World MBA Fair

I went to the QS World MBA fair held at Grand Copthorne Waterfront earlier today. The overall experience of going to the fair was good.

I get to see variety of schools AND people who have clear goals and ambitions of what they plan to do with their career. The questions that these people ask to the representatives from the various schools are... interesting. Although my intention to attend this event was more to kapo brochures from the schools that I am keen with and cabut, these passionate people drew my interest to some schools that were not in my initial list. Due to these questions, some of the school reps sold their school's strengths well (maybe I have been tricked by marketing gimmicks. Anyway....). Roughly quote one - "You come in. We repackage you into where you want to be. We are the key to Asia Pacific especially into China".

But of course, after awhile it gets boring with the usual obvious Number 1 question that keeps popping up at every counter -> "Tell me more about your courses specialise in Finance. Which top banks recruit from your school?" (It's all about the money... lalalalala....) I don't deny that I am also very much tempted by the prospect of high paying I-banking jobs but..... is it really something that I desire.......

Anyway, shall not bore you all with all the details - let's say, I was enlightened. Need to do some soul-searching.............

 

(On a side note, there was one particular school that has a booth there but there's no representative. However, that did not deter a huge crowd of prospective candidates flocking to the table and grabbing whatever that was placed on the table. Everyone was fighting with each other trying to pen their names onto the white sheet of paper so that they can be informed of more information. I was thinking... wah... this school SI BEH DAO.... hidung tinggi sia........ abuthen I also squeezed my name onto that piece of paper. Hahaha.... Wharton, thy name is dao. =P)

Microsoft and I

After not blogging for quite some time, I am back again.... posting techie stuff. The reason for this is because my life is currently revolving around Microsoft. I'm thinking "MICROSOFT RULES THE WORLD" (if you think that's exaggerated, then ... let's put it as Microsoft rules my life for now). Work and play with Microsoft products like Word, Live Messenger, Sharepoint Server, etc... When Microsoft says to install critical patches, I would have no choice but to do so. Otherwise, my comp can go die because someone has found some ways to manipulate loopholes in the Microsoft product. I HATE Microsoft for the fact that I had to work OT on Saturday night from 7pm to Sunday 6am trying to install something that is so trivial to them. Maybe I have myself to blame for not understanding the whole picture better (work relationships / benefits, etc which I shall not elaborate here)

Nonetheless, I'm very much impressed by the Microsoft Premier Support Technical Account Manager. It is because of him I gained confidence in Microsoft. Although I'm not satisfied with their products but with him support, I can feel assured that the system will run fine. The only thing that's not nice about him is that whenever he looks over at my pc, he snarls whenver I use google (which his complain is that for every search you make, google earns 14c - use Live Search instead - MS gets 7c), gmail (Live mail is the way to go). Today he introduced this new WindowsLive thingy. I have just finished installing it and giving it a testdrive. So far, I am ..... stunned by the level of improvement Microsoft has made over the past 2 years. ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING. People may argue Microsoft monopolise the market, give low grade products but since working on Sharepoint 2007, Office 2007, MS EasyAssist (the ultimate system problem pWnage tool) and now WindowsLive.... they have a reason to "monopolise" - they cannibalise their own products and introduce new and better ones before their competitors are able to catch up. It's not wonder they hold such huge market shares much to the ire of other software companies.

Anyway, am just testing out this Windows Live Writer for blogging. So far, it's been smooth and I like the way how this tool feels.... For some of you who don't know, Windows Live Messenger 8.5 is out - install it together with WindowsLive - Great Interface. Now, what I need next is maybe an XBox 360 to complete my Microsoft experience. :P

Some thoughts

Another 2 months have passed with me not blogging a post. Have I been busy? Maybe. Actually over the past 2 weeks, I have now grown fearful of server installations especially Microsoft patches. I could not have imagined how difficult it was to get a the system's applications to run after patch installations. I mean, everyone who has a Windows XP pc knows that installing means clicking next, next, next, finish and maybe restart if asked to. It isn't that much different for a server except that due to the complexity of servers and the customisations that have been done on them, there are some unknown compatibility issues of standard patches with different systems. However, the horror of doing all these installations is not because it causes the system to fail. System failing isn't a big deal in technical terms BUT with a bunch of managers whose only concern is that their system is restored A.S.A.P, it just spells trouble. Fortunately I was able to resolve them "in time".

Anyway, I want to rant out the details here but guess I shan't. Blogging too much about work is a bad idea. I can't say that my current situation is good but I don't think I am totally beaten yet. It is an 'interesting' experience to be Project Lead and given a preview of more to come. The main thing right now I feel is that I'm still a n00b in this. With the added responsibility, my old ways of working isn't effective anymore. My colleague once quoted - "Writing emails is like a game of chess". I felt that quote was quite true. Every email that you write, you have to anticipate how your receiver will respond to it and prepare for the next move... until 'Checkmate!'.

Tomorrow is another day. I'll just have to make it a GREAT one.