Took me a while to get to the second post huh. The best part of 2010. here it goes
I went to one utama after work on 16th November 2010. I was walking around looking for things to buy on my attempt to reduce my anxiety level. My phone rang and it was a number I didn’t recognize. I picked up the phone and it was somebody from Human Resource department. The line was not so clear so I tried hard to recall the most recent applications I sent through jobstreet. They wanted me to come in for an interview so I immediately said yes though I didn’t even hear the company name properly. At one point I thought it was Airasia based on the pronunciation of the officer. I finally managed to know the company’s name after receiving the confirmation email. To be honest, I didn’t put much hope into that application. I didn’t prepare for the interview and I was less than enthused.
23 November 2010. My sister’s birthday actually. I got away from work by taking an MC. Technically I did not go to the clinic to get the MC. I just rang up the office informing them I was unwell and will be calling in later to give them the MC details. I dumbly left the house at 1.30 pm though I had no idea where the office was. My interview was at 2.30 pm. I thought I could be Schumacher and swiftly get to my destination before 2.30 without taking the traffic condition into consideration. The traffic was pretty bad and started to panic. I confidently slithered my way around to avoid the traffic only to find myself in Cheras. In a place I am so unfamiliar with and they don’t have many signboards! I desperately drove with one hand with the other punching the keypads on my phone to get assistance from GPS. I almost gave up. I was about to head home and cry to my pillow when I decided to just pop by the office and beg on my knees for another interview from HR. As I was anxiously waiting for one of the traffic lights in front of KLCC to turn green, the HR guy called asking me where I was and he even tried to give me some directions. I was so relieved and nervously drove as fast as I could to the AIA building. The sweet HR guy didn’t even comment on my being late. He just told me that I had less time for my tests and evaluation. I wasn’t too bothered. The tests were easy for me and I took less than 40 minutes to complete all of it.
I waited a while for the department manager to get on with me interview. It was a petite Malay guy in his 30s. During the first 10 minutes of the interview, I didn’t think it went so well. He looked bored as I was babbling nonsense about myself and he was flipping though my resume. Things only got interesting when he started to ask me about my working experience. If I were him, I wouldn’t be too impressed with my ONE year working experience. I guess being person with fake confidence and a slightly above average proficiency in English has its perks. I convinced him that I could do the job despite the fact that I had no knowledge or experience in insurance. None. Zilch. Zero. Nada. I did my best to assure him that I’m a very fast learner and that I have had experience in process migration before. Best question was why I demanded the amount that I had entered for my basic salary. In my response, I remember clearly that I uttered gibberish on my first few sentences. I stopped for a few seconds, smiled and said I was earning this much on my current job though it was including allowances and would not want to earn any less coz no one should go back a step. People should move forward. He laughed and accepted my answer. Just before I got up he said he would call me with an answer, I nodded and said that I hope he would seriously consider me. He sort of continued asking why he should hire me, I gave him all sorts of funny answers. Haha. And then……he said ok. He offered me a job on the spot!! I had to refrain myself from jumping up and down in front of him. He asked me to get a medical checkup and come back to collect my offer letter. In my head I was like”YESS!! Now I can tender my resignation !!!”
Well, that’s not the best part yet. So I used the same old excuse to get away from work the next day. I went to the clinic, got my medical checkup and dropped by the office to get my offer letter. On my way to the other clinic (to get my fake MC), I got a call from Syam who was the guy who interviewed me. He asked me whether I had left the office and I said yes. He asked me whether I would be willing to start immediately. I paused and told him that I would be glad to but I would not want to pay my current company one month salary. He told me not to worry about it as the company is willing to take care of it. He said that he would like me to start as they were sending selected candidates to Melbourne for knowledge transfer and he has selected me to get on board. I let out a silent scream of disbelief! Bear in mind that I was driving at that point of time. I almost hit the brakes at the middle of the highway so I stopped the car to continue the conversation. He told me that I would be flying off to Melbourne that very Saturday. I pinched myself many many times till my skin peeled to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I immediately called my mom to break the news. Sis picked up the phone and her response was “Bodo laa..”.
I was overjoyed. I haven’t felt that happy in a long time. I went home, typed a resignation letter and went straight to Cyber. All the assistant managers including shorty were having a meeting. I could not wait so I went over to them and handed my resignation letter directly to shorty. Everyone was stunned and didn’t say a word for a few minutes. The silence broke when Yamuna started laughing. Shorty called me into a room and asked me why I’m leaving in such a hurry. I didn’t want to leave on bad terms to I just said its due to my studies. He told me off the records that he’s happy for me and he has not seen me smile like that in a while. Although I was happy that I got the job, I was still sad that I would be leaving my awesome colleagues. I didn’t get to see most of them since it was already 6 and the morning shifters already left.
I woke up early the next day as I had to go to the immigration office. They gave me a lot of crap or my issuance due to my being born overseas. Long story short,
1. Went to the Immigration office in Subang Airport. Was told I needed my mom’s passport from 1984! Ridiculous since I have a Malaysian IC right.
2. Dragged my mom to the commissioner of oath to sign some letters.
3. Back to the IO. Was told I needed the original copy of my birth cert. Wasn’t told that during the initial visit in the morning.
4. Drove to Putrajaya to extract my birth cert.
5. Back to IO. Was told it wasn’t going to be ready that day. Stupid arseholes. Called my boss, told him the situation and he said it would be okay to bring the passport the next day. When I asked for receipt thingy, they had already completed the issuance. Haih…misleading information. All the above events happened in one day.
Went for a bit of shopping on Friday, packed my stuff and off I went to Melbourne on Saturday night.
So that’s how my 2010 ended. Pretty awesome I must say. During my one month all expenses paid stay in Melbourne, all the shit that happened in 2010 felt worthwhile.
