You're Fired

I took part in this Malaysian Today "You're Hired" competition a few weeks back in my college. It's like a search for a Malaysian Corporate Hotshot ala The Apprentice. only thing it's not reality TV la. They started out with interviews in every college, Metropolitan being the first stop, and yours truly being the first candidate to step into that room.

Even the interviewers weren't quite ready then. I was first interviewed by Patrick Wee, MD of MyPartners. Then a tad later, a representative of JobsDB.com came in. And mid way through, Farah Shamin, Head of MARCOMM Malaysian Today, steps in. So I was a bit thrown aback. But nonetheless, thankful for the many brief moments i had to think of better answers.

I personally thought i blew the interview. Because they asked me to think of myself as a brand, and describe myself in a sentence. I took aeons to reply, and even so, couldn't come up with a better one. so yea...i wasn't counting on getting through.

But a few days ago, surprise surprise, I receive an email stating that I got into the Top 50 of the competition. was all psyched and stuff. but if only i knew what was installed for me today.

Today, was the preliminary round, where all 50 (only about 40 odd showed up in the end) met at Berjaya Times Square at 8.00 am on a freakin Saturday morning. We were split into groups, and guess what? Our first task was to recruit people for JobsDB.com. The 5 teams with the most number of forms completed will move on to quarter finals.

So at 9.30 am, on a freakin public holiday no less, in Times Square, where the only souls present were the cleaners and the security guards, they sent us off to do the job i hate to do most in the entire world - recruit. Not only that, they expected us to photocopy the forms, and 7-11 being the only shop open at that ungodly hour (in the shopping/hangout in KL context), decides to charge us 20 cents per copy! Oh but we were given RM10 seed money.

We have up till 12.30 pm, but by 11 am my feet were already burning. Yeah, i wore heels. Smartest move ever. So with painful feet, and a dying spirit, I stationed myself at a corner, and asked only those who came close enough for me to speak to. I sound exactly like the person people DON'T want to hire, i know. No fighting spirit whatsoever. But yea, sales calls, recruitment, direct selling etc...not what i plan to do.

When we were all called back, and the results were tabulated, it was no surprise that my team did not make it. They had 9 teams altogether. We were probably 7th place or something. So no next round. Sure i was disappointed, but i expected it. Owell, better luck next time.

After we were "let off", i followed Shahrum, one of my team mates, to a few stops in KL. Funny how the pain in my feet seems much more bearable when it comes to shopping. haha...however, retail therapy only numbed the pain for a while. I decided to come home after visiting Pavilion, KL's latest high end shopping mall. Shahrum was nice enough to give me a lift home.

Shahrum, myself and the Bossini Flowerman. :) sights and sounds of KL....tsk tsk...

Pavilion, too expensive for my liking

yup...not going back to Times Square anytime soon. :)