Drawing to a Close

Merry Christmas everyone. I'll save the Happy New Year for the next post. I hope you are happy with what you have achieved in 2013. I certainly am. No doubts about that.

For me 2013 is special in the sense that I graduated in this year, returned to Penang and landed myself a first job. Quite a drastic change in lifestyle from the college/university life that I have been accustomed to. Besides that I've started pushing towards my next big milestone. My CPA qualification. Hopefully to be attained smoothly in 3 years' time.

Looking back, I would really love to see the clear blue skies of Perth again. I enjoyed studying there. i guess you could tell from my previous posts. I plan to go back someday on a holiday. Just to re-explore the city and relive some of my best memories. Will definitely be some time before I go back there though. Now's the time to save up. Not spend.

I foresee 2014 will be an interesting year for me. Through my trusty gypsy crystal ball I see myself progressing through my first year as part of the workforce, learning to achieve the ultimate balance between career, family, friends, personal interests, and keeping the galaxy safe from alien invaders.

No, my day job does not include fighting aliens. Although sometimes I wish it does.

X'mas in KL Malls

I've been travelling up and down between Penang and KL recently. For training and for actual work. Surprisingly during my 3 trips down south I somehow found the time to explore the capital with my colleagues. I took some photos of the different Christmas decorations I encountered in the various malls in and around KL. Thought it was a good idea to post them here.

First we have the Bangsar Mall, which my colleagues tell me is a haunt for the rich. So I guess I was probably the poorest joker there. Lol.

Management went to great heights to decorate the place. I went to great heights to take that photo. Literally. There were shops below the chairs and shoppers were walking below the dining table. The table was about a storey high.

Another angle.

Look at those apples!

We were pretty much dwarfed by the deco.

1 Utama's deco was not as impressive as the previous mall, but boleh tahan. I observed the progress each day as workers built the deco. To get to where I was working I had to walk through the mall every day.

Prezzies!

Hot air balloon themed.

Another mall with nice X'mas deco is Midvalley Megamall. I stayed at Cititel Midvalley when attending training at PwC HQ, so I had ample chances to hang around this mall. In fact I had most of my dinners here.

Castle! With X'mas trees and snowflakes.

I don't know what that white hanging stuff is supposed to be. My guess is snowflakes or something similar.

Another angle.

 This huge tree was also found in Midvalley Megamall.

Finally, The Gardens, which was right beside Megamall. The deco there was relatively simple. I spent less time there because I was not into branded goods.

Simple but nice. The X'mas tree had red paper roses on it.

 They had these hanging rose vines-reindeer antler things. Quite nice.

Okay, I'm done. Hopefully the next time I write won't be a month later, as in this post which only came a month after the previous one.

What I've Been Up To

This photo aptly sums up my experiences in the past 2 weeks.

PwC, my 1st job, and ASR for Assurance. The fancy name for audit.

My bro pointed out ASR could also mean 'Lee Ewe Juan - All Stupid Rookie'. Hopefully that is not true.

A large part of the previous 2 weeks was spent learning jargon,trying not to look confused and fumbling my way through the company's systems and procedures. Not the first time I've been through that though. It's called the New Joiner Syndrome. And it's common. Fortunately many colleagues and seniors were ready to help me out so I did not cause any disasters.

I also had the chance to visit KL for the first time after a family trip 12 years ago. Went there for the 1st Experience Orientation thingie, which proved to be quite fun, despite the schedule being very hectic. The best part was probably meeting new friends from all over Malaysia and hanging out with my colleagues/batchmates. It's easy to be friends when you know in a few weeks time, you will all share the same worn out looks and have similar dark circles around your eyes.

I will be going to KL soon again for my first engagement. This time for 2 weeks. Let's hope I'm up to the challenge!

Ewe Juan Levels Up!

Beginning tomorrow our hero Ewe Juan levels up and is given a new rank... 'working adult'. Wish me luck on my first day at work. Strictly speaking it's my 4th first day, considering I've done 3 internships. But then again it is still a first day, and it is only polite to wish someone good luck on his first day.

Like this: Good luck Ewe Juan! Enjoy your first day!

I may be a 'working adult', but if you're hoping that's going to change my writing style here to be more mature, you are sorely mistaken. I may grow old and lose hair, but my writing style possesses everlasting youth (and has no hair to lose, in case you did not notice).

And so let the Brand New Adventure Begin!

Competence & Confidence

Should we focus on being confident enough to achieve success, or being competent enough to achieve success?

According to an interesting article I read lately, to achieve greatness, we should focus on developing competence to drive confidence, not just blindly building confidence (most self-help books and motivation programs today are guilty of this).

I attach here a link to a Financial Times article for those who are interested to read the full thing. It's a good read and some food for thought. I rarely talk about anything serious on my blog because I believe in being serious only when studying/working/avoiding getting into deep trouble. Other than that being serious be screwed. There's a reason this blog is called an asylum.

But asylum or not, once in awhile I guess I'm doing everyone a service by sharing something good.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c7d527a6-2ce2-11e3-a0ac-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl#axzz2iVYnt7wD

The article also takes a swipe at KPMG for using 'core competencies' to assess its potential employees. This approach focuses too much on vague ideas like 'delivering quality'. Not really something measurable or explicitly related to competency, the article argues. This being the case, people nowadays are trying to appear confident, but do not care so much about being competent, because apparently, confidence is enough for you to ace that job interview. Perhaps true to some extent. I'm sure this 'core competencies' thing extends beyond KPMG to many other companies. I've seen a fair share of 'core competencies' or similar things myself.

You do not have to agree with the article 100%. I certainly don't. But let it serve as a reminder that it's important to get a firm grasp of the technical aspects of our lines of work. Spend time mastering your trade, not blowing your trumpet and ESPECIALLY, not backstabbing to get to the top. There is no honour in success built on a trail of casualties.

Kamikaze Exam

Tomorrow I shall be taking my first ever CPA exam. Exams have the tendency to make me feel dumb. And at present I am feeling really, really dumb. I hope what people say about luck favouring the fools is true!

Hopefully it wasn't a bad idea taking two subjects. I have decided to never ever repeat another kamikaze act like this. And besides, once I start working, I will probably only have a 0.45% chance to pass both subjects if I take another two at once.

I will blog more after I'm done with my exams (and before I start work). Right now I have to prove I'm not dumb enough to fail my papers. Add oil. Add salt. Add sugar. Add hypertension.