September 2008 Archives

[Update: INSEAD moves up to 5th spot in the 2009 Financial Times rankings! Forget about the Economist! :)]

The Economist’s 2008 MBA rankings are out, and INSEAD has fallen from 16th to 19th position. IMD is tops. If it makes you feel slightly better, our partners Wharton are now ranked 17th and Columbia, a whopping 21. What’s going on?!

Looking at the breakdown, these were the areas that pulled us down (ranked out of 100):

Number in jobs three months after graduation - 61

This was an issue in other publications’ ratings of INSEAD as well. I once expressed concern to a senior (I think it was the great Zanat0s) as to how come INSEAD graduates take so long to find a job. He explained that unlike other top programs which run for a longer time, INSEAD students have little time between starting school and graduation to find a job.

Also, from what I’ve observed, my classmates looking for Finance positions have to plunge into interviews soon after starting school, competing with our P4 seniors who are about to graduate, and with our American MBA counterparts who have had two years of school already. Of course, given the financial crisis going on now, it’s a double whammy. However this year I expect the American b-schools to be affected a lot more - especially those with a Finance focus - and it will be interesting to see if the tables will turn in favour of general management schools like INSEAD, which has diversified ‘risk’ in having graduates working in other parts of the world that are less badly affected.

Student assessment - 62

I gather that this is dependent on what we think of our own school. I’d have thought our seniors would have rated our school about the same as the rankings given to us by publications, meaning that we should be in the top 10, if not top 20. If I was asked to take the survey I’d give INSEAD pretty good marks, not a measly 62/100. Unless 61 other schools had students who were insanely in love with their programme…

Faculty quality - 60

Is this based on students’ own assessments of quality, or does the Economist do spot checks and compare it across all assessed schools? I think the latter is unlikely. So again, this ranking depends on us. I don’t think our professors deserve a lowly 60/100 rating.

Post-graduation salary -100

I think this ranking penalises the more international schools, especially those with many graduates who are working in second and third world countries where salaries are lower. Considering how there are relatively few Asian business schools in the top 100, for instance, we are therefore being compared mainly with schools in Western countries whose graduates are more likely to work in the West and therefore command higher post-MBA salaries. Also, it penalises schools with more graduates working in non-profit organisations and lesser-paying jobs.

Breadth of alumni network - 100

This doesn’t make sense at all. How can we be ranked 100 out of 100 with such a diverse student body?! We should be in the top 10 for this at least. The London Business School, which has similar diversity, is ranked 88 out of 100. Unless the Economist meant this to be a reverse ranking?

What is also strange is that the Nanyang Business School in Singapore is ranked better than us in this category, at 98/100! While it is Singapore’s top-ranked business school, I don’t think it can possibly be more international. [Note: The Economist’s methodology looks at ‘Ratio of registered alumni to current students’ - so if there’s a surge in the student body or a low number of alumni, then we won’t do well in this category - but surely we have a pretty strong Alumni network?]

Also, the Economist says our Dean is still Antonia Fatas … when it should be Jake Cohen! So I am wondering how updated and accurate these findings are. In fact, I am starting to suspect that perhaps INSEAD did not provide all the figures the Economist needed, and thus we were penalised with a low score.

Nevertheless, there are some good takeaway points and we can definitely improve in many areas. I know rankings aren’t everything but they are one of the few ways that b-schools are assessed, and this can affect the quality and number of top students applying to INSEAD and becoming fellow Alumni. It can be a positive or vicious cycle, so let’s not slide further down the slippery slope.

I’m no analyst and I haven’t had time to plough through the methodology and make more comparisons (I need to study for my test!) so be my guest and leave a comment with your insights.

I had some trouble with a buggy template, and even after restoring to default there were scripting errors with some sidebar widgets. I’ve bypassed them and created my own widgets.

Other blogs that have been kindly linking to me, will now feel the love reciprocated on my Blogroll.

Since I was at it, I decided to take on a more Parisian look, even as I plan to make my campus exchange to Fonty after P2. If I had time I’d customise the look further to accommodate both campuses.

Last but not least, thank you, dear readers, for giving me a high of 23 feed subscriptions today!

Technorati Tags: INSEAD

The pressure is building up… We have a Finance quiz, a graded Finance group assignment and a Statistics group assignment due next week!!! There will be revision tutorials prior to the quiz and I definitely have to go for them.

On the home front, we just sent our maid home for a 3-week Hari Raya break, so I will become a part-time cleaner (the whole family will be chipping in).

In short, I forsee a rather limited social life for the next week!!

As the new IT/Campus rep and supporter of Second Life, I am excited to announce that there will be two talks in October on our virtual campus!

Being an international school with different time zones, it is a very progressive idea to use a virtual world like Second Life as a common meeting ground. We should be proud of INSEAD for being ahead of many business schools in this aspect.

Even if the topics are not entirely up your alley, I’d say just attend for the experience, meet fellow INSEADers and staff, and take a few photos!

I’ve attended lectures in Second Life before and it feels the closest to the real thing, because you can walk into a room (or teleport, or fly!), sit beside people and start chatting to them too. You can pick up objects. Click on something and you might be given an object that will activate a script, or a text file that will give you more information, which you can store in your inventory, just like a role-playing game.

What I liked more about the virtual experience was that the speaker’s words were transcribed, just like in MSN chat. So you won’t miss a thing. However, it can be bewildering for Second Life newbies.

If you’re totally new to Second Life but want to check these talks out, don’t get an account at the last moment. You need to choose an Avatar, give it a name, and learn how to move about. You may want to wear something nice (yes, even to a virtual talk!), and for the ladies in particular, change your hair colour, make yourself slimmer etc… I and my girl friends went through the same thing when we first went into Second Life! Virtual or not, we want to look pretty, and the guys always want to look taller and more macho :)

But I digress. Do check out the talks. I will be there, and as the Campus/IT rep for my section I will also be there for whoever needs help in Second Life.

Be proud of INSEAD!!!

Update: I just met Cusanus Hax (Avatar name), a real-life Hungarian architect of our INSEAD virtual campus, from Pixelbreeze. He says most of his colleagues building the campus are from Hungary too. So my Hungarian classmates should be proud! And they should check it out!

I received feedback from a groupmate that I should blog more, so here goes.

Today’s Leading People and Group’s (LPG) class was quite interactive. We covered a real-life case on giving feedback in a cross-cultural setting. This time, a lot of Asian females (including myself) spoke up because we could relate to the case.

During the break, a delicious English breakfast spread was waiting for us - this was because it’s British-Irish week at the moment. We had grilled tomatoes, scrambled eggs, sausages, luncheon meat (er, shouldn’t it be bacon?), baked beans and toast. I’d also have liked sauteed mushrooms, but overall it was satisfying.

Back in class, we played a game involving two classmates who had to achieve a goal, one being given only negative reactions via the hurling of crumpled paper at her if she went in the wrong direction (she failed to find the object) and one being given only positive signs via applause and cheering (she found it quickly). It demonstrated that purely negative feedback is less useful and makes people stop doing things and withdraw, while positive feedback encourages them to explore more, discover new things and thus achieve their goals.

At the end of the class, our professor picked me to demonstrate how good feedback had to be about something that the recipient can fix. So, for instance, telling me that my leadership capabilities are limited due to my short height (just as an example) would be useless.

I told him, “Well, you could pull my legs more often” and he said that was a subtle response. I don’t think most of the class got my pun. Interestingly, after class, the professor told me that he’s studied humour and again complimented me on what I said. I told him I can be quite punny but have realised that in a setting where English is not the native language, my puns may not be understood. He said even in an native English environment not everyone might get it, but those who do will appreciate its cleverness. This has been the most unusual compliment I’ve received so far.

I am now wondering how humour has become a topic that PhDs/professor types are studying. Surely it is useful when working with people, but I had no idea that humour would be taken so ‘seriously’ :)

And to those who’re wondering, I’m not offended at being called ‘short’, and I assured the professor as well about this after class.

After class, as part of our groupwork, we gave each other feedback. It was a very constructive exercise. We had to critique every group member on what we’d like them to do more, continue doing and to do less off.

Not surprisingly, my groupmates said they’d like to see the creative side of me more often, M mentioning that when I do come up with ideas it’s like ‘popcorn’ in the making. It was great to hear that, but it can be difficult being ‘creative’ when most of the topics in P1 are quantitative - and I’m not talking about ‘creative accounting’, Enron-style ;-) However I will try to step things up. I also told them that in my Asian workplaces we don’t try to speak up forcefully, but I agreed I could be more assertive. So far, my biggest unique contributions seem to be made at LPG classes. I can’t wait to get to Marketing in P2.

My groupmates had no major issues with me, which may be due to my non-confrontational approach. (According to test scores I am strongest in the area of collaboration and quite low in confrontation). However I assured them that from work experience I can be confrontational if someone is being a prick. I have not had any, erm, prickly issues in this group so far. They also told me to worry less about studies because they think I’ll do fine, and I should party more. I told them it’s all linked - because I am concerned about doing reasonably well, I don’t go out as much.

And, in other news … I intend to write to my dream company by this evening. My dream situation is to get interviewed and accepted by them, then I don’t have to go to Fonty in P3 and back to Singapore in P4 and P5 to look for jobs in the Asian region. If I receive an offer now, I can relax on the job hunt in Asia and go to Fonty in P4 and P5! However I’ll be realistic and prepare for the worst.

And speaking of preparing for the worst, I didn’t do too badly for my Microecons quiz, though someone I know had nearly full marks and I won’t be surprised if there were others had full marks. I wasn’t sure about a point and made an assumption, but not much damage was done. I think many more of us are feeling the love from our Hawaiian guest professor, too. My only worry (yes, I still do that!) is that we’re graded on the Z-curve so even if I scored over 75%, if everybody else scores 85% or 90% then I am at the bottom!

But never mind … now it’s time to focus on next week’s Finance graded assignment and quiz!

I had my second private session with a career counsellor, this time with R who handles the high-tech industry. This is because I met last week with my dream company in Industry (hint: Its name means many zeros), and they had a position which has very specific requirements - which I happen to meet.

It is not easy to find people with this unusual combination of skills and experience, and thus the position has been available for a while. And I know I’m the right person for it!

Thus this session was for a specific CV review, following INSEAD’s format. Most of what I wrote will stay intact with improvements to some phrasings, to accentuate my strong points. I also picked up a couple of tips specific to this company, so that was useful indeed.

My counsellor said she had never seen such an unusual CV before. That must be quite something because I’m sure she’s seen many INSEADers’ CVs. However my career path has been quite atypical and this is why I need to start looking now, earlier than my peers.

In any case I am quite eager to explore the rest of the high-tech industry, and do something big with the High-Tech Club. I have met a lot of people in my new media circle for several years, in this region and in the US (thanks to SXSW) and will be happy to get some exciting new collaborations going.

And… Hi to R if you’re reading this now. Thanks a lot for your help!

Getting busier now as I am applying for a job and doing my homework. I am adapting my resume to fit that of INSEAD’s template, based on what my seniors have written for their CV book.

I am planning to apply to a job in a dream company where I seem to be a pretty good fit. It is rather early seeing how we’d usually start looking for jobs in P4 or P5, but I already met the HR person handling this position and she says I’m a good fit, so I’m going to go for it now and hope that it’s really the case and they’re willing to wait until next July for me.

Academically, things are getting more hectic too. We just had a microecons test this morning which I hope to pass, and hopefully pass well. Imagine, 3 weeks into term and we are already taking our mid-term quizzes!!! Next week we’re having a Finance quiz. These quizzes make up part of our overall grade, so it’s serious.

And in a few more weeks we will be sitting for exams! We will be learning new things up to the last Friday, and then exam starts the week after. It shows that you absolutely CANNOT slip up at INSEAD. You must prepare for each session and if you have problems you must resolve them quickly.

Fortunately I am thankful that my groupmates are helping me. Also, after a rather fast-paced Finance class today I was seeing stars, but a groupmate assured me that usually this concept would’ve been taught in 2.5 months (I think he said months!). Our Finance professor is also offering to help us out with a tutorial session which I definitely want to attend.

Such is the pace of learning at INSEAD. It’s like an intellectual treadmill.

Breaking news tonight - the Bush administration is proposing a rescue plan worth $700 billion to buy bad mortgages. To quote Bush:

”In my judgment, based upon the advice of a lot of people who know how markets work, this problem wasn’t going to be contained to just the financial community,” the president said.

You’d have thought a guy with a (ahem) Harvard MBA would already know that on his own…

Something unusual happened a couple days ago.

I was just sitting in the amphi theatre, in my allocated front row spot, minding my own business when our P4 seniors came in told hold elections, and ask for nominations for the post of IT and Campus rep, which was vacant.

I kept quiet … then my groupmate said he would nominate me and I said, “Er… actually I want to run for the High-Tech Club…” but apparently that was not a good enough excuse!

However it wasn’t just one or two people who wanted me in. When our seniors came to the bullet point on IT and Campus rep and asked for nominations, about half the class shouted simultaneously, ‘VANESSA!” and after that, who could argue with the wishes of the majority? Stunned, slightly flattered and with some trepidation, I accepted the nomination. Also another one or two classmates volunteered to stand for elections too. Frankly I wouldn’t have minded if anyone else got this post. If I did I would aim to do a good job but not kill myself. I’m certainly not tech support (we have the IT department for that).

So the next day, voting results were announced to all via email and I won! So thank you everybody for this, erm, honour :P

Then we had an email from the Dean Jake Cohen asking to meet the new student council. “STUDENT COUNCIL!” I thought… then it all sunk in.

In University I had to campaign hard, make a speech and get grilled in front of 300 people.In Junior College I didn’t even try running for the students’ council because it was like a public parade. This time, the nomination and election was handed to me, almost on a platter.

If you hear me talking to fellow Singaporean classmates about this, you may hear the words ‘arrow’ and ‘saboh’ used often. For the sake of diplomacy I will not tell you what they mean - not yet ;-)

Anyway. I will soon find out exactly what an IT and Campus rep has to do, from our seniors and Dean… this will be an interesting revelation.

In the meantime, dear classmates, please don’t crash the mail server or set the school on fire.

Finally, INSEAD is in the local newspapers today! The Straits Times has a feature article called “The Business of Getting an MBA”. INSEAD, Chicago Graduate School of Business and Singapore Management University (SMU) are mentioned.

Excerpts about INSEAD:

At renowned French business school Insead, which has a campus in Singapore, enrolment for its MBA programme here has tripled in eight years.

‘The size of the starting classes here in Singapore for the first class in 2000 was 53. Today, this number has grown to over 150,’ said the school.

Well, over here it’s 151 to be precise. And I wonder what Frank Brown is going to say when he hears we’ve been called a ‘French’ business school. In last year’s Business Times article (a sister paper) it was noted that he was quite particular that INSEAD was recognised as an international school.

Continuing on, regarding the payback value of an MBA, it’s not just financial:

But while an MBA is designed to help anyone looking for more dollars and sense, interested students should be ‘most motivated by the opportunity for career advancement as well as career change’, said Ms Gopika Spaenle, associate director of Insead’s MBA Programme Asia Campus.

And to answer the question:

Should I aim for a top-tier school, or settle for a second-tier one?

‘To some extent, brand recognition and school ranking can impact your career prospects as some companies recruit only from the top-tier business schools,’ said Ms Spaenle.

She added that consulting giant McKinsey recruited more than 100 MBA grads from Insead last year - a quarter of its graduating class of 450.

Woot!

[ Note: The Straits Times has a policy whereby after 7 days a lot of their articles may not be available anymore. So read it while you can! ]

My third official week at INSEAD was definitely better than my second.

The main reason is that I got scared that I would not be able to catch up academically with my brilliant classmates. So I worked a lot on my quant topics in particular, attending the optional Saturday tutorials, looking at the answers and methodologies. I did most of my readings and exercises for this week but skimmed when I felt there was no time and no point killing myself. So this week, more things made sense and I felt more in control of the situation.

I also have to thank my group for being patient and helpful. I had to first overcome shyness/swallow my pride and admit that I had trouble understanding how to calculate the answer, and then a groupmate helped me - not by spoonfeeding me line by line, but by telling me the overarching concept and leaving me to figure the rest out. Which is a better way to learn.

Doing lots of exercises helped as well. At INSEAD you will not be in want of practice. Our Microecons professor (super cool guy perpetually in Hawaiian shirts) gives us lots of graded assignments. For accountancy we have lots of cases to practise with. For statistics, there are many types of math questions to solve. So just practise, practise, practise. You won’t remember theories that you read if you don’t try them out.

I like the fact that our professors will give us working solutions a few days later, so we can learn where we went wrong. If we don’t understand the methods, we can show up for tutorials and ask their teaching assistants for help. If we still don’t get it, we make an appointment to see the professor personally.

Needless to say I still have a lot to work on. But at least things have become a little better. They had better be, because I need to handle one extra topic - French!

And because I worked faster this week, I had time to hang out twice with the cohort - at the traditional Bar of the Week (on Wednesdays) and to celebrate Stefan, Johanne and Calista’s birthdays at Le Noir, Clarke Quay. I danced until I could dance no more, got a few compliments for my looks and was randomly kissed by a P4 senior (on my hand!).

Some forthcoming posts I have in mind:

• Which type of people seem to do better in school (not a scientific study but a gut feel from my observations so far)
• Impressions of the career fair so far, and the job situation
• Takeaway points from my career counselling session

Watch out for them… And have a good weekend!

This week the issue attracting the most attention was a professor’s policy on lateness. He had specified in his first lesson that latecomers to his class would be asked to leave.

Bearing this in mind, most of us were seated before his second lesson began. The professor said he really appreciated the effort we made. And then… one classmate came a little late. The professor kept his word, asking him to leave the class.

Our cohort has mixed views on what happened. Those who are fine with the policy believe:

• It’s the professor’s class and we should follow his rules.
• He already told us about his no-lateness policy, so if someone arrives late, the professor has to be consistent and keep his word.

However, other interesting arguments were raised:

• If the policy’s purpose was to prevent classmates from disturbing others during class (i.e. making others stand up as they squeeze their way to their allocated seat), then a student who’s already in class but wants to go to the toilet will cause double the disruption.
• Since we’re paying quite a bit for our tuition fees, we have every right to sit through the lesson even if we come late. (A counter-argument to this would be: If you feel you’re paying so much for your fees, you should come on time :)
• The traditional champagne fine is sufficient punishment.

I sense the policy’s true purpose is to enforce a certain kind of attitude, and not just to inconvenience others.

We could ask the professor to reconsider his requirements, but from what I’ve heard, this policy has been long-standing and is unlikely to change. An easier solution would be to simply come on time.

Over the past couple of weeks there has been some unhappiness about us needing to purchase an Accounting textbook that costs S$293 at the INSEAD bookshop. In fact in other shops I heard it is selling for higher than that. There are similar rumblings about buying other textbooks in the S$50 range but I recall we were informed - before school started - to set aside about 800 euros for textbooks, so I thought that was a fair enough warning.

Before I continue with this story, I want to make it clear that I do not intend to pass judgment on anyone… because it is not my business nor according to my faith. I’m far from perfect myself. However, I do mind when someone thinks it is their business to tell me I’m wasting my money buying original books. Throughout my life, Singaporean friends (who do have money) have also made similar comments as to why I purchase original music, software and DVDs. Well, it’s my money and my choice; I cannot sleep well knowing that copyright has been breached and the original author isn’t getting anything from it. Creativity should be rewarded.

Anyway, back to the current situation. Firstly, all of us think the Accounting textbook is way too expensive and should have been included in our course material handouts. However, it is a big book and we will be reading many chapters, not just one or two. Also, when someone gave feedback to INSEAD staff, they told us that it was not possible to make copies, due to copyright restrictions. Which is fair enough.

At this point, our opinions diverge. A few may have taken matters into their own hands. We can photocopy up to a certain number of pages legally, but not the whole book… Some of us have placed an order for the original book while presumably a few lucky ones have bought the book second hand. (Note to juniors reading this post: I can sell mine to you when I’m done with it!) You can also grab a copy in the library though during peak season it may be hard to get hold of one.

A bit of background: I’ve been a stickler for copyright since I was young. It has childish origins, but the story is that when I was 13, my teacher asked us to write an original poem, to be graded at the end of class. I wrote something good, but my (then) best friend saw it and copied it wholesale. She was quite serious about passing it up as her work, regardless of the fact that I had written it. Obviously if we both handed up the same work it wouldn’t look good, and who could prove that I wrote it first?

With the little time that I had left, I racked my brains to think of a new topic. It turned out well because my second poem was more unusual than the first, and it ended up getting published in the school newsletter, which wasn’t easy getting into. On a side note, I distanced myself from this so-called best friend because I realised that we had different outlooks in life.

As such, one reason why I studied law was so that I could opt to focus on Intellectual Property, my favourite section being (what else but) copyright. Of course now times have changed and I am supporting Creative Commons instead. I agree that we are sometimes held to ‘ransom’ by high prices. But whatever the terms are, and no matter how remote the situation, I believe intellectual rights should be respected.

Rather than see just two alternatives (pay through your nose or steal), I actually thought a better workaround would be to think of a new solution, such as looking for the cheapest source, which at this time of writing is Amazon.com - provided you can wait weeks for the book to arrive. On hindsight we could’ve saved a hundred bucks or so without doing compromising anything. Juniors, do note this…

Like I said at the start, it’s up to the individual to make his own choice. I’m just stating my own belief and my personal ethics, which I stand by, even at the price of S$293.

INSEAD is trialling a counselling service for students to help us with the transition to student life, among other things. We were introduced to this service by a New Zealand clinical psychologist whose organisation is partnering INSEAD for this purpose. In a nutshell, she told us what were the warnings signs of stress and depression, how they could affect our health and what we could do about them.

I already knew these facts while working at the Health Promotion Board, but after a break from work and hearing someone who isn’t a colleague talk about it, it was like a refresher course.

It also made me realise that how we perceive situations depends a lot on our current state of mind, and our attitude. Optimistic people tend to have more successful lives, while pessimists think they’ll fail anyway and won’t try again. When we’re stressed we may interpret things wrongly, and the problem gets compounded.

As part of an exercise, we each took turns to share with our partners our greatest fear at INSEAD, what was the worst outcome, what was the best outcome, what was the realistic outcome and what can we do to make things better. I volunteered my example of fearing the quantitative exams. The worst outcome was, of course, failing them. The best outcome was to pass them (the counsellor added, “Or doing well in them”). The realistic outcome for me was something in between … who knows what the infamous Z-curve grading system will do!

As for the last point, what could be done about it - Attend all classes, do all the readings and exercises, do the extra tutorial questions and show up at tutorials. Ask group mates for help, and if I still have problems, make an appointment to see the professor. Theoretically I know what needs to be done, but in practice I cannot bring myself to ask questions which I think sound stupid. However this is a crucial period where we need to get our foundations right - if not, whatever building blocks I pile on top will just sink through the sand. So I have to have thicker skin and just ask, ask, ask.

Some of my classmates spoke to me after the talk to tell me not to worry, that quant isn’t everything. That is a little reassuring but I would really prefer to get the better of my worry than run away from it. Another classmate even offered to help me out! Much appreciated, A!

While I can’t wait to get to P3 and choose my favourite electives, I do understand the need to have a solid grounding in quant subjects like Finance, Accounting, Statistics. They’re important enough to be core subjects at INSEAD and many other top b-schools. However as you move up the career ladder, you may need it less because you can make your underlings crunch the numbers instead. Case in point: our Executive MBAs don’t do as much quant - I found out when an Exec MBA student/boss joined our Business Foundations class for a week and told me about it.

I guess what’s perturbing me is that I was a straight A / A1 student for every possible math subject, and my GMAT score was above the INSEAD average, so it’s difficult to swallow the fact that I feel slower than many others here. Then I remembered that I got my As not because I was a math genius, but because my teachers re-iterated the facts to me until I understood them all, and also because I practised a lot. So likewise for my current situation, I have to re-read my lecture notes until I understand them well, and practise doing lots of questions.

Like the psychologist said, it helps that you know you’ve been able to do it before. That can make all the difference.

Lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of being a consultant. On Friday during a break, my groupmate (from McKinsey) asked me if I was considering consulting as a career. I said it was possible although I didn’t think I was particularly quant-oriented. However, from my latest Meyers-Briggs test I have turned from an ENTJ to an ENFJ, which means I have become more ‘feeling’ and am therefore more of a people person now. He told me that people skills are also valued in consulting.

In that case, I would certainly be more confident in considering a career in consulting. Also, INSEAD’s consulting handbook had useful tips. I learnt that each consulting firm has a different approach. I prefer the consultancies that embrace the big picture, because that is my own approach.

Later on I had tea with another classmate from a top 6 consultancy, and brought up the suggestion that was made to me earlier that day. He too felt there was potential in me becoming a consultant. Again I re-iterated the need to work for a consultancy that saw the big picture instead of formulating some obscure hypothesis on how the patterns of veins on a leaf would form. This would distract us from seeing the other leaves, the branches, the trunks, the trees and the whole forest! He said he liked that analogy.

Years ago, the initial barriers to me applying for such a job were stories of how we’d have to work super long hours and fly back and forth to different countries. However, after working 8 years and knowing myself better, I realise that there could be a fit for me:

• When I love what I do, I don’t look at the clock. Achieving something great and helping my clients do their work better is one of the best rewards for me.
• I tend to develop a bond for my client’s cause, and they usually appreciate my enthusiasm. I will find out everything I can about them so I know everything that people are saying about them. I’ll be all over a client that I believe in.
• In my new job, I would prefer to focus on a smaller group of clients but devote more time to each of them, as opposed to handling so many different projects that I cannot add as much value as I’d like to.
• It’s been noted by top management that I get along with people across the organisation. I don’t like sticking to one clique, because you become too inward-looking and unaware of what’s happening around you. In fact, for most of my life at school and at work, I’ve been able to hang out with different groups without looking like the odd one out. Because of this, I have been able to listen to both sides of the story and realise how a misunderstanding or miscommunication came about. However, I am not totally detached - I also have a few close friends and colleagues who are my anchor point.
• At this stage of my career, improved financial compensation would be great too ;-)

As for having to work in various countries over the globe - now I don’t see anything to complain about at all! What was up with my younger, foolish self!? I’m at INSEAD, the United Nations of business schools. I am not afraid to take on new challenges wherever they are. By Jove, I’m going for it!

ps. Thanks to R and A for the encouragement :)

Our language test results are out. Some passed, some were borderline and some have to take classes. Unfortunately I’m one of those who have to take classes. I qualified for Level 3 which is the last round of classes before we resit the exam.

On hindsight, I only started seriously preparing for my French 2 months ago, after I finally stopped work. I was learning new tenses up to a few days before the test, when ideally I should have had enough time to complete the syllabus and do a few practice papers. We can also say that the test was difficult because it was designed for those taking French as a second language. I feel disappointed but there’s no point moping. Like my mum said, a boxer only has 10 seconds to get back on his feet.

I have a few options. If there are enough of us (at least 6) we can form our own class in P1 and hopefully get it over and done with within the next 2 months. If not, we have to wait till P3 to start classes.

Alternatively I may just go back to the private school that was teaching me to cram for the exam, because I may have some credits left in my account. Also, the next DELF A2 test is on 2 Dec. I’m thinking that a DELF A2 cert would be more recognised than one from RELC, which nobody outside of this region would’ve heard of. I know it is also easier than the RELC test we took.

In any case, the unwelcome bit of news means that I will have to rush my readings, homework and revise my French for the next few months! Hopefully my French-speaking groupmates will help me out a bit, because there will be an oral component in future tests. Erk. Send words of encouragement my way, please…