My sister left for Australia.
I'm the first one to leave our house to live in some other place to work (which is Manila) but fate has taken me back here, home. It is maybe one of my most daring, risky and memorable experience of my life. In my opinion, living alone and independently has broaden my horizon, and made me a little wiser - not to mention see other places, faces and experience a different culture.
That experience has taught me a lot of things, from little mundane things of checking if the doors are locked after you go to work, cleaning the room, kitchen, CR to major things of controlling finances and expenses. I feel happy when I look back and see myself being responsible and mature enough to take care of myself. No one can take away what I learned from that experience. I am proud of me.
And now my younger sister at 24 is now heading to Brisbane Australia to try a new life. I'm totally excited for her. Hoping that she will have the courage to fight the homesickness and enjoy this opportunity to grow and be mature.
Our family is just here, waiting for your return. Godspeed Ajane.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Should I Be Honest Enough?
It's been around three (3) months now that I have all these free time to do almost anything. Yet I don't do anything except eat, sleep and just laze around.
One more thing, I have this agreement.
Before I entered into this contract with my part time job, I told them that I need time to figure out if I wanted to do it fulltime. Because of that premise I didn't resign from my previous post and continued my services as part time to them.
As I have written, I was laid off from my fulltime job. And that's where the dilemma comes in. You see I didn't tell my part time that I am now free. And to make matters more complicated I applied for other companies and got accepted. Next month I will be starting there as an employee and will be busy (as a neophytes do).
The reason being is that honestly I don't want to be in a fulltime position with them and would like that I continue my services as part time. There are many reasons why, and the primary reason being I don't have that health care benefit and those other benefits that regular employees receives.
I wish I could just tell them what I honestly feel, but things are not that easy.
One more thing, I have this agreement.
Before I entered into this contract with my part time job, I told them that I need time to figure out if I wanted to do it fulltime. Because of that premise I didn't resign from my previous post and continued my services as part time to them.
As I have written, I was laid off from my fulltime job. And that's where the dilemma comes in. You see I didn't tell my part time that I am now free. And to make matters more complicated I applied for other companies and got accepted. Next month I will be starting there as an employee and will be busy (as a neophytes do).
The reason being is that honestly I don't want to be in a fulltime position with them and would like that I continue my services as part time. There are many reasons why, and the primary reason being I don't have that health care benefit and those other benefits that regular employees receives.
I wish I could just tell them what I honestly feel, but things are not that easy.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Day of July 15
That yellow (or cream colored) long sleeved shirt I wore at Dianne's wedding is my only choice to wear for the interviews. I have two job interviews today, the first one, at 10:00am is in IT Park and the other one at 3:00pm is in Cebu Business Park (Ayala).
It was a nice interview at Company N. First I was interviewed by their HR, and all I can say is that she's nice and I love her voice, it's like I'm listening to a prerecorded message. After some standard HR questions (tell me about yourself, salary, etc..) she quickly forwarded me to my technical interview with the team lead.
They're looking for C++ programmers, and I honestly didn't know how to code C++ for now. But they're lenient for long as I know OOP concepts. And bet I really do! The interview went on like a casual conversation and I felt at home answering questions about Inheritance, Polymorphism, Encapsulation. I know these stuffs, and I felt confident when I answered this particular question "In implementing a list, how do you clear the list (delete all contents)?". It's like a jackpot question for me, since I don't only know the answer I absolutely know how to answer it in a way that they will say "yes that's it!".
I was asked to return after lunch to have an interview with the manager. The way the manager interviewed me, it seems to me like an investigation, scrutinizing details that I put on my resume. For a moment I felt I was being interrogated by a crime (but it was just me). Turns out that somehow he knew an aunt of mine (he even knew that we live beside the road-but I didn't pry more on how he had such knowledge). He told me that I will know the results the following day. After I left the premises the HR called me to return again by 1:00pm the following day.
I was next off to Company L for a 3:00pm interview. When I arrived I was told to go to the 9th floor. After some HR forms I was escorted to the 19th floor where my interviewers were. Again I was relieved that my interviewers were cool enough and not intimidating.
The interview quickly turned into another fun conversation (it felt like I was talking to my long unseen friends) about my past experiences (as a programmer of course!) and about my hobbies, and interests. I had a great time relating to them about my past jobs and my decisions (they asks why I took the licensure examination for teachers). I was getting ready to answer technical questions but they said that it will be in an another interview (if there is another). The position became more interesting to me when they mentioned "our team gets to travel often..." - that's it I was sold. I was a bit disappointed though since I was ready, very ready to answer those technical questions. I was told to wait for further announcement (calls).
I guess that yellow (cream colored) long sleeve shirt I wore at Dianne's wedding is a lucky charm.
It was a nice interview at Company N. First I was interviewed by their HR, and all I can say is that she's nice and I love her voice, it's like I'm listening to a prerecorded message. After some standard HR questions (tell me about yourself, salary, etc..) she quickly forwarded me to my technical interview with the team lead.
They're looking for C++ programmers, and I honestly didn't know how to code C++ for now. But they're lenient for long as I know OOP concepts. And bet I really do! The interview went on like a casual conversation and I felt at home answering questions about Inheritance, Polymorphism, Encapsulation. I know these stuffs, and I felt confident when I answered this particular question "In implementing a list, how do you clear the list (delete all contents)?". It's like a jackpot question for me, since I don't only know the answer I absolutely know how to answer it in a way that they will say "yes that's it!".
I was asked to return after lunch to have an interview with the manager. The way the manager interviewed me, it seems to me like an investigation, scrutinizing details that I put on my resume. For a moment I felt I was being interrogated by a crime (but it was just me). Turns out that somehow he knew an aunt of mine (he even knew that we live beside the road-but I didn't pry more on how he had such knowledge). He told me that I will know the results the following day. After I left the premises the HR called me to return again by 1:00pm the following day.
I was next off to Company L for a 3:00pm interview. When I arrived I was told to go to the 9th floor. After some HR forms I was escorted to the 19th floor where my interviewers were. Again I was relieved that my interviewers were cool enough and not intimidating.
The interview quickly turned into another fun conversation (it felt like I was talking to my long unseen friends) about my past experiences (as a programmer of course!) and about my hobbies, and interests. I had a great time relating to them about my past jobs and my decisions (they asks why I took the licensure examination for teachers). I was getting ready to answer technical questions but they said that it will be in an another interview (if there is another). The position became more interesting to me when they mentioned "our team gets to travel often..." - that's it I was sold. I was a bit disappointed though since I was ready, very ready to answer those technical questions. I was told to wait for further announcement (calls).
I guess that yellow (cream colored) long sleeve shirt I wore at Dianne's wedding is a lucky charm.
Sometimes I Get Extremely Lucky
Yes, for reasons I can't explain, maybe that is why it's called luck.
Case in point: Passing the entrance job examination with a high score
I applied for this company, let's call it company Q. When I arrived there I was shocked that there was a lot (I mean A LOT) of people lining up waiting for their turn to be interviewed by the HR. Thankfully though that was not the line I was supposed to fall-in-line since it was for those applying for call center agents.
I was applying as a network systems administrator.
Ok, really I wasn't applying for a network sysadmin, I was applying as a programmer. There was another guy that was also scheduled to take the test. We casually talk about our past jobs and I knew that I was dead meat compared to this person since he worked with Cisco servers, etc.
The HR told me that she knew I didn't applied for the network sysadmin position, but explained that she just wanted for me to try.
And so the test begun.
And was it hard. No make it very hard!
There were 20 questions, situational ones where they present a scenario and ask what went wrong, how to fix it, what's the output, what's the best topology, etc...
So I went home and cleared my mind that there's any chance I could pass that exam. I mean for real.
And the surprise of my life, I received a call and the HR told me that I have an interview later that evening. So I went to company Q's office and waited for my turn to be interviewed.
During my interview, the admin asked me if I had any previous encounter with a Cisco router or configured any kind of network related equipment - and my answer was a short "no sir". And he had this look on his face that seems baffled, he asked me how can I get such high scores and yet didn't know a thing about Cisco routers or network equipment configuration for that matter?
Of course I did some intellectual reasoning and didn't just admit that it was pure luck.
But I guess my luck ended there. I was not employed by company Q.
I hope that the other person got it, he deserves the position anyway.
Friday, July 02, 2010
The Day of July 2
Woke up early to go to TBI office because it is Friday and I have to be in the office to meet with Ryan our new UI designer for the website.
Planned to go there at 9:00am but because I was hooked up on twitter and facebook and also re-uploading the sample test program from a company I am applying as a programmer, I arrived late - but not so late at 9:30am.
Met Ryan and we talked about the sample theme he submitted 2 days ago and what needs to be revised. I guess my manager wanted a simpler color scheme and uncluttered design. After an hour or so discussion, we had an agreement and we'll see his redesign over the weekend and will be discussed by the team during Monday's status meeting.
Submitted my DTR (daily time record) for the month of June and went for lunch.
Had lunch in Mongolian and had my favorite "check a bowl" meal paired with a bottomless iced tea.
Went home, watched the downloaded "The Tudors" season 1 episodes. I downloaded this series out of curiosity because it has been touted as having many explicit scenes and - they were not kidding, breasts and butts abound on every episodes (yes I skipped to the good parts :p).
Having nothing much to do for the afternoon, I just watched TV, surf the net and eat. It was then that I realized I ate 3 times for the last 4 hrs.
I received email from an employer based on SG about an opening they have, but I am not yet qualified as they need 5-6 years of solid Java EE experience, I'm just currently having 6 years of various IT experience.
Job hunting will still continue until next week.
Planned to go there at 9:00am but because I was hooked up on twitter and facebook and also re-uploading the sample test program from a company I am applying as a programmer, I arrived late - but not so late at 9:30am.
Met Ryan and we talked about the sample theme he submitted 2 days ago and what needs to be revised. I guess my manager wanted a simpler color scheme and uncluttered design. After an hour or so discussion, we had an agreement and we'll see his redesign over the weekend and will be discussed by the team during Monday's status meeting.
Submitted my DTR (daily time record) for the month of June and went for lunch.
Had lunch in Mongolian and had my favorite "check a bowl" meal paired with a bottomless iced tea.
Went home, watched the downloaded "The Tudors" season 1 episodes. I downloaded this series out of curiosity because it has been touted as having many explicit scenes and - they were not kidding, breasts and butts abound on every episodes (yes I skipped to the good parts :p).
Having nothing much to do for the afternoon, I just watched TV, surf the net and eat. It was then that I realized I ate 3 times for the last 4 hrs.
I received email from an employer based on SG about an opening they have, but I am not yet qualified as they need 5-6 years of solid Java EE experience, I'm just currently having 6 years of various IT experience.
Job hunting will still continue until next week.
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