Echo Binary

I got my first job. I think it suits my desire to learn SAP R/3 and its related technologies. I will start my job as a regular employee (yup, no probation period) effectively on September 1, 2006. So, the “salary discussion” interview I was expecting was not a salary discussion at all. It’s already a job offer. I consider myself lucky because I was recruited after only one (1) interview. Some people get 2 - 3 interviews and does not get any job offer in the end. I won’t discuss any details how I got an offer, blah blah and so on and so forth. You know, everything else is confidential. I will start my first job immediately on the 1st of September, right after my graduation march on the 31st of August. Sounds fun. Carpediem!

This week, I had several interviews and what really challenged me were behavior-based interviews. One stupid answer could ruin all your good points. The interviewer would throw a lot of questions to you in order to analyze your background and tendencies to behave in work environment. The questions were designed to know how you have behaved in your past experiences and activities, so you ought to know what you did in college if you are a fresh grad, or what you have contributed in your present or previous company if you’re an experienced applicant.

According to my father, who took several behavior-based test and interviews before, behavior-based interviews is based on the principle that people hardly change — Old habits die hard. From what I understood, the point of the test is to know how you have behaved in the past to tell the recruiter how you will act in the future. For example, if you answered consistently with positive leadership contribution in group work and projects, then it tells the recruiter that you have a potential to be a good manager. If you tend to be uncooperative, or you consistently prefer being a lone-wolf, it tells the recruiter that you are not suited for team projects. However, I do not know exactly what happens to those people with inconsistent behavior.

Probing questions can also be hypothetical. The interviewer can give you a situation or scenario which you have to answer honestly based on your own values and character.

If I only knew this earlier I could have answered the chain of question given to me with more ease. I had interviews without saying “aaah’s” and “uhmm’s” but during this particular interview, I mumbled a bit. I think I was able to pull through anyway. I do not know whether my next interview is still behavior-based… what scares me is the topic: salary discussion. (Baka dito nila malalaman kung sino yung mukhang pera… hehe)

Time to reflect about myself until monday…

“Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are a blogger, you probably want to read your friends’ entries and put some comments in their entries, or perhaps spy on their entries and see if they have some interesting topic. I tried to hop from one blog to another, but it is just very inconvenient. Visiting 10 - 15 blogs each day is quite troublesome. I try my best to blog-hop once in a while but I really can’t visit all of my friends’ blogs. Worse, I forget their blog address or I do not remember to use my bookmarks, especially when I have so many things occupying my mind. The only practical way to “visit” all of my friends’ blog everyday is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). I get an overview of what they have added in their blogs every time I open my favorite RSS reader or AJAX desktop / homepage.

Below is a screenshot of Netvibes. It’s my prefered AJAX desktop / homepage because it is very easy to use and it has growing numbers of developers creating and updating modules each week. I have added my friends’ blogs here so that anywhere I go as long as I have internet access, I can check their entries in one location. It’s very convenient and gives me more presence in their blogs.

The idea is simple. You treat their blogs as “news” source. Using RSS, you can easily syndicate their entries and digest them like any other RSS entries.

Now it’s more fun to read other people’s blog.

P.S.
If you are my friend and would like to update me with your latest blog address, please contact me immediately. Thanks!

Links:
Netvibes
Technorati Tags: netvibes, blogs, rss, ajax, friends

It fascinates me that after a seemingly losing battle with the panels of our thesis and our beloved school research coordinator, our thesis turn out to be really successful. Except that it has only gone through private alpha testing. I don’t know if my groupmates are willing to pursue the commercial implementation of our web application. I have a business contact who shared insights about the possibility of creating a fork application using our base code. I’m still considering if that really is viable here in the Philippines. I’m not even sure if our school would shell out money to BUY our software. Now, that’s a different story all together.

Right now, my future lies ahead of me. I have the potential to create a bright future but I’m still waiting for the best job offer. I can opt to start a new business but I think that the talent I have invested in IT may go to waste if I do not gain industry experience for at least 3 years. What I have learned in business so far, especially in IT, is that there are many companies out there that could eat you alive. In IT business, it’s hard to stay afloat. What more if you come from the bottom and just starting to climb up? It’s too risky.

I decided to gain more experience from the expert. I do not want to learn the hard way. It’s just impractical. I’ll do it slowly but surely. This is the same reason why I do not hastily accept any job offer. I want the best possible option I can get and grow my career in one company steadily. I do not want to shift from one job to another endlessly. My father worked in one of the largest consumer goods company in the Philippines. He stayed there more than 15 years and as a result, his salary ballooned that it could even surpass the salary of an average senior manager in a medium-size company. Sadly, he had to retire early because of complicated matters in the executive management.

After analyzing the problem my father had during his working days, I decided that the best possible option is to be a manager so that I am not easily affected by the management. I want to be the one making decisions, not the one taking orders. Well, of course I have to start somewhere at the bottom to climb the corporate ladder. (I think it’s almost a prerequisite anyway)

I also thought that being a freelance consultant is wiser than being a manager because even if you jump from one company to another, you can bid your price (high price that is)… Because the company badly needs your expertise. Being a consultant can really take a long time though. It takes years to be one but the pay is really rewarding as far as I have observed.

I have also considered being a professor or trainer (whatever) but I have learned that having industry experience is priceless. Yes, teaching can be fun and it’s a very reputable job. However, putting into another perspective, an industry practitioner can be trained to become a teacher through workshops and seminars; a teacher cannot be easily trained to become a practitioner, IMHO. Given that a UNIX professor has 3 years experience versus a UNIX administrator with 2 years experience and knowledge in system implementations; both are certified. If I am a recruiter for Project Manager Trainee position, I would choose the UNIX admin without a doubt even though both are certified professionals. Think about it…

To be fair enough, some professors I know had part-times in their respective industries. Some had shifted from IT to full-time teaching. It really depends on personal preference. Business management professors in DLSU have to take doctorate degree before they can be full-time professors, my girlfriend told me. I guess the hard work really pays off if one pursues the career he desires.

Call centers tried to fish me countless times. They would offer me job position such as technical support representative (TSR) but I did not take it. I have even gone far to passing an exam but not appearing in the final interview — not entirely my fault because I had tonsillitis and fever. I thought I would take the offer but I declined with an alibi. Actually, the main reason is because I wanted to start my career on the right track. I think I would consider a TSR offer if I really do not have any other option. It’s just me. It does not jibe in the career path I like to take.

Ok, enough already. I guess I already made my point clearly. To all the fresh grads out there, especially in the technical field, I hope you already have a preview of the industry you want to build your career on. It’s a long way to go and it’s more challenging.

Good luck to all of us!

Right after internship, the company I am “working” right now decided that they would keep me for a while for training along with 3 other interns. Here comes the opportunity for an instant job but I feel that I am just working half-heartedly in the office. Part of me wants to forfeit the job offer and look for other job opportunity that really interests me. I’ve read this many times in career magazines. When you love your job and put your focus in it, you are most likely going to succeed — you’ll reap the rewards later on. However, if you do not like your job and simply work for the sake of the salary, pretty soon you’ll be looking for another job. The latter seems to apply in my current situation. I have not officially started my career in the corporate world yet but I already got this feeling that I have to look for a job that I will truly love and keep for years, or else, I may not be able to reach my goals.

It’s really a matter of choice right now. Beats me…