8 Life Updates

My New Year's Resolution (or my NYR as I like to call it) was set just a couple of days ago - and that is to be more active on the social networking front.

Silly, you may think. But networking is something I have overlooked as often being meaningless and only for people with way too much time on their hands. At least, that's what I think when I keep refreshing my Facebook page in the hope that something interesting turns up. But over the past couple of months, I have become more involved in LinkedIn and Twitter, and I must say I'm enjoying the 'buzz'. 

Chatting about sports with complete strangers is something I used to previously wrinkle my nose at, but there's nothing more enjoyable than sharing your views with people and having them share theirs. And its not just restricted to football, its tennis, music, movies, engineering, business school, applications, job hunting, just everything.

This NYR also means that my poor neglected blog will get some well-deserved attention from me pretty soon. In fact, there is a whole list of things I'll get to do again once I finish my undergraduate studies in LESS THAN A MONTH. Terrifying times. 

I’m currently in the midst of my final exams for my engineering course – there’s a certain ring to it, I must admit. They say time flies when you’re having fun, but I say time flies whether you’re having fun or not. Where have the last three years gone?

This is not to say I hate my course, but my final year of studies have been a little too difficult to handle, and there’s a large part of me that’s thrilled that the ride is finally ending. Academic-wise, of course. In social terms…well I barely had much of a social life in this final year. But I will miss some people, my close friends, most of whom have plans to leave Malaysia soon after graduation.

I’m taking a break from the highly strenuous exam preparation to update my readers on…my life really. Good fortunes, tasks done, mistakes learnt from – et al. So here you go, in no particular order:

1. MBA applications were completed and submitted by the end of January. I’m not ashamed to admit it – yes I shot for the moon with some of the schools I aimed for. It’s a tall order to get into Harvard Business School when your Engineering undergraduate course is already killing your brain cells one at a time. I applied to six schools, and at the end, interviewed with and got accepted into IESE Business School, Barcelona! It’s a Young Talent Program, where accepted students are allowed to join the MBA course provided they complete a minimum of two years of work experience. I’m SO thrilled about this – I was resigning myself at one point to just forget about B-School apps and concentrate on job-hunting. Now I get to do both!

Image URL: http://blog.paradizo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cathelicopters.jpg

2. Job-hunting has been a little less successful. I applied to a MILLION positions, no joke here, since the application procedure literally just involves a cover letter, a resume, and an online application form. I have been fortunate enough to receive interview invites from Accenture, Bain & Company, Frost & Sullivan, and Theta Service Partners – I think it’s obvious that I’m heading into consultancy eh? Accenture and Frost have both put me on hold; Bain is a ding, while I got into Theta. Still waiting to make a final decision though.

3. Goodbye five-year-old Dell laptop, and hello Apple!! Yes, my birthday present from my parents arrived three months late but it was worth it, as I write this post from my spanking-new Macbook Pro. Still haven’t got the whole hang of it yet, but I’m lovin’ it so far. If anyone has any software recommendations, bring it!

4. I will officially own a Bachelors Honours Degree in Electronic & Computer Engineering in July 2012, and I’ll officially be done with undergraduate academic as of May 31^st, 2012. Our graduation is set for 7^th July, and saying I’m looking forward to it would be a major understatement.

5. Summer 2012 is the first couple of months where I have no studies and no internship; the first summer in a long time when I’ll literally have nothing to do. That said, my summer has somehow turned out to be jam-packed. I head to Bangalore to visit my grandmother for around three weeks in June; I head back to Kuala Lumpur to attend my graduation, and straight up fly to Barcelona on the same night to attend a week-long seminar where I get introduced to the School, the program, other accepted students, and Spain in general. An added bonus in that I’m flying Emirates – luxury awaits! Hallelujah!

6. Spent the year as the Public Relations Officer for the Indian Cultural Society in my University. Good stuff, I think. Enjoyed it to bits. Ended up strongly disliking a couple of people in the process, who I’m slightly sorry to say have gone from “close friends” to “people I used to know.” The strangest bit is that a large part of me doesn’t care much about this change. If I don’t miss them, then they never should have been part of my close friends, right?

7. “Shop ‘til you drop” has been the motto I’ve been living on. I had a ridiculously large shopping spree before my first semester results came out, and it turned out I was worried for nothing, as my results were surprisingly great. I don’t expect that to happen this semester, so I’ve started saving money for my India trip – its time to splurge again. Zara/Mango/Padini/Vincci/SubZero/FOS, here I come.

8. My Final Year Project has finally been submitted. My project involves building a job application portal, which should manage students and staff for the entire Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering. Students undergo an optional industrial training placement during the summer, and the portal is supposed to help them apply for a job and satisfy all other assessment criteria. My portal is going to be developed and hosted by IT Support, and is officially going to go live from the next academic year! I'm so excited - my piece of work being used by all. It's thrilling really. 

Okay so I guess that’s about it. Told you I didn’t have much of a social life.

In case you’re interested, my upcoming blog posts will most probably address the following topics:

1. Post-examination bliss

2. A GMAT Review – I have had a couple of people asking me to sum up my preparation, the resources I used, as well as any tips or tricks I may have.

Stay tuned!