April 4, 2011-Two opposite feelings.
Woke up early. I told myself to care less about what day was supposed to be.
I went to the mall with Kyro and Dad. I tried learning parking. We all had lunch there. Strolled a bit and dad bought us new clothes.
I left my phone in the car. I didn't mind.
When we got back to the car, I checked my phone and there were 4 missed calls, all from DKS. I hurriedly called them back so as to know if there are any problems with my documents. My recruiting officer answered and he asked why I wasn't reporting for work.
I was confused. I told him that HR told me that I could not start without my NBI clearance. But he told me that I wasn't able to submit the rest of the documents last Friday as what we have agreed upon. That part was my fault. I forgot that I can still submit incomplete requirements. He asked me if I can go to the office to submit them. I told him I cannot as I am in the province. Rather, I told him that I will be early tomorrow to pass my requirements. And he told me that I will start right away.
I was panicking. It was supposed to be one lazy day for me. Plans such as reading books, going shopping, and cleaning my room where already set for the week only to know that I was absent for my first day! Bummer.
After the call, I told my dad that I will be leaving right away. When we reached home, I hurriedly went to my room and started tossing things into my bag. I was rushing all over the house to make sure I wouldn't forget important things such as my documents and my work wear.
It was almost a 4-hour travel. It was my first time to commute from Pampanga to Paranaque. I went straight to Mom's office to print the pre-reading requirements for my training. Ate dinner there and went home.
My one hell of a day isn't over yet. I had to at least start reading. It was about Investment Banking. I was too tired to even comprehend what I was reading so I decided to sleep because I knew that I will have a long day ahead.
April 5, 2011-HR Orientation
It was my first day at DKS. I was such in a relief when I saw a friend back from college who was with HR of DKS. He accompanied me to the orientation room and there I sat with the other new hires. I was at the back and observing the others. It seems that they all knew each other since they had the one-day advantage.
When it was time for lunch, I didn't know where to go as I found out that there was no canteen in the building. I was alone. So I decided to eat at Pancake House. Pitiful.
I went back to Net Quad (DKS' building) and waited in the HR lobby. The receptionist started to call names and my name was one of them. We went one floor up and into training room 4.
I sat there quietly and feeling very sleepy. The girl beside me started to talk to me. I forgot what was it about but I was glad someone talked to me. I wouldn't forget Mich for that. Mich had the same situation with me where she didn't report to work on her supposedly first day. And we both found ourselves hating our recruiting officer who happens to also be the same!
When our speaker came, Yong, he only discussed the things we were going to expect for our training at DKS. And at 3 pm, we were sent home.
All new joiners received this welcome kit from DKS. :)
April 6-8, 2011-Global Investment Banking and Lifecycle of a Trade
There were things that I didn't understand. But there were things which I understood and were familiar. Since I the type of person who grounds herself and is better of with foundation or familiarity, I can say I did well in the courses with Phil Eden. Though, lessons may not be 100% retained, I can absolutely say that it was great to make my brain work again.
A little bit about Phil.
He is such a great mentor. He has this unbelievable credentials! But aside from this, one can describe him as a wonderful person and friend. He is British and married to a Cebuana. They have a diving business here in the Philippines which Phil is very passionate about. He gets to travel a lot because of his work and is getting paid really big. For this 3-day training, he roughly charged DKS PHP 42,000 each person. We are around 15, so that's about PHP630,000 just for 3 days of training! Not bad at all!
He was so patient with us because there were a lot of times when we would not understand something either because he was talking in his accent and fast or the lesson was too complicated. He, being the great person he is, would gladly repeat it until he makes sure that we all get it.
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| Team Happy with Phil |
We were divided into 3 teams for the exercises we had to do. He didn't exactly ask us to name our team but he saw me writing "TEAM HAPPY" on the sticky note and we were tagged with this name.
April 11-12, 2011- Fundamentals of an Associate/Analyst
This 2-day training was an easy breezy session for all of us. For one thing, it ended at 3 pm (the schedule says 6pm). Another was there were a lot of activities. It was way different from what we had last week where we only had to sit down, listen and do some finance problems.
It began with the traditional introducing oneself. But knowing our speaker, Yong, he would add some flavor to it. Aside from our name, course, school and department in DKS, we would pick one other question that we would answer. The questions were about one's guilty pleasure, weirdest date, relationship status, crush, etc.
The rest of the 2-day training went on with the best combination of lectures and fun-filled activities.
Also, it was in this time we started playing "Never Have I Ever". :) It started when we were all done with our lunch and we were just waiting for Yong. There was one game Yong joined us and revealed to us the many interesting things about him.
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| Playing Never Have I Ever |
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| Batch 28 of Grad Program of DKS with Yong |
April 13, 2011- Cross Cultural Awareness
It is not that they are wrong. They are just different.
Part of our job is we have to deal with foreign nationals who are Deutsche Bank's clients. This is the main reason why we are having this as part of our training.
I have had already the first hand experience with dealing with foreign clients of a company with my internship in Citibank for 3 months. The over-all-in-charge with Training Administration (TA) is an Australian and he has a subordinate who is British. I was part of the conference calls to know the process, and there were times that I would receive a call from them. I had to also train a Chinese national as the function will now be migrated to Hongkong right after I leave so it was very crucial for me to teach him all the processes in a short amount of time. There were also some calls across Asia Pacific that I needed to answer. It was really hard and there were times that I didn't understood what they were saying. But I came to realize that they may be experiencing the same with me as I, too, is different from them.
But it is in this training that I was able to dig deep about the differences across nations. I was more aware of how they are and how to respond to the attitude and the upbringing that they have. It is really about understanding and compromising when it comes to dealing with such people.
The line can also be applied to many other things. But the bottom line is always understanding.
April 14-15, 2011- Learning Process
The 2-day training culminated with this activity. I was so proud that we were able to do it.
The group was divided into three: visual, verbal/audio, and kinetics. I was part of the visual team. Each team had a different task.
VISUAL: Study the figure and relay the description in words to the verbal team. You are not allowed to touch the figure.
VERBAL/AUDIO: Relay the description given by the visual team to the kinetics team by writing it in a paper. You are not allowed to bring with you your paper and pens while the visual team describes to you the figure.
KINETICS: Assemble a figure based on the descriptions sent to you by the verbal team. You can only communicate with them through the use of papers and pens.
The goal is to assemble the same figure in 30 minutes.
And yes, we were able to do it! It was definitely hard given that we had our limitations. Our facilitator, Ms. Migs., even had a mistake of not providing the kinetics team with the correct lego parts. Nonetheless, we replicated the figure!
April 18, 2011-Personal Branding
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| Unnecessary and unrelated photo: my large fries, tumbler and glasses. |
I didn't like this session we had. I don't think our speaker was competent enough to facilitate.
Though there was one activity where we had to draw ourselves portraying things people didn't know about oneself that I was able to express my true self. My batchmates in DKS label me as someone who is loud, strong, and a bit bully. But I told them that I am the type of person who adjusts with the kind of people around me.
I drew there a big girl with a big heart. Strong and yet so fragile. Brave and yet weak.
It was about breaking the wall to see who are courageous enough to take the challenge.
April 19-20, 2011 - Effective Writing and Speaking for Business Needs
Photo 1: We were divided into 3 teams: to inform, to convince, and to suggest.
We chose the "how to cook adobo" which was on the category of to inform. Nobody knew how to cook adobo so I taught them but I told them that I wouldn't do the talking because I've had my fair share of talking for the 2-day training. Instead, I played the role of an Indian while the rest were also foreign nationals.
Photo 2: We wrote 3 topics which we could discuss without much thinking.
Two people picked the first topic for me to discuss while five picked the third topic. The activity was about how easy it was to express ourselves when it comes to something that is of our interest. But this is contrary to what we would expect once we get deployed. It would be very hard to express what we truly want to say.
Photo 3: Our last training with our last speaker.
We are the batch 28 of the Graduate Program of DKS and we are unto are first "working" day on Monday! :) (Though it will be Tuesday for me as it is a UK holiday on Monday)
There were many things I have gained from this 2 and a half week's journey. I am very grateful that the company I have decided to be part of has some sort of "transition phase" for us fresh graduates because it is not easy to adapt coming from a totally different environment. The training has not only helped us prepare for what is to come but also has made us new friends. Though we are not together in one department, they are surely the new people you'd turn to. It was only 2 weeks and a half but people would be surprise on how much we already know of each other.
Kudos Batch 28! :)
