Unpredictable Singaporean Sitcoms

If it’s stupid and it works, it isn’t stupid.

Back from a weekend in Bali, where I slept on a (very comfortable) couch at the Le Meridien north of Kuta. Can’t argue with budget travel that lets you stay at 5-star resorts. Thankfully, I’ve grown accustomed to sorting out each following week’s reading in my bright pink Japanese binder with the cutesy sararyman cartoon opening the rings, which lets me read ahead fairly efficiently without having to spend all weekend grinding away. Although thanks to a combination of a murderous hangover, 6 straight hours of Mergers & Acquisitions and a poolside chair, I now have a hideous sunburn to blind my classmates with.

Last week was an interesting ramp-up to my job search; having decided that I don’t really want to work in luxury goods (an ill-conceived pipe dream of the sort common to a good percentage of my classmates — “gee, what on god’s green earth will I do? Erm, how about XYZ? Sounds like a plan. Oh, wait..”) I’ve thought about looking into either media or upscale hotels. I know both pretty well from a consumer’s perspective, I have some great ideas, and maybe I can use the combination of experience, INSEAD and alumni to end up somewhere I like. Now, if only the economy weren’t merrily going to hell all around us.

Nonetheless, my hopes are up, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time on researching jobs and companies, while running up against a common issue among INSEAD students — after a decade of IT, despite a remarkable breadth of industries, responsibilities and projects, I really have little clue what jobs in the Real World actually entail. However, at the risk of sounding a bit cocky, if I can manage Berkeley, teach myself enough IT “stuff” for a successful 10-year roll in the field, and survive INSEAD, what could possibly happen?

Long-term crushing unemployment, that’s what, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. It’s about the time to start hitting the pavement; after several long conversations with classmates about career prospects, I’m at least slightly comforted by the fact that I’m not the only one who’s insecure about where to start. Dammit, if I can make it through this boot camp, I should be able to handle any challenge.

For now, I need to worry about my finances — not my limited travel budget, but actually being able to pay tuition. I have a meeting with someone from finance who was nice enough to talk to me; with markets crashing all around us, I’m reluctant to ask my family for more help, and without collateral, a loan’s pretty unlikely. Anyone want to pay me a nice fat hiring bonus? Please apply within.

Currently, my colleagues and I are busily annoying bar staff and market hawkers all around Southeast Asia, putting the lessons from Horacio Falcao’s stellar negotiations class to work. Unfortunately, the win-win situations he preaches (and well, at that) are pretty difficult to aim for with a language barrier and with intransigent merchants. Watching my three colleagues Michele, Federico and Markus at work in Ubut, getting us a ridiculously low price for 6 pairs of enormously comfortable cotton trousers (which, as it turns out, are women’s wear — no wonder the locals kept cracking up when we walked past that evening, but hey, who cares, nobody can tell outside of Bali, and as long as you hang out with Italians, they make everything look good) was like a work of art.

Karma struck in the form of a terrible deal on silk sarongs, though. Considering “terrible” means $10 instead of $8, I’ll live. We’ve discovered, however, that there’s a logic behind Horacio’s decree that we are not allowed to use negotiations conducted inside INSEAD as part of our deliverable for the class — the whole operation would grind to a halt as people harassed bar staff, teachers, administration and their little dog too.

Group work has us tied down a fair percentage of our time; those taking advanced corporate finance or international finance courses seem to be suffering the most, although even supposedly “easy” subjects are proving to be bears, saddling us with workloads reminiscent of periods 1 and 2. Coordinating efforts is not trivial; due to conflicting schedules and different course times, not to mention near-absurd amounts of travel and unexpected quantities of coursework across the board, getting 3-5 people in a room at the same time is like herding cats.

Thankfully, I’ve intentionally not gone overboard on credits this time, despite the temptation to get as many classes as possible out of the way ahead of the game. After my near-nervous breakdown in December from stress, lack of sleep and overwork, I just needed to draw a line somewhere. I realize now that this was a good choice; even given the somewhat manageable amount of deliverables I’m confronted with it’s still a grueling regimen we put ourselves through. With career search work picking up, nobody’s hands are idle.

I’m glad I’m only here for 2 months — Singapore is pretty artificial, despite being an agreeable and easy place to live (everything works, it’s like Switzerland with a few more Asians and a lot more sweating), I don’t think I could afford to really enjoy the kind of travel another 2 months would let me engage in, and I miss Karin terribly.