Week 3 & 4

A milestone marks the start of the beginning :)

( 12/01/15 - 23/01/15)

    As a student that always able to meet deadline earlier or on time most of the time during classes, I never imagine that I would get the experience of struggling, rushing and catching up for time. Certainly, it had been a whole new experience for me in chasing dateline! Base on this new experience, I would say that if we do not organize our time properly, it will definitely cause anyone to feel nerve wracking. What happened during the incident was that around 2pm, one of the senior staff requested me to assist her on printing 27 copies of 126 pages of UOB financial statement 2014 with a timeframe given of 30 minute. Well, things did not go smooth as it was expect to be. There were two printers in the office which were not enough to print out the copies needed, and all in all it took about one hour to finish all the copies.  At 2.30pm, there are only 10 copies had been printed out nicely, and I was told to send the financial statement to Menara UOB before 3pm so that the Legal & Security department will be able to touch up, do the binding and send out to respective BOD. I was asked to follow one of the senior finance managers to Menara UOB, Miss Neo (Head of Finance) and we will able to arrive within less than 15 minutes. Due to some minor changes, we couldn’t pass up on time but it didn’t mean that I need not to speed up my works. I did the arrangement and replacement even faster and in my opinion, I suddenly felt like I was able to use the printer with no obstacles or problems which definitely help Ms Neo and Ms Yap to speed up the process. After three hour delay, the 27 stack of copies financial statement is done. 

   Those financial statements are to be send to board of director all over the world to prepare for 20^th January 2015 Annual meeting.  You must be wonder why is it so rush when the meeting date was 7 days from today. Well, I asked the same question! I was been told that those BOD need to receive the financial statement in advance usually before one week so that they can read through it before they gather up for the meeting. I was amaze by the efficiency and effectiveness of running a meeting. I learnt to pick up the good point that next time whenever there is a meeting or meet up within my club and society, I should always gear up myself with the information needed ahead to be able to discuss and even go straight into the problem and suggest solution which believe will be saving up a lot of time.

   Besides that, there was a mistake I made in past few day during matching and causes the expenses is debit to the wrong department when I matching the Posting Request with the Daily Document Journal Listing. I overlook the alphabet in front and the customer call to our department and ask for confirmation. I felt so guilty as I neglected the alphabet as I read through the figure too fast as having the mindset of it won’t went wrong. I was lucky enough that have a great bunch of colleague who always assist me and teach me. Miss Zurina reminds me to be precaution and she forgives me as this is a common mistake where sometimes she might make the same mistake as well.  The mistakes had actually developed me to be more careful when performing task even it’s an easy task. However, I really appreciate the help of colleagues even though I had made few errors and mistakes which have drove them up the wall few times, they will still be there to guide and make sure I learn from the mistake.  What can I ask for more when I have these bunches of caring colleagues. J

  Key Learning :

Meeting work with dateline

Due to restrain on time, we need to submit our tasks in time, therefore, I learn not to drag my work to the other day even I have plenty time to do on the another day. Sometimes, I do stay in the office after office hour to finish the task on hand to make sure I didn’t delay the dateline. I learn how to manage my time effectively and hence I would say my time management had improved over the period.

Be Prepared

As a finance intern, I learned to be alert and prepare at all time. First of all, I always keep a pen and notebook with me. My supervisor might appear suddenly beside my desk and pass me some of the tasks. And with notebook and pen ready, I able to note down the important area that I need to look into or those unlearn procedure so that I can refer back when I face difficulty. I would say beside mentally be prepared all the time, I am required to be prepared physically as well. For instance, I was asked to go to Menara UOB with Vice President of finance out of sudden.