Really Boring Stuff
This posting is much like a glossary to the other postings that will hopefully help to explain my state of mind and a little context. Hopefully it will be the most boring posting:
These are both questions that I have very little intention to answer. However, I will give you a quick rundown of a couple of critical facts that will be essential for you to understand anything that I write about if I get "carried away" with this whole blog concept (which is entirely possible, although chances are much higher that I will treat this thing the way I treat my really nice cookware: untouched). Anywhom, some useful facts:
1) I just quit my job - I had been working in an investment bank for the past six years as part of a strange division known as "capital markets", which is difficult to explain. It paid very well but required me to be in the office all the time and forced me to live in NYC, which smells like urine but has good restaurants. Life is a delicate balancing act, no?
2) I have been sent to Hong Kong for 2.5 months - After I gave notice, my employer gave me the "opportunity" to work in our Hong Kong office during April and May. I was enamored by the "glamour of international finance" and agreed, which was foolish on my, to work here.
3) I will be returning to NYC in June to enjoy a life of leisure, which includes "novelty activities" that are unheard of in the banking world like: cooking, sleeping, reading books, and going grocery shopping. In addition, I need to apply to grad school. I also plan to take a gymnastics class, Spanish and Mandarin Classes, a bartending class, blah blah blah
4) A brief history of my life (this is the self-indulgent part of these blogs that everyone hates to read but loves to write) including noteworthy figures:
Ages 0 - 14: Growing up in Westminster, CA (USA), nestled on the border of Little Saigon (the largest Vietnamese concentration outside of Vietnam) and Huntington Beach ("HB"), known for hosting a variety of surf competitions. Childhood was filled with massive amounts of television watching (I'm talking some serious TV viewing, like 6 hours+ per day). At this point I was completely vegetarian and wouldn't eat anything. People: Joseph Chang, John Meacham, David Wong.
Ages 15-19: High School in Huntington Beach, CA at Ocean View High School, known by many as "The Crappiest High School in Huntington Beach" (there were 6), where of 450 high school graduates in my class (1999), I'm guessing 50 went to college., 50 went to work, and 350 took 1 or 2 classes at the local community college and just sort of "hung out" for the next 6 years. In high school I was told that I was "so East Coast", which I think was HB slang for "knows how to read". There was a year in which I only wore purple clothing. During High School did a complete 180 on the vegetarian thing, ate everything, but wouldn't drink anything. People: Billy Lee, Jack Luu.
College: Taking my HB friend's advice I went to college on the East Coast in Philadelphia. It was here that I learned to drink, and where I developed an obsession for Malaysian food. Also I read a lot of crap. People: Too many to list.
Analyst Years: I spent 3 years as an analyst. Two of them were spent in NYC and the 3rd in Sydney, Australia. Here is a sub-summary:
-1999/2000: Worst year of my life
-2000/2001: Marginally better. Entire year spent working on the Kraft Foods IPO.
-2001/2002: Awesome year in Australia and 1 fun-filled month in Hong Kong.
Associate Years: I then spent 3 years working in NYC as an associate in my old group. I worked for a guy named Richard Blackett, who is AWESOME. He taught me fun British/Scottish expressions like "a bit of the old 'hows your father'".
Current: Soon to be unemployed, treading water in Hong Kong, obsessively planning the next 1.5 years (including my full-blown budget spreadsheet, which admittedly is a big out of control and puts way too many "banking skills" to use, and is like 6 interconnected sheets...I'm very lame to be proud of it).
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home