sup! haven't been here for quite awhile, but loaddsss of things have happened by then. from back then, i said i wanted to work in starbucks, maybe cos i got influenced by working! haha. its a damn funny anime btw. but in the end, i went through many different things before finally getting the one i have now.
don't want to sound like i have a lot of working experience, cos im the one who has worked for the shortest time among everyone else, but during this time i came to learn lots of things. this post is extremely wordy and may seem very rant-like, but anyway after all this, i kinda appreciate what happened.
the first job i tried for was swensens, which at that time sounded like a fun job. anyway, due to my nervousness since it was my first try in getting a job, i guess i screwed up the 'interview' (just a chat with the manager), cos i was abit too eager to accept things, and din't really ask any questions at all. so they din't call back, even though they said they would call. i guess that's quite a polite way of rejecting lol.
so i tried doing applying for a data entry job at some department in cisco building (cos my uncle told them to consider my resume). which turned out they din't have a data entry job for me after all. so the guy tried to sway me in picking up the other temp jobs they need to fill (very common during festive periods). but that's just another name for saigang la.
the guy spent quite awhile trying to persuade me, and helping me find a location near my area. since i haven't started work yet, and getting a lot of nagging from my mom (she doesn't say it directly, but she kept picking on me obviously cos i haven't found a job). so ya i took the offer, some sort of promoter job. tried to clarify what i'll be doing, but turns out it was quite different from expected.
when i just started, the first two hours i was standing there, not knowing what i was supposed to do. all the person in the supermarket told me was to just try to sell the yeo's drinks, and then went off to do their own thing. at first i was kinda lost, and extremely, extremely bored, cos i was seriously getting paid for doing almost nothing except standing at the section with the yeo's drink. and the other promoters were either slacking or doing i dunno what, but it probably wasn't anything constructive lol.
so i guess i tried my best to waste time until dinner, which was 4 hours of horrible boredom, and after that finally feeling a little bit better, suddenly the guy at the supermarket told me to help in some sort of sale, where they go to the front side near the shop to sell stuff discounted.
was quite interesting actually lol. mostly i was putting 24-drink cartons into plastic bags and collecting money and stuff. saw quite alot of sceptical faces walking by haha, since this guy was using a megaphone to lelong ppl to come. and cheating by using the repeat function on it lol. was quite noisy, quite hiong also since i kept having to carry and pack those cartons (i think abt 6 kg for one), but strangely i felt quite thrilled to be there.
and then the guys at the supermarket got to know me, and even though at first glance they seem like pretty unfriendly, uncouth ppl, their conversations are actually pretty interesting haha. and i then understood that the promoters are not paid by the supermarket, so they really had no reason to do anything for us. they are working hard for the supermarket, while we just slack there and get paid 7/hr. its kinda enlightening after realising all this.
second day was pretty much the same, except in the morning, i went to ngee ann and uob building because i applied for an admin job via recruitexpress. they replied very quickly, i only just tried sending my resume two days before, and ended up receiving so many calls within the span of those two days. it was abit annoying actually, but i ended up arranging many meetings (with about 6 consultants), cos i kinda wanted a long term job with proper office hours.
i tried making sure that i would get a job i want this time, avoiding getting swayed by any attempts for short-term job, or call center/helpdesk, just only admin, cos i thought that was probably the best i could do for now, with my sub-par qualifications. even tried picking up excel skills during that time, and it wasn't really anything difficult, pivot tables or v-lookup. so yea within the time from 9-12, met up with 6 ppl, got lost and pissed, got worried, tried to be firm about my requests, and in the end actually got interviews arranged for me. then after that i went off to promoter job again, from 2 - 10pm.
still got called non-stop, cos they probably get commission from doing all this, but i still answered most of the calls, cos i had to make sure i'd get one. then just after dinner, i got told about a pc upgrading job (at least that's what they called it), and the person described it as quite a good oppotunity to learn things. and there was barely any time left to accept it, so i did, and cancelled the rest of my days as a promoter, risked compensation cos of cancellation of contract, and got somewhat worried and excited.
well at least the promoter job, while short, was quite interesting to me haha. met friendly people, sceptical people, did some extra services, seriously cos i feel better helping them carry the stuff to the carpark, helped out in those kind of street side bargaining, compared prices with two other nearby supermarkets and had a price war lol. was actually pretty damn fun, though i probably wouldn't find it that entertaining anymore if i stayed on.
so after all that hecticness, in the end i did get the "pc upgrading job" at ncs (this company that handles lots of comp stuff, and where my father worked in before), and somehow din't get my two days pay cancelled. i feel a bit bad for the guy on the hiring side for causing him trouble, but hey i got it quite rough too haha. and then i went for my first day for this new job.
first day was pretty damn boring actually. the first 4 hours was an admin briefing done by an admin doing it for the first time, and it was pretty bad. like cos she din't seem to know what she was briefing other than just reading off this 30 page briefing nots. and half the stuff are unrelated to ppl doing it temporarily, but still there's some significance in talking bout leave and mc matters, and contract breaking, which is 1 months pay holy shyt.
after that, i went to lunch at nanyang poly, just next to ncs, met my mom (she's a lecturer there), was feeling pretty demoralised cos it seems like i just can't get any interesting job. though the second 4 hour briefing was quite interesting, though its a bit too freaking difficult for newbies like us. the other ppl with me are older and some have it diploma or other stuff, but still no one really understood. even still, it kinda made me realise how the moe system for handling school computers work, and sounded quite cool at that point of time.
when we actually started work though, we did nothing but update mcaffee software, probably that's why it is 7/hr. the whole point of it is to ensure that the computers doesn't get quarantined (internet access is not allowed) due to not installing any updates for longer than a month. well that was the main gist of what we did for on-job training, which lasted for about a week, and where 3 schools were either in choa chu kang or boon lay D:. after it ended i din't feel like i really got trained at all.
but i did play around with lots of things. its like a newfound power after all, admin rights and the knowledge to shutdown computers remotely. and then how to reformat computers using the moe active directory (basically its like a database u can access with internet connection, containing programs, guides, images to reformat computers, and information). alot of jargon, but i was actually quite curious to find out more.
we completed our tasks very quickly, i mean how hard can it be to update computers when there are like 4 ppl to do 80 laptops. its super slack, the rest of the time we just did our own stuff, like the person in charge of training us was just using internet. i wanted to learn more, but it felt abit weird to ask. so i guess i was kinda demoralised, but din't really do anything about it. since there were many half-days near the chinese new year period, on-job training was over before i knew it.
but having outings in between working days kept me entertained. ate cheap buffet at justacia after playing at board games cafe, played the shadow hunter, and lanned for awhile. then after that there was cny, and while i did less than i usually do every year, i got to gamble abit with my mom's side, who are as lively as ever, and played abit of dancing on xbox kinnect haha. then went for one more jap buffet at kiseki, cos its the last for most of us before they entered army. i wonder how u guys are doing now haha.
anyway, at the very least i feel more satisfied than i had been before i found work. and maybe got abit of understanding of what a 5 day work week feels like (early mornings, long hours that take forever to pass). and maybe why "outside work" time is important haha. it kept me going, since all those travelling time and expenses, hours of doing nothing are super mood-killing lol.
after on job training, things got abit more interesting though. funny how updating software became less than 20% of what i did. slacking is still like 40% though haha. anyway, i ended up doing many side small tasks, like making small tweaks in teacher's laptops (quite troublesome cos i can't just use their comps without permission if they are not there, and some of them are doing work).
also helped out in comp labs when students are doing some survey, using some sort of mass control program called junglebyte. u know the one where the teacher can mass lock all the comps so u don't facebook during lessons? ya that's the program. though it can also be used to mass login, mass anti-virus update, mass transfer files or command prompt scripts, mass log on to a certain website. its pretty cool learning how to use it haha.
there was also meridian jc, which has 20 mobile carts (some sort of "armored" portable cabinets that contrain 20 laptops inside). so i was pretty shocked, cos that's 400 laptops to update holy shyt. but this guy did some BIOS settings (the one u get when u press F10 or some other button on ur comp when u startup), and he can make computers on by themselves, update, then shut them down, all automatically. i guess i was pretty lucky to go there, cos at that point in time he has not done it for a few laptops, so i ended up helping and learning how to do all these settings too.
so ya to be honest, the tech people in those schools don't really need us roving technical assistants to be there, cos they can manage everything perfectly fine by themselves. for those of us who got "trained" together, we kinda share to each other how we are completely lost for what to do or doing nothing through whatsapp haha. but in a way, i kind of treat this job as some sort of internship where i actually could help abit, and even if we are useless, i guess im learning quite a bit, and slowly taking interest in info tech. so it feels quite good after all, at the end of the day.
i just ranted a huge load haha, if ur still here, u've worked really hard lol. tried to make the thing readable, but i guess probably only i really understand what is going on haha. just wanted to purge all this out somewhere lol. anyway, its been quite a ride, but i feel somewhat enlightened. i do still miss old times in schools where it was fun and i din't have to think about anything, but i guess after having things rough, everyone somehow manages to adapt and continue to try to enjoy life as much as one can. i only wished they talked about this more during ACE lessons when we were still in school lol.
k la that's all for now haha. need to wake up early tmr. bye~~
