EPT
What I learned as a Consultant at PwC Korea Part 2
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MightyAtom
Korea (South)1897 Posts
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zatic
Zurich15330 Posts
Funny your application story seems familiar. I had a similar experience where I was prepared for every question imaginable and at the very end failed calculating how much their competitors pay on wages total (I think that was it). I don't know how many part are still coming but I have a question if you don't mind: How did you meet your wive and how did you manage to maintain that relationship? I am working as a consultant as well and I am basically never home nor ever at one place for a period long enough to keep any sort of relationship alive. Speaking of that have you seen Up In The Air? | ||
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zulu_nation8
China26351 Posts
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tofucake
Hyrule19063 Posts
But nice read. With a bit of polish (not people from Poland) this could be a cool movie. | ||
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Artifex
Belgium189 Posts
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LosingID8
CA10828 Posts
looking forward to your next entry | ||
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Gatsbi
United States1134 Posts
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MightyAtom
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On August 27 2010 04:58 zatic wrote: Jeez you need to slow down haha. I love reading those but I can't keep up. Funny your application story seems familiar. I had a similar experience where I was prepared for every question imaginable and at the very end failed calculating how much their competitors pay on wages total (I think that was it). I don't know how many part are still coming but I have a question if you don't mind: How did you meet your wive and how did you manage to maintain that relationship? I am working as a consultant as well and I am basically never home nor ever at one place for a period long enough to keep any sort of relationship alive. Speaking of that have you seen Up In The Air? In backwards order, my life was 1 part Up in The Air, 1 Part Michael Clayton and 1 Part 30 Rock. You tell me a country in Asia and I'll tell you which customs line to stand in, and I'm a Cathay Pacific Gold member for the 2nd year off of REGIONAL FLIGHTS lol and the most airportsI flew into in a single day was 4 (Denmark, Amsterdam, Paris, Toulouse). I was known as the fixer in my firm- what a shitty position, never again. And of course, its all about corporate and expense account. My wife. 1 year after graduation, I went to an annual university gathering call "KO YON JUN" Meanig war between Korea University and Yonsie unviersity. My juniors invited me to visit campus and she was one of my junior's friend and had graduated with her law degree the year before as well and she was now working at a boutique venture capital firm. When we first started to date, I had to book of one Saturday a week and so we met only on Saturdays for 3 months and then after three months I was like wtf, by this rate I'll never get to know her, so then I booked in 1 more day a week on Wednesday which absolutely destroyed my work week and left me competely screwed- for those you dont' get this, we work till at least 9-10 most nights and get into the office at 9ish or so, so if you take a early night off, you litterally need to make that up some where. But, because the way PwC is set up, the type of consulting I was engaged with was split between benchmarking and domestic negotiations and then travel for investment assessments. So at the time, I only traveled once a month for a 3 or 5 day max trip. And travel to the EU was only once every 3 months and then it was for 2weeks and we packed in all the trips during that time for all clients. So, at least I was mostly in the country. But I closed the deal quickly, by about 3 months later we were engaged and 3 months after that married. Now, where I completely get you is that I got picked up by PokerStars after I had been married and this is where it got nuts for the last 3 and half years, I'll say for my first year of marriage, I was alway from half the year, for the second year of marriage 80% of the year and the 3rd year about 50% when my child was born until I quit 6 months ago. Of course, in my case where I'm senior enough, taking 6 months off hasn't been a problem, but my next job needs to be something wihtout a lot of travel, so im down to 2 options which I'll chose within the next week Even with the fact as a executive I had the option to fly my wife out with me if my stay in any location was over a week and a half, it ws too much for her. You forget that normal people don't travel that much and lving in a hotel is still living in a small arpartmetn no matter how luxuerous. But basically, I have made it, but if I didn't quit, I was on the verge of, not divorce, but I was causing too much strain on our marriage. It's also different, my wife comes from a corporate family, he dad is a ceo of big company and so she knows what are the necessary sacrifices and a few months after we got married she quit her job. BUT in terms of your situation, you need to go on as many freaking dates as you can when you at your home location and then exchange emails with mulitple people so that at least you can get to know them more. Then you will have to make a lifestyle choice and if you've done your 2 years, then apply like nuts for a senior manager role and settle down a bit. Short answer is, and you know it too, you can't get married like that, you have to get out and get scouted by a big stable firm and then get married. Or get into a mulit-national and get sent aboard on an expat package and then youll have some time to settle down and get a relationship going or if you get married during this time, they will take care of all your housing etc. Or if you havent' done your MBA yet, make a deal with your firm to sponsor you, find a girl and get married during your MBA period and then go for management in your own firm and that is all about getting clients. Send me a pm with your email and what field, I have a lot of connections in EU in the gaming field, I might be able to get you a good senior position where you can settle down, even in Germany. Cheers ^^ | ||
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Terrakin
United States1440 Posts
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
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Baksteen
Netherlands438 Posts
Giev part 3! | ||
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d_so
Korea (South)3262 Posts
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Turgon
United States37 Posts
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Entropic
Canada2837 Posts
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Abenson
Canada4122 Posts
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kidd
United States2848 Posts
Myself I just graduated and am going to pursue law school next year so I hope to be able to write about my exploits through life in a few years. | ||
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MightyAtom
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On August 27 2010 06:53 d_so wrote: haha i'm more sober now and man that was a great read! really encourages me to get back to school and get my masters so i can stand up and not get pwned during the job interview when we share what university we graduated from. On the undergrad degree part, I definately feel you. I graduated high school one year early so I could take a year off and study music and my parents reneged on their agreement and secretly registered me in the only univerisity taking applications in MAY. Omg, I was the like the last one to register for all my classes and got them all at 4pm, the exact time that I have taken a nap for the last 4 years of my life in high school (6:30 am Rugby practice everyday). It was actually the best thing that happened to me or else I probably would have ended up as an elitiest cocksucker, but man, people are like, what, you went there? Of all places why? They don't mention it now though ^^ | ||
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MightyAtom
Korea (South)1897 Posts
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d_so
Korea (South)3262 Posts
On August 27 2010 10:41 MightyAtom wrote: On the undergrad degree part, I definately feel you. I graduated high school one year early so I could take a year off and study music and my parents reneged on their agreement and secretly registered me in the only univerisity taking applications in MAY. Omg, I was the like the last one to register for all my classes and got them all at 4pm, the exact time that I have taken a nap for the last 4 years of my life in high school (6:30 am Rugby practice everyday). It was actually the best thing that happened to me or else I probably would have ended up as an elitiest cocksucker, but man, people are like, what, you went there? Of all places why? They don't mention it now though ^^ YOU GIVE ME HOPE. TELL ME MORE I'LL BUY YOU BEER. Serious though, if you're in Nowon area sometime PM me, there's a nice little foreigner bar here where gyopos like us run shit | ||
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Ack1027
United States7873 Posts
It makes the story a lot more interesting for me anyway to learn its not fluent, though your definition of that word might have a ton of modesty ;P | ||
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Amnesia
United States3818 Posts
 But wow, I must say this has been the best of blogs I've been reading for a while. I know for a fact that this kind of experience is something I will never go through. I never expected it to be this way and it seems stressing as hell. I don't know if I could handle that all that pressure :c. I'm not sure if I skipped it, but have you lived in Korea all your life? Or have you lived in the USA before? Nonetheless this is so damn interesting. I eagerly wait for the next one. GOGOGO! | ||
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MightyAtom
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On August 27 2010 12:40 Ack1027 wrote: I always figured your Korean was native level from your posts! It makes the story a lot more interesting for me anyway to learn its not fluent, though your definition of that word might have a ton of modesty ;P My understanding level is quite high, especially for business situations, but my general vocubulary is just conversational, but sometimes I'll be talking with some random poeple and pull out a sik vocab from business. lol. But I really suffer from this really bad English/Country side accent, so a lot of Seoul people think my Korean is totally messed up, but when I meet people from Kyongsangdo, they think my korean is fine, with a bit of English accent. It drives my wife nuts that I speak in Satori at home because her parents speak Satori accent (Country accent) so its just easier for to communicate in. lol, when I say this to Seoul people, then think I'm such a liar and I'm just trying to justify my bad bad accent. Every year a Kyunghee university in Seoul, they have a full unviersity festival where all young alumni come out and its a big tent party with each tent hosting their major. So a close friend was a philopshy major and he takes me out to go drink there with him, about 6 years ago, so I'm talking philopshy with them in my messed up Korean and of course we're all drunk and then one girls says, 'stop, stop, how is it for the last hour we're having this deep complex philosphical discussion with you and you barely speak any Korean, how is this possible' and everyone looks at each other and they're like ,'oooohhhhh, this is freaky, either he is an alien or he has some mental power or super noochi which is the same thing' and I say, 'Hey its because I'm Korean you babos, Gombeh! Lets drink' and their like, yeah, that makes sense (or not) lol and we kept on drinking. kekek. | ||
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MightyAtom
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On August 27 2010 13:12 Amnesia wrote: FUCK MightyAtom why did you have to leave me in suspense AGAIN? But wow, I must say this has been the best of blogs I've been reading for a while. I know for a fact that this kind of experience is something I will never go through. I never expected it to be this way and it seems stressing as hell. I don't know if I could handle that all that pressure :c. I'm not sure if I skipped it, but have you lived in Korea all your life? Or have you lived in the USA before? Nonetheless this is so damn interesting. I eagerly wait for the next one. GOGOGO! LOL, I'm such a bad man, but thanks for your reply ^^; I was raised in Montreal and lived in Canada until about 23 and then been in Korea ever since, and while most of my close friends are Korean and my other friends while are foreigner, speak much better korean than me, other than writing, I don't speak much usually, when going out. I prefer to just drink first, then let the beer doing the talking which actually improves my accent. keke, but it was and is stressful to some extent, but since you enjoy it, it become a bit like a drug, in that you feel invincible every time you over come it, but the human body can only endure so much. But, I am actually from an ultra traditional background so my countance as being Korean is something I just am regardless of cultural context. If I'm in Japan, we drink like we're in Korea, if I'm in London, we party like we're in Korea keke ^^ and sorry about the suspense again, Ill try to close the series in # 5 LOL. My wife is so upset now, I'm telling her its very important work as well as its for our son. kaka. | ||
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Ack1027
United States7873 Posts
On August 27 2010 18:48 MightyAtom wrote: My understanding level is quite high, especially for business situations, but my general vocubulary is just conversational, but sometimes I'll be talking with some random poeple and pull out a sik vocab from business. lol. But I really suffer from this really bad English/Country side accent, so a lot of Seoul people think my Korean is totally messed up, but when I meet people from Kyongsangdo, they think my korean is fine, with a bit of English accent. It drives my wife nuts that I speak in Satori at home because her parents speak Satori accent (Country accent) so its just easier for to communicate in. lol, when I say this to Seoul people, then think I'm such a liar and I'm just trying to justify my bad bad accent. Every year a Kyunghee university in Seoul, they have a full unviersity festival where all young alumni come out and its a big tent party with each tent hosting their major. So a close friend was a philopshy major and he takes me out to go drink there with him, about 6 years ago, so I'm talking philopshy with them in my messed up Korean and of course we're all drunk and then one girls says, 'stop, stop, how is it for the last hour we're having this deep complex philosphical discussion with you and you barely speak any Korean, how is this possible' and everyone looks at each other and they're like ,'oooohhhhh, this is freaky, either he is an alien or he has some mental power or super noochi which is the same thing' and I say, 'Hey its because I'm Korean you babos, Gombeh! Lets drink' and their like, yeah, that makes sense (or not) lol and we kept on drinking. kekek. Man this makes me even more sad that we never had a TL get together way back when you were active here [ the first time ]. I think satoori is awesome, but I don't know anyone who speaks it in person. It makes korean sound more down to earth sometimes ;P | ||
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