Vi's Blog

2009-01-12T14:13:00.001+08:00

It's 2009, finally

2009-01-12T14:01:00.002+08:00

Haven't been updating for a while! well lots of stuff happened and here's the summary:
- Got a surprising A- grade for Research Methods in Finance
- Made loads of new friends from school, job interviews
- Played better tennis
- Got a job with PwC Advisory
- Went for 2-week getaway down under and missing it (and missing home) badly

Apart from bad investment returns and tough job hunts 2008 was not such a bad year. A lot of things to look for in 2009: graduation, settling down etc. Just thinking of it makes me kind of miss NUS already :-p

Well well, that's about it. Enjoy some of the pics and Ciao!

AIESEC Singapore AGM 2008

2008-08-06T22:19:00.001+08:00

JPMorgan Moments (12 May - 18 Jul 2008)

2008-08-06T22:06:00.004+08:00

2008-08-06T22:04:00.001+08:00

Gala Dinner @EVOLVE Conference organized by AIESEC NTU

2008-08-06T22:00:00.000+08:00

Dinner @Holland Village with AIESEC folks

End-of-Summer Update

2008-08-06T21:46:00.003+08:00

It's been 6 months! Where have I been haha.... Lots of things happened during the summer then: Did so so for exam, went on 10-week internship with JPMorgan, and now rushing AIESEC financial stuff for auditing later this year. One BIG relief: I'm finally discharged from AIESEC VP Finance duty! Couldn't believe how I juggled the role with my studies (to be more precise: how I managed to survive my first 3 years in NUS with all these commitments). Well one journey has ended and others will now begin: consulting practicum, job-hunting, investing. It's gonna be another exciting year for sure ;-)

Hope the photos make up for the long absence :-)

Recess Week is Finally Here

2008-02-24T02:10:00.002+08:00

Here comes the badly needed break! - The badly needed hours to complete assignments, project works, mid-term revisions and catch-ups. And hell lots of AIESEC stuff this period as well: EP contract signing, Finance Workshop, AI Symposium etc. Also did an interview with a company today for my Forex module, pretty awkward. Definitely Need to brush up my interpersonal skills :-s

Will be with JPMorgan this coming summer, though I could have tried my luck waiting for Stanchart whole sale banking position. But anyhow the name "JPMorgan" is much more prestigious than others or so I heard, hopefully its not a bad choice. More updates nearer to end of semester ;-)
--
Vi

2008-02-02T03:12:00.000+08:00

Haven't touched my blog for a looooong time. Been busy with AIESEC stuff since a few weeks ago, and recently preparing for summer internship interviews. Didn't really have time to study as well, hopefully next week will be a good, clean start. Oh well all is not lost: got an offer from JPMorgan today for Financial Analyst position, though it's not what I'm looking for. Still deciding whether I should try my luck at IB interview, albeit quite risky. Lets see if things can really work out next week :-S
Today was probably one of the most tiring day of the week, woke up at 8am and will probably get to sleep at 4am. The Citibank Case was not really fantastically done today, partly due to my lack of preparation (and concentration). Think this will be my last case ever. Anyway, the pic is from NUS Buisness School Networking Night.
See you soon ;-)

2007-12-27T02:36:00.001+08:00

2007-12-27T02:28:00.000+08:00

Its turning into a photo blog now. Anyway just got my results today, the best I've ever got mua haha. Pity its only 2 subjects... would been better if its like a full semester. Didn't do much for Christmas, just a dinner with family. Not sure if I look forward to next year, its kind of scary actually. Oh well, photos form AH reunion dinner just came in so here you go ;-)

2007-12-24T02:48:00.001+08:00

And some random pose! ;-)

2007-12-23T23:07:00.000+08:00

MC team, AIESEC Singapore 2007/08

2007-12-23T23:06:00.001+08:00

Gala dinner @ NLDS '07

2007-12-23T22:38:00.000+08:00

Finally a new post! A couple of updates: Finished the excruciating CFA exam a few weeks ago, will knock myself off if I fail coz its darn expensive! School exams went well, hoping for a A- SAP this sem ;-p NLDS 07 was crazy, I havent slelp 2 hours for 4 consecutive days before! I didnt know you can survive like that. Its a great experience being a facilitator definitely. My internship with BNP has been postponed to summer 2008, and because of this my plan was ruined a little. Now I have to squeeze BNP and Deutsche bank internships in the summer, plus rejecting a very cool offer from GE too. But anyhow life goes on. I believe that if you believe in things that you do it will never go wrong ;-) AIESEC just got an office recently and I've dumped all my work there. It feels ubsolutely amazing to separate work from bedroom! It actually increases your activity because you feel more focus when in the office. And Multi-tasking is defintely not something I'm very good at. I have to work on a few stuff when I'm back in Singapore, like the 2nd quarter financial reports and AIESEC Symposium and also personal invetsments stuff. Anyhow, attached some pictures of our new AIESEC office and NLDS 07. Enjoy and see ya!

2007-11-07T20:12:00.000+08:00

Woo hoo! I'm done with my internship today. Its nice to get some break and not having to wake up at 730am every morning. Only when you work that you realize study is such a honey moon. Anyways, now its time to focus on exams! Really need to get that A for my two modules, and of course to pass CFA. Looking forward to my next internship and next semester at NUS ;-)

p/s here's a belated picture from Istanbul

2007-11-02T23:08:00.000+08:00

You guys must have given up on reading my blog already haha. Its been like, what... half a year since my last post? Anyway, its definitely impossible to put my whole summer here. Its been a roller coaster ride, literally. But not bad - managed to survive AIESEC, school, and the 6-month internship. Its an experience, definitely, and I learnt a lesson or two about life :-)

But all is coming to an end now, and I'm looking forward to December - to my new job and a proper semester at school. Still have a few more free weeks to go before holding myself up in BNP Paribas' office this December - sigh. But I do look forward to the internship though, its finally something relevant to me and I hope it's challenging.

Talking about schools, I took 2 modules this semester: Financial Markets & Invetsment Analysis. Surely not a good choice when you're aiming to improve your CAP! But anyway it didnt turn out so bad, hopefully will get 4-4.5 SAP. In between studying for these 2 modules will be mugging session for CFA exam this December, and I'm still half way through book 1 of 6 :-s

Oh well on a lighter note I play a lot of tennis since May. Been improving a lot as well, especially my backhand and service. Tennis is really addictive you see ;-p

Alrighty I guess that's all for the 6-month symmary! Will update again after exams. Cheerio! ;-)

Mid-May Updates

2007-05-18T23:42:00.000+08:00

Few updates!

Firstly internship's going well, though didn't expect it to be so demanding, esp from next week onwards. Have to do Excel VBA programming and stuff, hope I can pull it off! My intern-mate is now in Korea enjoying her hols, while I doodle in the office alone haha...

Went to PSA on Wednesday (16 May) for logistics scholarship briefing & port tour. After the session I know now that operations is not for me, unless I'm an engineer! The pay is reasonable though, around S$3,200, and with all the bonuses and benefits and '13th month' pay and stuff. But the career path is quite doubtful and limited though, I mean what's so nice about becoming a Terminal Manager? Anyways..., conclusion: no logistics for me please!

Oh well, registered for CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) level 1 exam (December), and bought $430 worth of study materials. Will kill myself if I don't pass (cross fingers...). So not looking forward to the next sem, having to juggle school, work, AIESEC! In for a rough ride man... :s

The summer is actually not that nice either, what with AIESEC meetings every weekend! sigh...

Yep, that's my (unusually long) doodle for the time being! Stay tuned for more exciting stuff (wtf! haha)

First Week of Summer

2007-05-09T23:26:00.000+08:00

What a cool way to start the summer - being stuck in a cubicle 9 to 6..arghhhh!!!

Anyway work's not that bad actually, come to think of it. Maybe I'm just not used to waking up at 7am everyday and buried my self under a tiny cubicle for 8 hours a day :s

Nothing much this week - met up with Sherina for transition as AIESEC VP Finance for the coming term, had a nice chat and some good career advise as well. And of course gonna celebrate my birthday tomorrow (really?)! ;p

2007-05-05T16:26:00.000+08:00

Didnt really have a chance to post for the past 1 month! Anyway really LOADs of stuff happened, we'll just mention the recent ones. So I've started my internship this week (yeah I have no life :s), and it wasnt bad. In fact it was pretty cool, get to be in charge of new product development and marketing and stuff. And our boss is pretty nice too, he gives us alot of freedoms. My colleague's from University of Calgary, Canada, she's been here for a year in SMU as an exchange student, and she's pretty nice too ;p

My siblings came to visit me in April as well, took them around tourist-y places.

Exams weern't too bad, hopefully better than last sem. The really killer one is Corporate Finance, could have done it better if I were a little more hardworking at begining of the sem, but anyway, see how it goes... ;p

Oh and we had martin's farewell outing as well (see pic ;p). Quite fun, a litle bit tired from work though.

Yep, thats all ;p

Hellish March ;p

2007-04-08T03:52:00.000+08:00

Lots of stuff happened since the last post, hope I can recally most of them:

It's been quite hellish till this week, where 3 out of 5 projects were submitted. So now I can start the revision proper!

Not much AIESEC stuff lately, a couple of disappointing news but guess that's ok, we all learn from our mistaks. Hope it won't get very busy during the hols, with internship and stuff... Talking about internship, should have asked for start date to be later...damn

Going through lots of stuff lately as well... a really emotional period I must say ;p

Don't know why, but since leaving the Choir I seem to miss the folks quite alot. Been bumping into them pretty frequently though, fond memories. Great people ;p

Been thinking of taking up double major, logistics and finance. Kind of inspired after taking Operations Management, really cool stuff. Really hope I can get the logistic scholarship, will be super cool ;)

Guess that's about it, hope to post more often from now on! ;p

Choir Farewell Dinner & Tennis IFG

2007-03-10T02:18:00.000+08:00

A pretty relaxing week (maybe it's just me). No more Choir practice! Woo-hoo! It was quite fun playing tennis for IFG as well, though I really sucked. I can definitely do better with regular practices... ;p

Nothing much this week, actually. Went down to sign internship contract today as well....

March is a Special Month

2007-03-06T22:59:00.000+08:00

Lots of good stuff happening in March!
1. Market research for IMItouch @Forum: Turned out better than expected! Didn't know NUS students are so friendly & helpful, and more importantly gave positive response to our business concept!
2. Varsity Voices '07 - Musica Sacra: Turned out not too bad after all (though could have been better). Finally the load has been lessened, but still left the Pattaya competition though :s
3. Internship internship internship! Finally got one! phew...though more good stuff are slowly pouring in now, oh well, leave them for next year then ;p

p/s waiting for 'official' VV'07 pictures!

Moving at Lightning Speed!

2007-02-24T00:57:00.000+08:00

What a week indeed! I seriously need some sleep man... Today is probably the craziest: 8.30 - 11.00am photoshoot at CFA, 2 .00 - 5.00pm project meeting at SMU, 7.30 - 11.30pm celebrate Si Qi's birthday, with only 3.5 hours of sleep the night before! And the break is ending soon, dangerously behind schedule... But amid all these stuff there are things that did cheer me up! Double happiness - shortlisted for second round interview with Marriott Hotel & being considered for internship position with Asatsu-DK! Now beat that! Ha

CNY Week!

2007-02-22T02:11:00.000+08:00

Been trying to follow my weekly schedule but seems like thngs are falling out of place! :-s

A lot of stuff happening in the last few days: CNY met up with old friends (and they cam over to stay overnight in my room! lol), went to play Mah Jong @Iris' house until 6am!, and of course practicing tennis. Haven't been applying for internships though, will try to do that this week ;-p

Overall it's not too bad, compared to other weeks :-p

2007-02-16T21:06:00.000+08:00

Haven't posted here for quite a while! was so busy these past few weeks :s Anyway a couple of stuff happened since Christmas: I was elected MCVP Finance for AIESEC Singapore, woo hoo! Hope to learn accounting & auditing stuff during office. Also, planning to enrol and take ACCA exam next year :p It's a pity Adam (DOPI of AIESEC Singapore) is leaving, he certainly has lots of potential. But oh well, things happen. Hope he finds his life's answers & inspiration when he's back in the UK. Anyway the term is ending soon, so hopefully things don't get really bad :p

Practice with the NUS Choir gets very stressful lately, as the concert draws near. Hope the publicity stuff gets done on time! (cross fingers). Was just thinking about it, this year there're lots of soloist performance! A total of 8 songs! This is gonna exciting :p

Went for interview today @Marriott Hotel, don't think I performed very well though. Have to improve next time! Anyway, no photos taken lately. Only this one for resume! haha

'Tis the Season to be Caroling!

2006-12-26T12:27:00.000+08:00

Been caroling almost everyday this week! Oh man....! Now my feet have blisters and my voice is really bad, probably need a few days to recuperate :(

The worse was yesterday though...must have been singing like 7 hours in Shangri-La. What a day to spend Christmas! :(

CFA Camp @NUS

2006-12-23T01:16:00.000+08:00

Sung carols at CFA camp. It wasn't too bad and we really enjoyed ourselves! A good break from Choir & AIESEC works. Pity forgot to bring camera! :p

The rest of the week was pretty stressful. With late night carolings and AIESEC stuff. Really admire the Japanese @cers though... makes me reflect on myself quite a fair bit. Three cheers to Mao and his Japanese gang!

KBox Night

2006-12-06T09:44:00.000+08:00

Last get-together with Cheng Wei and Qiu Yun before they leave for exchange in US after Christmas. Haven't sung karaoke for ages! Didn't really have enough sleep the night before because of the screwed-up sleeping hours :p

Tennis!

2006-12-03T18:52:00.000+08:00

What a great tennis game today! Played with 2 very good players (quite embarrassed hehe, I'm soooo incomparable to them!). One is ex-AJ tennis captain, one is a very pro German exchange student. Inspires me to train harder :p

Other than that nothing much today, had breakfast with Jo & hayati, got my phone charger replaced, did some AIESEC stuff...

Le Defi Challenge - Paris

2006-12-03T14:00:00.000+08:00

Didn't really have time to post right after the trip coz of exam :p anyway the trip was FABULOUS! Still can't believe it...enjoying myself in Paris during reading week!

The competition: sadly we didn't even get into the top 3, possibly because we were not very familiar with the competition plus the lack of experience :p but anyway we tried our best and learned alot of stuff (I kind of embarassed myself with my screwed-up financial model!). Will prolly forwarn the next batch when they prepare for the challenge next year :p

But the French they really took good care of us. We stayed at this 17th century castle on the hillside, a really cool palce. Great views and atmosphere (and of of course the food!). Didn't really get to enjoy it much though, most of the time we'll be in the (messy) meeting room working our butts off (I only slept for like 1.5 hours!). And sadly we didn't really interact much with other teams as well, except on the last day... :p

Oh well, all in all the trip is still a blast! One of the best trip ever, actually. Anyway when I got back my first paper was like, the next morning! And of course, do you think I slept at all that night? :)

I think my average sleeping hours was like 1.5 - 2. Hopefully the result won't come out so bad (cross fingers :p). But hey, this kind of opportunities doesn't come by very often!

When the Rainy Days are Dyin, Gotta Keep on Keep on Tryin!

2006-11-10T21:48:00.000+08:00

What a drama this week :s

good news, bad news, whatever...lots of stuff happened. Oh well, I know of a few inspirational songs that will keep me going, fighting, no matter what.

I can still recount Tuesday - how happy I was when I was told I really get to go to Paris, and then just a few minutes later I heard news about Liqi. Feeling pretty sad for him, to see someone got his dream slashed... And sometimes it makes me feel insecure about myself too... Today wasn't any better either. Whenever I entered into ME's tutorial room I feel really demotivated! Arghhhhhhhhhhh!

Then the Paris trip really gives me lots of headache!...sigh

TGIF!

2006-11-04T03:06:00.000+08:00

Finally, weekeeeeeeend!!! It's time to rest and energise! oh well, the week was not too bad actually. Lots of things happened as usual, the AAE program & ABN-Amro, Bouygues Construction Challenge (rekindle the hope of going to Paris!). Was thinking alot about the exchange program, business plan and loads of other stuff, maybe I should take a rest and not think too much hehe. But seriously, the financial aid to study in Norway is impressive! But then again places like Copenhagen or Stockholm sound 'cooler' compared to like Norway...such a dilemma :s

Anyhow, my passport will expire May next year, so I guess I have to go back to Laos this December! Hopefully from 26 December - 7 January.

Having lots of inspirations for lots of stuff this week! wow! lol

Rene's Visit :)

2006-10-31T02:36:00.000+08:00

Phew! form today onwards no more project or assignments! Though it's quite a day trying to submit project for GEK1511... Anyway, today Rene came to visit us in NUS! Had dinner with her and the Choir at Munchie Monkey, then went for meeting with Nelson then meet her again, but sadly didn't join the gang at Fong Seng! Oh yes... Just found out that Tata actually recruited 6 BBA students for their internship! still can't get over it... :(

Vivocity!

2006-10-28T23:57:00.000+08:00

Finally, what a great Saturday! Morning was not so fun though, but nonetheless quite 'interesting' to learn all those Bhuddist songs (for concert with the SCO, Singapore Chinese Orchestra). The bass part is so high! nvm...

After practice we went to Vivocity! What a great place! The artificial beach at the rooftop is a killer! We were like 'wading in the water' up there. Oh well, a very long day indeed! :)

Just wanna rest :p

2006-10-27T23:38:00.000+08:00

Another long day...spent the whole day at the Tata internship selection and didn't even get over the 1st round! a little bit sad but hey, it's a great learning experience!

Just finished GEK1511 project too! Check out the website!

Pretty exhausted today (but still so many things to do! :S)...can't wait for the weekend :p

Busy day...

2006-10-26T19:22:00.000+08:00

Been very busy these few weeks...especially this week (slept at 7am this morning!). Got back my Finance quiz today, didn't do very well but I guess it's alright. Still feeling extremely excited for winning the Le Defi Bouygues Construction Challenge (and afree trip to Paris!), but some how the stress kind of weighs me down quite badly this week - maybe it's the lack of rest...and then there's still AIESEC, choir, projects :(

Didn't feel very nice skipping choir practice today either, probably wouldn't have done it if not for the fatique. Anyway there's still practice this Saturday :)

Tomorrow there's gonna be internship selection by Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate. Really hope to get lucky there! speaking of which I haven't been looking for interships for this December...oh well :p