The next stage in life

So I accepted the job with the big investment bank. And no, I'm not actually in investment banking, I don't do a commerce course. Nor would I actually want to do investment banking if I were. It leaves a lot less time for the finer things in life, such as sitting around, sleeping, and eating.

Its a big relief to have the next stage of your life set for you, especially when you've been worrying about it for a while, and you don't want to be a bum. While the idea of being a bum appeals to me a lot, I think the lack of things to do, not to mention the lack of good things to eat (due to the lack of money) kind of overcomes that.

I think the point where you start working also brings into focus the other things adults probably think about. That is, moving out, a mortgage, loan repayments, etc. Its kind of sucky, but also a bit of an eyeopener as to what my parents kind of went through when they did the same thing.

Theres also the thought of kids and stuff. But then, thats not really an issue for me since I can't seem to get over my lack of effort to find myself a girlfriend. Well, at least my pseudo-girlfriend will do for now =)

Funny

Everyone seems to be leaving this one building in the city. Its the Australian Stock Exchange building in Melbourne. The worst thing is, even the Australian Stock Exchange are moving out of the building, into the building across the road. How ironic is that?

To quote from The Age:

"AAP [the news company] is the third company to leave the Collins Street building. The Australian Stock Exchange movies to the Rialto in September."

Maybe its time they tear it down, as soon as all the law firms move out.

Headhunting, or just having a big head myself?

I just had the most random call. It was the recruitment lady at the company I got offered a job at. Since I didn't actually remember her name the first time she called, I've got it down as -insert company name- grad recruitment. So when this name came up in my phone, I thought maybe I'd put the wrong number down and it was some other random debt collector in NSW (I had another call last week from some gas company... cos you know... I use lots of gas). Also keep in mind that its about 7:15pm...

So anyway, I pick up. NOTE: Below's transcript is NOT ad verbatim.

"Hello?"
"Hi, is this Alistair?"
"Yes, it is."
"Hi, its -DAMN FORGOT NAME AGAIN- from -insert company name- .... Have you had time to consider the offer etc."
"Yeah been thinking about it a lot..."
"Did you manage to talk to -insert other company with last round interview- about stuff?"
"Yeah, they can get back to me on Friday after my interview."
"You wanna go have coffee with someone who can tell u heaps more about the company?"
"Err.. yeah alright!" (thinking its free coffee :) )
"Okay, when you next free?"
"Oh, well.. I'm in tomorrow, like.. to come work for you guys..."
"OK cool, I'll get someone, and call you back tomorrow!"
"Alright, ttyl! lol" (thinking I'll get paid for drinking coffee)

Wow. Like the first time I've been called ON THE PHONE, for coffee. At least that I can remember. Not to mention the fact that it MIGHT BE FREE!!! Damn I'm a cheapo.

So headhunting me? or maybe I've just got a stick up my butt... Either way... Here's hoping for free coffee tomorrow!

EDIT: Yeah, its just me with a big head.

Recent things

Lots of stuff has been happening.

The week of the interviews was kind of breezy. One half of the reason why I haven't been posting much is because, if I remember correctly, there was wayyy too much DOTA and nothing productive happening at all during that week.

Half the reason why I haven't been posting is because I really haven't had that much net access. A few friends and I went to Sydney for a short holiday. I don't think I'll say too much about it because its already been covered here. But in a nutshell, we kinda went up on Sunday, went around doing some toursity stuff, and sat around some more, then came back home on Thursday. There were Krispy Kremes involved somewhere in there as well.

Also, the company which I said I did alright in the interview for offered me a graduate role, which is great news. I can finally breathe easy about next year and not worry so much. Dad was quite happy to hear about it. He was more worried about me having a job than I was. Poor guy.

The company which I said I did pretty badly in also invited me to their next round of interviews. This is with a senior executive ... and they let me know if I get offered a place for next year on the day, which is pretty good. Though I think to work for this company, they'd have to pay significantly more than the previous company. The work is a lot harder too, and a lot more boring. Coding all day... *shudder*

But yes, in a nutshell. Hap hap happy!

Even more interviews

It seems like a whole heap of recent posts are about interviews. This one isn't going to be any exception. Well, since almost all I did yesterday was attend them, its kind of expected.

The first one was pretty good actually. The standard behavioural type questions with the usual bullcrap answers I pull out of my butt on the spur of the moment, sometimes with a grain of truth in it as well. They're good because I've done quite a lot of them, so theres nothing really suprising about them. Coincidently, this was also the company that I did my internship with, so I already knew the people interviewing me, and they started talking to me about that part time role they gave me before they even started with the interviewing. That one finished right on time, after I asked a well timed and throught provoking question.

The second one was for another large multinational company specialising in IT. For my previous interview with them, it was actually good. I had an interviewer who was frank and gave good feedback. The second interviewer was... French. It didn't exactly help things. Half the time, I couldn't even understand what he was saying due to the accent. Luckily he was just blabbing on. I just nodded, smiled, and said.. "yeah... okay.... cool..." Rinse, repeat if desired. He also just kept blabbing on about stuff about the company that they did in the 1st interview already.

The questions were a bit different from what I was used to as well. They asked about the last software project I worked on and things like that. I struggled... especially when they talked about testing. No, I've never had any formal training with testing software projects, and no, I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to writing things like test plans for software development.

Oh well. That one went wayyy overtime (I think) and I think I screwed it up.

Nevermind. Good things come to those who wait. At least thats how the saying goes.

Yay

I am now a part time IT Administrator. Well, okay, maybe not NOW, but.. will be soon.

I didn't think that kind of thing could happen. Administering stuff part time...

Awesome.

Where do you want to go tomorrow?

Its about this time in life where people start to ask "What do I want to do with my life?" Its usually because they don't really have any idea where to start. Theres too many possibilities out there, and no real way to tell which one fits each person. It would probably be helpful if we had some sort of futurama like device which tells us what kind of job we'd be most suited to. Too bad we don't :(

After becoming an adolecent, I never really wanted to be anything. There was no driving force to do what I'm doing now. I kind of just adapted to whatever I was doing at the time. For example, I hated literature like English classes in year 11, but by the time it was the end of year 12, I'd already come to enjoy it. In the same way, I think I'd come to enjoy any kind of uni course once I got into it.

So I really don't get it. People drop out of uni because its "not for them" or something along those lines. It "isn't what they want to do". Well if I had a choice of what to do, it wouldn't be study. I'd be sitting on a beach somewhere drinking pina coladas for the rest of my life. But alas, to finance such a lifestyle, it would help if I had a job. Moreover, how can it be "not for them" if they've been at school for the last 13 years? Surely another 3 more wouldn't have that big of an impact.

Maybe I'm looking at this too much from a snobbish well off university student's point of view. But then you go look at the people who drop out, and they go and get themselves a dead end job selling vaccum cleaners. Do they like it? It doesn't look like it, but thats just my view. Maybe I have too much bias on this topic :/ I like to think that I'm just adaptable.

Yay

Got uni marks for this semester back just today.

Turns out my marks were pretty good. Interesting thing was, marks were inversely proportional to the time I spent studying. So sad :(

North Korea vs Iraq

I like it how the US is so ... inconsistent about how they choose who to attack.

Iraq: "Hey, we don't have any WMDs, wtf are you talking about?"

Korea: "Yeah! We've got nukes man! We're gonna blow you guys to hell!"

US: "Ummm..." *scratches head* "Lets invade Iraq guys, they've got friggen nukes!"