interviewing skills 101

interviewing preparation is a key element of success in leaving your best impression upon the firm and the interviewer. for any given question, an appropriate response should be prepared and practiced so your tone and flow are genuine. since interviewers go through many candidates at a time, try to make your response unique: make your answer reflect your own personality and character and use stories and concrete examples that are true.

here are some common interview questions:


tell me about yourself.

my name is andy jiang, i'm 5'8'', 140lbs, blood type O, shoe size 10 american. i love runny egg yolk, hot sauce, and pulpy orange juice.


have you done any trading previously?

yes, i have bought and redistributed marijuana, adderall, and shrooms, and am fairly familiar with those markets in the new england area. i began my career in the drug market by specializing in high end marijuana markets doing individual sales to clients. as i became more familiar with the marijuana market, i moved towards sales between businesses, and ultimately began trading weight and focused on increasing trade volume. i focused on arbitrage opportunities and compared prices of different strains in different locations to determine any openings in the market. at the same time, i was constantly looking for investors and speculators who were interested in participating in the market. marijuana and adderall are highly liquid market (except during the end of college semesters for weed and during exams for adderall), whereas shrooms is highly illiquid market.


what makes you the best candidate for this position?

i was born with a keyboard in my hands. since the moment i was able to process sight, i was using microsoft excel. i have logged over 5000 hours ONLY doing control-c, control-v (my total logged hours for all excel functions exceed 8 years). i have wet dreams about spreadsheets and the little microsoft paper clip helper guy, only to wake up at the crack of dawn to pull open excel and start copying and pasting. there is no task imaginable that is more intellectually stimulating than repeat control c, control v. when i do not have the pleasure of sitting in front of a computer, i have a fake keyboard that i practice excel hot keys with, to keep my mind sharp.


remember to be honest and genuine while answering each question. practice in front of a mirror to help solidify your physical impression.


more to come later..

andy

--

the information presented in this entry is all false.

the zen of kirby's air ride

if you haven't played kirby's air ride for gamecube, then don't bother unless you have nothing else to do or you are on acid/any sort of drug.

air ride is not a conventional racing game with cars; rather, players race with 'air ride machines'. for instance, there is no accelerate button and there are boundaries on each track (unlike mariokart, where you race on precariously small tracks with risk of falling off and finishing in the bottom four). there are different vehicles, as in any other racing game, that players can choose from. since mark and i were new to the game, we chose the 'wagon star': a large box that kirby sits on that requires no skill due to its easy handling (compared to the other vehicles, which have poor acceleration, poor handling, and requires competent control of drifting and boosting). to put it simply, using the wagon (or as we affectionately called 'the haier' because of its resemblance to a stolen--no, hijacked--chinese refrigerator) requires the least amount of player input. since the tracks have boundaries, you can leave your controller on the couch and your place in the race would not change drastically.

when the race was between two haiers (which was usually the case), both haiers always finished within two seconds of each other. regardless of what happened during the race, the power ups gotten and weapons used, the different paths taken, the race would always finish the same--one haier winning by a close margin, flying from out of the screen, taking the loser by surprise.

we played air ride for five or six hours. i can't tell you for certain what held our interest in the game; maybe the flashing lights, aesthetically pleasing back drop, mindless simple game play, the instant gratification of pressing the 'a' button and attacking random objects that cross your path, or the acid we dropped earlier (yeah, probably the acid). and it was probably the acid that instigated these thoughts on the air ride that emerged in my mind while playing.

video games, like religion, is the opiate of the masses. today, video games sedate the minds of millions of today's youth. the japanese have understood this and are one of the biggest think tanks for creating the most popular games. and it is all part of japan's plan to become the future world power. by making games that do not actively improve any aspect of the player (besides to get better at pressing certain button combinations), solely to entertain and kill time, and directed towards america's youth, japan is diluting the potency and culture of next generation america. how can video games, a seemingly innocuous form of entertainment, be used to control an entire generation?

consider arcade tekken, for instance. i have played a couple of times against my japanese friend, yousuke. me, backed with my knowledge of several combos and KO moves, against yousuke, smart enough to understand the capabilities of button mashing. our games were always close, but the credit goes to him for his passive playing style. i would be bent over the little red plastic joy stick and the four buttons, fingers clumsily deciding which button is the punch and which is the kick, eyes glued to the screen looking for an opening in yousuke's game. yousuke would be leaning back, smoking a cigarette, visibly not engaged in the fight. and yet sometimes, to my bewilderment, he would win.

mashing buttons, huh. so that is the secret to games. many people posting on online forums frown upon button mashing, as it 'takes away from the skill required to play the game'. but isn't playing smart also a skill? or recognizing the ease and efficiency of button mashing? the tekken arcade players, like me, who went through the trouble to learn difficult combos have all done so in vain against players who button mash and win. in fact, if two players button mash, the outcome is random like a sporting event. like air ride, if two haiers are racing, the outcome is generally random. who decides who gets to fly out of the corner of the screen, surpassing the other player a few feet before the finish line? especially considering the fact that that outcome occurs regardless of the race itself and that the players need not be actively engaged with the controls to race competitively (given, of course, that the players are racing with the haiers). is air ride just one giant, intricately created game that deceives us with all of its flashing colors and power up capabilities into pushing the joystick and pressing 'a', only for all control inputs to have negligible contribution towards the outcome of the race?

but it is all in the genius of air ride. there is a relentless pursuit to unlock all the vehicles and all the tracks. and for those with competitive spirits, the pursuit to master a more difficult vehicle than the haier. and for the simple minded, the flashing colors and instant gratification that comes with hitting someone or something with your power ups. air ride encompasses all and on all levels. from a grander perspective, air ride is a video game, like any other video game, that gives an objective to challenge the player, the give the player something to do, some goal to achieve, but does nothing to better the player as a human being (improve a skill that can better life, not just to excel in a specific area like 'being able to master king dedede's bicycle on the last track') and only serves as entertainment.

so the time and money spent to enjoy a few hours of insignificant fun is time and money not spent exercising the mind, exercising the body, pursuing a hobby, or anything else that betters somebody as a human being. but there are exceptions. if everybody is playing a particular video game, then not playing it may limit your social standing as an 'outsider'. but that is the case with any activity, television program, or movie. although everything is good in moderation, excessive video game playing, which i believe is the result of poor parenting, is one of the reasons video games is slowly rotting the minds of today's youth.

and yet we keep playing because the instant gratification mixed with the pretty colors just simply makes the players feel good. i feel good when i see kirby riding on a stolen laundry machine with a chinese character on its side. i love flying around, the frictionless surface, the responsiveness of the haier, and the colorful shapes on the screen give the game a warm, soft feel. soon, i am immersed in the game completely, gliding aimlessly on a fantastical track floating among the wispy clouds.

and the entire time, it is air ride that is playing us. it is the video game industry preying on our need for stimuli, our need for gratification. it is the video game industry, always one step ahead, teasing us with colors and predetermined goals, slowly trapping us in a world where human interaction is replaced with pre-scripted, fictional dialogue. it is the video game industry, secretly conniving behind our backs, giving us a false sense of empowerment whenever we win or score, deceiving us into buying more games and playing until our fingers are seized with carpal tunnel and our brains fried.

and yet everyone is connected to video games. not to say that video games are bad, but they should be treated as such: just video games. there exists people who live for video games, where video games become their lives (they should drop acid and come to these realizations themselves). i feel that to be a bit excessive. but there are times when i crave the security of being in command of a few hundred pixels on the television screen.

while playing air ride, nothing can budge me from my seat, my hands from my controller, my eyes from the screen. if it isn't boredom or the need to be 'doing things' that continuously brings me back to video games, what can it be?

don't leave me high, don't leave me dry...

-andy

day seven of my cannabis hiatus...

sanjay: did you know that there are amazing opportunities to be had in the exploitation of emerging third-world countries?
conrad: (to sanjay) there's 300 billionaires in this country and 40 million people living below the poverty line. wake up 7-eleven; this is the fucking third world.
(nancy and conrad leave room)
nancy: how do you know all that stuff?
conrad: the daily show.

-weeds, episode 21

i haven't written in a while. for the past few nights, i really couldn't will myself to write anything meaningful in here. it must've been all the free tv i get online (thanks victor for weeds and scrubs).

not to mention, marc has not been in for two days. so that is two days idly spent online websurfing and watching episodes. and here is my way overdue review of weeds.


weeds (showtime, season three begins august 13 at 10pm) is one of the most real, human tv shows that i have ever seen. granted, i don't watch much tv, but weeds reveals an underground world of drug dealing, politics, business, money, relationships, deception--all conveniently hidden under the delicate guise of a safe, suburban california community cutely named 'agrestic' (agrestic means 'rural'). weeds, created and produced by jenji kohan (writer for sex and the city, gilmore girls, and mad about you), is filled with sass and crass, witty and provocative dialogue. weeds really takes the standard 'american dream' and uncovers an entire side that most choose to ignore in a comedic, sometimes dark, manner. in it's audacity and blunt desire to cross controversial television standards (following showtime's mantra: 'no limits'), weeds does not beat around the bush with issues that other programs may be hesitant to address.

nancy botwin (mary-louise parker, who won the golden globe for best tv series-comedy in 2006, beating the other nominees who were all 'desperate housewives'), is widowed and left with two children. in order to maintain her lifestyle, she decides to deal marijuana and eventually begins growing her own strain (appropriately dubbed by snoop dogg as 'milfweed'). for the rest of the characters, there is celia hodes (elizabeth perkins) who is a self-righteous neighbor who hates her obese daughter (she calls her 'isa-belly'), as well as her cheating husband; doug wilson (hilarious kevin nealon) as nancy's accountant and business adviser, city councilman, and a huge pothead; heylia james (tonye patano) and her nephew conrad (romany malco) as nancy's first marijuana suppliers; and other drug dealers, a DEA agent, nancy's two adorable likable children, etc.

weeds is an adult show with adult subject matter that addresses issues on so many levels. watch season three! mary-kate olsen will be in the majority of this season as a love interest of silas botwin, nancy's oldest son. the upcoming season should be compelling, with or without a dime of sweet cheeba cheeba ;).

anyway, i am leaving work early to catch a bus to dc.

-andy

a brief, fleeting moment

usually i never ever know what to write about.

but i think i have a pretty good idea of why i write.

i want to put into words how i feel about things and about the way i live and about the way i think, but i suck at it since my command of the english language blows (the phrase 'how i feel about things', for instance, is as boring and unoriginal as this parenthetical insert. hah.) i want to believe that each entry i write is another opportunity to understand who i am or the way i think or whatever.

i put specific, fleeting moments in my life into words so i can understand them better. but i am unable to visit and revisit all of those fleeting moments long enough to process them into text. most of them slip through my shallow short term memory (i should be more willing to write shit down in a notebook/remember to carry my notebook on the subway trains).

i try to revisit those moments in my life where i am searching for a specific within an ambiguity. you may ask, where the fuck did you get that phrase from, andy? well, i got it from my expository writing class. anyway, i try to revisit those moments, but i can't recreate them on command. sometimes its a scent that makes me take a step back and remember the summer before my sophomore year at blair (its my roommate's shampoo and i cannot describe in words the scent). sometimes its the color of the sky or the shape and movement of the clouds that reminds me of early march, the spring tennis season. sometimes its the rattling of the 1 train that reminds me of my childhood in chicago, living beneath the rude racket of the elevated track in a tall, narrow red bricked building. regardless, as the memories flash quickly in my mind's eye, it just as quickly fades into now, the present, reality. i want to capture those moments and put them into words that i can visit and revisit whenever i desire.

and the 'moments' are not as simple as 'this smell reminds me of working at NIST', but more of the emotions evoked when thinking about those moments; emotions that the most complex, hi-res emoticon cannot handle ;). but feel free to prove me wrong.

i like to write about myself. about my life, the things i do, the things i don't do. about the way i think, my thought processes, my sense of humor. about little things during the day that matter to me. about people who i talk to, laugh with, love dearly, miss considerably. i write to tackle my problems, to find solace in my confusion, to reconnect with myself. i write to figure shit. i do not write with the word 'and' :).

i am carving my own niche into the world, one spoken word at a time. hello, world!

my habit of smoking weed this past year has made me talk to myself in my thoughts, a la scrubs. is that weird? now i forget if i have always did that. but i know for a fact i have a conscience, just not sure if it is a good one.

-andy

now playing: alanis morrisette - you learn

interblaze, pt 1

i'm interblazing, currently, with victor and anita. hard to multi-task and hard to type while stoned.

i like my orange juice pulpy.

victor using his friends names in conversations makes me feel like i'm closer friends with him. he is such a sweetie.

and i forget why i opened this blag.

-andy

thanks for all the memories

: did you know his first time smoking was one year ago at your party?
: OMGZ. NO WAI.

yeah its true. funny how fast things can change in only a year. the way people talk about other people from blair, as if we were all part of the same large family and have all gone separate ways. and its interesting hearing about people and learning so many new things about them. and then judging them based on their decisions they made in college >:) (just kidding...). its hard to imagine not seeing some of them for a long long time, possibly forever.

upperclassmen tell me they stop going back home because fewer people are left there the older they get. that makes sense. who am i going to be talking to 5, 10 years from now?

-andy

now playing: fall out boy - gay is not a synonym for stupid


editted at 2:46

i just wasted an hour of my life.

things i've learned today:
80/transaction at western union
you need licence/passport to transfer wire anywhere in the world (45/transaction)

sunday.

today i woke up around 2pm. it feels good to lay around and do jack shit. but i eventually feel guilty and force myself out of bed to wash my ugly afternoon face in front of the bathroom mirror.

anyway.

here is a list of invaluable things i learned today:

1) i like how people sit staggered on subway seats. do people hate touching shoulders with other people or what? maybe its just new york, but i have a feeling its just americans. i bet people in france are on the lookout for any excuse to sit on each other's laps.

2) my friend once remarked that 'guys are usually not self aware that they are good looking.' my other friend replied with 'once they grow older, they become aware.' interesting.

3) if you do anything too much, you will miss out on life. if you do too much life, you will miss out on life. life is in moderation.

4) dealing cocaine will get you rich, but the risks are high. the discount packaging rate decreases dramatically for larger and larger amounts of cocaine due to the risks. more drug dealers get busted, more people start dealing because the rewards are high. i finally understand why people deal cocaine. for the deniro.

5) do not waste time. do something you love doing. noah, the one who subletted this apartment to me and my roommates plays some amazing violin. when we were listening to one of his recordings (he played some schuman concerto, accompanied by a full orchestra), his dad (also musically talented) analyzed his playing style: 'i like how you put the extra grace note at the end of the F# trill', 'i like how everything you play is a hair flat. thats not bad, it makes what you play more real, more human. it makes it sound ten times more beautiful'. at that point, i realized that i never got that serious with violin. i never got to the point where i can just do what i want with the music, add my own special twist to it, make the concerto my own. leave my own fingerprint on it so people will say 'andy's version of vieuxtemp's 5th concerto is muscular and dirty compared to ...'. in order to get to that point, you have to know that you were born with a violin in a hand with the god given intent to make beautiful music. you need to love playing violin to fully enjoy messing around--adding a silly grace not with a smirk on stage with no remorse nor shame, for instance. and this not only applies to violin or music for that matter. just gotta love whatchu do.

6) the only real need people should concern themselves with is the need to be happy. everything else should come after that.

7) i finally understand what it means to live without regrets. why bother thinking about what could've, would've, should've happened? it can't change nothin'. word.

8) i learned what it means to give. i remember before i decided to rush akpsi (pronounced 'ack-sigh,' haha) brothers told me 'the more you give,the more you get in return.' what is this, i thought to myself, teaching me the principles of karma? i now know that the more you give, i.e. the more time you spend with your pledge class, the more close friends you will have in your pledge class as a result. one and one is two. these make sense. today, i gave a hobo the change in my pocket. seriously, what am i going to use that change on anyway besides glueing them onto the ground, hiding behind a bush, and watching dumbasses bend over to try to pick them shits up? i might as well just use it to help someone else out. giving money is a mindset, something that is not dependent on your eco-socionomic status or income level. learn how to give so you can give when you become rich and powerful. it will pay off in the end.

9) use capitalism to your advantage. find a need that needs to be filled. provide that need. sit back and watch your mound of cash grow.

10) LIVE.


i like number 10 the best. 6 is a close second, though.

-andy

now playing: gym class heroes - 'clothes off!'

scattered thoughts, pt 1

thank god it's friday.

i have to keep my own plastic cup for water because they never have new disposal cups at the water cooler.

and i've decided to start my stand up comedy career. watch out nyc!

also i noticed that my soul is starting to get sucked into nyc. whenever i'm back home in the cozy (boring) suburbs of maryland, i'm restless. i end up sleeping too much, eating all day, and watching tv until 4am. there is nothing to do in maryland except for cheaper movies.

there is always something going on in new york. i love the convenience of everything--ordering food, going out, going to the park, the subway system, the bus system, the diversity, the ugliness (hobos, shootings, stabbings, etc), the unexpectedness, the un-boring-ness. i feel like my life in nyc is suspended by scaffolds of convenience and capriciousness, and whenever i go out of the city, i'm lifeless, without support.

now for your enjoyment, apple fun!



picture courtesy of kim.

-andy

a new day, a new leaf

i'm happy to say that i have started to get used to this blogging thing again.

last night, i went to kim's apartment to drink wine and smoke with her and jennifer. i really like both of them and it makes me want to kick myself for not hanging out with more akpsi bros during pledging. i mean, isn't that the point of pledging? i suppose so. i didn't understand much about 'brotherhood' until now, when i chill with them as friends, rather than brothers-who-will-eat-your-face-at-final-court. oh well, i still have the rest of my life to catch up.

i ended up staying overnight, which was sweet of kim and chrissie, and kim made me a cute, disfigured egg...i'm going to go out on a limb, here...omelette. at least it tasted like an omelette :). and today, when i got to work, i read kim's xanga, livejournal, and browse her imagestation, all the while talking to her via gchat. i really like kim's writing, in a different way than how i enjoy ingrid's. kim's blogs are personal and real, and when i read them i understand her completely. i don't know if its because i've been through similar situations or because she doesn't hide anything in her entries. when shes upset about something, she'll come straight up and say it. when shes happy, she'll say it. no beating around the bush, no bullshit.

issues that she addresses are the issues that i normally choose to ignore or overlook. for instance, smoking weed--not enough respect for myself? that could be true. i never bothered to think about it. i used to smoke for fun, but soon i was smoking because i was bored or because i had a shitty day, for which smoking became an outlet for relaxation. but when came the point when i was not happy whenever i was not high? life became boring. it lacked passion, creativity, direction. i became lifeless, like in those above-the-influence advertisements on television, and soon forgot what it was like to LIVE.

reading kim's entries reminded me of high school life; of coming to school way too early, seeing your friends in the hallway, having lunch with your friends, and just being a kid. i wish i knew not to worry about gpa's, sat's, or any of that lame shit that i now know means nothing. i wish somebody told me to try something new, to write a story, to pick up a new hobby, or play a new sport. high school was the shit, mostly because of my amazing friends who i did jack shit with. it was always a good time, good wholesome, drug-free fun. i loved being around pretty girls, flirting, talking on the phone until 2am talking about ideas and people and anything and everything. i loved parties, my first experience with alcohol and drugs. i loved wasting time with friends (of course it wouldn't be considered wasting time). i really miss that.

now, i don't do much except 'go through the motions of life,' as kim puts it. i just live how everyone else expects from me--my employer wants me to work, i work; my roommates expect me to chill with them, i chill. i want to know what it feels like to live again, to just be happy to be alive. i miss that.

so from here on out, i'm going to stop smoking for 'no reason', for 'because i'm bored', for 'just because'. i'm going to follow through some hobby, i'm going to meet new people, and i'm going to be happy with myself. i'm going to love who i am, and respect who i am.

thanks, kim.

-andy

currently playing: regina spektor- 'fidelity'

hello, world

and if you don't know, now you know...

this will be my sixth blog--one xanga, one livejournal, three blogspots, one googlepages--and it will hopefully chronicle my life in the fast paced-urban lifestyle of new york city. i will include some drawings (doodles, really) that i created in boredom, angst, frustration, happiness, curiosity.

this blog will be my creative outlet. i'll use this to record my thoughts on the world. everyday is a learning experience and everyday is an opportunity to grow as a person.

the first year of college has been quite an experience. i learned that people go to college not to learn things, but just to develop as a person: becoming more open minded, learning that there is a lot out there that you don't know, learning to cope with life, with experiences, with curveballs.

here is a short list of things i wish someone had told me before i came to nyu:
- save quarters: they are worth more than 25 cents as they are used for the laundry machine.
- the lack of clean socks and undewear indicates the need to do laundry.
- everybody is gifted, either with smarts, looks, talent, skills. everybody has a reason he/she is here.
- duane reade is a godsend. or anything else that is 24/7.
- expect people to be fucked up/drunk past 1am, especially at eating establishments.
- ordering out is as easy as breathing. can anybody say www.delivery.com ?
- nyc tap water is cleaner than most bottled water.
- there are too many people in the world for you to give a shit what they think about you. if you want to do anything, just do it.
- if you don't like anyone, you won't have to see him/her ever. college is not like high school where cliques form, but you can just be yourself and friends will form.

anyway, just wanted to start this.

-andy