Long Day

How appropriate... a long day after a long weekend.

This has got to be a personal record for me. Tomorrow I am really swamped with meetings. I've been in very tough situations before that necessitated me to work 18-20 hours a day, but that was mainly because we were either trying to run after delays and project overruns, or simply trying to avoid more of them.

Tomorrow I have an exam in QC at 8:30 in the morning that will apparently take 3 or so hours to complete. It's bad enough that it's so early in the morning, and then I have go through 3 hours of gruelling aptitude tests!? They did say the the ones that will take long are the management tests. What the heck are they anyway? I think these are probably the ones where they have a group of tasks or action items and you try to rearrange them in a more streamlined process. I guess it really does give you an idea of what kind of problem solving/organizing skills a person does... I just hate doing these goddamn exams, specially the long ones.

The last one I took was for an IT company in Makati some 3 years ago. They told me to come to the office for an exam. It turns out there was a 3-hour aptitue test, and then a 2-hour technical test in the afternoon. Motherfuckers! If I werent really interested in the position, I would've walked away. The least they could've done was warn me right? I was cursing my way through each page. And then the interview came at the end of the day and they told me they were looking for someone who had more experience in 1 technical aspect that they were particular about. I swear, if she wasn't cute... I probably would've reached from across the conference table and strangled her to death right then and there. The fucking assholes made me go through a full day of exams for something that was bloody obvious in my resume.... Christ!

Anyway, my day tomorrow looks like this:

08:30 - Exam in QC
11:00 - Meeting with clients in Manila about Maintenance Agreement
14:00 - Visit POC Server installation in Ortigas
16:00 - Meeting with a partner in Makati about an upcoming bid for a govt project
18:00 - Interview appointment in Ortigas
22:00 - Interview appointment in Makati

I've been in meetings that lasted 12 hours, but tomorrow is gonna be different I guess. The last appointment at 10PM is for a BPO company that operates under US timezone and is probably one of the most promising prospects. I've already been interviewed by the VP-HR, and VP-IT. I scored prominently in the qualifying exam and now the interview is with the PMO Head in Manila (my prospective immediate supervisor).

The jury is still out on wether I'll actually go to the 3 hour exam in QC early tomorrow morning. I hear that their remuneration package for IT people isn't at par with the market standards, let alone competitive enough to entice me. The wife is telling me to give it a chance. But I guess it'll only depend on my demeanor when I wake up tomorrow at 6:30 AM. Odds are though... it won't be good.