Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Life in a Leetle Dotcom

Alright I've been a bit held up with work lately. Believe it or not, I've been learning how to do Accounting for my little dotcom.

No no nooo.. not the kind of accounting we did in Form 5 where we
CREDIT - AKAUN MODAL AH SENG and
DEBIT - AKAUN KERETA LEMBU...


I mean proper accounting.


Yes... it's sad... our little dotcom is so poor, I'm the Sales, Marketing, Operations, HR and Finance guy all in one.

Just the other day somebody called my office. I picked up and heard the caller's sweet voice "Hello... could you please put me to your HR department please?"

I paused for a moment while I thought about what she just said. It took me only 3 seconds to realise that I was also the HR so I told her

"HR Department? Please hold on a second miss. I'll put you through right away".

I put her on hold and counted to 5.

Then I picked up the phone again and said in the poor British accent I managed to acquire while studying in London for 3 years

"Hello this is HR..."
Yes... we are sooo understaffed but that can't be helped considering we're a tiny poor company.

It makes me wonder how a company like Google could find it in itself to start off for many many years without even generating a cent of revenue in this little garage.
I wonder how the founders slept at night.

We're so understaffed my partner Ming and I considered getting interns to work with us in our Penang office (Ming is based in our Singapore office).

We posted an ad on Jobstreet and we got a lot applicants coming in, but when I sent an e-mail to the ones worth interviewing to say
"I just want you to be clear that this is an INTERNSHIP so we will only provide you with a small allowance and not the salary of a full-time partner in our company"

(I call everyone in our little dotcom a "partner". I have never referred to anyone as an "employee" and I've never referred to myself as a "Boss" ).

But of the 10 e-mails I've sent out to potential interviewees, none of them were interested and most of them didn't even bother to reply.

Which made a little bit of sense since most of the applicants were already graduates.


If you've already graduated... you'd better be finding a proper job and not doing an unpaid relationship unless you're with a company you really believe would be phenomenal one day and you desperately want to be a part of it.

For example, if I had a chance to intern at Apple Computers when it was still a startup... I would probably have joined the company in the end, benefitted from the stock options and would today be a very rich man.
Ahhh.... when I was a student I was always keen on doing internships during our holidays.

I remember the first interview I went for in my life which was for an internship position in an investment bank (which I later got)... the interviewer asked me


"So... do you have any commitments... or a girlfriend or anything?"

I looked at him a little surprise at the question and said

"No I don't officially have a girlfriend... why ask?" (it was true at the time)


He gave me a rather weird look and said

"Because over here, we work at least 12 hours a day and you will not have much of a social life".


That meant no more partying like this on weeknights.

(I'm the drunk dude on the right in this picture)

When I convinced him that I was more than ready for a job like that he then asked me
"So how much do you expect to get paid?"


I said
"Nothing... I would work your 12-16 hour days for free.The value of what I will learn from working here will be so much more than any money you can offer me at this stage
".


In the end he still paid me a very generous salary...

Almost triple the salary that the standard intern in Malaysia gets (among the ones that get paid of course. Some interns don't get paid).


I learned plenty in my internships. I met up with the corporate heads of Malaysia CEOs and MDs of countless public listed companies and it was fun eventhough interns are usually the silent participants in these meetings.

Meaning we just sit down, listen and take notes... we don't say anything or ask any questions... we don't even ask if we can go to the toilet.


My favourite was a meeting with Zainal Amanshah of Redtone.
He spoke very very well in the meeting and knew exactly what he was talking about.

But what is far more important is that the internships I did over my summer holidays helped broaden my horizons to see what I really wanted to do with my life.

Fortunately, our dotcom has managed to inspire a few people who insisted they wanted to work for us even if it was for free.

Lets not forget Mohd Zacky who was with us in our early days helping us put together the computers we now use to work out magic. He has now gone to gone back to college to finish his degree.

Of course to really have interns, our little dotcom would have to prove itself in becoming a fairly successful company to attract the interest of the mass crowd.

But ironically, when we do get to that stage, we probably wouldn't need to hire interns anymore.

Anyway, enough about my Little Dotcom Sdn Bhd.

On other issues... I thought I should give some credit to Koyuuken who wrote about Boss Lepton and I in his blog here.

And for those of you who read my blog at work and need some cheering up...

Check out this video by Russell Peters.. he's hilarious.



ME LOVE RUSSELL PETERS LONG TIME!

But me love all you guys who read my blog regularly even longer time ok?

That includes Lance, Suicidal, Mz, Chapree, Jackson, Cely, William, Gwen, Jason, Smash... and everyone else I may have missed out.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Me love Pepsi cans long time!

Btw, that Russell clip was in 2004. Want my collection?? =P

Jason Lioh said...

Errr, the whole point of the entry is?

Boss Stewie said...

SEND MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Boss Stewie said...

jason: blog entries don't need a point

Jason Lioh said...

Hmm... You got a point! And boss shouldn't be blogging during office hour. Ahaks! I'm coming to KL end of this October, fly down so that we can have a cup of lecka-lecka together?

Gwendolynne said...

Why is there Lempe Berger google ads on your site o_O

ahaha ... your site is easy on the eyes, no mangled english and your quips on life are good. What's not to like? I however, would prefer to see your gf camwhore a little bit more on your blog. K thx bai.

Boss Stewie said...

jason: wah... end october ar.. i'm not so sure lor... lemme see if i can work something out... PS: hehe i can blog during office hours as long as i finish whatever work i have to do for the day

Boss Stewie said...

gwen: well uhm... my gf and i are...

Anonymous said...

walau - emo post ... hahaha

Anonymous said...

MMU's hols are up and coming soon...

Jason: Lets go together to Penang and stalk Boss Stewie no? =)

Anonymous said...

bosssss i love u oso...*drool*...

こうゆうけん said...

LOL... actually I wanted to write about you long long time ago since that duck tales post!!! :P

You are the best!!!! Boss Stewie!!!
Ops... Timonthy Tiah! :P

Anonymous said...

hire me, boss !
i can blog during my office time!

Boss Stewie said...

earl: eh? emo post meh?

lance: oh u're welcomed to come.. i've never had stalkers before

kmy: awww...

koyuuken: hahahaha okok thanks anyway

cely: hah as long as u get the work done

Jason Lioh said...

The last time I went to Penang, Boss flew to Singapore to avoid me, ya know.

Lance : Hmm, not this holiday. Gonna work like a workaholic, need some cash for a holiday trip. Hehe! Maybe year end or sumthing. Ahaks!

Anonymous said...

Yay, I like Russell Peters too.
And add oil! :)

Anonymous said...

Yay, I like Russell Peters too.
And add oil! :)

Unknown said...

boss.. what u mean by

... "Boss Stewie said...
gwen: well uhm... my gf and i are" ... ???

oh oh.. lance, count me in... i'm already back at home d. last paper finished on saturday last week. so i got 4 weeks holidays. and im going penang on the raya's weekend. come, let us go stalk timothy >:)
going there for 4 days only. dunno get the chance to meet the great boss or not

Anonymous said...

lance, i don't know you, you don't know me, but let's go stalk boss stewie! :D

and er boss, u seem a bit outdated, no? tt clip is waaaayyyyyyyy old. but u must think (like what i think) that it's the funniest of his clips tt's why u have it here right?? stop fretting over being understaffed, come this dec please accept me as a free intern!

consider it a reciprocation of your love for me. muahahahahaha *buat shy*

Boss Stewie said...

jason: woi! i din run to singapore to avoid u.. i had to go to singapore for work!!!

alynna: we love russell peters long time!

william: just tell me when u guys are coming down.. will be more than happy to meet up with you guys.. seriously

suicidal: u want to intern wtih my little dotcom in PENANG? really?!?

Anonymous said...

yes boss i read you every morning

Boss Stewie said...

yes smash.. i read u every morning too

Gwendolynne said...

Dunno ... >_> gf and i are ... on the couch with some Barry White?

Come on, don't pretend and dodge the question. Your eager readers want to know! If you're shy shy, come add me to MSN. (Don't you dare try to do what you did to Cely on me! I'm magic you know!)

Anonymous said...

you'll let me intern with ur little dotcom in penang?!??!!? really?!!??!!?

ok disclaimer 1st. i can use the computer for really simpleton stuff, like blogging, playing minesweeper, dota, and maybe draw meaningless graphs with random data with excel. u want my resume? LOL

Boss Stewie said...

gwen: well.. let's just say i'm single again

suicidal: hahahaha.... are u really serious? where are u goign to live in penang?

Wingz said...

I love mr CEO too!!!!

Anonymous said...

Interesting. What's your office's exact location?

Gwendolynne said...

omg ... I'm so sorry. *mourns for 2 seconds*

Go get an English model girlfriend that looks like Elizabeth Hurley!

Mz said...

aww.. stewie, sorry to hear abt ur r/ship.

(bigger) AWWW.. i love readin ur blog too, it makes me laugh more than Kenny Sia's entries (no offense to Kenny S yeah, n i don't read his as often). will continue to read ur blog as long as i have internet connection. hehe promise!

take care yeah, cheer up a bit. we give u emo support!!

Jackson said...

Well, if you ever need an outpost in the Netherlands, you've got one applicant already ;)

And I don't even need that much payment, I give you best price: Thiihty Faive Dollahs!

Anonymous said...

So, I don't post for a month and you forget about me? Sniff. Sniff. Never mind, glad to see you're writing such hard hitting political journalism on your site.

Anonymous said...

we'll settle this over msn. haha

Boss Stewie said...

wingz: u're the ceo... remember? :P

lance: my office exact position? HEHEHE i'll tell u on msn :P

gwen: uhmm.. i'm not sure i would enjoy an english gf... imagine what she might say during sex

"Oh that feels absolutely fantastic... ohh that's just SMASHING.... ohhh..ohhh.. I'm arriving.. I'M ARRIVING!!!!!"

mz: awww mz... i didn't think any of my new posts in this blog were funny but i'm glad you like them :P i don't read kenny sia too but if he gets so many visits a day.. he must be doing something right

jackson: HAHAHAHAHA jackson.. u CRACK ME UP... "BE A MAN!" LOL

hasan: political journalism? where??

suicidal: ok boss

Anonymous said...

boss u ignored me when i msged u at 2am last nite! er i'm supposing u had fell asleep but yet had ur msn on with the status busy? it's ok u're forgiven i still wanna intern at ur leetle dotcom :D

Boss Stewie said...

suicidal: msg me on msn again

Anonymous said...

Thank you. Ho Ho Ho... I get something fresh from your site. Is it can do internship also in Malaysia w/o university office approval one? Because i thought its only available in syllabus one. ^^ Your old post make my mind bubbling... hah hah hah