In the Pressure Cooker

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

I got an unexpected call last week from the Philam Group of Companies for a management associate position. The position was supposed to be 1 year training some time in May or June where we will be assigned to different divisions in one of their affiliate companies here in the Philippines. Although I’m not that interested in the insurance business per se, I just thought of checking it out since I had all the time in the world anyway - doing nothing (haha!). So I took the test and interview last Friday without any pressure and expectations. The test wasn’t really overly difficult for my brain to manage or handle (hehe). The interview, on the other hand, was surprisingly quite comprehensive. While I wasn’t totally prepared for it, I don’t think I made a total fool out of myself either. To my surprise, I got a call back just yesterday for a professional associate position from AIG which from my understanding is the parent or partner (I’ll have do research on that first hehe) company of the Philam Group and is one of the largest worldwide. This time the position was a little different from the first one in the sense that it would require 5 months training in Hong Kong along with 2 more representatives in the Philippines and other representatives in Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong. Further conditions include that we cannot leave Hong Kong by all means for the entire duration of the training (meaning: even if it would be at my expense or even only for a weekend – a perfect example would be me wanting to attend my cousin’s wedding in April which I was looking forward to since last year). Another condition is we’re required to work for the company for at least 18 months after the training (that's one and half years!). If we break that bond, we’ll have to pay a huge sum (believe me when I say it's huge, it's HUGE). They’re investing a little over a million pesos on us so who could blame them right? Here's the biggest catch...we'll have to leave in a week's time (March 2 to be exact) since training will officially start in February 21. Hello?! it's such short notice to condition myself to leave the luxuries and comforts of home (hehe). After two interviews and an essay this morning, I was scheduled for a final interview with the general manager of AIG tomorrow. Actually, I almost didn't make the cut na because after hearing that the training and job was going to be dealing with a whole lot of "numbers" and analytics, I couldn't lie to the interviewer and tell him that I was a big fan of numbers (hehe). Although I'm partial to the qualitative side of things, I was still interested one way or the other. But when he asked me if I was hugely interested, I couldn't tell him straight that "I was HUGELY interested." After a call from my sister and her knocking some sense into me that the job position was too good an opportunity to pass, I made bawi in the essay and the following interviews after that. I guess tomorrow’s the moment of truth. To say that I’m confused right now is an understatement. I really don’t know what to do. I can’t decide. Ever since choosing to study in DLSU, this certainly tops my list of having to make major decisions. I know that this is sort of life altering and will certainly determine my life's direction whether in a good or bad way for the next two years or even more. Well, nothing’s definite yet. Heck, I’m not yet even accepted. I still have one very important interview to hurdle tomorrow so I don’t want to jump the gun. I guess I'll just have to wait and see whatever happens tomorrow...only then will I be able to fully decide.