Job Hunting Roller Coaster Ride

I am going to be a little more candid here because I am writing in personal arguments and facts. Not intended for boasting.

It starts off with a brave decision of declining the lucrative offer. It's interesting to see when you look back a major decision in retrospect, you get different perspectives as the time moves forward and the aftermath of decision gradually subdues from your life. Let's take a backward roll in motion and watch.

1. Minutes after the offer call and within the same day. 
I phoned my close friend to ask for third-party opinion, and he sided me with not pursuing towards the path that not into your liking, no matter how beautifully carved the path is. I went on to imagine how my time will be filled up by tasks and devastating work-life balance, based on words from former colleagues.

The fact is, I am quite OK in programming. I learn fast and could deliver, maybe I am not a genius, but I am accountable. I believe this capability brings me to the offer, and sticks a "Skill Endorsed" sticker on my resume. 

2. The next three months.
I decided to move on and ride on the seats on job-hunting-roller-coaster. It turns out to be much harder than imagine to even get an interview, albeit a brand name on resume and taking CFA and having a first class CGPA. 

- With case interview preparation, I went to apply for consulting firms. No sign. 

- Attending career talks, I went to apply for MA programmes. One big bank screened through my resume and not particularly impressed. Today I learnt that MA is not for me, (I am more of a back-desk-analytical person than a model of front-line-personal-branding). But I was not that clear of what I exactly wanted to do back then.

- Buy-side (Investment) firms have a barrier too high for entry, only the best is shortlisted and they had done 30 internships. Ok 3, not 30. So no sign too.

3. Year end, new year
On December, I took the hardest exam in my life. One month of 24/7 preparation, 6 textbooks and 43% historical pass rate (37% for my intake...impressed) are daunting. 

Apparently this is my bet: using the CFA exam to knock the company's door. I was only partly right. Yes, a non-business major needs the certification to prove your determination, but it is insufficient in this tight labor market. And regardless of the economy conditions, CFA remains to be a paper. No matter how golden plated it is, the certification cannot translate to your work ability.

And I stayed jobless passing 2012. I was surprised. I got rid of peer pressure because I worked 120% more, but I had a hard time to stay under waiting-anxiously-but-nothing-can-do. It is not too pleasant to see things go beyond your control.

4. First three months of 2013
I then adjust my strategy and broaden my options. I also decide to leverage on my network, try to push myself closer to HR's sight. 

Not much progress. There could be personal or impersonal reasons that I don't get shortlisted, so I forced myself not to ponder what's happening. I just continue to pull my contacts. Turns out to be very hard, because cold-calling is not for Asians, and I don't have the insider connections. 

I then had 3 interviews, and ironically they are all from website applications. My network replies me but never leads to opening the window of opportunity. 2 out of the 3 rejected me after a short while after my mediocre/bad interview performance.

I passed CFA exam though, but its recognition is yet to surface.

5. Present and beyond
Three months left to graduation, my peers start to get offers, mostly due to previous internships and their respective majors. I understood very early that Mathematics is not a targeted degree, so while I am happy to see my friends land on career, I am not envious of them.

Things do get harder when government decides to set minimum wages for foreigner to be white collar. Perhaps to circumvent this, banks start to offer contractual roles and becoming hesitant to offer permanent positions. It's good to see but the competition stays stiff.

I decide to stick on a belief of "These times are not for hiring, neither in hiring season nor in good economy. Things WILL GET BETTER. Being in finance means staying work 120% hard on everything, be the 5% who gets 95% of reward."

5/95 rule is a mantra in capitalist world, and I thrive to enjoy the adventure towards the 5%.

Worth the effort for the experience? As of now, I am not entirely sure. But I hope years later, I can connect the dots and say Steve Jobs is right.

Mirror time.

As FYP submission deadline is counting down in hours, I felt somewhat saturated from the obligated work and decided to look at something different. I went to watch the Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford.

This video is of course not new to me, neither to my generation. Yet the depth of his deceptively simple message leads me to fresh thoughts and brings me to realization.

Life is an amalgam of chain of events; the casual relationship between history and present is so much clear than predicting how your current decision impacts your future. It is always much easier to look backwards. In Jobs’ words, you have to somewhat trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

Mirror time. So how should I trust / strongly believe that I manage to connect my dots? I am an inspired mathematician wannabe becoming a grudging student in finance; on the way touched a wide range of things. I always bear mixed feelings towards coding but consciously and subconsciously I stumbled upon the realms of C++s and PHPs. I have many interests and love to ponder, but not real work (when compared with absolute winners…. What an unfair comparison) is done for the last 23 years.

Do I get to do great things? Could I lead the trend instead of sheepherding trends? Am I capable to be a man appears on documentary, sharing stories to inspire youths? What does it take to achieve true greatness?

Last night I told my friend that, we always need a higher aim to pursue our goals, and that will never be material awards or recognition from others.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish. (PAM! Another copycat ending! :D)

So, what about competition?

More and more of my friends got stressed out living in Singapore. Although it is trivial, what worried me is that people are getting overly committed in the competition and feeling more depressed while doing so.

Let's put down your assignments and think for a while. So, what about competition?

Singapore has a well-established system that cages talented people in the same place, forces them fiercely compete to each other and juicing economic rewards in the process. It is much harder to realize the harshness when you're in it; I was repeatedly told singapore's job market is among the hardest to break into. Therefore singapore talents (people like you readers) are bound to believe ""rising to the top"" is the sole purpose of life, and you did whatever it takes to win the game. However, such attitude is too narrow-minded and doesn't necessarily guarantee happiness. [1]

From my humble perspective, looking for more incremental material goals and spare yourself some room to relax will make you much happier than going all-in into studies/career/whatever you are TOLD to pursue. 5.0 or 4.5 CGPA difference are meaningless if you spent 24/7 in library. Having $1m or $100m doesn't matter if you don't have time for casual relationships. We, of course, have to stay within the system for living; but we can always take one step back, enjoy the process and have a happier life here.

Smartass in NTU like you should also beware of the ""winner bias"" - feeling theres always someone who is marginally better than you no matter how well you performed. This is akin to comparing yourself to NUS peers (disclaimer: illustrative example), and then to overseas universities of better ranking, all the way to Ivy leagues. You could spent all your whole life living by envying others, chasing over academic qualifications, corporate pedigree and material rewards; OR you could chart your own adventure and face with novel challenges, at the same time mock those monkeys who thrived for another boring résumé.

Food for thoughts.