Job Hunting Progress

Dear friends,

I would like to write about my job hunting progress. I feel the need to express it somewhere because I would like to look back at this post one day and be reminded of the hardships, gratitude, convoluted feelings and all other experiences related to this meaningful learning curve.

I've been out from the work force since November 2019 because I wanted to search for a career that is more inline with my passion, which is either engineering or being in the finance industry. 

So right after my long vacation ended, I was actively searching for jobs in January 2020. I started with a strategy that only targeted huge companies. The criteria pretty much being The Big Four in their respective industries, or any company that has a huge market capitalization or global footprint. With this strategy, I proceed with writing cover letters that are highly specific to each companies. At that time, I believed in the quality of my applications rather than the quantity of my applications being introduced in the market. I kept going at it for the whole January and eagerly waited for replies. As I waited for any response, I slowly lose hope in myself and began to question many things in life. It has gotten to a point where I've given up in sending more applications and instead, carry on with my unhealthy routines of sleeping in every morning.

But after a wake up call from a friend of mine, I immediately realized that it's no ones fault for this setback. The only blame I could point to was myself. You see, I've been very adamant on my strategy of focusing on quality that I don't even consider other possible strategies out there. It took someone to show me a better result to fully convince me that I've been going at this whole job hunting strategy the wrong way. After absorbing many advice, I understood then that as a (relatively) fresh graduate, I just have to start somewhere. Where I start doesn't necessarily need to be a good place. It doesn't need to be a multi-billion dollar company. It doesn't need to offer the perfect working environment. It doesn't have to be perfect. What's important is that I just have to start. I'll always remember this quote that says,

"To be good, you have to start. To start, you don't have to be good."

So after that epiphany, I used up my last January budget of RM70 to pay for the priority application on Jobstreet. I flooded my resumes to 140 companies, and still counting. Within a week, I have received 3 interview invitations and 1 online assessment test from companies. I am happy because this new approach works vastly well compared to my previous strategy. I'm also content because I still get to include a quick pitch in every application so that there's still that element of personalisation which I believe will always be an important factor when it comes to networking with others. Human touch is essential to break that virtual barrier. 

So as it stands, I've passed the first interview and awaiting for the offer letters and other relevant documents. I still have 2 more interviews coming and I just finished the online assessment. I could've done better on the online test but I'm still happy with the preparations I've made over such short time. 

Tomorrow is a new day and I plan to send in more applications until I find the best offer.

Thanks for reading friends. Hope things are going well with your life affairs.

Lesson With Your Words

Hi friends,

There's something about February that makes me a little bit more outgoing than usual. I tend to reach out to old friends and get myself updated with their affairs. I see it as a healthy way to reconnect with old acquaintances and maybe lit up the old friendship flame.

However, what I may think is good, may not actually be the best case to others. 

So today I reached out to an old friend and figured that the best way to immediately crack the ice again was through humor. And what better way to go at it than by going full on satire and sprinkle some sarcasm at it? I figured that throwing around some inner-circle-jokes like the old days would definitely spur up the old friendship flames. But immediately after that, I can sense a huge push back and I regret my words scornfully.

As I dig deeper into the reason for this, I found out that I had essentially verbally abused his passion. I'm pretty sure that things will never be the same again.

And here I thought that the best way to ignite a conversation is to treat them as your bestfriend. I realized that this is totally on me and I must make truce. I also need to reconsider my definition of 'the best way to interact with my bestfriends'. But as of current, this feeling of having done wronged to someone is very unpleasant. I feel like melting away like Rimuru Tempest and hide under a rock.

Moral of the story, no matter how close you think you feel with someone - after a long time of having no interactions - time and distance will change them. So before you engage in any interactions, make sure you do a profiling on them. Make yourself approachable and gauge their advancement towards your inquiries. Gradually inquire more but never interrogate. Get their updates but never invade their space. Once they break through your glass ceiling first, you carry on with your own crack on his ice.

Words are powers, always use them wisely.

Other Approach Than Stock Buybacks

Hi friends,

I've been reading a lot on Warren Buffet lately because I wanted to pick his brain and learn from his method of investing. What better way to learn than to observe what the Oracle of Omaha has to say for himself, right?

After sifting through several articles, I've gotten into sections where Warren Buffet explains his ideas on what should be done on the investment earnings that an investor receives. In general, there are 3 ways that an investor should do to benefit from the earnings that their investments have made:

1. If the cost of getting profit is cheap, it is rational to reinvest all of those earnings.
2. If the cost of making profit is expensive, distributing dividends to shareholder is rational.
3. If the share price of its own stock is undervalued or is at fair value, stock buyback is rational.

Based on the 3 ways of managing earnings, I have some stifling thoughts about the stock buybacks. Personally, I'm not sure if I would agree on doing so because it seems to me that stock buyback results in an artificial growth in the share price by limiting the outstanding shares in the market.

It is at this point where I agree more with Ray Dalio's definition of assessing value of an investment at hand which is by increasing the level of productivity in its business. The approach to increase productivity could derive from optimizing various aspects of the business model be it the delivery of goods and services, or by increasing labor incentives. If I were to suit the options in hand on ways of handling earnings towards my preference, I would lean towards distributing incentives to the labor force to increase morale or to put the cash on the money market just so to prepare myself when opportunity strikes on my stock watchlist. Either of these choices would derive more value on the investment at hand.

However, I'm sure there are more details that I'm missing out when it comes to the benefits of stock buybacks. Knowing my limit of knowledge right now, I'm keen on exploring more on the best ideas on optimizing earnings to maximize profits, be it directly or indirectly.

I still share similar views as Warren Buffet as his overarching idea of value investing is still something that resonates close to my belief. It is only in the case of stock buybacks where I'm just not looking to him eye to eye. Regardless, Warren Buffet is still executing what he preaches as we all know the amount of cash that Berkshire is sitting on. Even with his behemoth cash pile, he still haven't made any considerable acquisitions, including buybacks. Instead, he's just waiting on the sideline waiting for the next best deals, which to me is rational.

I've been obsessing about the investment world because I hope that I could have my own investment portfolio that's enough to sustain my life. Wish me luck, friends!

Fin.

It Yearns

Dear friends,

I have always thought that I've lead life with above average understandings of my emotional quotient. Equipped with this belief, I've lead life focusing more on myself rather than the effects of the outside environment bears on me. 

However, that belief has vanished as of today due to some verbal query from a close source of mine that noticed an incidental change in my behavior. As it turns out, the way I react to negative input from the environment is by ignoring the negative input and the source from which it came from. As a result, it has some unforeseen implication towards what I believe as a solid coping mechanism. By ignoring the source, I'm distancing myself further and zoning them out. Quite also, zoning myself out.

As I question myself as to what benefit I'm getting from this, I still believe that by focusing on myself more, maybe the negative input from my environment would stop or maybe they will even improve their projection towards me. But the more I thought I was making progress through improving myself, the outside worlds seems to act better in focusing on themselves rather than seeing the milestones I've covered. It is as it seem, I'm being defeated by my own plan of actions that was initially put in place as a silent retaliation towards them. 

Even though I understand that my life shouldn't be of bother to what is perceived by them, I secretly still yearns for their acknowledgement. This, is something that I absolutely couldn't comprehend. Mulling over this fact has made me question my above-average level of understanding in my own emotional quotient that I boasted. At the present, I truly feel like I know nothing of my own emotions.

Regardless, I will forever cherish this day as it is a very special day to me.

Your friend,

J.