Wednesday, June 24, 2009

May 27 2009

I did not want to write/post something before finding out whether I got the bell internship or not. because if I had failed to get the internship, I would just skip this whole event as if it had never happened. And for everyone else but me, it would be like I never wore that suit, I never opened that tie, never bought new shoes and did not do the presentation.

It began with reading the posting on jobs.sheridan.ca

I believe it's because of my updated/reformatted resume. I had been applying for so many jobs but I wasn't hearing back from any one of them. So when I was applying for this unpaid internship, I went through my resume, looked it over, and added a little splash of color to make the content more distinguishable.

I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from the PMP recruitment.  I read through it, and at first I was a little skeptical, because of the word 'survey' in the body of the email. I filled out the survey even though I was thinking this is probably just to do some market research and I'm not going to hear back from them again.

But I did. Brendan called me up while I was on the bus and scheduled an interview for monday 25th may 09. I guess that was my lucky day. Because despite of how freaking nervous I was about meeting these people, regardless of how unprepared I felt I was, I guess I did something very right. Right there, Brendan told me I should expect to get a call from them for a second interview. I was now in the 5th stage of the recruitment program.

How I spent the weekend before my interview (Or how I didn't prepare for the interview)


I will never forget that weekend. I went to Canada's wonderland on saturday 23rd may. It was an awesome trip and I really enjoyed. 8 thrilling rides in one day! Even hours after i was back home and resting on the bed, my head was feeling like I'm still going through a roller coaster. I was fatigued and I would randomly feel weightless or like I'm in a loop or corkscrew bend.

The next day, I was supposed to sit down and strictly work on some illustrations and put a portfolio book together to show at the interview. I woke up early, thought I would go get a haircut- look more presentable for the interview. But the saloon I went to, was closed on sunday. I got a call from Doni while I was out, about going grocery shopping. I walked around in Cloverdale mall-in front of food basics, to try and find a barber shop. Only one of the 3 was open at the time, and the price was $17. I decided not to get a haircut and just get over with the shopping and get to work.

After the shopping, I worked on my tiger illustration for a while. I had talked to Doni about borrowing his shoes for the interview, and I was supposed to go buy a shirt for the interview. Instead of going to eaton centre, which would take us much longer, we decided to go to Sherway garden mall. After changing two buses, we got there just before closing time... Still, lot of the smaller stores were closed. Only sears was open.

Uh Sir, you cannot keep opening and trying on shirts..

The shopping experience at Sears needs another blog entry for itself. For now, I got a white shirt that I didn't absolutely hate. It was going to be worn under my suit anyways, so it didn't matter that it was a little loose.

By the way, did you finish that portfolio you were planning to present to them?


I worked away on my illustration in Illustrator CS4 till about 3 am in the morning. I went to bed when I felt it was at a satisfactory level of finished-ness. Woke up again at 6 or something. I needed to find out if there was a Staples around their office so that I could go print out this PDF that I had been working on. I ended up buying two ipod touch applications for TTC bus routes and schedules. One of them was actually helpful in finding the numbers of buses I would need to take and names of stops where I'd have to get off.

Dressed in my suit, with the tie knotted perfectly, I head out with my backpack on my shoulder. (Damn that looked so out of place!) By the way, tying the tie wasn't as difficult as it was a few days ago - the day of Rajat's screening. Actually I also had some help in the form of instructions on the back of the box of the tie. Yes, I had never even worn the tie before!

So you're saying you ran into staples wearing a suit and carrying your jansport backpack?

Yeah, Doni said I was leaving too early for my interview but I knew finding the staples in a place I've never been before was going to take a while. I got off the second bus, and started walking around. I felt like an eskimo in a fur coat on a tropical beach. I was definitely feeling awkward having never worn this suit before. And I was walking down the road looking totally lost! Noone to ask for directions!

Upon finally finding the wretched Staples, I got my stuff printed off asap, and then started looking for the bus back. But I was in Missisauga now. No TTC bus would pass so I resorted to walking. I am trying to find creekbank road and the entrance to the office building without a gps, compass or map.  Took me a while. But in the end, I arrived in the lobby some 20 minutes before designated time.

"So what do you know about our program?"

Hehe.. I used my time wisely to catch up on reading their brochure pdf. I didn't think it helped me all that much though. Because the interview was.. now that I look back on it.. all about me and Henry. He is the senior director of PMP. And I don't know how, when he came in, he got me pumped up, just set me on fire and made me go! I remember going back and forth about the GPS/geotagging photo question he posed in front of me!

Brendan asked me some generic questions and I answered them honestly like I always do. They had my resume and the survey I filled out in their hands.. OH! THAT'S WHAT THAT WAS FOR! They were asking me questions relating to that, and some of the same questions to verify that what I filled out was actually true.
 
So the interview went good, yada yada yada.. you already told us you got called in for second interview. What happened next?

For that, I guess you'll have to wait for my next post!

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