At 8am this morning, I received an unexpected call. While the caller ID of the caller was blocked, I was actually somewhat excited, thinking it might be another interview! Even while I was half-asleep, I tried my best to sound awake and professional, and said, “Good morning, Patrick speaking.”

On the other side of the line, I heard the voice of a mid-thirties man, mumble-jumbled in a language that wasn’t quite intuitive to me, or may be, I wasn’t quite awake afterall. But roughly, I could hear him saying something like, “What kind of person fax his resume at 3am in the morning! It woke me and my wife up and I couldn’t go back to sleep for an hour!” His tone wasn’t angry, but he was certainly displeased from the incident from yesterday. “Hey young man, got to be a little smarter!”

“I am really sorry about it”, I said. Soon enough I realized that my resume must have sent to a wrong number, and instead of reaching the office, it went to someone’s home!”

As I put down the phone, I went right back to sleep.

BTW, at the time of typing this blog, I just received a call from Hatch, asking me to do a phone interview at 11:00am on Friday. (Sound of pencil scratching against a piece of paper as I marked down this appointment on my notebook.)

DY introduced me to an online poker website where I can play with “fake money”. After several rounds of losing 1000 dollars worth of “fake” chips, I made a comeback, standing with over $10000, only to lose all of it three rounds later.

Yo! That’s was um… unbelievable. Since DY and I were both at LY’s place, we played on the same (virtual) poker table and pass “secret messaging” that were hidden from other players. Together we did earn enough to play some tournament rounds, but were rejected to joining the same tournament, simply because we were using the same IP to access the internet. So, I decided, no more poker for me for the day.

Yet, it was great fun to spend such an afternoon.

Coming out of the subway station, walking up a flight of stairs, a little boy, prehaps 4 or 5, hopped clumsily on each step, and stopped unexpectedly when something caught his attention. He bent down to pick it up, and continue to climb the remaining steps. I followed a few metres behind.

Out on the street, the boy can no longer suppress his excitement, happily handed over his precious findings to a lady in her late twenties or early thirties, probably his mother. He bounced and hopped and said in a proud and loud voice, “I found a penny, I found a penny!”

The lady gently returned the shiny coin to the boy, and gave him a pat on the shoulder. He sensed it as if it was a pat of satisfaction. I was still closely behind them. I can see the tremendous joy from the little boy’s dancing arms and legs as he held the coin high up and continue singing, “I found a penny, …”.

“If only life was that simple”, I thought.

Finally I got an interview, and this one is particularly interesting. It was at Brampton, probaly around 40km away from downtown Toronto, may be less. After a practice at U of T at 1:30pm, I was afraid to miss the 2pm bus which goes to Brampton. So I took a cab from U of T to Union Station to catch the bus. And here is the cost and travel time of the interview trip:

Cab from U of T to Union station: $9 & 15 min.
GO bus from Union to Brampton Bus Terminal : $6 & 50 min.
Brampton transit to the company $2.35 & 35 min.
Brampton Transit back to Brampton Bus Terminal: $2.35 & 25 min.
GO bus to Yorkdale subway station: $5.80 & 80 min.
Subway to Osgoode station for dinner $2 & 15min.

The time includes waiting for bus and subway trains. So that’s like $27.5 (CAD) per round trip. Nevertheless, I really wish to get this job. And then I will move to Brampton. Can’t afford this type of travelling everyday.

Something I found from Workopolis Campus:

When applying for a position by e-mail, if no instructions are indicated, it is best to provide your resume and cover letter as attachments and use the e-mail body as a brief transmittal indicating the position and job ad reference.

Once read, the e-mail is usually discarded, with the resume and cover being printed or stored electronically.

Credit: GELLER, SHEDLETSKY & WEISS
Original Article