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27 December City Living...Gotta Love It!Hey All,
This will be my final Melbourne-based posting for a while. I'm returning "home" to Sydney in a couple of hours, and I won't be back again til mid-February next year!
I thought that I'd talk a bit about the apartment I'm living in in Sydney. I live on Dixon St, between Goulburn St and Liverpool St in Sydney City. It's a fantastic location, literally on the doorstep of China Town and only a 8-10 minute walk to work. Prime location I say!
I've told a few people that it doesn't really feel like I'm working that hard. It's more like a working holiday, because it feels so cruisey everyday, getting up just before 8:00am and cruising into work well before my 9:00am start time. It's a life of non-stress, which compares favourably to some of my fellow interns! I'm absolutely loving it! Living alone isn't all that bad really; it gives me a sense of independence, and what guy doesn't want his own bachelor pad eh?
After this experience, I kinda wish that I could live in Melbourne City. Since I live in the city, I feel like going out every night, knowing that it's only a short distance to get home if I have a big night out. I'm always up for a night out on the town, whereas some of the other interns go straight home after work as they live a bit further out. Ah well, their loss.
It should be great come Friday when a few of my friends come up for the NYE celebrations. They'll be crashing at my place. It'll be good to have some company to bring in the new year, with some champers in tow I'm sure! Definitely looking forward to that.
Anyway, I should finish off my packing before I leave for the airport in about an hour. In the meantime, I wish everyone a safe, happy and prosperous new year! See you on the other side!
William
PS. on my last flight up to Sydney, I had a Sophie Falkiner look alike operating my aisle. She was a younger looking version too, so that made my flight all the more pleasant! Too bad that was a Qantas flight and I'm taking Virgin Blue tonight. Fingers crossed for a Jessica Alba look alike tonight! hehe 24 December Citibank Week 3Hey All!
I'm back in Melbourne for the long Christmas weekend. Woohoo! It feels kinda weird being back home, but at the same time very comforting. I had my first home-cooked meal for 3 weeks a couple of hours ago. Been missing plenty of those.
Anyway, here are the updates of my 3rd week at Citibank:
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[Day 11]
The morning progressed well as usual. I needed a break so I met one of the other interns downstairs for a Boost Juice break. Since I was going downstairs I collected some orders from my division (usually known as a "Boost Juice Run" or a "Coffee Run" if it was for coffee). I ordered a Green Tea Mango Mantra which is a popular choice amongst my colleagues.
The rest of the morning went alright, but there were some small issues with some traders' P&Ls. I was able to sort those out, but post lunch was when my problems started. I was completing one of the trader's P&L on my own for the first time. I had previously only completed it with Chris on a couple of occasions, and both times he basically did all of it. There was a special spreadsheet for it, and I wasn't sure where to pull the figures from. I would've asked Chris for help, except for the fact that he was away on leave for the whole week!
Anyway, this issue took me til the end of the day and it still wasn't resolved. This lead to one or two other issues, as a lot of what I do is interlinked, and thereby one mistake/delay affects the next step of the process. Another non-related issue also cropped up today, which again I couldn't really resolve on my own. I guess you could say that by day's end, I was feeling red-faced and flustered, not to mention quite frustrated at not being able to complete my tasks. Today was probably the most difficult day I had since I started, and this was reflected in my 6:15pm finishing time, which was the latest I had left the office since I began my internship.
Day 11 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs:
- did a bit of shopping on my lunch break. Went to Saba and bought a top for $99, reduced from $145. I had seen it the day before, but it would've been an impulse buy. I slept on the thought, and returned the next day! hehe
- I may have hit a new high in terms of emails sent and received from one person in a day. I was exchanging emails with a fellow intern from pretty much the start til the end of the day! I think I counted 27 emails from them!
[Day 12] I got into work at about 8:50am and immediately tried to resolve the previous day's issues. I wasn't able to resolve it first up, so I decided to hold offon it until later as I needed to get started on the manual funding process. I set another time record, finishing at 9:47am! I'm killing it!
Lunch was at Cube, a lounge/cafe about 2 minutes walk from the Citigroup building. It was for one of the intern's birthday. I ended up being the only guy in attendance, as most of the others were caught up with work. Meh, I didn't mind! haha...it was definitely a very filling lunch.
The focus of the remainder of the afternoon was focussing on getting the trader's P&L right from yesterday and today. I called Chris on his mobile in desperation, but didn't get a response. So in the end, I got help from Andy, who is the most senior manager of the area I'm working in. Usually I try to avoid asking him questions as I feel kinda bad taking up his time, but he was more than happy to sit down with me to sort it out. I'm not sure how long he helped me out for, but in the end, after much investigation, it was all sorted. Phew! It was such a relief.
I finished the day at about 6:00pm, but it was good in that I was able to tie up a few loose ends, but mainly the abovementioned P&L issue.
Day 12 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs:
- I found out yesterday that one of the people who interviewed me for this position, Jo Burke, was about to quit. It's a bit of a shame, cos I haven't had the chance to work with her, and she's a Monash University alumnus! She studied at Caulfield
- after work I sat at the trading floor with Gish (one of the interns) to see what was happening there. Each of the traders have 3-5 computer screens to track various things, and it's pretty interesting
[Day 13]
As per usual, the morning went along smoothly. I got asigned another daily task, this time from Morgs (Morgan). The output of the process is something that I use everyday, so it made sense that I took charge of it. My mornings are so packed now that I really have no time to muck around...actually, I might have time to muck around a little bit =P
Today's weekly lunch training session was on the Investment Bank operations of Citigroup. It was pretty interesting, as I never really had a detailed explanation on what it was all about. What I found out from the speaker, Richard Allan (one of the Vice Presidents in IB), was how long some deals can take (in his experience, anywhere between 2 months and 2 years), and how financially rewarding it can be. He mentioned that one of his friends would be able to retire right now and not have to work ever again...and he's only 35! The only downside are the hours. Sometimes you just don't get much sleep...or any sleep at all!
After lunch, I had another issue with the same trader's P&L. It was a minor issue this time, but I was annoyed with myself that I got it wrong. Some trader's can be narky characters if we, in Product Control, are a bit off with figures. I think they like to stamp their authority, thinking that they are boss. But anyway, the trader I was reporting to seems like a nice guy, but I sensed that he would be growing tired of me making mistakes, even if I was the "new guy". But I'm beginning to familiarise myself with his books now, so hopefully it will be mistake free tomorrow.
I had an issue with another set of books to contend with to finish off the day. I began resolving it in the late afternoon, but decided to leave the rest of it til tomorrow. Again, it would have been helpful if Chris was around!
Day 13 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs: - I'm starting to face a couple of issues with my work which have been challenging to get over. So far, it hasn't been too bad
- I had dinner at Kura, a Japanese restaurant just under where I live, with two fellow interns. We went there due to my strong recommendations, and it was a hit with both of them. Woohoo! After that we went to Gelatissimo, and I had the guava ice-cream on the recommendation of one of the girls. It was a good choice, especially after the tempura I had for dinner!
[Day 14]
I got in early today at about 8:50am and basically started the morning process straight away to give myself a head-start for the rest of the day. I think in the last couple of days, Derek, my buddy who had taught me most of what I know, had been quite impressed with the speed I had been completing the morning process. Before I arrived, this was his main job, so I have lightened his morning work load!
Even though I had an extra task in the morning, I managed to complete everything by lunch, including the trader's P&L which I had previously had problems with. I presented the P&L after lunch, and for the first time all week, there wasn't an issue with it. I was pretty relieved when he signed off on the P&L without asking any questions! I didn't want to make a mistake for the fourth day running.
I basically completed all my taks by about 4:00pm, so the remainder of the afternoon was pretty easy-going. I tried to resolve some figures from another book, and began a bit of work on my ongoing project. Now this will need a lot of investigation to complete, and a lot of help!
Day 14 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs: - having Chris away may be a blessing in disguise, as it forced me to work out things on my own, and to ask questions of other people. It will be the same next week when Derek is away
[Day 15]
I was in early again for the last working day before the Christmas break. Seriously, living so close to work makes things so easy. I can make it into work early with no problems at all! Having completed the morning process about a dozen times on my own now, I'm pretty familiar and comfortable with it all. This was reflected in the fact that I completed tasks that I had budgeted to finish at about 1:00pm at around 11:30am. So I've saved myself about 90 minutes. I'm well and truly flying! hehe
Needless to say that I was cruising until lunch was taken at about 1:45pm. We went to Cube (for me, the second time this week) for a welcome lunch for Aileen, who had joined the team last Tuesday from the Philippines. Ben again shouted lunch for me (and Aileen). I felt bad that he shouted again, but I'm going to make sure I repay him somehow in the new year (probably on a Boost Juice or Coffee Run, hehe).
I only had a couple of tasks to complete after lunch, and finished the day at about 4:30pm. Most people had either left the office or had gone Christmas shopping by then. I decided to call it a day and headed out to the shops for a bit, before I went home and finished packing for Melbourne.
Day 15 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs: - there are 12 people that usually sit in my area, but next week there will only be 4 or 5 people (including myself) as most people will be taking annual leave
- a new courtyard on Level 5 opened today, so I went down with some of the interns and got more free food!
- casual Fridays are fantastic. I've just been wearing a polo shirt and jeans to work for the last 2 Fridays!
- one of the interns found out that she could get 10% at one of the clothes stores (Incu) situated on the ground floor of our building, just by showing your company ID. I'm wondering if it's the same for all the stores. It'd be sweet if it was, cos there's shops like Mooks, Ralph Lauren and some other funky clothes stores around
--- Damn, I think these are the longest updates yet! I thought that they were going to be shorter, but I guess doing these updates in the comforts of my own home, I took my time and put more thought in typing them up. I didn't have to worry about $3/hour internet like I did the last two weeks =P It will be interesting to see how much longer I can be bothered posting a daily account of my experience. I'm getting tired of it already, and I think most of you (if you're reading this) are tired reading...haha.
I'll be back to work next Wednesday, and I will have absorbed a few extra tasks from people who have taken annual leave. With the tasks that I've got, quite a number of people are reliant on me being there otherwise the daily process kinda falls over, so that makes me feel important! I feel like I have a faily significant role to play on a daily level, so I guess that kinda keeps me going.
Anyway, here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a prosperous and enjoyable New Year! It's great to be back in Melbourne, and I hope to catch up with some of you before I return to Sydney!
William 17 December Citibank Week 2Hey All,
Thanks to those who read/posted on my blog in the last week. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get on the net during the week, so it'll be another long update this week.
Before I start though, just to let Vivi know that nothing will happen with that although that girl is nice, I ain't interested! =P
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[Day 6]
This was my first day that I really had the chance to run through the daily processes on my own. It was a somewhat rough morning, as I completed the processes but I later found that I made some mistakes, namely dating documents incorrectly which could have affected processes the following day. I made a couple of other smaller mistakes, and needed the help of Chris (my manager) to fix up one of my tasks. It was definitely a learning experience, and something that I kept in mind for the days following.
Lunch was free again! The fixed income traders on our floor had a meeting and along with that came catered food. We got the leftovers but they were still good! I had fried rice with some curry squid, along with vegies, a spring roll and various other goodies. Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch?
Day 6 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs:
- tennis was good on Sunday. One of the colleagues I played with used to have the same coach as Lleyton Hewitt as a junior (Peter Smith)
- I saw John Singleton on Friday, walking and talking on his mobile as I was heading back to the office from lunch
[Day 7]
This morning went fairly well, especially by comparison to the previous morning. I pretty much zoomed through my morning tasks, learning from the mistakes I made on Monday. I finished one of the daily processes by 10:30am which was a record for me. Unfortunately, because I finished my work so quickly in the morning, my afternoon was very quiet. I spent some of the afternoon sending emails to fellow interns trying to organise an intern gathering next week.
After work I had drinks with Matt (UNSW), who was a Finance Director during my FD term. It was great to catch up with him, as he is one of the few AIESECers I've kept in touch with from my first national conference in July 2003.
Day 7 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs:
- I've only had to buy lunch 3 times in 7 working days. By tomorrow it will be 3 times in 8 working days. Fantastic!
- I had Japanese food for lunch and dinner today. I spent $6.50 on a bento lunch box which was absolutely packed-full with goodies. Definitely well worth the money
[Day 8] Things improved again today, being my third day going through the morning process on my own. Today I completed the morning process by 10:25am, eclipsing yesterday's mark by 5 minutes. Woohoo! The rest of the morning went pretty smoothly, as I squeezed as much work as I could before the weekly intern lunch.
This lunch session was quite interesting, with the deputy head of Equities Research, Bruce Rolph, coming in to talk about his area. It was very interesting, and definitely an area I wouldn't mind working in sometime in the future.
Post lunch duties were fairly short as I only had about 1.5 hours before I had to leave for the volleyball competition. I had my project planning meeting with Chris which was good, and managed to pick up a few more tasks which would fill up my afternoons so that they wouldn't be so quiet.
Volleyball was at The Rocks and it was fun, but I wish we were playing bank vs bank. We were thrown into universities, and since there were only 2 Monash people (including me), I was with Melbourne Uni and UTS people also. I was one of the few who knew how to play, so it was kinda frustrating. Ah well, I came out of it alive =P After the volleyball we went across to the Australian Hotel for dinner and drinks. The pizzas there are top notch (lots of different varieties), and we had a tab! I left at about 11:00pm.
Day 8 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs:
- volleyball is a tough game to play for the uninitiated, ie. volleyball n00bs
[Day 9] I totally blew my PB out of the water this morning! I completed the funding process at 10:05am, a full 20 minutes off my previous best time! I'm definitely starting to get into the groove of things, and I've learnt from the mistakes I made on Monday. Things are starting to roll along smoothly now.
After lunch I got a couple more tasks from Chris. I'm taking charge of another trader's book and have to produce a couple more reports. My daily timetable is starting to fill up quickly, but the only downside is that things are somewhat repetitive. The afternoon was pretty cruisy as I was completing processes that I had now become quite familiar with.
Day 9 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs: - sending emails makes the day go faster, and breaks up the monotony of tasks during the day
- some traders can get quite narky, even when you get the slightest thing wrong. But some of the other traders are pretty cool
[Day 10]
Since we were basically finishing at 1:00pm today (due to the fact that we had a Christmas party then), I had to get almost a full day's work done in about half a day. It was challenging but I love working under pressure.
The highlight of the morning was my fortnightly catch-up meeting with Shane. He just wanted to see how I was coming along, my feelings, concerns, etc. He mentioned that it was discussed that I'd get the opportunity to shadow Gillian Larkins, the CFO of Corporate and Investment Banking, for a day. I'm definitely looking forward to that.
The main highlight of this meeting was when giving Shane feedback on the division's Tactical Action Plan. I gave him feedback specifically on the career development plan, mentors and R&R, and at the same time, had my AIESEC cap on. I basically shared with him my experiences with each of these areas, and possible paths that he could take with each of the strategies. He was suitably impressed, both with my ideas (he even took down some notes!) and the fact that I was taking the initiative to give him feedback on the plans. He said that I made some very good points, so I came out of that meeting feeling very happy with myself =D
The Christmas party was pretty good, playing tennis, touch footy (for the first time ever) and cricket. All of that with a BBQ and plenty of drinks!
Day 10 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs: - I think Shane thinks highly of me. He also mentioned that Chris thought that I was catching onto things very quickly. Woohoo, brownie points!
- I played touch footy for the first time today. I made the first line break of the match but got run down. I need to learn how to pass!
- I got my monthly pay today...sweet! I get paid on the 15th of every month
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Thanks again for reading this if you made it to the end. Dinner time calls now, but I shall be updating again next week...from Melbourne! Yep, I'll be back home sweet home from 23/12-27/12. I might see some of you then!
William 10 December Ahoy from Sydney!Hi All,
One week into my Sydney sojourn and I finally get internet access! It's been an interesting week thus far, being the first time I've lived away from home (and on my own), and also working full time for the first time. It's a good thing that I know a lot of people in Sydney (through AIESEC), otherwise some of my nights would be rather lonely! Anyway, I have been keeping a bit of a journal whilst I've been here, writing a bit every night about my day at work. Here are some of my thoughts:
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[Day 1]
My first day of work at Citibank, I arrived at about 8:45am. The great thing is that I'm literally only a 8-10 minute walk from work! We had induction in the morning from about 9:00am, which was kinda slowish but necessary (induction...where have I done that before?). I met the other 14 Citibank interns, and I found out that I was the only Victorian! Everyone was surprised when it was mentioned that I was from Monash, considering the rest of them were either from USyd, UNSW and there was one from Macquarie.
The day ended fairly early at about 5:00pm, at which time I left for home, talking to another intern along the way. I managed to bond fairly well with a few of the interns on the first day which was quite good. But throughout the day whilst going through induction, I was "chomping at the bit" to get stuck into the "real" work. Yep, I was getting itchy feet.
Day 1 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs:
- the few people I mentioned AIESEC to had either heard about it, knew someone in it, or used to be in it. I guess our on-campus awareness has improved! And yes, you can take the boy out of AIESEC, but you can't take AIESEC out of the boy! I'm an alumnus and still talking about AIESEC! =P
- saw a place called "Shum's Watches" in Chinatown, and a place called "MJ's Eating House" in Bathurst St. A tribute to my friends! =)
- there's a really nice Japanese restaurant just under my apartment. Not only is the food delicious, the chef and staff are actually Japanese, so the food is authentic! I practised a bit of Jap with one of the waitresses! hehe
[Day 2]
Today was fairly slow, doing a lot of divisional training. I'm in the Finance Division, specifically in Product Control for Fixed Income. A bit of a mouthful I must admit. I spent most of the day surfing the intranet learning about the company and other random stuff. I shadowed my buddy for most of the day. The good thing is that he's about my age (mid-20's) so I can ask him questions without too much hesitation, and he's willing to help out.
I got called into the office of the Head of the division. His name is Shane Clark (a Kiwi) and he was one of the people who interviewed me. We sat down for about 5-10 minutes talking about how things were, etc. then he basically told me that this was like a 10 week job interview (a la The Apprentice), and that if my performance was to their satisfaction by the end of the internship, I'm almost a shoe-in for a permanent position! I think my heart may have fluttered a little after I heard this. A big opportunity here!
Day 2 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs: - it's so good not having to fill in a timesheet, and not having to account for every 6 minutes of my day, ie. like at my part-time job at the accounting job. To my accounting firm vac work friends: suck! =P
- there are so many Kiwis and Poms working in our office!
[Day 3]
If you've got this far into my blog, congratulations, and thank you for taking the time to read it! hehe
Anyway, somewhat disappointingly, the day was slow yet again and I seemingly didn't have any tasks set for me. Being here for only 10 weeks, I feel like if I don't do something for 1 hour or so, that I'm wasting my time cos I really want to make the most of my time here. The highlight of my day was getting my ID security pass. Woohoo! I didn't have to rely on my workmates to gain access to the building and various floors and offices anymore! It made me feel important and special...hehe =P
Day 3 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs:
- my office has 3 flat screen TVs, and it regularly shows sports! It's so cool yet so distracting!
- my workmates who sit around me are fairly young, and it's funny how they all rib each other all the time. I sometimes join in, and it's all in good fun. The work environment is quite relaxed and laid back
- we entered into an interbank volleyball competition for next Wednesday. I hope we kick ass! It's gonna be tough considering we only have 15 people, whereas Macquarie have about 80 people to choose from!
[Day 4]
I had an expectations meeting with my manager (Chris Perry, a Pom) and my buddy (Derek). I felt a lot better after the meeting, as they went through the tasks that I would be doing on a daily basis. I will also be working on an ongoing project, which is pretty exciting. It's something that I'm pretty much going to be in charge of, and I will be talking to people not only in our division, but also working with the IT experts.
I did more training today, but it was more meaningful than previous days. I was basically transitioned a whole lot of daily processes which I will be in charge of doing everyday. My tasks were beginning to become clearer which was good.
Day 4 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs:
- a lot of the Aussies working in our division have previously worked in London. Seems like it's the place to go to get experience, and apparently there is huge demand for people in finance there
[Day 5]
I dressed up as per usual in my shirt, tie and suit, but realised that by the time I got to the office that it was casual Friday! Ah well, better to be over-dressed than under-dressed. We had a quarterly team meeting first thing in the morning. It ran like a typical EB meeting, with Shane as the chair. A "Tactical Action Plan" was launched for our division, which basically outlined 3 areas of importance (almost like CSFs): people, process and culture. Starting to sound familiar? In the "people" section, it mentioned a career development plan (sounded eerily like PLPs to me) and the idea of having mentors (yep, hit the spot again). I was half-inclined to speak up about my thoughts, but being in a room of about 20 others who knew more than I, I decided to keep my thoughts to myself. I wrote down some notes and decided to think about it over the weekend, and then present my ideas to Shane next week. I can't wait to tell him my ideas for the division! There's nothing better than impressing the head of the division! hehe
At lunch (at around 1:30pm), we had a team lunch at restaurant situated on top of a pub. It was a Thai place. One of my fellow employees was kind enough to shout me lunch, and he himself had only been at Citigroup for 3 weeks. So that was a nice gesture. I left at about 3:00pm as I had work to complete in the office. A few of the guys (including a couple of managers) stayed at the pub til about 4:30pm drinking wine and goodness knows what else! I think it was because it was the end of the week and it was nearing the Christmas period. I think a couple of them got kinda tanked! haha
The end of the day came quite quickly, and at about 5:30pm I had drinks at the pub opposite the Citibank offices with some of the interns. Unfortunately not everyone was there, and we only had about 10 out of 15 people showing up, and not all at once. I think I left the place at about 10:30pm. I can't believe I was there for so long, cos the place wasn't that great! I just enjoyed having a chat and drinks with the interns. One of the Fixed Income traders who came by even shouted me a drink. That was pretty sweet! hehe
So there the week ended, and the weekend has arrived! Time to kick back and relax!
Day 5 RaNdOm ThOuGhTs: - I got some good feedback from various interns (and other colleagues) on my shirt and tie combo from today (I was wearing my blue and white striped RL shirt with the pink tie I got for my 21st). One of the Sydney girls said that I dressed well, and she had seen me on 4 out of 5 days. I just said it was a Melbourne fashion thing, hehe. We are streets ahead of the Sydneysiders in that respect! =P It was good to be noticed in any case!
- so many people (interns and other colleagues alike) were so willing to shout me drinks. I wonder why?! Everyone is really friendly here. I felt bad accepting so many free drinks, but it was too difficult to resist all offers! hehe
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If you read everything up to here, thank you for your patience! I will try to update my blog more regularly to avoid long posts like this. Anyway, if you feel like dropping me an email, my email address is william.chuah@citigroup.com (doesn't that sound cool? hehe). I've also got a direct phone line, so let me know if you want to call me and I'll give you my number =)
It's about time I get dinner. Be sure to drop me a line if you come up to Sydney!
William 01 December Goodbye...For NowHi All,
This will probably the last last blog entry I make before I jet off to Sydney this Saturday. I'm feeling nervous but excited about what I will be faced with over the next 3 months. I haven't been away from home this long before, with or without my family. So it will definitely be a new experience, finding my own way in the big smoke!
The good news is that I've finalised my accommodation! It's about bloody time too; I left it pretty late. I was lucky enough to get a 3 month lease when most places were looking for 6 month tenants. I'll be living near Chinatown and Darling Harbour, and only about a 10 minute walk from work. Sweet!
Unfortunately I'm not going to have time to have farewell drinks as I have yet to pack, but in any case I'll only be gone for 3 months. I will be back! Feel free to give me a buzz if you decide take the journey to Sydney. I know many of you are coming for New Year's Eve, so it will be good to get together. What's more, NYE is a Saturday night! Rock on!
Anyway, I should start packing now. I'll be sure to catch up with some of you sometime in the next few weeks!
William |
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