Irritating Interviews IV

Sadly, blogging is now turning out to be a rare luxury with increasing workload and impending piano examinations. Nonetheless, I must persevere and complete the choleric chronicles of my inane interview adventures. Ha.

Interview #16
August 7th, 2009
Company: All Eights
Category: Laboratory Diagnostics System Distributor
Position: Technical Marketing Executive

What's Hot:
• Located off Upper Paya Lebar Road + 3 direct bus services = 20 minutes public transport time
• Although situated in one of those industrial warehouse-like building, it boasts of a "proper" air-conditioned office, furnished with meeting rooms and cubicles. (Unlike ACHEMA... Haha.)
• Impressive training opportunities for marketing exectuives, both local and overseas, funded by All Eights, SIM and external companies.

What's Not:
• EEeee. Not one of those sales job again...
• Asked to do an impromptu mock sales pitch. I felt as if I was caught with my pants down.
• Speaking of pantless interview, All Eights sounds like... (Clue: Think HIV)

Bing Factor:
(On a scale of 1-5; 1 being a crappy job & 5 means BINGo!):

Interview #17
August 11, 2009
Company: AITBIOTECH
Category: Genomic services provider and Life Science Equipment Distributor
Position: Customer Support Specialist Product Specialist

The invitation for an interview came from a dubious-looking email:

Dear Kelvin

Would you be available for an interview??

A***
AITBIOTECH

After a few exchange of emails, I noticed A***'s abstinence of periods and commas, while consistently use of double question marks. But I shall resist the temptation to reproducing more emails.

That aside, it was great timing that my parents were away from Singapore, allowing me free reign over the family car. Especially after considering that AITBIOTECH is cruelly located at Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate!

Expectedly, it was one of my most ill-prepared interviews ever.

A sales-based job in a SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) was a double turnoff for me, compelling me to employ my black belt of procrastination. Right up to minutes before the interview, I was still mugging rushing through my notes about AITBIOTECH.

YET...

If the Sanofi-Aventis interview was a catastrophic failure condemned forever to bring shame to Kelvins in the world, then the interview at AITBIOTECH could be likened as a spectacular Nobel-Prize, Pulitzer-Award winning success.

Halfway through the interview, I realized my random unprepared babble about "meeting new people" had fortuitously struck a chord with A***. It all past in an unexpected blur and a quick tour of the laboratory-office premises.

Before I left, A*** had outrightly offered me the job.

Shell-shocked and cornered, I whipped out my wisdom tooth card. That was, my plans to extract my wisdom tooth before commencing work proper.

As I left the Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate perplexed, I received another call from Recruit Express, which led to Interview #19.


What's Hot:
• Extremely amiable CEO: A boss I believe I could work well with
• Monthly salary of $2500: Meeting my minimum cutoff salary
• Although Under EDB's Local on-the-Job Training (LOT), A*** had chosen not to enforce the mandatory one/two year bond.

What's Not:
• Sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales sales

• Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate is simply not friendly to public transport users.

• Monthly salary of $2500: Sorely insufficient since I was expected to have more own tranport

Bing Factor:




Interview #18
August 12, 2009
Company: Singapore - MIT Alliance
Category: University Research
Position: Executive (IP/Research)

My second interview in NUS was in the heart of Engineering. The walk to the Office certainly brought back more memories as opposed to that at School of Medicine. For the umpteenth time, I was filled with disgust, bitterness and nostalgia as I saw engineering muggers sprawled lifelessly on the tables outside Dilly's Creation. Heh.

Ironically, the ubiquitous muggers lay buried in their books, I too was "blessed" with a 2 question-test, designed to gauge how boomz my England would be.

After an hour of scribbling legibly (at least to my best effort), I awaited for Part II, which thankfully featured only two interviewers (K**** & FL).

While the interview was not as spectacular as that in AITBIOTECH, I was cautiously confident that I had made at least a positive impression on FL. (That apparently had unexpected implications later on... but I digress.)

While the interview was not as spectacular as that in AITBIOTECH, I was cautiously confident that I had made at least a positive impression on FL. (That apparently had unexpected implications later on... but I digress.)

What's Hot:
• Non-sales, FINALLY.
• Postulated higher starting pay.
• SMA Office would be located at NUS Faculty of Engineering. Which means... Great food at cheap prices! Techno Edge (AKA Engineering Canteen), Olive Cove, Dilly's Creation, Pavilion Cafe, and McDonald's...

What's Not:
• Administrative, logistical and desk-bound. ZZZZzzzz.
• NUS... Not exactly looking forward to the protracted bus/mrt/bus journey.

Bing Factor:

Interview #19
August 14, 2009
Company: MW Medical
Category: Mobile Clinic
Position: Management Trainee

This was one interview I was initially extremely excited because I had somehow comprehended that the post was some management trainee position at a French multinational company.

Then Au**** from Recruit Express informed me of the salary allowance, which would be a literally groundbreaking S$1800.

All hopes shattered when I googled "MW Medical".

That day was a sleepy morning, and I took the Circle Line to Marymount for the first time. I arrived rather early so I detoured to Shunfu Mart to get my extra caffeine fix from a cup of Kopi-peng (Ice Coffee).

I arrived 15 minutes early to a boring looking clinic in Sin Ming Plaza. It was one of those moments where I spot another candidate already seated and filling up a form.

"Ah-ha! Rival spotted."

As I proceeded to fill up the application form, I heard "Kelvin!".

Oops. It was a fellow NUS BioEngineering mate! Talk about tiny Singapore.

In short, the interview was rather forgetable, but much more should be said in my next entry post.

What's Hot:
• Management Trainee = Great potential for rotation to different departments
• Located walking distance from Marymount MRT Station, slightly over half hour in journey time

What's Not:
• Management Trainee = Great potential for sai kang (AKA shit job)
• $1800 Allowance

Bing Factor:

Professing Professor

These days, the line between reality and fiction blurs. I am almost used to being addressed as Dr Kelvin or Professor Lim, at least on my work NUS email.

But as of recently, my academic recognition has even seeped into my old NUS email.

Subject Header: Appointment

Hi Professor:

Hope you are well! I was wondering if you are free tomorrow at 11 am to discuss some doubts from Chapter 3. Pls let me know if you are available. If not, please let me know, I will come up with some alternative time slots.

Warmest Regards,
S*********


HMMMMM... I really need to check who in NUS is teaching Chapter 3.

Publicizing Publications

As usual, in my vain attempt to compensate my lack of time to blog during after my work, here's a quick entry to keep this blog going...



As some of you might know, part of my current job scope deals with publications arising from researchers in National University Health System (AKA NUH + NUS School of Medicine + NUS Faculty of Dentistry).

Thankfully, I am not required to read every single article but dabble with those that fall under Tier 1. Like graded examinations, these papers have been appraised and classified into different tiers, gauged mainly by their impact factor.

The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed to be more important than those with lower ones.

Most unfortunately, being the usual impatient me, I was inclined to make a premature judgement, just by reading the titles of the publications.

Here is a sampling of publication titles...

Consequences of incomplete repair of acute type A aortic dissection.
Verdict: Normal

Danqi Piantang Jiaonang (DJ), a traditional Chinese medicine, in poststroke recovery.
Verdict: Potentially herbal but interesting

Potential pharmacological control of the NF-kappaB pathway.
Verdict: Potentially normal... NOT.

Aspirin and dry eye?
Verdict: Short title, must be brilliant.

Would you perform thrombolysis in this acute ischemic stroke patient?
Verdict: No.

The influence of birth size on intelligence in healthy children.
Verdict: Eat more, women!

Premarital sexual intercourse among adolescents in an Asian country: multilevel ecological factors
Verdict: We need more papers like these.

Synergistic antileukemic effects between ABT-869 and chemotherapy involve downregulation of cell cycle regulated genes and c-Mos-mediated MAPK pathway.
Verdict: Title too long, FAIL

Surface functionalization of titanium with hyaluronic acid/chitosan polyelectrolyte multilayers and RGD for promoting osteoblast functions and inhibiting bacterial adhesion.
Verdict: This is not the abstract, Mister. DOUBLE FAIL.

Protein kinase SGK1 enhances MEK/ERK complex formation through the phosphorylation of ERK2: implication for the positive regulatory role of SGK1 on the ERK function during liver regeneration.
Verdict: Stop it. FAIL FAIL FAIL.

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) produced via NF-kappaB signaling pathway mediates migration of amoeboid microglia in the periventricular white matter in hypoxic neonatal rats.
Verdict: ... ...

Stimulation of N-terminal truncated isoform of androgen receptor stabilizes human ether-á-go-go-related gene-encoded potassium channel protein via activation of extracellular signal regulated kinase 1/2.
Verdict: I quit.


Ever so rarely, once in a very blue moon, one of NUHS researchers would be involved in a SUPER TIER PUBLICATION. By their definition, impact factor would have to exceed 15 (which is really high).

This super researcher would then be confered a God-like status, causing the whole Research Office and Corporate Communications to cease normal work activities. Massive whoring to the Mass Media would go on an overdrive, at least to gain some cheap publicity.

Just one a week ago, we were informed of one super such paper. And with bated breath, I present... ...

WORLD BLOG PREMIERE!

Title: Specific LysRS serine 207 phosphorylation regulates Ap(4)A production in immunologically stimulated mast cells, thus implying that LysRS is a key mediator in gene regulation.
SuperAuthors: Yannay-Cohen N, Carmi-Levy I, Kay G, Yang CM, Han JM, Kemeny DM, Kim S, Nechushtan H, Razin E.

Abstract
Lysyl-tRNA synthetase (LysRS) was found to produce diadenosine tetraphosphate (Ap(4)A) in vitro more than two decades ago. Here, we used LysRS silencing in mast cells in combination with transfected normal and mutated LysRS to demonstrate in vivo the critical role played by LysRS in the production of Ap(4)A in response to immunological challenge. Upon such challenge, LysRS was phosphorylated on serine 207 in a MAPK-dependent manner, released from the multisynthetase complex, and translocated into the nucleus. We previously demonstrated that LysRS forms a complex with MITF and its repressor Hint-1, which is released from the complex by its binding to Ap(4)A, enabling MITF to transcribe its target genes. Here, silencing LysRS led to reduced Ap(4)A production in immunologically activated cells, which resulted in a lower level
of MITF inducible genes. Our data demonstrate that specific LysRS serine 207 phosphorylation regulates Ap(4)A production in immunologically stimulated mast cells, thus implying that LysRS is a key mediator in gene regulation.


By the time, I read the last line of the abstract, I was convinced that my past, present and future insomnia was, is and will be certainly cured.

BONUS WALLPAPER GRAPHICS
Cool Wallpapers for your handheld devices!