Tuesday 28 August 2012

A real grown up interview. The University of Hong Kong


I interviewed for a very grown up company this morning. It was on floor 27 of a building a few blocks down the road from my apartment. It would be the shortest commute if I were offered the role, on average three and a half minutes. The role was for a conference producer. Something I have never done before, well in that scale. I was nervous about this one. I usually don't find interviews too daunting, but this one was different. I had heard that the interview was quite intense and I know someone who used to work for them.

The interview was a standard good cop, bad cop situation. Both of them friendly enough by the end asking questions about my experience with coordinating events. It's funny talking about your last role in order to secure a new role. It seems like a distant memory working at Nutri Vital Health, but it forms almost all of the material and structure for every interview I go too.

I left after 45 minutes. It was completely different to what I had expected. Another reason to not over think interviews, you can never predict what they will ask and what they are truly looking for. I went straight back to my apartment to begin working through the back log of emails, prioritising Feeing Hong Kong and then working my way down the list.

I popped to the supermarket. I really want to stop going to the supermarket and use the local market stalls instead. I am being lazy heading to the supermarket. Choosing convenience over everything. I will work on changing this; I don't like to think I have become lazy. As soon as I have a paying job, I will start to embrace the culture around me. Shopping in the street markets, buying and cooking local produce etc etc.

I made a salad for lunch. Who'd have thought you could make a salad dressing out of pretty much anything. I added black current jam to my pumpkin and spinach! It gave my salad a nice sweet kick and tasted rather yummy. I continue to battle on with the induction cooker. The one plate induction cooker.




I continued with my emails for Feeding Hong Kong. There is so much going on right now I am finding it increasingly hard to focus.

As I began to send emails, I received an email from my interviewer, offering me a second interview. He sent a test/research project for me to complete over the next few days and I will have a conference call with the head of global events on Friday. My rather empty week just filled up. Time to learn to priorities, and fast. The job has got to be my main priority. I must admit, the preparation and test/research project for this current role is not coming easily to me. The company is working with the law industry, something I know nothing about. I have to read the magazine they produce and put together a set of interview questions that I would ask for market research and complete a question about what steps I would take to decide on events viability. Not the easiest of tasks. This company has over 5000 employees around the world. I find some comfort in this. I'm not the first person to apply for a role there who has never done it before. I guess, well I'm hoping they are looking for potential and creativity.

It is a good test either way. To learn to focus on the task in hand when I feel like running away from it. Cue the procrastination queen in me. I will write my week plan on my wall. I have 3 days to complete this. Plus drinks tomorrow night, plus a meeting on Thursday at 2pm and then continuing the Feeding Hong Kong push for the September event.

My my......I wasn't far off in my prediction that Hong Kong was to be my version of university. I have sat for the past six hours in my single bedroom, similar to that of halls of residence, papers all around me, researching and reading, eating noodles and living on a tight budget, meeting new people and figuring out the world day by day. I didn't think that I would be spending days on end researching merger and acquisition in international law, but hey, I like reading and I like a good intellectual challenge. The tea is flowing as I bury my head deeper into preparation for the second interview. I have confirmation of an hour and a half conference call with the global events manager on Friday.  I can't possible think how to prepare for an hour and a half long interview. I would imagine after doing three days of reading and researching I will be quite up to speed on all the company does, so it should be a breeze.



Just think, this time next week I could have been offered a job, with a salary and a visa. One step closer to my Hong Kong dream.

Oh, and the new position has opportunity to travel.....imagine that, living in Hong Kong and being paid to travel around Asia and Australia. My dreams are getting bigger by the day.

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