Finally internship has ended today. And I'm glad to have my loooooooooong-awaited holidays!

Course registration was freaking WASTE OF TIME. And after clicking the mouse for 3 hrs until it nearly broke, I still didn't get what I want. Somemore I still went to the school's comp lab to register, thinking it will be much faster and higher chance of getting what I want. Owellz, but at least I still got my 3-day work week, so probably I shouldn't complain much already.

On Thursday when I stepped into the school, my 1st time ever since I ended my last paper on 7th May (which was exactly 2 months later), somehow I got that "demn sianz lar, I really hate coming here" kind of feeling coming back to me.

Hope I get the elective that I want, if not I will be so sianZZzzzZzzzZZZ.........................

I'm left with 3 more weeks of internship (although most of my friends are left with 2 weeks only), but I'm getting sianz of work already, wishing it to end earlier as I really think it has come to a state where the company doesn't really require our presence. Owellz, I believe that the next 3 weeks shall pass fast enough.

As I looked back, life has been very good ever since last semester's exam ended. Probably because I dont need to touch any book, and I think my company has been good on me. But the most important reason is likely because I'm left with only 15AUs to clear before graduation, i.e. already cleared 93 AUs out of the 108AUs requirement (assuming I pass internship). I don't know why some of my classmates even bother asking me if I will be splitting my 15AUs into 2 semesters to clear. Isn't it kinda obvious that you only need ONE SEMESTER to clear 4 modules (3 core + 1 electives). So with that, I'm ready to embark on my final semester, hoping that I can get a 3-day week during my course registration next week.

The "smell" of graduation is getting stronger as the timer on the right of my blog counts down to the end of year!

Actually I'm thinking of doing relief teaching during the entire August, but on the other hand I just want to rot at home. Haiz, I guess I'll will just register online and hope that any school can call me to do relief for a few days (provided I am lucky enough).

Came across this article on the online Straits Times website:

Banks boom, talent jumps

PAY in the financial sector is rising so fast that large numbers of accountants are jumping ship to join banks, a key industry body said on Friday.

The bank jobs boom is generating huge oportunities for experienced number crunchers but it is also creating a talent squeeze at big accounting firms, warned the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS).

Accountants with three to six years in the workforce can lift their pay by as much as 30 per cent by changing sectors.Banks are embarking on a massive recruiting drive after the financial crisis forced thousands of lay-offs and wage freezes.

Accounting firms are feeling the effects, particularly the Big Four of Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC), Ernst & Young and KPMG, which are prime hunting grounds for banks, said ICPAS president Ernest Kan.

In a bid to retain their best and brightest, many accounting firms gave out an unprecedented additional bonus at the start of the year. Bonuses, which range from two weeks' to three months' salary, are usually paid in the middle of the year.

For their part, banks are noticing more accountants apply for jobs. OCBC said it has received more applications from accountants this year in line with more applications across the board. But pay may not be the clincher for all accountants. Some will accept lower salaries in favour of flexible working hours, according to a guide from ICPAS and financial recruiting firm Robert Half.

This is like so demn true lar. Given the opportunity, who in the sane mind will still want to work as an accountant/auditor/tax. Like seriously, accounting is 1 of the lowest pay among all the other degree programmes in NUS/NTU/SMU. That aside, I realized that to me, working hours are probably more important than salary. Working until past midnight every now and then is like @#$%^&*. But with my pathetic result, seems like I dont have much choice but to resign to fate next time. Haiz.

My blog is collecting spider web already.

Aiyaz, not that I have any interesting thing to blog about, since intern is always so boring.

5 weeks of intern have passed, so I'm left with 5 more weeks! Argz, can't wait for it to end lar. Went for my one-week ICT 2 weeks ago, and as usual, it was an utter waste of time. Nevertheless, it's good to meet up with some of my friends there to know that they are doing well. For those idiots that I know back then, they are as idiotic as always, and I don't really bother to interact with these ppl.

Went for a "special audit" 2 days ago. Together with 2 other colleagues, we are supposed to pose as customers going to a 5-star hotel's bar/lounge to have some drinks/light food, and the main purpose is to trace the cash receipts (which I donno how lar, none of my business, my main mission there is to EAT and DRINK). So we were given $200 in total by the hotel, and we spent it all! My task was to remember the name of the waitress who took our order, as well as the 1 who we pay our money to. But due to the relatively dim lighting, I couldn't see her name tag clearly, so I was like STARING at her name tag, and it was so embarassing. She noticed I was looking at her, so she pretend to use her hand to cover up her left collar. Like wtf lar, she probably think I'm some pervert. Overall, I think we didn't act suspiciously, so I hope everything goes well for us!

And my supervisor is even more shiok. She was acting as a "spy" as well, but she was given Friday afternoon off to go to the hotel and stay overnight till Sat night, which includes her room charges, dinner, breakfast, any other services. And her budget is $900+++ lar. Her room alone is $450, so she had $400+ to spend on some other random stuff. So demn good lar!

Seriously, if only I can have such audit frequently, I dont mind becoming an Auditor lor. Lol!

And I just found out yesterday that as an intern, I am entitled to 2 days of leave too! Well, I can choose to sell them off it I want, and that will be $35 per day. Haha, I really think my company is demn welfare; a reasonable monthly pay, still got leave, then intern got chance to go for special audit somemore... and I have 1 day of BIRTHDAY OFF... What more can I ask for? I really doubt my friends in big4 or some other audit firms have such welfare benefits. Thank goodness I choose this company, although I still must say that the mundane audit work that I do most of the time is so demn boring.

Having been through 1 week of audit, I guess it was still manageable (for the time being!)... All those nightmare that I took in those disgusting modules start crawling back to me. But at the end of it, I know why auditors get to knock off from work very early (i.e. early morning 3am or 4am), cuz there's simply too many accounts to check through. Luckily I'm interning at a small-mid size firm, so the clients that we had were usually quite small private company. Guess those at big4 will probably be stuck in shit for doing those big listed companies that probably had so many disgusting consolidations to do.

Luckily my colleagues were still quite nice ppl, so time during intern was still rather bearable. But still, I donno how others feel, but being an intern there for 10 weeks, I can't seem to put myself to committ fully to my workplace. Not that I "bochap" my work, because I will still try to do my work properly and on time, it's just that even if I try to be "enthusiastic", I know I'm just there for 10 weeks, and more importantly, this thing is not even graded. Yes, I mean there's really no incentive to work hard lar. I'll probably work hard during my normal working hours and learn as much as possible, but when the time strikes 530pm, I'll just automatically pack my bag and get off.

So it's another 9 weeks more to go.

It gets depressing when u have ur 1st paper on the 1st day of exam period, and then ur last paper on the last day of exam period. Wtf.

It gets even more depressing these few days when all the people starts moving out of hall and u r still there stuck with exam. Wtf.

And after my exam ends tml morning, I will only have Sat and Sun to "rest" before internship. Wtf.

I'm having my 1 week reservice during my 10-week internship, so I thought probably I only need to do 9 weeks of intern instead. But I received an email ystd that I need to extend my internship by 1 extra week until late July. Wtf.

I really hope the exchange rate can drop to 1000 JPY = S$13 or somewhere near there.. Then I will probably go to the money changer to change S$1300 out of it immediately!!!!!!!!! Seems possible, but will need to observe awhile more.......... Haiz.



And I really demn sianz to study liao lar!!!!!! Marketing and Risk Management.. Guess I'll just write some rubbish out of them...............

The countdown counter on the right is giving me much motivation to study~!!!! =)

I can't believe I've been watching this Korean drama from 12am all the way until just now 1030am, where I couldn't take it anymore and went for a short nap.

Queen Seon Duk (善德女王)



Due to the lack of precious time, I only managed to watch the more exciting part of this drama, which is like from episode 42 to 51.... But okie lar, that's more than enough already. I just want to see how that blardy woman (that stupid woman next to that Man) was being defeated by the princess in this so demn long internal fight for political status.

With this, I shall "stand down" my beloved past time of watching KOREAN DRAMA and start studying for the blardy exams which is like...... 3 weeks later? Probably the most effective way is to abstain myself from going home, where there's no TV in my hostel and more importantly, the Internet is so demn blardy slow until it's too pathetic to have a smooth video streaming. And I shall re-watch this 62-episode drama after my exam!

Finally....................... AA205: Risk Management and Control........................................

I had my meeting from 930am until 1045pm CONTINUOUSLY ystd, except for 230pm to 430pm which I had my RISK lesson. And yes, it's super risky to do risk management project, because having 12 hrs meeting is out of my RISK APPETITE and RISK TOLERANCE, and I can't implement any control to reduce the likelihood or impact of this. Hence, the most appropriate approach is to have RISK ACCEPTANCE................................. I'm crazy over iCEE project.

Today we had our meeting from 1230pm to 7pm, AND THANK GOD, WE FINALLY COMPLETED THIS PROJECT JUST NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So on Fri I will have my case presentation, then over the weekend I shall force myself to complete the individual report, then I would be LEFT WITH ONE FINAL PROJECT - AA301 Biz Valuation.

Ogosh, I seriously can't wait for this week to end. @#$%^&*(@#$%^&

On Thursday I went for a 2-hr wheelchair training course which was organised by my CCA. Initially I didn't really want to go, as I was too overwhelmed with all the disgusting projects that are due next week. Secondly, I assumed that wheelchair is afterall just wheelchair, and all you need to do is just to push it from behind. But I'm glad I went for it, as I did learn alot of things on how to handle it properly.

And to be frank, it's definitely NOT as easy as most people assume it to be. The instructor brought a few wheelchairs for us to practise on, and taught us some techniques such as bringing it up/down the staircase, slopes, rough terrain etc. When I played the role of a helper, in which I was supposed to support my friend who's seated on the wheelchair, my main focus was just to get that wheelchair from one point to another point. I mean like it's tiring to try lifting up a wheelchair up a flight of stairs lar. I was already panting like hell when I completed the task, and I just thought "wah lao, actually the disabled person like so shiok, got ppl to help him or her up"

How wrong can I get.

And when it's my turn to be seated on the wheelchair, and my friend(s) were supposed to role-play by pushing from behind or lift the wheelchair up the stairs, it's super INSECURED lar. E.g. while we were going up a relatively deep slope, the wheelchair can easily get out of control and it's so DANGEROUS if it just rolls down on its own. And when the wheelchair needs to be tilted in order to go up/down the stairs, you can just FALL anytime if the supporter lets go of his hand. Even though it was just for a relatively short moment, I can greatly sense the inconvenience of trying to move around in a wheelchair all by yourself. And you just feel frustrated and tensed when the helpers were not not being thoughful to your feelings, as their only motive is just to move the wheelchair from point A to point B.

So today I spent the entire saturday in school, as there was a group of physically disabled children who visited NTU to have some game sessions with us. Okay lar, almost most of them uses electronic wheelchairs, and so we didn't really put our training to use. But still, nobody can deny the fact that being physically disabled can bring so much inconvenience, and most people are too insensitve to their special needs.

And ta-da, the photos for today. So after today's event by my CCA, I hope I've learnt to more understanding to the physically disabled, and more importantly, to have greater patience for them.

My mind has been preoccupied with too many senseless things till I'm putting all my work aside and spending much time thinking of such boliao stuff. Shit, I'm wasting precious time. Haiz.

Had a great time catching up with some of my Japanese Language classmates during a gathering just now. As mentioned in my previous post, one of my them would need to return back to Japan permenantly with her 2 daughters, and they are leaving 2 weeks later. That's like so fast!! So yup, this is like a "farewell gathering" for her as well.

And one of them just quit his job last year, and last month he spent THE ENTIRE MONTH in Japan, going to different parts of Japan for holiday. He was like showing us all the photos that he took, and omg, I'm like so freaking jealous of him!!!! And the most amazing thing is he only spent 4.4K in total!? That's like so cheap lar, considering the fact that he stayed in Japan for 1 month. But owellz, because he bought the JR concession ticket that was exclusively available for foreigners only, he was able to cut down on alot of transport expense.

Another guy who's going to Toshiba to work this coming Oct, I asked him 1 freaking IMPORTANT question. Before that, I actually google-ed around for information, and found out that Japanese University doesn't have class honours lor. Like regardless of how well or how badly you do during your 4 years uni education, everyone will just get a "pass degree" with no indication of how good/badly you have done. Of course they can look at your uni transcript for all the grades, but it's like they only have 'A', 'B', 'C' or 'D'. Dont have like those retarded A+, A, A- etc, which I really hate.

Anyway, I just asked him whether his university result played a big role in securing his current job/determining his salary. But thankfully, as I expected, he said that employers really dont care about your university result. It's like they are more interested in your non-academic areas in selecting new employees, because as mentioned earlier, they dont really "distinguish" academically better or weaker applicants. So they rely heavily on interviews to judge a job applicant, with your academic result playing a very insignificant role in "boosting" your resume. Secondly, in Japanese society, salary is still afterall based on your seniority. So no matter how good or how bad you did in your uni, everyone's starting pay is STILL THE SAME, and at the end of the day, it still boils down to your work performance when it comes to promotion/salary rise.

Hence, I felt "less stressted" that I will be significantly disadvantaged to those 1st class ppl. Like seriously, I have to admit I definitely cannot fight with ppl when it comes to academic result. And neither am I trying to say that my non-academic areas are excellent or have good CCA records or whatever. But I just HATE it when companies rely heavily on your academic result in choosing applicants, and your salary is based on the class honours that you get. This is especially true in Singapore, where there is such a great emphasis on your result, when I have people COMPLAINING that he has 4 A+ but 1 A, which leaves a "scar" on the cert. Like... shit... if A+ and A make such a HUGH difference to them, I think my transcipt is filled with multiple DEEP SCARS already.

And well, not that I will heck care about my results anymore. I probably would try to study hard at least for this sem and my last sem, but I really really should not be too "mindful" about my grades/result until it grows into an unhealthy obsession for good honours/good grades. I do admit I used to be competitive and mindful about grades in the past, but at this point of time, I realized that life is too short to be too engrossed in this rat race. Enough is enough. If I can get a 2nd upper, then it's a BONUS to me. If I get a 2nd lower, then well, life still goes on and I'm not going to go bersek like it will be the end of world (which I think some of my classmates are like that).

I still have a 20% company law assignment to be handed up tomorrow, and I haven started yet. Good luck to me~!

Just like any other sem, recess week is the time for me to clear all my shit projects. But I think everyone around me is so sick n tired of it until we just do things half-heartedly. Owellz, life still goes on, and like it anot, we still need to get it done. Haiz.

So this year I have quite a few friends moving to Japan.

Firstly, one of my Japanese language classmates that I got to know 2 yrs ago, she will be moving back to Japan with her family, as her elder daughter will be studying in Waseda Uni next month, and her younger daughter will be studying high school in Japan as well. Having interacted with 2 of them before, it's kinda obvious they were like DYING to leave S'pore and return back to their home country. Owellz, cuz I think they dont have many friends here, and also they can't really adapt well to Singapore. But that's good, as I think it's impt to know ppl living in Japan. Haha....

And another of my Japanese Language classmate (same class), whom just graduated from NTU last sem, he went to Japan 2 weeks ago for 5 jobs interviews to work in Toshiba. Omg, tt's like....5 levels of screening.... Madness. But out of 270 NTU students who applied for this job, he was 1 of the lucky 4 to get selected, so it's no doubt how competitive and prestigious this job is.

From him, I learnt alot of things such as what to look out for in a job-interview with Japanese. For example, Singaporeans are TOO DIRECT during job-interviews that they TOTALLY TURN OFF THE INTERVIEWER. Singaporeans will be too engrossed in SELF-PRAISE i.e. How good my results are, how good my CCAs are, how good I am in this and that...blah blah.... until it got out of hand and *BEEP* --> OUT YOU GO! Probably alot ppl still donno by now that Japanese ppl are so indirect that I think it's kinda difficult to catch the hidden meaning sumtimes. But it's a skill that everyone must learn if they want to work in Japan. Like it anot, if you dont understand the hidden meaning, or u say things which are perceived to be too direct, then I think mostly it's hard to survive in Japan. So it's smth tt I really need to learn.......................................

And now that he's back in S'pore last week, he will be undergoing training until Oct 2010, and then he will work at Yokohama perm full-time. ARZ!!!!!!!! I'm so freaking ENVIOUS of him can!!! =X

I seriously cant wait for 2010 to end and leave this blardy sch lar! But looking at that countdown timer, I believe my time will come soon. 9 more months to go. I shall join them next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I'm getting worried about Japan's economy. JAL is in deep shit. So is Toyota. Ogosh, I really hope all these shit things can stop happening to Japan!

For my internship, I decided not to apply to big4. Bleahz, with my shit result, it's akin to WASTING my choice. Medium/small accounting firms work just fine, and so I just take this intership application light-heartedly. I don't understand how some people have tt "If I dont intern in big4, it's gonna be END OF WORLD" kind of attitude. And to these ppl, local firms are almost beneath their dignity to enter.

If these ppl r in dean's list or perhaps students with really outstanding CCA records, I probably can understand. But hello, please look at urself into the mirror. I guess quite a number of ppl don't belong to this category, and yet the companies they apply are distinctly reserved for the "Cream of the crop" only. Owellz, good luck to these ppl. I hope reality can sink into them when they receive their internship allocation result.

And I'm so looking forward to CNY eve for a good feast!

Some ppl r really pissing me off. For the sake of 10% CLASS PARTICIPATION, somebody has been bugging me to tell him all the "model answer" for the tutorial ques. Because my lessons are usually one day before his, i.e. If mine is Mon & Thurs, his will be Tues & Fri.

And he's really stepping on my tail. Every single thing that happens in my class, he wants to know so that he will know what to say during his own class. If it's something very "major", I can at least understand. But for goodness, it's just daily routine tutoroial ques!!!

Dilemma. On one hand, I see him as a friend and I don't mind helping him. But almost after EVERY LESSON, he will SMS/MSN me to ask abt all the "perfect answers" raised during class. What should I do?

I'm wasting precious time thinking what I should apply for my internship. Well, I can only choose 2 organisations in phase 1, out of which we can only choose ONE big4 company. I wanted to choose D****tte, but then it's like they only have 1 - 3 positions for AUDIT POSITIONS.

Hello, there's like 600+ accounting students in NTU, not forgeting those in SMU and NUS. What's the probability that I can get into the company? It's like almost zero...... Considering the fact I need to put my blardy grades for all my modules in my resume. Argz, so the dilemma is, whether should I "waste" one of my choice in choosing big4, and then the 2nd choice for some medium accounting firm. Or perhaps the safer approach would be to give both my choices to small/medium firms, which the competition will be 10000000000000000000000 times less intense as compared to big4.

Owellz, hope to be able to make a wise decision!

It's only 1st week of school and I'm already like drowning in all the tutorials/readings etc. And there's a AA301 presentation next week for me. Arz, sianz!

Taking AA301 can be rather intimidating, because being the ONLY year2 student (Yes, I'm supposed to take this in yr3 sem2 aka final sem instead of now) in my class, I felt somehow I'm at a disadvantage. Firstly in terms of knowledge, obviously they know much more accounting than me. Secondly, I think most of them are either taking 8AUs or 11AUs only this sem, with me taking 19AUs. Arz, did I make the wrong decision by taking it now? Hopefully not... Because if I were to take all the 4 yr3 core modules together at the same time, I'm sure 99.99999% of accounting students will go "U wan to die? That's the most fatal combo u can ever get in a sem". So I guess I need to console myself that life is not that hard next sem if I were to clear AA301 now.

And next Friday I'm going to Deloitte for a corporate visit. Kinda "excited" to go there!!! Hahaz... I really hope I can have my PA in Deloitte, but based on my result... I guess chances are very slim. Just hope to network with some of the key personnel over there to "boost" my chance of an internship there!!

I shall start off the 1st entry of the year by having this countdown counter on the right, so as to remind myself that I'm 60% done with and it's only 40% more to leave this disgusting school.

Having been thru 24AUs of hell last semester, while most of my peers were either taking 16AUs or at most 19AUs, I could only blame myself for my erxin result due to my plan to graduate earlier. On top of that, being in the main comm of my CCA really occupied much of my time.

To be frank, I felt kinda guilty that I actually free-ride in most (or should I say all) of the projects in the semester, i.e. AA201, AA202, AC213 and AB214. But thankfully, I'm lucky to be doing projects with friends whom I know since yr1 sem1, and no doubt the guys (not the gals who are mostly free-riders as well) are really a good source of help in all those disgusting projects. Without their help, I probably gonna screw up even further. Thank you so much even though I doubt they will be reading this.

And by now I can almost be 99% sure that I am in the wrong course. Omg, I really hate accounting!!!! I thought I can try to "love" it... But it's really too erxin for me to understand. Perhaps I'm just not cut out to study accounting, but haiz, not much I can do but to accept fate that I still need to complete all my accounting modules to graduate. SIANZ.