busy, busssssyyyyyy week...

half a dozen scheduled interviews thruout this & next week, on top of my own biz commitment, which means replying to countless emails and taking endless calls since monday because I've just concluded two new deals with turkish buyers. Negotiation wasn't smooth-going initially, but apparently these 2 buyers know each other, & once I managed to hook one in, the other was convinced we're the right partner for him as well. Now the arrangement for the freight issue comes in, & this is mainly why I've been bombarded with calls everyday. Shipping agents come back & forth with quotes & documentation requirements, & then coming back to me, 'no sorry Mr hendry, we're not taking charcoal shipments anymore'... Apparently there was a liner fire accident recently due to charcoal, & now almost the whole shipping industry (yes, I'm not kidding!) has 'charcoal' as the banned word in their dictionary.. which means more work to me, coz I'm up to my neck trying to convince 'em that we've been exporting it for more than 15 years, blah blah blah, & nothing ever happened... blah blah blah... seriously, that exporter who has scre*ed the charcoal industry shld be hanged! OR shot! well, that's what I think anws...

Happened at the most unfortunate times, coz I'm concluding deals left & right, & now there's no ships to take 'em! A middle East client is coming this month, as is an Australian dude, who has apparently lived @ batam, my adopted hometown, for years! To think that I claim to be an indo, &I haven't even lived there for that long! A greek customer is getting pissed too, coz no ship is willing to take his cargo, & it is our company's policy not to provide refund for any advance payment. We'll see what happens with that, but hopefully he doesn't summon Sparta's soldiers' spirits & invade indo! LOL that'd really be funny though, coz imagine seeing the all-mighty conquering Spartans of the past face off against machine gun-touting indo commandos. Not that I have any doubts who'll be the winner..

arrgghh my mind is pretty much screwed right now to think of that crazy plot. Had Citibank's interview last week, & had the manager told me that I lack the relevant exp they're looking for, tho it's not concluded yet whether I'm accepted or rejected. & I thought I did pretty well in the 1st round when I was interviewed by the HR vice president.. I think she did like me & favoured me to get the post, coz it was stated in the ads that the candidate would need to have some sort of wealth management exp, & I had none, but yet she still let me thru' to the 2nd round, only to be shot down mercilessly by that cocky, pompous private banker (whom I think will be my boss, if somehow I'm miraculously hired..). Well, I'm already prepared for the worst, so anything xtra would be a bonus, really..

Received a call from P&G in the morning, while I was having interview for another post with an unnamed offshore bank. Told me that I passed thru to the next round, & they want me to go down for interview this fri. Seriously, I hate all these waiting games, coz it's been 3 weeks since my assessment test with them, & I thought they had already tore up my application. Really hope something comes out of it, coz it's a semi-managerial role in a large company, not too shabby for a fresh grad really. *keeps finger crossed* before that though, hav another interview tmr for a project management post, tho I really lost track of which company this is coz of the numb, mindless clicking thru' career websites.

really hoping I can find my dream job soon, something that motivates me to wake up every morning looking forward to get to work. I have a feeling it's the P&G job (they won the employees' choice award in sg for the 2nd year running last year!), but my dream has always been the wealth management position. have another interview for that next mon, though I'm not sure if it's the same 1 offered as Goldman & Citibank. Ohweil, afterrr so many interviewssss already, I really don't care & don't mind going for another 1.

Will keep my 'faithful (read: bored)' readers posted after everything has settled down a bit...