It was early 2009 when I told myself enough is enough. My pathetic nightmare of a job has sucked its last drop from this juice bag. Straight out from my E&E Engineering course I sought the employment of a famous semiconductor factory way across town. Wretchedness and other reasons compelled me to turn my then current position best described as a ‘run-around’ engineer into a much sought after ‘software engineer’.
It has been done before. Sure an IT graduate would fit like a glove into such positions but my course is already 1/3 Software Engineering (Thank You Monash). I just have to somehow read up the other 2/3s. Stop laughing, that’s my career at stake!
You know when you were in school; sometimes you get nightmares about exams where you can’t answer a single question. You would be just whiling away the minutes, tinkering with your stationery, just knowing that your score will be a big fat zero. It never happened to me in real life as I am an above average student. Hey, I got to toot my own horn now and then.
Well, my nightmares came true. The interviews I went for had tests where they quizzed you on things from university textbooks. Things you had to memorize. And I swear to you, I never laid my eyes on those topics because they were from another course, the IT course.
Oh woe is me. One experience was so bad; I know i will be ruminating over it for decades. The offices were in Phileo Damansara, I was ushered into their special interview room, and they gave me an hour to complete the written test. I only filled up around 20% of the blank space, and my bet is that my score is less than half of that. It was followed by an interview by two engineers, a guy and a girl, young looking.
They flipped through the question paper, and I had to explain that I didn’t know those topics, I came from a different industry, and I explained my current role and how much software I used, yadaa yadaa yadaa. When that was over, I think I had just broken through to the next level because soon after it was their boss’ turn at the punching bag (me).
He was a tough one, had really earned his bossing rights. The mood had turned from stressful to reprehensive. He was going on and on about how cutting edge and superior his software was. Do I have what it takes to understand and write such complex algorithms? What I did was chicken shit compared to his team’s work. I had to say how fast I can learn, look at my results (you’ve got to). The two interviews took almost an hour. By now I was having the trauma of my life.
But it ended. It ended with a question.
“ Do you speak Mandarin?”
“No.”
“Ok, Thank You, I will let you know if you are shortlisted.”
We shook hands and then I scurried out of that office, never looking back and headed home to recover from the terrific ordeal. Always take a full day vacation for interviews, some are so bad, your entire day will be ruined. Mine was. Oh, don’t even think about landing a second interview or a job offer with that.
The Mandarin issue will be the basis for my future articles and struggles in this ever changing world. Don’t give up. The best lessons are when it hurts.
It has been done before. Sure an IT graduate would fit like a glove into such positions but my course is already 1/3 Software Engineering (Thank You Monash). I just have to somehow read up the other 2/3s. Stop laughing, that’s my career at stake!
You know when you were in school; sometimes you get nightmares about exams where you can’t answer a single question. You would be just whiling away the minutes, tinkering with your stationery, just knowing that your score will be a big fat zero. It never happened to me in real life as I am an above average student. Hey, I got to toot my own horn now and then.
Well, my nightmares came true. The interviews I went for had tests where they quizzed you on things from university textbooks. Things you had to memorize. And I swear to you, I never laid my eyes on those topics because they were from another course, the IT course.
Oh woe is me. One experience was so bad; I know i will be ruminating over it for decades. The offices were in Phileo Damansara, I was ushered into their special interview room, and they gave me an hour to complete the written test. I only filled up around 20% of the blank space, and my bet is that my score is less than half of that. It was followed by an interview by two engineers, a guy and a girl, young looking.
They flipped through the question paper, and I had to explain that I didn’t know those topics, I came from a different industry, and I explained my current role and how much software I used, yadaa yadaa yadaa. When that was over, I think I had just broken through to the next level because soon after it was their boss’ turn at the punching bag (me).
He was a tough one, had really earned his bossing rights. The mood had turned from stressful to reprehensive. He was going on and on about how cutting edge and superior his software was. Do I have what it takes to understand and write such complex algorithms? What I did was chicken shit compared to his team’s work. I had to say how fast I can learn, look at my results (you’ve got to). The two interviews took almost an hour. By now I was having the trauma of my life.
But it ended. It ended with a question.
“ Do you speak Mandarin?”
“No.”
“Ok, Thank You, I will let you know if you are shortlisted.”
We shook hands and then I scurried out of that office, never looking back and headed home to recover from the terrific ordeal. Always take a full day vacation for interviews, some are so bad, your entire day will be ruined. Mine was. Oh, don’t even think about landing a second interview or a job offer with that.
The Mandarin issue will be the basis for my future articles and struggles in this ever changing world. Don’t give up. The best lessons are when it hurts.
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