Back to writing

Its been more than a year since I last wrote something. Felt like writing again so here I am. Ever since I left uni in June, I haven done much reading or writing and it has slowly taken its toll on me. It has made me slow in terms of mental capacity as well as affected my capability to use the English language. Hope writing here will help solve this problem. No pictures this time round.

Currently, I've moved into another phase of my life - work. Everything felt so unreal when I accepted this job, everything happened so fast. Exams finished in mid-June, went for our graduation trip till 1 July. I even attended Shell's Recruitment Day in June halfway through my trip (this blog helped me a lot, click here and here). The recruitment day was an eye opener for me, my first official interview ever. Even though I didn't get the job but it was still a very good experience. Prepared me for my next interview which landed me a job in the banking industry. Maybank came to Swinburne in mid-July for a career session which I attended. They introduced their BMELP program to us and the interview was the next day. The interview went through smoothly and we had to go through a reasoning and numerical test afterwards when we got through the interview.

We (me, kelvin and stephen) were recruited into the program's batch 4 which began on 1 August. Everything happened so fast at this point, we were asked to do a medical check up three days before that and only got our offer letter the next day and on the next day we were to fly in to KL. Honestly, I was quite blur and 'gong gong' when I came in but after awhile, it felt quite good. From what I heard so far, Maybank is the bank that provides the most comprehensive training for their staff. The trainers here are really good, no matter in-house or external. We've had a few classes that were very lively. The only downside is the food, you'll be provided with 5 meals a day. Don't get me wrong, the treatment for the staff is good, just that the food might not be suitable for everyone, everyday sure masak lemak and spicy. You'll definitely grow fat while training here. The culture in Maybank is nice also, almost everyone I've meet up to now is friendly and knows how to add a little fun into everything to make things less stressful, no matter in my batch, in the academy or in the branch I'm attached to.

Speaking of the branch I'm attached to, Sibu branch, its totally different from what I was expecting, Since I've never stepped into Sibu before, all I can imagine of that town is based on what people told me. Everyone told me its a small town that's very boring. So my expectation of my branch was also tuned to that image where I expected it to be less busy and smaller. Sure enough, when I arrived, I could see how small and boring  it was as compared to Kuching. However, when I saw my branch, I was quite shock, the branch was big, spanning 3 shop lots and 3 floors. My branch was at the ground floor while the private banking centre and support department is on the first floor and the SME and business banking on the second floor. Lucky for me, I have Adrian, Xiao Yang and Hock Kang and his gf,  Kiki to accompany me while I was attached there. Not to mention my very friendly colleagues. =D Because of them, I seldom stay in my room, most nights, I spent it with them. The most prominent thing to notice about Sibu is the Foochow dialect and their food portion. Foochow can be said to be the official language in this town, everyday, I had to explain to customers that I'm not from around here and I don't understand Foochow, its nice that they are understanding and friendly as well. As for their food, you can get twice the portion for the same price you pay in Kuching. Eat till you ki siao. The higher end eateries in Sibu are awesome, the ambience is really nice, the kind of place that I like. Another thing about Sibu, it seems that most people here knows how to play badminton.

There's another thing that I wanted to write about. Its what I encountered in the branch during my attachment. There was an old guy who came in, wanting to withdraw some money from his account because his daughter was sick. But the problem is, his account has insufficient fund, he wanted to borrow from the bank and asked us whether he can do so. He kept on taking out the sick certificate of his daughter to show it to us, asking us to help him, to borrow him money and said that he'll pay it back. As much as we would like to help him, there's nothing much that we can do in terms of the way banks operate. We couldn't possibly let him overdraw his account, we couldn't give him a loan either. This was the reason why I posted on my Facebook saying reality is where the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer and nothing much can be done to change it unless if they get proper education to give them a chance and a way to improve their living conditions. In this situation, what could we have done? Provide him the money from our own pockets? As much as I would like to help him, but is that the way to do it?

One of the things to ponder in life, to help or not to help, and in what form.

Till next time~