Closing Down
Some of the most productive blogs I frequent have closed shops recently leading to a great reduction in the number of websites I get to toggle around each day. This is a mini comeback from me in a bid to reverse the trend, so that my daily reading fodder would increase, as well as to improve my ang moh.
Recently, I have been busy with my internship application to JPMorgan. Their application form, like most other job application forms, requires me to provide short-answer questions to why I want to join the company, what skills I have developed that made me suited for the job etc. So I parked myself at the JPMorgan's website and tried to decipher the types of personalities and skills they are looking for, even though there really isn't much deciphering to do since they state clearly on the website the qualities they are looking for such as "dynamic", "innovative", "driven for success", "have good communication skills" and the clichéd list of adjectives goes on. The basic qualities any big company are looking for in its employees are always more or less the same, which made me think that one of the roles of a teacher should be to provide the opportunities for students to demonstrate the qualities needed to land them a job and to provide them with a list of activities which they had participated in school (this is done by THE Chinese High School) when they graduate with the qualities they had demonstrated in each activity clearly spelled out. This would save them (me included) the time of having to rack their brains to find concrete examples to support their claims of skills they possess when they apply for jobs. I hear murmurs of accusations of 'spoon feeding'.
Anyway, I tried portraying myself in the application as someone who is efficient (-dynamic-motivated-confident-etc), even though I spent more than 5 hours filling up the not-too-long application form. So much for efficiency. I read that they want candidates who have mathematical abilities, so I spent one hour racking my brain to find an example that shows that I have mathematical ability in abundance. I read that they want someone who is innovative. So I spent another hour digging my memory for something I had done which shows that I am innovative. At the end, I wonder if the person I described in my application form is who I am, or who they want me to be. I feel like I have to make myself seem bigger than who I really am to stand a chance of an interview. Why isn't there room for humility in the corporate world?
To end, a picture of a friend who recently hit celebrity status after being featured on Sports Illustrated:
Recently, I have been busy with my internship application to JPMorgan. Their application form, like most other job application forms, requires me to provide short-answer questions to why I want to join the company, what skills I have developed that made me suited for the job etc. So I parked myself at the JPMorgan's website and tried to decipher the types of personalities and skills they are looking for, even though there really isn't much deciphering to do since they state clearly on the website the qualities they are looking for such as "dynamic", "innovative", "driven for success", "have good communication skills" and the clichéd list of adjectives goes on. The basic qualities any big company are looking for in its employees are always more or less the same, which made me think that one of the roles of a teacher should be to provide the opportunities for students to demonstrate the qualities needed to land them a job and to provide them with a list of activities which they had participated in school (this is done by THE Chinese High School) when they graduate with the qualities they had demonstrated in each activity clearly spelled out. This would save them (me included) the time of having to rack their brains to find concrete examples to support their claims of skills they possess when they apply for jobs. I hear murmurs of accusations of 'spoon feeding'.
Anyway, I tried portraying myself in the application as someone who is efficient (-dynamic-motivated-confident-etc), even though I spent more than 5 hours filling up the not-too-long application form. So much for efficiency. I read that they want candidates who have mathematical abilities, so I spent one hour racking my brain to find an example that shows that I have mathematical ability in abundance. I read that they want someone who is innovative. So I spent another hour digging my memory for something I had done which shows that I am innovative. At the end, I wonder if the person I described in my application form is who I am, or who they want me to be. I feel like I have to make myself seem bigger than who I really am to stand a chance of an interview. Why isn't there room for humility in the corporate world?
To end, a picture of a friend who recently hit celebrity status after being featured on Sports Illustrated:
posted by le chye at
5:10 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home