from inception to departure - Part 3

(disclaimer: this story is only a re-telling of a fragment of my life, no form of defamation was intended)- continuation...


I had already set an interview date with the ID (interior design) company as they had to wait for their big boss to be free as he wanted to be interviewing us personally. Then I got a call from the previous company (refer to previous posts) to tell me I passed the Presentation part of the interview and was shortlisted for a face-to-face interview. wahh, agak terkejut. but I still went to both interviews.


Job interview No.2- I went to the interview at the company that made me go through all the tests & presentations. When I reached there I saw some familiar faces, we were put in groups of 5, then masuk kna interview sorg2. I was interviewed by the heads of HR, Legal & Research department, salah sorg dorg was the boss that had a lot of comments during my group presentation. jatuh jantung nampak dia, i thought i didn't have a hope at all, haha. Ended up, he was the quietest and most sporting. it was a casual interview, i only got one investment related question (thank god that i had a glimpse of 'the edge' that morning!) and towards the end we were joking about EPL and about me being born abroad. that was that, I went home feeling a bit hopeful

Job interview No.3- the following week I went to the interior design company for the interview they called for. I hopped on the lrt and stepped off at dang wangi station as the office was at jln sultan ismail. they were looking for a new Quantity Surveyor and there were a few other candidates there as well. I was the only Malay. We were put in the meeting room to fill the application forms and then called one by one to be interviewed by the boss. The interview went ok, quite formal and short. I just had to give a summary of my resume and he asked me some questions and it was over. on the way back out to the lift I ran into an old friend :) Haidar! she was as surprised to see me as i was to see her. "Aween u buat apa kat sini?", "i dtg interview kat company ni", and she said "haaaa, betulke? i work here! i really hope u get the job!" hehe.


It was a few days to raya, and the first answer i got was from the ID company. wah, agak terkejut jugak i beat all the non-bumis for the spot & salary was higher than the starting most of my friends had so i was happy with that. they wanted me to start right after the raya week :)


then it was raya and on 3rd day of raya, I got a phone call from the other company. it was kak norra, happy raya voice to break to me the happy news. hehee, starting date was another month, in november. and the following monday, i was going to work with the ID company. waaaaaa konfius! the offer letter with the ID company had already stated that if I withdrew the acceptance after signing I would have to pay them back a months salary. err, dgn pokainye x sanggup aku nak cari duit tu. so nak xnak aku pegi la jugak kja :)


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the working hours were 9am to 6.30pm, by 5pm I was already dozing off to sleep. there was not that much to do. my job title was junior QS, eventho the 'senior' QS above me was a diploma holder. For the first week, the only thing that didn't make me snooze off was lunch, usually with haidar & her friends. nak appoint QS baru, but xde kerja pun utk dibuat, I was practically asking every hour if there was something i could do, ended up I was reorganizing all the BQ's in the cabinets. thank god i didn't die of boredom, calculations were also pretty easy & not that challenging, most of the sq area was taken fron the designer's autocad drawings ;p


anyway, during the first week, I was also scheming & drafting my first resignation letter. hehe, kja x sampai sminggu dah buat surat tu kan. well the contract said if i wanted to quit i had to give a 2 week notice, so if i gave that by the end of my first week, it would be just in time to start off at the other company. i felt guilty, but guess i had to go for the higher pay & benefits. it was this week that i found out eija had got the same offer, apelagi, bergayut la aku dgn dia (oh i had to sneak off to the toilet to do that because the QS unit was so damn quiet, hence the dozing offs). After my 3 weeks (which I did make a few friends eventho short span of time) I was out of my first job and waiting for the next. hee


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end of Part 3

from inception to departure - Part 2

(disclaimer: this story is only a re-telling of a fragment of my life, no form of defamation was intended)- continuation...


I sent out emails to companies that were specifically looking for Quantity Surveyors. Honestly most of the were MNC's & GLC's, just decided to start off big before sending to consultancy firms, just to try my luck.


The next few days, I got a reply email from a company, but it wasn't for an interview, it was for a CRBT test (Critical Reasoning Test Battery), i didn't know what it was back then anyways. It was for their recruitment for Management Trainees. Apparently they use it when recruiting their scholars too. 


The CRTB test consists of:-


VERBAL EVALUATION (VC)


- the ability to understand written passeges and to logically evaluate arguments
- time: 30 mnutes

(test ni macam test English/Muet je aku rasa, they give u a paragraph and you answer from there)

DIAGRAMMATIC SERIES (DC) 

- The ability to reason with diagrammatic material.
- Time: 20 minutes

Example:
A	B	C	D	E

(yang diagram ni mencabar sket, you really have to understand & have a bit of an imagination to answer, yang aku tau ramai frust time test ni, the kid next to me was on the verge of tears nk jawab, thank god i had done some sample questions online, but still, the last batch of questions tu aku main colour je jawapan, x cukup masa :D)

NUMERICAL INTERPRETATION (NC) 

- The ability to understand tables of statistical and numerical data and to make logical deductions from them. 
- Time: 30 minutes 

(test ni cam maths plus statistics, agak macam spm jugakla but the time given tak sempat nak fikir lama2 if nak jawab semua)

the last sentence of the email stated "Panggilan temuduga bagi pengambilan Eksekutif Pelatih ini akan dibuat bagi mereka yang memenuhi markah lulus Ujian CRTB ini" so i thought cuba jelah kan.
the test was on the 9th Sept 2008, masa tu bulan Ramadhan ye, so off I was on the LRT, sampai sane memang ramai gile manusia, I was thinking already, I don't stand a chance! haha, we were called in batches, and sat for the 3 tests, I didn't make any long-term friends, I figured not worth if, masa tu habis around lunch time, lapar gile, but puasa kan, so balik rumah, tidoooooo

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around a week after that, got another email asking me to participate for the "Presentation of Management Trainee', it didn't say a thing about the CRTB test so i figured i passed, tentatively we had to present in groups, the email said it was better if we bought our own laptops, I didn't have a laptop in those days, so i borrowed my cousins one, seb baik becoz it turned out, I was the only one in my group that did.

the presentation was on 22nd Sept 2008, dah lagi sminggu nak raye dah time tu! haha, I arrived at the office just 5 minutes before 9 (sampai ke sudah datang keje tepat2 je), and the first person I met, was Encek Safwan ;p

mamat ni, tanye sepatah, jawab sepatah. sombong tapi rupanya dia kata dia pemalu, uwekk. time presentation ni boleh nampakla a few that stood out, (yang last2 end up jadi bestfriends aku jugak) hehe, namely Majjie & Aziz. Maj dah speaking macam foreigner & Aziz memang terrel menang hati juri, topic dia psal fast food if tak silap.


oh there was also one weird girl, time dia present siap ada lagu ke syair, i have no idea, but it was damn hilarious & unappropriate. sorry la girl, ni bukan interview nak masuk Malaysian Idol. jeez.


anyways we were all put into groups of 5, had to put up a simple slideshow and choose a topic from the list given, my group chose 'unemployment', a safe choice, and since i was the only one that brought a laptop, i made the slideshow. 


Each person in the group had to present one sub topic, i remember presenting my points, but one of the bosses in front kept on criticizing all of them, aku menjawab dah tahap bantai je, plus bengang he kept on picking on my points. time tu mmg ingat confirm pakcik ni x suka aku k. Well, after all that, went back home, once I reached setiawangsa I got a call from an interior design company & called me to come for an interview. of course i said yes. 

end of Part 2

from inception to departure - Part 1

(disclaimer: this story is only a re-telling of a fragment of my life, no form of defamation was intended)

2008

our final semester was over by April 2008, we were graduating in August, so in those 4 months i went to a total of 3 interviews. I was not looking for an immediate job, I wanted to start work after graduating (malas mode). I was already working part time at a consultancy.


Job interview No. 1- this interview wasn't even planned for, my bff Haida called me & asked me to go & try out for this interview she found in the paper, it was looking for Quantity Surveyors to work in Qatar. Mula2 memang malass sangat sebab rase belum ready, but lepas dipujuk Haida, ktorg pegi. oh still have a copy of the add:

haida siap highlight lagi tuk aku, thats how efficient she is :) so we went, we were interviewed seperately, by two Japanese guys, they were really nice & polite & even showed me a whole slideshow of activities in Qatar & their project. I was starting to get interested but didn't get my hopes up. Jauh kot Qatar! working 6 days a week ;p


a week after that i got a call from their headquaters in Qatar, they said i had succeeded the interview & they wanted to offer me a position straight away. I was unsure, but i just told them that i might be willing to accept & start only after i had graduated by end of August, they agreed & in the offer letter they emailed me, the starting date 1st September 2008.

Haida didn't get the offer, neither did our other classmate, so I was a bit skeptical about going by myself. So eventho I had already signed the offer letter (as they had to prepare a work visa for me), I started doing my research. I contacted my 2 seniors that were working & living  in the Middle East, Abg Farid & Abg Faizal (no not my faizal).I chatted with them through ym a lot & asked them every single thing i could think of. they were supportive, but a bit worried for me coz i was a girl & they were willing to help get me contacts if i decided to go :)


I was feeling prepared & ok with going there, 5 years contract. masa tu, sayang was already working in Sabah, I consulted him a bit, but me being the egoistic aween, if he said he supported me in anything i wanted to do, just that he was sad & worried about me, I really just thought he was jealous of me going elsewhere & trying to control me. betul, I really under-appreciated him then :(


In the mean time I was still in contact with the reps from Qatar, I asked them when I could sign the work contract to confirm. they told me the offer letter was it. okay, a one paged letter je? then after i kept on pressing them to sign a contract, they replied I only had to sign the actual contract when I reached Qatar. now that struck a suspicious cord.


I was unsure again & started asking Hunny (who was working in Dubai at the time) what I should do. She asked me the salary they were offering & told me it was way to low for me to save & survive, she said counter-offer the company, if not it wasn't worth it. after that I just felt like maybe I shouldn't go, takut!


sooooo, after thinking it through, i just decided to see how it went. if the company at the last minute offered to sign the contract in KL, i would at least consider, but they didn't. they kept calling & emailing me to remind me of my departure date & sent me the flite tickets & working visa. but in the end. i didn't go.


i decided to wait till my convocation was over before i started job-hunting, i sent out emails to a few companies on 31st August & waited to be called for interviews.

end of part 1

Ipoh Mali, Ipoh Ipoh Mali

diam tak diam , dah setahun since we were in Kuching for Minggu Saham, this time around, we'll be in IPOH (aku telah mewajibkan PuRe Ain & Izad tuk datang jumpa aku supaya xkena tulah). weeee

saat ini aku sedang cuba multi-tasking, (updating blog+packing+smsing wif maj) jadi if ur around the area , moh singgah le!!!

the truth

(sila click tuk image lebih jelas)

hahahaha..

why the heck am i still at the office? im getting outta here

Annual Dinner- Perhimpunan of the Crazy Batch

sejak bulan pose ni, makin malas aku nak menaip..hehe, sedangkan dalam otak, bermacam2 perkara aku dah karang, just tinggal nk menekan keyboard je..so, nak tempek gambar 2 minggu lepas, our company ada buat Annual Dinner kat Mandarin (4 days before ramadhan aritu)..honestly, biasa je to me, mungkin pasal more appealing to oldies..hehe, the only fun was that we got to gather our crazy batch (tertinggal jugak a few) & amek gambar like crazy people :D (plus our sleepover kat PNB Darby Park.haha, staff rate bolehla..)

thanks to kak ina, we got a tabled reserved! tq akak!

my maj, syam, faisal, me

dira in royal yellow.gorjes k

emcee= salleh yaacob

yuyu, slambe je ko pegang tangan dgn safwan kan?haha

jayjay

salamiah hassan

si salleh yaakob ni mmg lawak la x dinafikan

and lastly, Allycats, or it is Alleycat.


Terima Kasih! (i heard that so many times that nite ;p)

and then ther was the prizes for the best dressed
(x ikut tema pon bestdressed pelik tul aku)

and i won a lucky draw (scratch the fact that ramai staff yang dpt) hehe,
still is a rezeki to me, when in the first place,, the original date of the dinner (27 July 10)
I couldn't attend pasal i was flying off to sabah..

tup tup, dorg postponed the date of the dinner, 
rezeki aku dapat pegi :) 


oh, end up aku menang ni je:

hadiah tetap hadiah kan 
(ok guys tak yah belikan aku iron for my wedding gift) hehe


okayy, cam whoring time!!

aku suka pic ni, wlaupun aku xde, tapi nmpak happy gler!

the gorjes girls of my batch (bukan time uni je ada batch k)

 the sewel guys (tapi tetap kachak)

gambar from yuni, aku suka gmbr ni psl nmpk my whole baju, 
oh and the SHOES! me loves the shoes!

almost all of us (total sebenar 20 org budak bising)


then on the way back to darby park
 (bila lagi nak poyo2 duk hotel kt seblah ofis)
kami teruskan agenda x senonoh

ni dua ekor 'musuh'


itu sahaje update lewat kali ni.hehe.
 dinner was great pasal korg ada.
 if not, mesti boring gila, snoooze party je ;p

Us in Kuching for MSAM 2010~updated

outdated update (by one month) haha. how time files, makin lama, aku makin malas nak tulis blog. if not pasal my frens keep on asking about my wedding prep progress & pembace setia blog aku (that is not a wedding or any other specific-genre-related-blog) yang tanye 'mana update baru?' hehe, mesti aku tak menaip dan menempek gambar :D

 gemuk gila kan? xleh blah! T_T

xde mood sgt kot..i miss my syg soooo freaking alot (T_T). bapak lama 2 bln x jumpa..after this we're down to max tak jumpa 1 month je. thank god!..ish, suka lari topic ko ni kan?


hahahah..jom usha gambar Kuching & me working there (yes banyak gambar kt expo tu pasal i was working, hehe, if you call stamping the pengunjung expo nye passport book as working)

 sampai2 je airport kuching..iklan msam greeted us

sempat singgah ASNB kuching, sedih kan? and now this building is under my portfolio!!..boss, nk cat baru boleh?

pintu gerbang

sempat singgah masjid kuching :) cun & besar

view of waterfront from bilik maj & dira, Riverside Majestic (ye kami terpisah)

the free shuttle vans

where we did our business

ehehe, jakun sket..sorila..my first time melepas kt dlm cubicle kecik ni, x tahan dah :D

yep kecik, if syg masuk mesti x muat.hehe

wisma bapa malaysia, kuching (this is where the expo was held)

our booth :)

Abg Fahmi playing maskot for AMB

my first day at work: my bubbies came visit (Majjie & Dira)

muka nakalness

ok now this is me at work, laju tak tangan aku mengecop? 

mmg tak lah! hahaha. first day, still slow lagi

my 'teman setia' for 7 days

the kids in Sarawak, org Sarawak murah dgn senyuman :)

costumes chantek

this is how hectic it was, almost all the time, gler sumpah tangan aku dah nak terchabot ok

i admit, i did slam down the stamp on a few innocent fingers..sorry adik2!

this is at Pasar Satok (sempat singgah lagi). ikan terubuk yang menjadi kiriman utama warga kl..sampai skrg aku tak rasa lagi ada beberapa ketul dalam freezer. haha, mama mesti nk tunggu syg dtg baru nk masak (menantu kesygan konon menyampah :p a.k.a jeles)

my milo dinosaurs..kat kuching, this was my favourite drink, haha. 

milo biase je but topping milo serbuk/choc sprinkles

we stayed here for the week, Merdeka Palace & Suites

sangat comfortable, cumanye it wasn't straight infront of the waterfront so we rented a car to drive to & fro to the expo & hotel :) i drove in Kuching :) heheee

while at Kuching i cant tell you how much seafood we consumed! 

banyak, now im fat & i can't let go of the eating habit..GREAT!

i also made sure i tasted all the stuff that i dont eat in kl:-

 

ikan

udang (my favourite!)

ketam! yums!

-Mee Kolok (mcm me maggi)

-Siput Pahat ke hape (omg geli gila siput tu rupa dia mcm cacing :p)

 caaacing??

 yang ni pucuk apetah..sedap!! 

(ok my food reviews mmg xbagus langsung kan? nama makanan pon x hingat)

-Nasi Ayam Penyet (ok2, kt kg baru pon ada byk, hehe, tp ayam kt kuching ni x brape penyek sgt, mcm ayam goreng je)

-Mee Jawa (for brekfast!, kaye & parents ajak mkan brekfast with them, sedap! kat Satok, Kopi'o Korner)

-Kek Batik, ini xyah ckp la kan, sume tester pon aku rembat=GEMUK GILA!

kitorg pegi beli kat kedai Afifi ni sebab disyorkan by org2 ASNB, dia mmg opposite waterfront kat kampung boyan tu. Tapi aku tngok ramai yang beli kat zaharah tu, ke hapa..x ingat la 2 bln yg lepas..Afifi ni sedapla dia nye cake..ada 2 types, one used butter, the other margerin..of coz yg pkai margerin lagi murah..rm10 satu, yg pkai butter, start from rm30 satu..standard je harga2 kat sume kedai ;)

hasilnye, angkut beberapa bungkus balik kl, my favourite = mint :) mmg aku sorg je yg paling makan kot kat umah.

hehe..depressing a bit for me because it has caused me to gain excessive love handles (T_T)