Systemic Issues?

I wonder why it takes them a whole day to replace something thats broken. Technically the company I work for is meant to be an IT services company. Yet somehow it has trouble providing those IT services to the people who work there. The last time this happened, it took us days to get back online.

Anyhoo, I shouldn't really be complaining. It gave us the oppurtunity to sit around and do a bit of nothing. Actually it turned out to be a lot of nothing, and an extremely long lunch break. But hey, not really our fault. Its not like we shouldn't take advantage of the situation to have some team bonding time. In the end, we ended up going to the client's place to do the work that the client was paying us to do at our own place. They weren't really complaining either I don't think since nobody actually knew who's fault it was.

Not much I can do about it I guess.

System Issues

We can't access our client's system, so instead, we're all just sitting around doing nothing. Well... almost anyway.

Yesterday was beach day. The weather forecast was almost perfect. So we got off our arses and headed down to Torquay to have us some quality boogie boarding time. After getting stuck in Geelong for a while, we eventually made it there at around 12pm. It was pretty packed and full of people, but a claim was staked on our little part of the beach.

Isn't much else to say about the beach really. We just did what we normally do when people go to the beach. That is, sit around, get sunburnt, have a swim around, do some boarding, and then have a bit of a perve. Or maybe that was just me...

Work breakup and stuff

Friday was supposedly our Christmas breakup at work. We just went to have dinner, went to some other place for more drinks, and then went to a small club type thing. It was actually quite fun. Dinner was ok, drinks was fun for a while. I think I'm over beer now too. For some reason I just can't take it anymore. Beer just tastes like wee now for some reason, and it makes me wanna throw up.

It kind of counted as a farewell for another person at work. He's going to another part of the company for a while, and nobody is sure whether he's actually coming back. So.. that was a pretty big thing I guess.

Christmas eve - Mah jong and Carols on TV

Christmas -
Had some trouble getting up in the morning to go to work. Eventually made it. It wasn't very busy at all. The only good thing was that afterwards, we got to eat heaps. After that, I didn't eat anything for the rest of the day. Ended up sitting around for a while then heading out to someone's place to sit around. Then we kind of moved to Tez's place to sit around some more. Awesome.

So OVER Christmas

Its true.

Going to see the movies

Its about time I wrote something. Even somebody at work noticed I hadn't really updated this blog. I didn't think they even checked it anymore. Although... my team leader found out I had this only a few days ago. Anyway - need to write something.

Its also a long time since I went to see a movie... that is.. at the cinemas. Apart from there being nothing out that I really want to see, its almost like I can't be bothered.

Now I wonder why I even went to see them in the first place. Movies are nice to watch, but going all the way to your local shopping center (or casino as the case may be) with a few people to watch something where you don't really talk to each other seems kind of pointless. At least I think you're not meant to talk to each other during the movie unless everyone finds it really boring. Talking kind of ruins it.

A lot of the movies we've been to see over the past couple of years have been just that - movies. We don't do anything else before or after. We go to see a movie because its a movie we want to see rather than as a social event. It doesn't really help that we always seem to watch the 9:30 session, and by the time we get out, either nothing is really open or we don't have any money to gamble away.

In the end, I think I'd just prefer to go to a close friend's place (a friend who is close, rather than a close friend - lazy) and watch movies they happen to have. Its a lot easier than spending all that money and time going some place else for pretty much the same thing.

Don't take this the wrong way. I'll still go to a movie if something good is on, I was just pointing out all the bad things :)

Coming soon! - Ez griping about going clubbing

An update

Its not very often that I update anymore. I just don't feel I have a lot to say. Now if I were even slightly American, that probably wouldn't be true. If you've ever watched Fox news before, you'll know what I'm talking about. Its probably bad to generalise about the entire country via some very yappy news channel, but oh well. I do my generalising based on whatever empirical evidence I have, and if that doesn't work for you, then err.. whatever. So this post is just an update on what has been happening (or not happening as the case may be) in my life.

I learned how to play 500 today. Thats the card game if nobody knows what I'm talking about. Actually I was taught how to play a while ago, but at the time, I didn't really have a clue what it was about. But also after learning to play some other related games such as Hearts and Bridge, it worked out. The scoring system is just really weird.

Also, this Christmas I've decided I really can't be bothered with gifts. Maybe it shows my growing apathy towards the world and the people around me. I like to think that its just me being lazy. Maybe its because I realize that Christmas doesn't really mean all that much to me - the celebration of somebody's birthday is irrelevant if I don't really believe that person exist(ed). On the more commercialised side of things, spending money for other people at some single point of the year isn't exactly the most sincerely generous thing to do. I find it extremely superficial. And that just makes me sound like a pompous bastard. Oh I'm of all sorts today.

The weekends while working

Its quite different when you have weekends during uni and when you have weekends while you're working. During uni, weekends are just another part of the week. You can still go out and have fun during the week, and do whatever you happen to do. Some people even just take time off uni to do that. That is, err.. skip some classes. But when you go home, you can have assignments to do, exams to study for, etc.

On the other hand, if you're working, usually your days off are just that - days off. Work isn't a concern until the night before you have to go back again. You'd only have to worry about work if you had a job where you had to be on call. But then again, you should get paid a whole crapload if you were called in. You should only really be thinking about work if you're a workaholic, and you take work home with you.

But weekends seem more precious somehow. Maybe its just me, but somehow I manage to fill my weekends with things to do all the time. I guess its nice to have friends who invite you to things :)

I'm still here?!

Staying late at the office is actually pretty scary. Nobody is around to talk to, although I can hear some clicking of keys from the other side of the office. Maybe I should clarify that by saying nobody I know and work with is here to talk to. The only consolation I have is this giant TV sitting next to me. Can't watch anything on it though. One possibility I have is to blog on it, but somehow I don't think thats going to work.

Corporate Working Life

From my rather small level of experience with the office life, I've decided to write a little about it. The office is a contrast from what I've always been used to. There are of course always the perks that come from being with bunch of people for long hours and weeks at a time. That is, the relatively high level of gossiping about peoples' private lives and goings on. Other things are different.

One of the best things about working is that when you get home after a long day, chances are you won't have to think about work any more until the morning. That leave s you free to watch TV all night or whatever you want. Studying and working at the same time sucks, as when you get home, you realise that you still have that huge assignment thats due tomorrow and you haven't finished yet. Although it does give you a little incentive to start early on those.

In contrast to previous things such as school and uni, the type of gossiping is quite different too. I guess this in part comes from the vast difference in age and siginificance of the gossip. For example, a romantic relationship in the office is usually of more significance than one with people studying the same subject at university. If, God forbid, you happen to get into one of these with someone in a higher position than you, it can work well, or if it turns out bad, could be disasterous for your career. So for many people, its not a road they're usually willing to go down. For others, its an oppurtunity to move up the food chain.

I guess that leads on to politics in the office. Somehow, its remarkably similar to school life. Theres a few situational things which make it so. Firstly, you don't get to choose who you're with. School classes were set for the whole year, so when you get into a job, the people that you work with won't change until somebody either leaves or gets hired. Its a little different from uni where you have more of a chance to pick your friends and the people you hang around. So basically, if you're working with somebody you don't like, its probably a good idea to just get used to it. Talking about them behind their back normally doesn't really help the situation, because in an office, rumours spread like wildfire. Trust me.

Another thing is that there will be some manager person who has authority over you. In school, this was your teacher. If you got along well with them, you'd probably do well. Otherwise, you weren't going to get anywhere. Take for example a certain Mr. Geography/History teacher at my high school. For the whole year, he didn't even know my name. In the end, I got 50 for the subject. To his credit, I'll admit that I can't colour in very well, but my geography is probably better than your average person. I think he decided that it would be harsh to fail anyone he didn't know, but it wouldn't do to have them do really well either. I guess thats what happens when your manager doesn't know who you are either. Performance reviews probably aren't going to be glowing.

So people who want to move up in the company suck up to the managers. They get noticed, and then they get promoted. It sucks how that works (or how it doesn't). Politics is just something you have to deal with if you're in the office. Although this is probably a lot less prevelant in a smaller organisation. There aren't that many people to suck up to, and less people to do it.

Although probably not specific to an office working environment, an organisation's culture is also important to a job. I'm not talking country culture here. We'd normally be used to the culture of a country we're in, and if we're not, that'd be a whole other blog post. We're talking about the culture specific to a company. A supporting culture is probably a lot better than one which is focused on individuals and ambition. At least for the comfort of the employees. Its a pretty big topic, but if we just have the idea that its important, that will do :)

Anyhoo. Thats all I've got for now. Anyone else?

I hate interviews (and the selection process in general)

*sigh* Its over. I finally found some sort of industry related work to do over the summer. Hopefully it'll make finding a job some time after uni a lot easier. I was quite worried about it for a while. Everyone else seemed to get offered something a lot earlier, and for a while there I was content to accept the fact that I wasn't really good enough to get into anything. Although, I didn't really try that hard with companies like Deloitte and those sorts of companies. I think by the time I got to them , I just couldn't be stuffed anymore. They were all the same. Long, draining, and required a lot of things to be made up.

It kind of makes me think that I should have tried a little harder.

To get the position I was offered today was probably the longest selection process I've been through for a job. Well at least in terms of time required to go through it. Actually, Coles Myer may have taken longer, but I'm glad I didn't get a job there now.

Anyway, so the whole thing involved firstly a web based application which involved some psychometrics and the usual things involving employment etc. Then... just last month I finally got called about it. Took them long enough! 3 hours of psychometric testing later, and after some more anxious waiting time, there was the interview.

Apparently, the correlation for somebody's performance in an interview and their performance on the job is only something like .24 (if you use Pearson's d, the closer the number is to 1, or -1, the more likely it is that the two factors are related). Moreover, if you used an unstructured interview format, that is, if the interviewers just ask what they feel like asking instead of sticking to a script, then the correlation is something like .12. So I find it rather ridiculous that its the most widely used selection technique used to choose people. Other things like intelligence testing have a lot better correlation figures. I think that goes upto something like 0.6 for management related positions.

How much easier would it be if you could just do some sort of test which would be related to what sort of tasks you would actually do on the job, and you could be selected on that? I'm sure it wouldn't actually be too hard to set up. Although I guess for some jobs thats kind of unfeasible, (as they may actually need extensive training to do the job), it would still make sense in a lot of situations.

I'm guessing its because employers just want to make sure that you're not some sort of psycho axe killer who goes around bashing stuff up when they need to. Although... some of the people my current employer just recently hired sort of lean in that direction.

For those of you who asked, and anyone else who's interested, heres some of what happened today:
I actually got into the city quite early. The interview was only at 10am, but I was so used to going in to work at 9 that I got up around the same time and only left slightly later than normal. I ended up sitting at maccas eating breakfast, and just trying to kill time. Its not good to get there TOO early, so I've heard. 15 minutes was about right. It gives time for the receptionists to watch you reading the Australia Financial Review, as if you're actually interested in the economic markets. It was kind of funny actually, the receptionists got up to take me into the interview room, and they said I could take the paper in with me if I wanted to read it while waiting for the interviewers. I did so of course, what else was I meant to do except stare at blank walls?
Yeah.. so they come in, you say hello, shake their hand, etc. The usual and expected. Then they have a small chit chat about yourself. It turns out that the IT manager there lives in the same suburb I do. Helps with the whole getting to know each other thing.
Then they go through the structured part of the interview. I was told that it was going to be a behavioural one, and thats pretty much what it was. For those of you who are so sick of doing those web based applications, this would have been just like that except you had to do it on the spot, and also in person. So its hard to make things up. Thus, most of what I said was really quite honest, except for maybe a couple of things :P
So the things were the usual: Explain a situation where

you did something wrong

you felt really stressed/were under lots of pressure

something didn't go to plan

plans changed, and how you dealt with that etc.

Then there was the obligatory question: Where do you see youself a) at the end of your uni course, and b) in 5 years time?

I actually thought about that one for a while. Like... during the morning, and last night. Couldn't really come up with a coherent answer. It was quite unexpected, because when they asked, it just came to me. This is not to say that you shouldn't have a prepared answer for this type of question, I just didn't have one before I went in. My answer consisted of what would have been almost pure honesty. I said I don't know. Its hard to say because I'm not really too familiar with the industry, and the lack of experience hasn't really allowed me to see what kind of oppurtunities are available.

Apparently that was sufficient because the nice HR lady called me later to say congrats.

WOOHOO!

A big investment bank just offered me an intern position during Jan/Feb!!!

Thats a big load off my mind. Now... Just to turn down the other bank that offered me an interview. MUahahahahahahah!