will give me a call in one to two weeks' time to see whether I am shortlisted for the second interview.

Waiting time again.

Results out!

Today is D-Day! Day of results.

Woke up at 8 plus. Couldn't get back to sleep. Nervous. Switched on the computer and waited. Played minesweeper with WS to kill time. Talked to Yixin and Dear but dear went off to uncle's shop so continued talking to Yixin. On the topic of exam results which make the two of us even more nervous.

9 a.m. passed, 10 a.m. passed, 11 a.m. passed..Results not out yet.

Then think its 1130, WS msn me "Out ley". I replied, "Issit?" Went to check. Yupz its out but onli half. They onli showed my SM and FYP grades. C for SM and A for FYP. Ha knew it. Interpreted the second qn for my SM wrongly. Knew it after I finished doing tat qn and went on to the third qn. By the time, no time to change. And my coursework is lousy. I got a super slacker in my group who could actualli oversleep on the day of presentation and not turn up..first speaker somemore and all her slides are RUBBISH! Sent it to us the night before at 11 p.m. when presentation is 830 the next morning. What a slacker! The whole group's grade pulled down all bcos of her! Ok. Enough shifting of blame. If I have kept my mind clearer during the exams, I could have gotten a B. Glad that my FYP got an A. Went through a lot of rough times with my group mates in the course of FYP. Glad that Prof Hooi gave us an A in the end. =)

Still waiting for the results for the remaining three modules..Waiting..waiting..wondering what are they doing..why release only half. Refresh the page and scrolled down. Saw an honours classification. Got pass with merits. Expected with my results from the pass few semesters. Luckily still got merits. Haha. At least I know that I am not the last in the cohort. I am ok with not being the top but I hate it if I am the last. Ever since young, I am never the last..at least academically. I dun deserve to be last cos I believe I have worked hard enough not to be the last. Though I didnt get my honours, its ok. Three years in NTU has taught me much more than results. Although I will be even happier if I get my honours but now that I didnt, the world is not crashing down on me either. I will still move on. Confidently.

Seems like forever but think about half an hour later, all the results came out. Not those that I can go around boosting but hey this is the best semester that I ever had. At least to me. I got As for 2 of the banking modules that I took. First time in Uni. Best I got for a banking module is a B. Very happy. At least it proves something, at least to myself, that I am not a lousy banking student. A in a year 3 module. Haha. Getting carried away with the A that is so hard to come by for me. Pardon me. Realised its the wrong studying method all along in my previous semesters. Took so long for me to find out. But at least I did before I graduated. Happy. I am sure I would have done better given a second try. Haha. But why bother now. I graduated. Now its the time to find a job and excel in it. No regrets.

Called Dear to tell him results out. Dear in office, asked me to help him check but I can't log out of the student link. Closed it and opened again, still under my name. Finally, Dear went to check himself after removing the firewalls in the computer.

Dear got his FIRST CLASS HONOURS!

Hee. So happy for him. I already knew he will get it. But he keep saying that he might just get his second upper. But looking at his results, I noe he has chance at First Class. Hee. Can go around telling pple that my bf has First Class Honours. Haha. No lah. I am not such a bimbo. Just very happy for him although our results are like so far apart. But Dear is happy for me too..for my results this sem. Ok. Enough of boosting. Haha.

Everyone is happy for him. Still need to explain further? Nope.

UOB Interview Part Two

Interview only lasted 20 mins. Casual interview so I was not nervous at all. Sarine asked me about myself, my career aspirations, which dept I want to work in cos she actually has openings for fresh grads in a no. of depts.

Told her that I dun really have any preference. Told her my worries about my voice cos its naturally not tat sweet and a lot of pple tot I am having sore throat and since customer service at call centre, customers onli hear ur voice so voice is actually impt. But Sarine says my voice sounds ok, she will keep in view. She might put me as front line customer service or maybe even operations. But she needs time to decide.

Will call me again in one week's time for second interview if I am shortlisted. Ok, shall not go into all the details about wat she says about me haha if not my head will swell. Pray hard for good news! =)

Interview at UOB

After the session at Phillip Capital, it is already 645 pm. Wondering whether I should give Sarina a call. But its so late liao. What will she think of me? Not enthu rite, so late then called. But in the end, I decided to call and try my luck to see whether she is still in office. I noe that people working at banks dun go home so early. Haha. Better call today before I dragged for another day to call tmr.

Ok true to wat I tot. She is still at office. I am supposed to go for an interview tmr. Yoo Hoo! Finally!!! An interview that I am dying to go. Haha. Ok think I sound too desparate but this UOB thing has started since February so can't blame me ma. So, decided to go to Dear's brother shop to print out the application forms to fill up since she is sending me the forms through email and since computer down at home, better do all I need to do before I go home lor.

So, printed all the information that I think I need to noe about the interview tmr. Had chicken rice with Dear at a nearby coffee shop and after that Dear sent me home. Went home, bathed, filled up the form and there were so many things to fill in. By the time I finished abt 90 percent of it, I was so dead tired that I have no energy to flip through my UOB notes and I decided to go to sleep and leave all the character referees and minor section here and there to tmr morning.

Ok..Wednesday is here. Went to make photocopies of my certificates in the morning and bought KFC back for lunch. Came home and read the email that Sarine emailed me and realized that I need to photocopy my ic too. Stupid. Why didn't I read it before I went to zap? Decided to go to Raffles place to zap. After lunch, went to get ready, bath, make up and went to get ready all my important documents and put them in my file.

Reached Raffles place at about 130. Went to find out from the MRT staff how to go to UOB Plaza. After that, I realized that the MRT staff actually told me the wrong exit cos when I came out, UOB Plaza is on the opposite side of the road, so she actually told me the wrong exit. Haha. Went to Caltex house and went to zap my IC first before I go to UOB Plaza. So expensive. They charged me 20 cents for photocopying one IC lor. But bo bian, I need it urgently. Although its just 20 cents but I think its really expensive for a piece of paper lor. Dun you agree?

Ok. So finally proceed to UOB Plaza. Hol-land again. Went to UOB Plaza 2 instead of Plaza 1. Went to ask the security guard then realized I am in the wrong building. Malu. Think the security guard is very nice. He told me the exact direction, " U leave this building, walk all the way straight and you will reach," without any signs of laughing at me for being so stupid when the buildings are just next to each other.

The building is huge. Have to take different lifts to reach the level that you want. Everyone coming back from lunch and the first lift was full. Have to wait for the next one. Interview is at 2 p.m. Supposed to reach ten minutes before hand. My watch shows 150 p.m. but the clock in the lift showed 155 p.m. Oh no. Panic. Late for my first interview.

Reached the office. No one at the desk. Luckily, a gal came out and I told her I am looking for Ms Sarine. She told me to wait a while. Sarine came out shortly and showed me to the interview room. At first, I tot that another person is interviewing me then when Sarine sat down, then realised that she is actually the interviewer. She didn't mention anything about me being late. I was still on time actually but on the dot at 2 p.m. Haha.

She got photocopies of my certs and commented on my IC photo that I looked very different. haha. Thank god. Of course I look different. The IC photo was the photo that I took in Primary 6 where I looked real nerdy with my mushroom hair and nerdy spectacles. Typical studious student. Haha.

Interview lasted only 20 mins. More about the interview in my next entry. Super long entry. Got to go off to pack my cupboard. Mum just got me a cupboard to put all my stuff that I brought back from hall.

Day at Phillip Capital

Tuesday. What is going on? Ohz full day assessment at Phillip Capital. 830 to 630. So, I am stuck there and I didn't have the opportunity to make a phone call to Sarina cos even the lunch is in the office itself. If I want to make a call to UOB, it has to be in the office where there are so many Phillip Capital people walking around, so wun be nice. Yupz..a full day session..so what did we do?

The founder of Phillip Capital, Mr. Gordon Hoo, talked to us. He challenged our beliefs and told us that the definition of courage includes your belief and actions and in the middle lies doubt. Cos to do something, you need to have the courage, then you will have actions. But once you have actions, there will definitely be doubts, fears of wat will happen if you do that. Quite a good definition I felt. Mr. Gordon Hoo is a very inspiration speaker. He talked to us about a lot of things. About how we will see ourselves 10 to 15 years down the road. Do we want to remain as employees and work for others or should we work for ourselves? During his talk, he sometimes makes me wonder whether I really want to be an employee all my life or should I just be an entrepreneur?

Then there were other speakers, Ms Allen and Ms Sydney and Mr. Warren. Ms Allen told us the story of how at the tender age of 25, she was posted by the company to go to Malaysia alone and she encountered a lot of things that were not work related. She moved into an apartment which got burglarised and the police called her while she was having a meeting, she got robbed of her handbag which contains her passport and all important documents on her way home and two person who stayed in her condominium and one just nearby committed suicide by jumping off the building. Very Drama hor. Thats what I felt when she told her story. And when she tot that after her 8 months term in Malaysia is over and she is coming to Singapore. She was posted to Thailand for 2 years. She have to learn to speak Thai and I think she has mastered the Thai language already cos she has to converse in Thai and even give presentations in big functions in Thai. Deep down in my heart, I really admired her. But how many people can be like her?

Then, there was Ms Sydney. She quitted her job as a civil servant at LTA to come here to work as an adviser. She didn't like it at LTA because although her perfomance was very good, she could not be promoted because someone who is more senior than her has yet to be promoted. So, she must wait for her chance. So, she felt injustice and decided to leave for good. She must be earning a lot cos she could afford to take a one month's leave to Australia and she says that once she sees something that she likes, she will just buy cos she is financially sound to do so. She make it to the million dollar round table which is an achievement not all advisers can attain. Applause. Again, how many Ms Sydneys can we get in Phillip Capital? Maybe that is the reason why she is chosen to speak to us and hopefully to inspire us to join the company ba.

Then the last speaker, Mr. Warren. He got interviewed by Channel News Asia before. He is the youngest CEO in the financial arena I think but I am not sure in which region. Basically, he is very li hai lor. And he keep emphasizing the fact that it is going to be a tough job and they are not going to select any Tom, Dick or Harry. He played Simon says with us and all of us there are tricked by him when he told us to stand up and put our bags at the side of the chair cos he says that we may need to move around in the game later. But actually, the game already started when he asks us whether we are ready and when he told us to stand up, he didn't say Simon says and all of us got tricked. Heh.

Then, we also played a Signature game. I am not sure whether I am good or the others didn't want to play but I end up scoring the most points and the person keep saying my name...oh no..that is bad, now everyone there remembers my name and sure enough at the end of the session, I was singled out by an advisor and went to his office to talk to him. At least the others are going in groups lor.

They actually wanted me to sign up for three tests on the spot and pay for the tests..around 200 plus dollars to show our sincerity in becoming an fp by taking the entry tests. But in the end, I told him that I needed time to think and I didn't pay for the tests in the end. So, after like talking to him for like half an hour, he sent me to the door and he ended off with saying I will call you again to come to see one of our meetings. Really need time to think about it.

Ok. Time to call my UOB. Yippee!

Back from Taiwan Part II

Back from Taiwan. I haven't been blogging for so long, ever since I came back from Taiwan cos my computer is down. Dunno what happen to it. Sobz. Think have to turn to either Sheng Yang or Yixin to help me take a look liao. But so paiseh everytime has to get SY to help me solve my computer problems but I have no one else to turn to liao. SY is like the computer god to me. =)

Taiwan is so fun. The people there are very nice. The place is very clean. The scenery is superb. I shall update the photos then can talk more about it. I can go on for ages about the trip and I think you will be bored to death without any photos.

Returned to Singapore. What is the first thing that I did when I step out of the plane??? Any takers???

Drum Rollllllllllllll........

Switch on my hp lor. Haha.

Messages coming in. Not a lot though. But got two voice messages. Wondering whether issit from UOB. Pray hard. So I called the voice mail and YAY! Its from UOB. Hi! This is Sarine here from UOB HR. Kindly return me a call at XXXXXXXX. Yippee! Waited for so long for this call! Finally! Why must they call me when I am in Taiwan. Monday is public holiday. So have to wait till Tuesday before I can call.

back from taiwan!

Finally back from taiwan...wat a trip...buy eat buy eat eat eat eat..think me and dear must have put on at least 5 kg after this trip..muhahaha......now busy with the shop stuff...have to help out at the shop and settle the inventory system....have been dragging for too long....haa...will update the blog with the pictures soon...woohoo...1000 pictures...muhaha..think this time have to be selective liaao...