Hong Kong, Day 4
I'll try to keep this update short and spare you all. Last night I crashed early again (mental zombie by 4pm, in bed by 6:30) but woke up relatively late (3am again - that's 9 hours of sleep!!) I am starting to think that it is because I'm not eating right or something (maybe I'm tired because of low blood sugar or something?) At any rate, I'm going to try to go out this evening to see if I can't break the routine. I'm hoping it works, because as much as I like getting up at the crack of dawn, the hours before are just dull ;-)
Anyway, enough about my bizarre biological clock. Today was the real whip-cracking day for me on the job hunt. I got up feeling like i was ready to beat down some doors, and so I tried to just walk into Merrill Lynch and HSBC to meet some people.
At Merrill, I got as far as the receptionist, who informed me that company policy dictated that not only was nobody allowed past her without an appointment, she was also not allowed to make appointments or suggest names of people that I should talk to. Drat. Oh well, worth a try. Since I was only 2 blocks away from HSBC's head office, and its a really cool building, I figured I'd give them a try as well.
I got past the receptionist, only to get directed to the 'international banking center' which tailored to foreign individuals and businesses day-to-day banking, rather than investment banking. After asking a number of people where the heck the Investment banking group was, someone finally explained it to me: that department worked out of an entirely different building. Oops.
By the time those two rounds were over, it was time for lunch. I called a girl from Citibank and a guy from Lloyd George who I'd gotten numbers for to see if they wanted lunch, but they had meetings. So I got Filipino food and hung out in a park downtown, and then wandered aimlessly around for a while. At 2pm I met with the guy from Morgan Stanley, who basically reiterated what I'd heard from the boss guy in New York. However, he did hold out more hope in that he said he would pass my resume around to some other people he knew, and suggested that if I could 'build my network' here I should find something 'in an unexpected place.' He also implied that I came up in the conversation with said boss guy at the annual off site in NY, which I also considered a big plus. Clearly both boss guy and this guy remembered me! (That may not sound like much, but in every Interview I've had I seem to hear how for every job they start with a 2 foot stack of resumes and a paper shredder... Sticking out seems to be half the battle there!)
On my way home, I called the secretary of the head guy from UBS, and was informed that she was unavailable. After trying her twice, I left a message, and headed back to the library (where I am now).
Writing this out, it looks like a lot of losses, which is odd, because I felt like I won today. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with the guts to cold call people, to risk embarrassing myself in front of a bunch of smart people. I'm pretty proud that I managed to get past the receptionists at HSBC, even if I was in the wrong building. Mostly, I'm pleasantly surprised that the Morgan Stanley guy actually offered to help me, and confident that the UBS people can't dodge me forever - I'm on the hunt for them.
Now, its 6:30, and I'm thinking dinner, and then going out in some fashion. Now I just have to figure out what fashion that is.
Anyway, enough about my bizarre biological clock. Today was the real whip-cracking day for me on the job hunt. I got up feeling like i was ready to beat down some doors, and so I tried to just walk into Merrill Lynch and HSBC to meet some people.
At Merrill, I got as far as the receptionist, who informed me that company policy dictated that not only was nobody allowed past her without an appointment, she was also not allowed to make appointments or suggest names of people that I should talk to. Drat. Oh well, worth a try. Since I was only 2 blocks away from HSBC's head office, and its a really cool building, I figured I'd give them a try as well.
I got past the receptionist, only to get directed to the 'international banking center' which tailored to foreign individuals and businesses day-to-day banking, rather than investment banking. After asking a number of people where the heck the Investment banking group was, someone finally explained it to me: that department worked out of an entirely different building. Oops.
By the time those two rounds were over, it was time for lunch. I called a girl from Citibank and a guy from Lloyd George who I'd gotten numbers for to see if they wanted lunch, but they had meetings. So I got Filipino food and hung out in a park downtown, and then wandered aimlessly around for a while. At 2pm I met with the guy from Morgan Stanley, who basically reiterated what I'd heard from the boss guy in New York. However, he did hold out more hope in that he said he would pass my resume around to some other people he knew, and suggested that if I could 'build my network' here I should find something 'in an unexpected place.' He also implied that I came up in the conversation with said boss guy at the annual off site in NY, which I also considered a big plus. Clearly both boss guy and this guy remembered me! (That may not sound like much, but in every Interview I've had I seem to hear how for every job they start with a 2 foot stack of resumes and a paper shredder... Sticking out seems to be half the battle there!)
On my way home, I called the secretary of the head guy from UBS, and was informed that she was unavailable. After trying her twice, I left a message, and headed back to the library (where I am now).
Writing this out, it looks like a lot of losses, which is odd, because I felt like I won today. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with the guts to cold call people, to risk embarrassing myself in front of a bunch of smart people. I'm pretty proud that I managed to get past the receptionists at HSBC, even if I was in the wrong building. Mostly, I'm pleasantly surprised that the Morgan Stanley guy actually offered to help me, and confident that the UBS people can't dodge me forever - I'm on the hunt for them.
Now, its 6:30, and I'm thinking dinner, and then going out in some fashion. Now I just have to figure out what fashion that is.
posted by Me at 9:09 PM
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