The 2009 FT MBA rankings are out! And... my MBA just depreciated big time from 10th to 17th.  What happened??! The GBP fell in value but... LBS kept its place!  So salaries of graduates can't be the main reason.   Hopefully it doesn't fall more!

On the other side, NTU MBA made it to 25th place!  So why did I have to spend $120k to go UK when I could have it at home for just $25k? Haiz... 

The last 2 days has been really a roller coaster.

I had lunch at a Japanese restaurant yesterday where I ordered Oyako Don, a fairly "safe" rice dish.  To my surprise, I got a bowl of Oyako "Porridge"!!  Half the rice was soaking wet!

The biggest shocker was today's tiff with Finance/HR in my company.  I started my internship on 2 Jan, for a low monthly pay of S$1000.  To my surprise at pay day today, they gave me a check for S$954.55!  I asked the Finance lady who replied me unblinkingly "that's because your contract started on 2 Jan".  

I tried to argue that 1 Jan was a PUBLIC HOLIDAY, but she said that's the policy, and it would be unfair to other employees if I was paid otherwise?!  I wonder if she had her salary pro-rated because of the public holiday as well?  And why didn't HR explain the salary policy at the start? 

Frankly, I was infuriated.  The money is really just spare change.  But I felt CHEATED and insulted.  And to think I willingly did 60-hour weeks without billing overtime hours!   If they wanted to count the beans, fine, I'll count them as well.  How did they end up paying me $954.55?  If it was 30 days, then 30/31 x $1000 = $967.74.  Even if they used a 30 day calender, then 29/30 x $1000 = $966.66.  Can somebody teach me the logic behind their computations?

My resolution is that this company is just too stingy to value its people.  Not my type.

Life in the sell side business is pretty tough.  I wonder if my torrid pace of work is sustainable...  rushing power point slides for pitches, preparing info memos for investors... practically working every night! But all these are actually quite do-able.  Just a matter of less sleep, more efficiency and hours.

The toughest bit is not doing all these "execution" type work, but bringing in the deals!  My boss now hopes i can bring in $200k in new sales!  And so far, I've brought in... none :(  Am I really cut out for this?

On the down side, I'm surrounded by colleagues who are coughing.. and I mean BADLY!  Its like Dolby surround sound 5.1!   I even shifted one seat away to be diagonal to the person right opposite me who's spewing bugs.   Worse, the guys behind like to lean on the cabinet and discuss work and then cough in my direction!  It looks like the inevitable will set in soon! NOOoooooooo...

Time flies... Its already 4 Jan. God has been really good -  I landed an internship with a mid-sized accounting firm with the Corp Finance department!  

I pitched myself forward as an intern, saying that I'll be willing to do it for 2 months at intern salary.  It was only after my "offer" that my director revealed the internship salary to be $600!  Arrgh!  Can't take it back now!  Still, he is an amazingly entrepreneurial guy, saying that there is a headcount freeze, but if need be, he's prepared to pay me out of his own pocket!  Looks like we're really sincere on both sides :)

This internship is a God given opportunity.  Definitely not going to work with a $600-a-month worker mentality.  Rather, I am really thankful for this opportunity to learn - afterall, my alternative is to sit at home and rot? ;-)  Time to bravely face my new reality...

On a brighter note, on Thurs night I did something new - I bought a nice bouquet flowers online and sent it to Bonn!  Tada...

 

Schön right?  Well,I thought it might do the job of bringing Mei a smile and spice up an otherwise possibly gloomy weekend with work looming in the near horizon (I totally know the feeling since I've totally slacked for 2 weeks and gonna start work on Mon too!)

Amazingly, it was safely delivered on Sat morning when she happened to be at home, and finally fixed her name to the correct doorbell just the day before!  Feedback - now they want monthly flowers?!!