Tuesday, November 07, 2006

The hunt goes on...

Took a day of leave from work today to go for 2 job interviews. Morning 9.30 am at J.S.T Components (Japanese electronics sales office) at Aljunied and Microsoft Regional Sales at Alexendra Technopark @ 2pm.

Managed to reach the J.S.T office about 15 minutes before the appointed time. Phew~ Scared cannot find the place early in the morning. About 10 minutes walk from Aljunied MRT in long sleeved shirt and I'm almost sweating it out... Someone did mention to me before that it's important that you shouldn't be LATE for an interivew and also said that cannot be too EARLY for one as well. The interviewer might think that you have no concept of time (时间观念)or something liddat...

The J.S.T interview went pretty well, I guessed. Interviewed by 2 native Japanese speakers, an attractive lady and a serious-looking guy, entirely in Japanese. Woot! They were rather surprised at my conversational ability despite not having any certification. But it's all thanks to my Japanese senseis (teachers) in NUS, I said. :) Managed to catch most of the stuff said by the guy, but there were a few funny moments when I asked about the welfare benefits. The lady was also an assistant engineer and the guy was the manager, I think. They were surprised when they found that the benefits differ by a huge marginfor the both of them when trying to explain to me. Haha! Only thing that got me worried was that i was told I had no previous working experience in an engineering firm.. (But I'm a fresh grad for goodness's sake!)

Left about 10.50am and took the train from Aljunied to Queenstown. Decided to have lunch at Anchorage point and head down to Queensway shopping centre later in hopes of finding the oh-so-elusive-sold out-you-got-money-also-cannot-buy Liverpool 2006/2007 season SHORT SLEEVED jersey!

Spent about an hour walking around the WHOLE Queensway shopping centre, but only left L and XL sizes.. WTF! Other bigwigs like Man U, Arsenal and that stinking Chelsea still got S and M sizes available woah... This goes to show that Liverpool damn popular in Singapore sia! *beams* but damn sad cos now cannot find in Singapore le... the shop guy also said jersey not coming in anymore, maybe the red zipper jacket (only available in L and XL sizes >_<) might! Took a short bus ride to Alexandra Technopark to Microsoft for my next interview, which looks to be promising... Lucky I went there before to send my HP laptop for repair. if not newbies sure cannot find the blasted underpass to get to the technopark. Difference now that I had to find Blk B (Microsoft) rather than Blk A (HP repair centre)... Reached there damn early about 1pm! And remembered what my fren said about reaching too early... So I hung around the food court (which I found only accessible by elevator...) till about 1.30pm before I made my way over. Normally when u register at the recep, it's always a form or book you gotta fill in, but at Microsoft, you gotta fill in at the computer terminal! So cool~ Then the terminal will print a sticker which you proudly stick it on your shirt/blouse. The form also required you to declare whether you were down with running nose or cough, and since I was still having a cough from my flu last week, I noted yes for cough. ---> which turned out that the sticker on you would say "Health: Bad" I was like WTF!

Whenever people walked past me and stared at my sticker, they moved away hastily. No prizes for guessing y, yah? Anyway, the interview started at 2.30pm (so much for being early. *grumbles*) and I was amazed at the office at Microsoft! Tall ceiling with spacious cubicles. No. They should be called workstations instead. And posh sofas here and there for staff to work on their lappies. Even saw a futsal (table soccer) table too! *double beams*

Interview went on fine, was asked the usual questions, but answered them with a dash of my own spice. hee. Which got me thinking, if I get the job at Microsoft, does it mean I can use MSN messenger at work? Microsoft mah.. :P

Finished about 3.40pm and took a bus down to ViVocity where the mountain tortoise called Jaron hasn't set foot upon so far...

First impression: Rather huge interior, spacious walking areas for shoppers. Think might go again to visit all the artworks scattered around the complex inside and outside. Headed for Red 2 to see how my uncle's new outlet was doing. i dare say, it's doing pretty well. My aunt didn't have time to chat with me.. Then headed down to the adidas boutique to hope that they might have stock of M size liverpool jersey or zipper jacket. A cute salesgirl approached me and I explained to her my predicament. She only said it's all sold out and asked me to try a specific shop at Queensway instead, which I told her "I just come from Queensway leh..." Haha! In the end, I walked around and spotted some potential buys like a newly brought in cap, a zipper jacket that says "I LOVE TOKYO". Hmm....

After a tiring day of hunting jobs and jerseys, I finally headed back home by train... Phew!

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