Pacific Strategies & Assessments

http://www.psagroup.com
Now it can be told.

I applied for and got a job at the abovementioned company. I’ll be a researcher/analyst which is basically a writer and I’ll be starting with them on the 16th of the month. My focus will be on Chinese affairs and after being on training and being comfortable with the job while based in Manila for about a year, I will have the option to be transferred to Shanghai. While in Manila, I will hold office at the Enterprise, Tower I, a stone’s throw away—if you throw it hard enough—from my present office.

To answer anticipated questions, here is the series of events that led to this seemingly sudden development in my life:

I think it was on my birthday when Evonne suddenly sent me a message asking how I was. You may remember Evonne as my grade school classmate whom I lost touch with then met up with again while I was in Shanghai. She then told me of an opening in their company. Because I was fairly happy with my present employment, I was a bit hesitant about applying. We agreed that I was to send my resume and take it from there.

Turned out that my resume was interesting enough for them to want to schedule me for a preliminary interview. Flashback: Remember that there was a birthday date, which went pretty well. Fast forward to two days after when the date and I first agreed to stop seeing each other. The depression led me to be excited about the job prospect. I then started to seriously pursue it. And because I now wanted it, I had to evaluate my chances of getting it. My issues were fluency in Mandarin and inadequate knowledge of Chinese politics, economics, etc. But I was on fighting stance. Pity anyone who dared get in my way.

First interview went well. I was pretty confident about the writing test before and while taking it, but had praning thoughts after. You see I had a lot of time left but being the confident prick that I was, I said, "ok I’m done," without rereading and revising until the end of the one-hour test. Naturally, I had to pay for that cockiness while I was on my way home. Thankfully, my article wasn’t really as bad as my praning mind tortured itself to believe.

Next step was an interview with the big boss and a phone conversation in Mandarin with a local Chinese. Vowing to charm the boss into hiring me, I psyched myself up to be Ms. Personality days before the interview. I think I was successful despite Murphy's Law coming into play: it was the first day of my period. The conversation in Mandarin was a different story. It went smoothly during the first three-quarters, but hit a roadblock when the voice on the other end said something long and complicated. I had it repeated a number of times but I still couldn’t understand most of what it was saying. Sensing annoyance from the voice after having repeated itself so many times, I just said yes in the end. I wanted to hit my head on the wall after that.

I was, however, comforted by the fact that the boss said he did not expect my Chinese to be on the same level as his staff in Shanghai and said the same to the voice before he gave me the phone. In effect he was telling the voice to go easy on me and that boosted my fighting spirit.

The hardest part was the waiting. They were still interviewing other candidates so I waited more than a week. I finally found out that I was in while in the hospital.

I already filed for my resignation and am scheduled to be here until the end of the month. You may have noticed an overlapping period. I must let you know that I will be relying mostly on my Superwoman abilities to do two or more things simultaneously. To let you in on the secret, it's actually an illusion. I do things so fast that normal people think I'm in two places, doing two things at the same time. It's really just the speed, just the speed.

(But the mosquito is faster.)

Approximately a year from now, do visit me in Shanghai. There are direct flights from Manila. No excuses this time.