Debate Tryouts Postponed

Today there was supposed to be a debate tryouts with the new English faculty member, Anna Alfaro Manurung. She's a Filipino, an avid debater, and gladly wanted to be BINUS International's debating coach. But before she start any coaching session, she would like to hold a tryout first to check on our logical thinking, English skills, and speaking skills. It's supposed to be today but apparently it is postponed until next week.

I started debating when I was in High school, though it was not really that serious. I went to serious practices and competitions starting my first year in college. But even when I say 'serious', the practices were never intensive nor effective. The coaching system was based on 'seniority', where fellow senior will coach their junior. With this system, we could never really breakthrough any outstanding achievement. We could only be as good (or in most cases, worse), as the senior that coached us. I myself went to four (if I'm not mistaken) competitions, and the best I could get was being an Octo finalist. I do hope this will change with the arrival of Mrs. Manurung :)

I learnt a lot from debating. First of all, my critical thinking was really challenged. I need to be very critical each time the opponent give their speech, so that our team could attack them with a good rebuttal; and at the same time, strengthening our own case. Next thing, I learnt how to structure my thoughts. Giving a debate speech is the matter of convincing the audience (especially the adjudicators). If you can't structure your thoughts, you could never really convey the message in a meaningful way. Since I'm usually the first speaker, who laid down all the background of our team's case, speech structure is even more important.

Being a final year student wouldn't get me very far in the future competitions. I might not be able to compete at all. But I am still excited to get all the things that I might be able to learn in the coaching sessions. Who knows, I might have a chance to be an adjudicator in the future International competitions (Ireland, anyone?) :)

Thesis 0.2

Okay, after that super size post I doubt I'll post something with that length again. Now, I'm just gonna talk about my thesis progress. Warning: this post might contain technical terms that might not be familiar for some. Read with care. :)

Currently, I'm working on my version 0.2 milestone of my thesis. I'm planning to create a social networking site (just like Facebook or Friendster), but focused on music artist fandom. On top of that I will also implement 'acoustic fingerprint' technology-based software in order to upload my music track listing to my profile (similar with Last.fm's scrobbler).

As I'm facing difficulty in configuring the acoustic fingerprint library (from MusicBrainz.org), I decided to focus on developing the web site first. Currently, I'm still developing the basic functions (sign up, edit profile, etc).

My programming mood is totally unpredictable. Last night, Iwas up until 3am, writing codes (Well, maybe it's also because I'm rather a night person, I work best 9pm onwards). Whereas three days before that, I didn't write a single letter. Instead, I was reading ebooks, blogs, and articles about McKinsey. Hahaha..

Now, I'm still in the mood, though it's not as high as yesterday. Let's just hope I could meet my milestone of the week. Looking at my to-do list, I still have another two or three modules to be created before Monday. I'm gonna make myself a cup of coffee and start working!

First Post: 200km/h Toward the Crossroads

Hi all, my name is Andrew Fransciscus Christopher Poluan. But for simplicity sake, I'll put my pen name as Andy Christopher, instead. This isn't my first attempt in doing blogs (third, if I'm not mistaken), but I do hope this one will be longlasting :) This blog won't be discussing much on my personal life. You won't be seeing any political POV or religious thoughts. For me, those things are off limits. Instead, I will be talking more into my academic and (soon-to-be) professional life. I hope with me sharing my experience some of you could take something out of it.

My first post is a super-duper long one, but it will lay the background of this blog this point onwards. Anyway, here goes...

Since a couple of months ago, I couldn't be more restless. This semester, my only course is Thesis. This course translates to no-class-at-all. Yeah, we do need to arrange 10 times supervisory meeting, but those are really flexible. Being a super busy person for the last couple years making me somewhat guilty for being 'too laidback'.

My original plan was to take no other campus jobs/activities (I turned down some of teaching offers) and look for some internship opportunities. But I quickly turned down that plan seeing the level of difficulty of my thesis.

Now, I'm planning to focus my energy on finishing my thesis as early as possible (my target: June 1, 2008), then start focusing all my mind, heart, and energy in job seeking. Why working right after graduation, some might ask. Well, I gotta say taking Masters was one of the options I seriously pondered upon. But then, reality kicks in. It's clear that from now on whatever path I took I gotta do self-funding. And since I would definitely take my Masters overseas, doing it right now simply near impossible.

What about scholarships? Well, my only viable option is looking for full scholarships. But even to get application letters and doing IELTS/TOEFL test you need some significant amount of money. The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that it simply is not the way to go.

Now, I'm starting to do some serious research about my job options. I'm going to have a degree in Computer Science, so the most logical option should've been as programmers/software developers in IT companies. But... I simply can't picture myself pursuing career in that area. Why? It's as simple as not being interesting in the long run. I took the Multimedia stream in my major because I'm more drawn to the creative and entertainment part of the industry. Some might ask, why don't you find a job as a game programmer? Well, this is where it gets tricky. The only part I wish to be involved in the technical development is in its creative development. When it comes to pure code, I wish not to have a career out of it. Not that I can't do it, I simply am not wishing to make a living from it.

Then, I try to take a different approach. I took one step back and take a look at my past experiences. I'm trying took find some commonalities and find out what my aspiration really is. One thing that popped into my mind is my organizational experiences.

Ever since year one, I joined a lot of clubs and trying to be active in them. Not to mention the campus senate activities. To think about it, I really enjoyed those times. I really like being in a team setting, trying to achieve a collaborative goal. Be it managing a club, holding an event, or even handling complex issues such as campus-student management. In addition, I enjoyed working with different kind of people. I was lucky to be sent in several occasion where I could meet and collaborate and/or compete with diverse people from several countries. Be it Asian level debate competition or Digital Media workshop in France. I was loving every minute of it, every single interaction, no doubt about it.

Then, after some 'random-no-direction' browsing, I stumbled upon one job field that really caught my attention: Consulting.

After some quick research, I found out one specific consulting job that I love the most, namely Strategic Management Consulting. Their job is to handle their client business problems, analyze it with a structured, data-driven approach, then come up with the best solution for the client's situation. It involves leadership skills, problem solving skills, and analytical skills. The client also came from a various field, enabling exposure to diverse type of industry.

Why am I heavily attracted with the job? First of, it involves working with new people from various background. And then, it involves working in a team, managing a project, analyzing the problems, and solving them. These are the things that I enjoyed the most when doing all the activities a few years back!

What about your inital interest in the Multimedia and Entertainment industry, you might ask. It's still there, definitely. In fact (at least from what I read), a lot of people chose consultancy (specifically Strategic Management) to be their career-booster. The generalist nature enables them to get exposure from different kind of industry, possibly something of their own liking. I realize it doesn't guarantee I will get direct exposure to Multimedia industry, but the experience itself is worth the effort.

I always have a certain spot of liking toward business ever since I got my Management class in the first semester. I see business as a holistic approach toward a certain industry. If you able to get a hang of business skills, I believe you would not have a problem in building a career in any industry, including Multimedia and Entertainment industry.

But, as it is true for everything else in this world, this job also not all fun and games. Now that I have a goal to look forward to (becoming a consultant), I need some sort of planning. This is where it gets tricky...

Consultants have a very demanding job. Their average work hours per week is 55-60 hours/week; or, in certain period it could be as high as 90 hours/week (yep, I've done my research). But this in turn make it as a high earning job as well. I'm not really sure with the condition in Indonesia, but some people said that it sure does give you quite far above the average salary (esp. for freshgraduates). This opportunity could only lead to one thing: extremely difficult entry.

The top companies (e.g McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain, etc) definitely won't be hiring just any people. They do have certain entry-level position open for undergraduate freshman from any major. But there are rumours flying around indicating how difficult it is to even to be called for an interview. Some people said they only receive applicants from top universities (is BINUS International one of them? I hope so...) Some said they only call those with GPA higher than 3.5, 3.6 (stop here, please), or even 3.7 (no!). Even if those rumours are not true, it simply depicts how difficult it is to gain an entry.

Well, for the past 3 and a half years I've been used to 7.30 - 5.00 cycle at campus. Now, I have hours of loose time every week. I try to utilize those hours with doing company researches, reading business introductory books, and practicing business case studies. One of the application process later on would be case study interviews. You would be given a business problem, orally, and you should discuss your strategy in tackling the problem. This is the most dreaded phase of them all and I'm trying to be as prepared as possible. What I'm trying to do now is to get the business sense out of me.

I simply have no idea whether this dream of becoming a consultant would be realized or not. I'm preparing myself for the case interview whereas I still have to "dress up" my CV and cover letter to compete with all other hundreds of extraordinary candidates during the recruiting season later on September/October. For most people, the chance in being recruited is slim to none.

But now, I don't want to be 'most people' :). I know what I'm trying to achieve, I know I have found a way to get to it, and I believe I have what it takes. All I can do now is to do my best, and let the rest be determined by the clockwork of the universe. Go! Go! :)