Tag Archives: career

Job Seeking & Choice Making

Posted on by
11

If there is no choice, we may feel anxious and upset.
If there are many choices, we may feel confused and hesitated.

Life is like a tree map, every one has to make decision when he faces crossroad. And sometimes, for those crucial issues, we may only have one chance to make a choice which will lead to different results of our lives.

I will graduate in July this year, so recently I am trying to find a job. Since I will get a master’s degree in English, I have to make a choice among different careers. To become an English teacher just as most of my classmates do? Or find a job which may relate to business or translation in some company?Or try to become a civil servant?

These  choices will lead to totally different lives. Teacher is a stable and comparatively comfortable job, but it seems a little bit flat. We can predict what kind of life will be for a teacher. If I go to the company, I can have more opportunities to improve my all-round abilities and may possess a colorful life at the cost of facing more challenges, risks and hardship.

On this issue, Lisa gave me lots of advices and encouragement which I really appreciated. And I agree with her opinion that choice is more important than hard work. Yes, a choice may decide the road of rest of my life.

Anyway, I have confidence to do a great job whatever I choose. Wish all graduates and I can get satisfactory jobs before our graduation.

Ok I'll be employed finally...

Posted on by
7

It's been so long since I made my apperance here, which of course has a reason - I was looking for a job. Actually I was after this company that I've coveted for at least half a year. Here a brief version of the story.

In mid-September when I was still struggling to finish up my postgrad dissertation in the UK, I sent an email to them, asking for an interview opportunity. They replied, and were surprisingly responsive. They were short of talents at that moment I guess. An interview was then made over a phone call from Hongkong on the day of my dissertation deadline. 14 September I still remember. Since it was still one month's time before I returned to China, they asked me to contact them after I went back, which I did.

In fact, I emailed them one week before my return flight on 22 October. A second interview was arranged on the 23rd, which, in retrospect, made my homecoming a bit like a business trip. The interview was with the team leader of my sector at the Beijing branch and it went on well. I made it through to the final and decisive third round with the Director of my sector last Friday. The third interview involved a face-to-face chat that went through my CV and a writing test.

Yesterday morning I received a call from them when I was on the train to Tianjin for an interview with another company. Bingo, I passed. Now you may think that the coming interview must have been of no importance to me. Well, a chance is a chance. You simply cannot take for granted that interview opportunities are coke cans to be grabbed with every bit of ease from a supermarket shelf. I still attended the interview and did my best.

I'll be a working man from next Monday. By the way, the name of the company is EDAW.

PS, my brief introduction still appears to be a bit wrong. Despite the fact that there exists a city called Cardiff in the US, the one I refer to is the British one, the capital of Wales, one of the four constituent countries of the UK, along with England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. And I don't seem to have a grip how to get it changed... But anyway, if AW could take the trouble to do me this favour I'd like my intro to be something like '....from Beijing, China.', because it's where I stay.

Ta!

It must be my being interviewed day!

Posted on by
4

When I got to the classroom this morning, people kept asking me the same question, "Why are you here? You should have gone for the Tencent interview." I said, "No, I'm not on the list." And then? And then I found myself on the list at noon when visiting the campus bbs. But I hadn't seen my name on the list and hadn't received any notification before! Anyway, the interview was scheduled in the morning, so I just took a copy of my resume and rushed to the hotel.

When I got there, I saw many people in suits. Seems like filming men in black, without sun glasses. I don't know why people should wear suits even if they're applying for tech positions. When corps keep telling people that they don't have to wear suits when they're in the office, people keep wearing suits when they are still interviewees. What is this all about? I just don't get it.

HR said nothing after I explained why I was late. So I just filled out some forms, and started waiting for my turn. I didn't remember how long the interview lasted, but we just didn't talk too much about technical stuff. I didn't know whether I have applied the right position for me, because at the last minute the interviewer told me that I should be recommended to the web development department. Then what department he belongs to? I took an interview even if I didn't know what I have applied. Amazing!

When I got back home, I quite enjoyed my feed reading time, before I got a phone call with 010 prefix. When I just picked up the phone, the battery died out, so I only knew that it was land line number from Beijing. I knew it's important, because only interviewer would use land line number to call me. So I called back after I replaced the battery, and a voice from machine told me that it's Baidu and asked me for an extension number. I hanged it and called my friend in Baidu, asked him whether he could reach the interviewer for me. A moment later, I got the call from the interviewer again, and started the second round of interview from Baidu.

That was story about how I took two unprepared interview in one day, and here's the question: what kind of strategy you would apply, if you got offer from one corp/univ, while you're still waiting for another. (I'm not only in hiring processes of two corps. Help!)