Working at Jefferies is an eye-opener and that comfirms how country bumpkin and country mouse I am. What's this company about..guess after binding tonnes of promotional booklet on the company profile I have memorised their message. "An investment banking and international security firm focused on helping growing and mid-sized companies and their investors" And of course, the branch in Singapore focuses on investment banking and capital marketing.

First day of work, had welcome lunch at one of the Japanese restuarant at Central with the office manager and boss. I felt so awkward and SQ said I am an alien while they are normal people.

Waiter: Who ordered coke?

Boss: nods~

Waiter places the drink in front of him

Boss: That ain't coke..coke isn't of such pale colour

Waiter was shocked and panic

Manager saw it and came over to assit him

Waiter: I am sorry, that wasn't coke but ice lemon tea

Back at office, someone from london called me. Great, his british accent was choking my ears. Fancy receiving a call from london to have your lotus mail set up. Was something new to me. Then another thing is the set up of AOL messenger. People in office communicate through that and even when we are like few tables away, they send messages instead of talking directly.

One unbelievable thing is the international conference calls made almost every day. I can hear people from all around the world discussing with my colleagues on some investment project and deals. The most CHUI one was when I handled an oversea call from a lady at Mumbai, India. Hardly understand what she was talking and I didn't know how to connect her to the main conference call. Then my ears were bombarded with finance terms like SGX, asset management, EPS, book value, equity, M&A, MAS etc when they had meetings or discussion. Clients from around the world visit the company for meetings each day and my colleagues are always so busy. They fly to overseas as if they are taking MRT.

As they were busy and I am bounded and secluded to my own desk, life was kinda boring. Nobody to chat with and having lunch alone. They do not have lunch together often as their lunch hours are irregular. Ya..since I am just a temp so who cares and bother to break the ice with me. Made some orders for office pantry, did some ad-hoc admin duties, read equipment manuals and crack my brain to convert excel to lotus123 format. Auditors came and they reminded me of the NKF/RenCi thingy as they checked through the accounts.

Friday was kinda unexpected. I was the earliest and the mood was lighter as they had chats with one another and even laughed. Working with US people and ABC people..and I tend to hear curses ranting in the office. Well, everyone is like speaking English la and is so hard to speak Chinese with them. Had a hard time conversing with them as their English are powerful. Just working for 5 days and I felt so tired and weak.

Went for the SMU interview and nearly pengz. Felt so much like retreating and surendeering after I realised in a group of 8 interviewees, I am the only one from poly. I am like competing a place with people from Hwa Chong, NJC, ACJC, RJC etc. The interview lasted for a whooping 1.5 hours. The first part was a seminar-like group discussion on Clean Up your Act in Cyberspace from the financial post. Then the next is to write an essay on any topics (future challenges, good governance, identity, political leader, social issue, news and media). People from JC are in good position as they had GP before. Then me leh, haven't wrote an essay for like few years and have no GP techniques to present. But overall, managed to clicked with the JC people and they were friendly. We exchanged phone numbers and had a short chat after the interview. Then I had a longest chat after 5 days of this week with a girl called Xing Miao through out the train ride.