Job Opp - Part 2

I was invited to the 1st interview. It was with HR.
The HR lady was really smart and nice. She could quickly relate what I am doing with the future job. She knew about the business pretty well. Although her last name reflected that she may be from Singapore, but I kinda like her style.

After 3 days, they called me to arrange the 2nd interview. This time the interview was with the hiring manager. He is non-IT but he had some IT background. He is a Swiss at the age of ~45-50. The first impression was not too good, as he was late for > 15 mins (where I arrived > 15 mins before the interview time)... But after some talk, seems that he liked my style.

But I kinda have turned down the agent to proceed further, as the job nature itself is much boring than my current role... even if they can pay me much more... and their brandname is also quite good... and the office is much high-class...

But I don't think I have wasted time, as I can learn about how other banks do infosec.

Job Opp

Suddenly I am given a job opp... The bank is quite good and they can potentially pay much more... But I still want to see the changes during the merger. Also, I still like my current job nature... But it is sure that my future job title is not good, and we may not get a pay rise soon...

God, what should I do? Do You want me to try?

A mystery to be told

I still remember that when I visited Japan office in Sept 2007, Shimizu-san (Head of Services + CTO) brought me out for lunch. After lunch, he brought me to visit a Japanese temple on a small hill near the office. We had to walk up some very steep stairs in order to reach the temple. While walking up (in my high-heels...), Shimizu-san told me that he has brought a few guys to walk up this hill. And all these people got a promotion after they went back to their home country. I remembered he mentioned Ajay, himself and one other colleague in Singapore. While walking up, I was thinking if I would really get promotion. I halfly believed this... But I have to say, Shimizu-san is really a funny person and he seems to know the "direction" very well.

十年。拾年

大家都來做十年回顧,我也來湊湊熱鬧.
十年前,剛在I記做了一年trainee,而我的際遇跟另外十六個同期trainee很不同,他們大部份都是做application方面的project work,而我卻亂打亂撞只做了一個e-business的application project,跟著很快便做了infrastructure(當年叫做platform)的工作.做落才知道要搬機抬機,又要攪hardware和network,又要玩大機host communications,又要做db2簡單admin.其他developers收工我才可開工，weekend又要返工，backup & recovery往往又要在公眾假期才可以做，對機多過對人，最慘又要被人認為做infrastructure係差過做application.

咁點解我又變咗做security呢?
記得我參與了一個Dao Heng Bank的e-business project,入面有SET Payment Gateway project & Internet Banking project.我當時又係負責做裝機砌機．不過對Visa SET Payment Gateway ecommerce的PKI theory都要好了解．後來公司有一期無mud project開,於是當時那位女老細便想找人去下寫I記redbook,既有utilization,又可以keep住啲staff.她本想派一位較green的女仔trainee去美國寫書，但那位女同事因為commit了有教會的暑期活動幫手，所以推了這個job.而因為我當時做的嘢和那女同事較接近，所以我便以次選身份參與了這個寫書工作，書的topic也是關於PKI的．
這是我第一次有機會到美國，而且亦是第一次離家這麼久（共七週）．雖然我不懂開車，但我也很珍惜這次機會．那七個禮拜實在是太好玩了，簡直是大開眼界，又認識了來自世界各地的同事（包括瑞士，日本，南非和德國等），又去玩快艇，小型飛機，golf，amusement park,nasa太空總署，我又碰到英華的一個師妹，她已嫁了一個住在austin, texas的華人，夫唱婦隨的在教會的音樂方面事奉．

寫完書返來，原本的e-business team無端端拆了一個security team出來，而我又被classify為security team的member，主持人乃是一位印度人.跟著我又做了最後一個system integration project,之後又有另一班同事在那印度人走了後又再form過security team,而我亦正式加入了他們做full-time的security project.那位新的主持人亦是我後來的security manager.

現在回想起來，雖然頭幾年的platform工作好辛苦，但卻對現在的security工作有極大的幫助．如果當年無做infrastructure,現在可能我在做SA/PM??很難說．．．

工作

在職場上,有人力爭上游,有人純粹呃飯食,有人盡力做好呢份工,有人嘻哈渡日.有人一份工做好耐,有人年靚兩年就轉一份工.有人靠不斷轉工來增加薪金/升職,有人默默耕耘在工作上取得成功感.有人常常怨自己份人工是below standard,有人對公司的加薪心存感激.
現在公司的同事來自很不同的背景和國家,各人想在這份工上取得的東西都很不同.不過management完全沒有align各人的personal agenda,人的turnover rate亦很高,但偶爾也有幾個同事是做了二十多年的.

我有三個team-mates,特徵如下:
1. 老但工作年資短,為人無責任感,純粹呃飯食,係人叫佢做嘢都先同人argue點解要做.已經有很多個degree但仍然讀緊書,日日六點(或以前)必走,全靠肯幫啲女同事擔擔抬抬賣人情帳才生存至今,完全係email forwarder.無份工做得長,除了現在這份(this reminds me of the "Monster" cartoon, once the "Monster" finds a good place to stay, it will pretend to be "normal" and hide his identity)成日同人講話現在份工浪費了他的talents<--好嘔心,佢又秘密地安排緊轉team,不過以佢的英文水平和為人,都幾難有其他team接收佢.
2. 加國回流,腦的轉數較慢,好似好知人情世故,但有時佢問的問題仍然令別人感到很奇怪和尷尬.為人圓滑,與高層/老外有傾有講,常常唔係位,coffee break特多,被#1話過很多次仍然無改善,無厘醒目,日日例牌遲放工,但係唔知點解佢要咁遲,似係要揼波鐘,唔講真係以為佢好多嘢做,其實係日頭好少埋位做嘢,眼光咸濕.明明做開network,唔知點解要回流返來做寫report.
3. 為人醒目,沒有太大問題.不過每份工都做唔長.都未做夠一年,已經plan咗去荷蘭總部做另一team.浪費了之前hire和train佢的人的心機.

就我觀察,以上三個人都做唔長.無耐無耐又無耐.

第四次去首爾公幹

Seoul is wonderful for travelling in May. The flowers blossom and the sun shines brightly. I feel so good (even when I have come back). This time, the trip is a bit different, as it may be my last business trip to Seoul under ABN AMRO entity. If merger will be successful, who knows whether I will still support Korea. So, my Korean colleagues and I have the feeling of "saying goodbye" after this encounter.

This time, I have a guest joining me. This is good for both of us. But we missed to do a few things: having the grill eel meal and going to JJ @ Grant Hyatt. Anyway, we experienced many wonderful developments in Seoul and were surprised at how Seoul is trying hard to make itself an international city.

If I don't have the language barrier, maybe I would enjoy working in Seoul. Anyway, I think I am a pure Hong Kong person who loves to breathe the Hong Kong air so much.

Goodbye to my friends in Seoul!

Barclays? RBS? BAAB?

There is so much news about my company these few days.
Merging with Barclays will bring us to the World's Top 5.
Merging with RBS will bring us to the Top 4.
But job cuts will be sure.
Asia may be less impacted due to less overlapping of business.
Singapore may be affected more.
The name of my company will vanish, though.
The Dutch will feel that their identity is lost.
It's like losing HSBC in Hong Kong.
My company just celebrated "100 Years in Hong Kong".
People originally guessed the name to be Barclays Axx Axxx Bank (BAAB)!!
So innovative.
The combination of British + Dutch reminds me of 八國聯軍.
Last year we also had big Re-org, with slogan "One Bank, One Team, One Goal"
Now, some colleagues joke that the "One Bank" is a forward-looking view of having One Bank in the whole world.
But somebody also jokes that "One Bank, One Customer".
People seem so excited about the merge.
No bad mood yet.
Nobody seems to be afraid of "layoff".
For me, if I am afraid of it, I still have one way out. Ha ha.
Will new projects be on hold? No one can be sure.
Will audit approach / standard be changed?
Will my boss need to downgrade himself to accommodate the Barclays' guy?
Will I still support Hong Kong, Korea & Japan in the future?
Will I still be able to buy mutual funds at good rates?
Will I get better mortgage / medical plans?
Um, yet to be found out.
My team-mate is so mad that he does google search all these days to check the Barclays' security team head. I don't see him doing any current work. This guy is CRAZY. He only stopped when I asked him not to SPAM my mailbox.
He is lucky that our boss is in Singapore. Otherwise, I don't think he dares to do so.
But why am I having so much work on hand! That "lazy" guy affects my working mood a lot! What a bad team-mate. He used to blame a team-mate of leaving the seat or sneaking out too often. But, 有口話人無口話自己!

Cheap people

I learnt two cheap guys recently:

1. A master classmate
- an ex-colleague
- he joined our group project once and then sticked to us forever
- relied on others to get marks
- no contribution in group assignment
- pretended to be knowledgeable
- disturbed others during lectures
- could not follow lecturer's progress and asked about fundamental things while lecturer was teaching new stuff
- very thick skin
- even asked me to help look at his own assignment (and I found that he has not given a thought to the assignment at all)

2. A new colleague
- thought I was the secretary / admin staff when he came for interviews
- pretended to be gentlemen, but actually was a salty-pig hand
- always touched on females' shoulders unnecessarily
- not capable in doing his work and asked irrelevant people how to do his work

I don't know why there are so many cheap people these days! Let me learn how to deal with them. If I succeed, I think my people skills will improve much!

Few bad things happening

1. My boss is a smart and cunning guy. He discriminates females. Also, his own promotion + company reorg have affected my career.

2. The current MFin module is too difficult. I may need to drop it even I have attended 1/3 of the lectures. This may also affect when I will graduate.

Anyway, life needs some torture. God gives us challenges for us to grow and mature. People will be closer to God only when their life is not straight and easy.

But there is one good thing happening, my sister finally gets a job and seems that she is happy with it! Hope she enjoy the new work and keep on to it!

Thanks God!

Changing job

原來一年前我寫了一篇《有壓力與無壓力的人生 (pressure) 》
事隔一年，我真的離開了服務了九年多的舊公司．當年寫blog的日期是七月廿一日，而我的新工作剛好又在今年的七月廿一日開始，真有意思．
轉工的原因很多，基本上所有打工仔想轉工的原因都適用於我．
沒有一個特別大的因素令我一定要轉工．但當很多小事情加起上來，我便感應到那個轉工的逼切性．
在找新工作的過程中我深深感受到上帝一步步的帶領．中間有起有跌，像極在玩過山車，旁人也有為我緊張．完全是在考驗我的信心、恆心和耐性．這種等候的過程，現在想起是很耐人尋味的．
要學到完全信服，交托，等候，跟隨上帝的計劃，不要驕傲，不要灰心都幾困難．但若你有信心，do give it a try!

有壓力與無壓力的人生 (pressure)

你過著哪一種生活?
我現在顯然是過著後者.
有壓力時做事便有推動力
無壓力的話,雖然生活較愉快,但亦會感到沒什意義,欠缺挑戰性

最奇怪的是,我現在真的找不到一些覺得有壓力的事情!怎算...