After the end of my temporary employment at a German company in Tsim Sha Tsui and their offer to extend my employment, I asked the job search agency to find me a job related to computers or Information Technology, but I knew it was difficult at the time.

Getting a job interview call at a new telecommunications company

A few weeks later, a job search agency called me and asked me to take a job interview at a fledgling telecommunications company in Hong Kong in 1993, which had only been established for 3 years at the time. The company is now one of the largest telecommunications companies in Hong Kong and also provides dedicated mobile phone services for Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong.

The position I applied for was in the administrative department, such as photocopying and helping fill out papers at fax machines that had no direct connection to computers, but I wanted to try it because it is a big company. I think I will have the opportunity in the future to move to the computer-related section.

I felt tense because the company's office was located in an elite office area in Taikoo Place, Quarry Bay at that time. When I arrived at the company's office, I became more tense because I noticed that almost all the department managers in the company were women. Then I was immediately met by the manager of the administrative department, and he started interviewing me. After the interview, this manager refused to accept me because I had no experience in office administration at all, so I felt disappointed and left this office.

Being called back to the same company by the customer service manager

A few days later, I received a call from the same company's personnel department to come back to their office, because the manager from the customer service department wanted to see me.

When I met with the manager, he explained that the administrative manager told me that he was polite and kind, so he asked the manager if he needed an employee for customer service. After the job interview, I was immediately accepted to work in the data entry section, which involves entering customer data into the computer.

The company's customer service department consists of several sections, including customer phone receivers (Customer Service Hotline) and customer data entry (Data Entry)

My department is called the Activation Department, which consists of 1 manager, 1 assistant manager, 2 supervisors, 4 senior employees, and about 10 regular employees. At first, my task was the same as that of an ordinary employee, which was to enter customer data into the system. Unlike now, everything is automatic and can be done directly by the employees in the store; at that time, the store employees could only help customers fill out conventional forms and then fax them to us, and we manually entered the data into the system.

In addition, we also took turns to receive faxes from the store branches with about 12 facsimile machines. At that time, mobile phone service was just starting to be available in Hong Kong, so sometimes in 1 day we received hundreds of applications. From there I learned to type very quickly because we were not allowed to go home if we had not completed the task of entering data from all the applications we received on the same day.

The atmosphere of my office when I worked at a telecommunications company in Quarry Bay. The right of the photo is the area where the facsimile machine is located, and the left is our workbenches. This photo was taken around 1999.

For the first time, I felt the atmosphere of stabbing each other among co-workers

The telecommunications company I worked for was a local company, and the employees at that time were all locals, so you can imagine a very tight competition atmosphere. Almost every day we witnessed scenes of each other stabbing each other, like our manager with other department managers and even assistant managers are always looking for ways to shift our manager. Our two supervisors, who look familiar, sometimes look for ways to find fault with each other. There's a lot more that I can't tell you all about here.

I myself don't want to get involved in such things because I know I won't be working in this department for long. My goal is to work in the IT sector, namely Information Technology. So I chose to spend my energy deepening my knowledge rather than seeking positions in such ways.

Nevertheless, I learned how to avoid the traps of other co-workers and be wary of those who pretended to be nice to me.

Photo with colleagues in front of the office entrance. The women next to me were my seniors at that time.

The company replaced the new system, and I was given the task of compiling a manual

2 years later, the company changed the system from a terminal system to a web browser with the aim that employees in the store could directly enter customer data as well. Then I was entrusted to compile the manual in English because my English and computer science were considered much better than those of the other employees.

After the superiors saw the results of the manual that I had compiled, they were very satisfied, and then one of the managers and I were assigned to conduct various tests to ensure that the company's system could run properly and normally from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000. These experiences really helped me to get the job I wanted in the future.

Photo around the end of 1999 when I was assigned to compile the company's new system manual.

First, try to go to another country on your own with limited funds to be more independent and learn the culture of another country

After working in this company, I started to have savings to try to go to another country while practicing adaptability in a new environment and learning the culture of another country. I chose Japan in 1997 for the first time. However, the amount of savings is also limited, so I have to find a cheap place to live while there. At that time, the internet was not very common, so the effort to find a hotel room had to go through books and information from the Japanese Consulate General in Hong Kong. Since then, I have tried to visit different countries on my own almost every year in a cheap way. After the About the Author column is finished, I will create a new column telling about my experiences when visiting other countries.

When I visited Tokyo in 1997.

Some of the strange or funny things I have witnessed in this office

Although the atmosphere in this office is often tense, there is also no shortage of strange and funny events that entertain us in tense situations.

One of the male co-workers is a person who loves fitness training. Although his body is not tall, it is quite stocky. The coworker can be said to be a very innocent person, not ambitious, but has many strange behaviors, such as always bringing lunch to the toilet. In addition, he also often practices in the office by lifting 1 gallon of drinking water that is still contained in each hand.

A colleague from another department often brought a portable gas stove and a cooking pot inside the office canteen. He was very kind and often treated us to a meal together. But one day, it was too smoky to make the office alarm go off. Not long after, the co-worker was fired. We felt very sorry for him, but some of the employees made fun of the incident during lunch together.

Group photo with some colleagues at the company's year-end party in 1998.