Latest Entries
Post-Christmas
Got really sick from eating too much meat during Christmas. Need to work but feel like puking. Starting work tomorrow. Mom’s very stressed and in a bad mood all the time.
Christmas Eve
I’ve never really celebrated Christmas but I really do like the festive atmosphere in this time of the year. First of all there are all these beautiful Christmas decorations in the shopping malls. My favourite mall of all time in HK is Festival Walk (since I practically grew up in there) but when passed the IFC yesterday, I was quite blown away by this year’s tree.
Then there’s the delicious Cranberry White Chocolate Mocha @ Starbucks, and then beautiful gift wrappings… white christmas trees…
But yea, I’m just going to sit home, hide in the duvet and have a non-commercial Christmas.
On another note, a few movies I’ve watched these couple of days:
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes – It’s moving but wonder why I didn’t cry
- Bridemaids - This made me cry instead
- One day - Reading it is better
- Horrible Bosses – Didn’t manage to finish it
- The Devil’s Double - I liked it’s movie poster
Interview @ Sidewalk
So, today I had an interview at Sidewalk. It’s on Gough Street which was pretty convienent for me since that’s a bus outside where I live that will take me straight to Queen’s Road Central, which is about 300m away from Gough Street.
I got there twenty minutes early and was in love with the street immediately. It was full of boutiques selling home decorations and bakeries and cafes! Anyway, I was interviewed by the owner of the shop and got really excited after she talked to me about what their doing beside the store. She thought that I was a good fit as well and even asked me if I could do their website!
Anyway, I took the job! I think it’s going to be a lovely year for me!!! I’m going to be working 3-4days per week, half of the time in their store and half in the office.
Interview @ La Maison du Chocolat
Had an arrangement this morning at 9:45am to meet Grace below HSBC main branch in Central to open a business account for the new company. I reached there about 30 minutes early and bought a end-of-the-year double issue of the Economist (I thought the most interesting articles were: Why China fails at Football and another one about education in S.Korea). Whilst reading it, I got a call from La Maison du Chocolat asking if I was available for interview today or tomorrow!
After skipping the Gucci sales intern interview earlier this week, I felt I really should start pushing myself so I said yes and agreed to go to their office at 2:30pm. The account opening went pretty smoothly, although I was still kind of embarrassed by the fact that the business manager kept saying that I was his younger sister’s age and so young to open up a business myself. Anyway. After that I took a bus back to Kennedy Town (I’m really getting the hang of taking buses now), stopped at Hang Seng bank to submit the Scheme 6000 form, stopped for a guilty craving (small fries @ MacDonalds) and went home. It was already 12:45pm when I reached home. Then I realised that I had forgotten their address and started searching for it on their website which yielded no results.
I rushed out at 1:20pm, took Bus No.10 (North Point) to Sheung Wan MTR, changed at North Point then some other exchange station and got to Ngau Tau Kok, located the street on Google Map and reached there 15 minutes late. Damn, it’s far. Fortunately the lady was very understanding and said their building was very hard to find.
She started off by asking me if I knew what the company did. Chocolateir. What I did before. Sales for Rosenthal. How long I worked there. Oh sh*t! I forgot what I wrote on my CV. Have I looked at their website? Yes. What did I see? Damnit, I have to make something up. I had just mentioned that preparation is key in my previous post and here I am totally unprepared. When will I learn? We chatted a bit more about working in Beijing and other stuff like why I’m in Hong Kong and looking for a part time which saved me… I think. Then she asked if I was okay to work full time, on Christmas Days, New Year’s, CNY and Valentine’s. I said all except CNY since I have to go back to Beijing to celebrate with my family.
I think that was the deal breaker. She told me that I would’ve made an excellent candidate since I spoke Mandarin and my CV’s great… yadeeyada… but they really needed people who could work CNY since that’s the busiest time, then again she want’s to keep my details and maybe contact me after the CNY period. And… that was that.
I have another sales interview tomorrow and I wondering what I should say about availability if they ask…
Meeting with the “Fund people”.
The meeting went pretty bad. Bad in the sense that I was only half (actually just a fifth) prepared and I was very passive. Of course what made it worse was the meeting was deliberately setup by my mother so that I can learn from the fund guy what information investors are intersted in when looking at a potential project. I didn’t know which angle I should be talking to him from or whether he’s going to take me seriously.
I had a very simple PPT prepared for him and I thought I was going to go through it step by step. Instead, he opened the file, skimmed through the slides and started asking questions which I didn’t know the answer to. Of course, it’s my bad that I didn’t know how to respond.
This guy, I don’t know think he’s very much older than me. Not more than 10 years I guess. But he was very confident, relaxed and paid attention to details. He even noticed that my powerpoint was last updated this morning. He knew what he was doing and I guess knew what he wanted to know and how to ask these questions. He wanted to know where I got the project from, what the connections were … & etc. Then again, he definitely has a lot more experience than I do.
In the end, I guess he told me that the price was too high and needed more information. If the new information looks good, he can go see the location in person. He also added that it’s very hard to do this kind of businesses and normally only one deal comes through every now and again and that I can call him anytime to ask questions… as a friend. I don’t know why but I felt kind of embarassed.
Well, anyway, the moral of the story is I need to be more prepared and need to take myself seriously so that others can take more seriously.