Tuesday, 11 September 2007

  • Almost over...

    So the final presentation to the board was finally over. It was from 5:00 to 6:00pm yesterday, had to wait for the folks from Asia to go to work. It felt like the longest hour in my life. Presenting my research results to the Asia VPs itself was scary enough, cuz everybody knows way more about the China market than I do, but worst of all, I had to do it on the phone. It was like one of the bad classes I've taught, when I started to hear myself talking, and my thoughts started to doubt whether what I'm saying is making sense, and till I bore myself with my own voice, I would totally forget what I was talking about. Well... it was kinda like that during the presentation, except it was worse. I couldn't see their faces, couldn't tell whether they were following or confused or even annoyed because they might think I was wasting their time. I started to hallucinate their yawning faces, constantly checking the time, impatient looks... even though I had never met them before. "Focus, Phoebe Focus!" I kept telling myself, Don't you dare to screw this up! I finished the presentation at exactly 5:30 and left them plenty of time to ask questions. A whole 30mins! At that point I thought I was doomed. I was cringing the whole time as one of the top VPs threw out all kinds of questions at me. After I barely made it throught the first couple of questions, he asked about something that wasn't in my researched area. My head went blank and I don't even remember what I said, but somehow I turned the topic over to the China Region HR director and it turned out even she didn't know the answer. So the VP told her to get to it right away and get back to him next week. Then a couple of more questions later, that same VP turned to me and told me it was a "fabulous presentation" and that he "couldn't have asked for more out of the project". And other people started to congratulate me for the successful work done and the meaningful discussion I started among them. I was really taken aback. "Are they serious? or as I just imagining the whole tragedy myself?" After I hung up the phone I let out a long sigh. "Such a bad presentation I did!" I said. and my manager came in from his cube next to mine and said:" What are you talking about? You left a great impression with those folks! I thought you were gonna be a little nervous..." "A little nervous?" I shook my head, "you have no idea."

    Just like that my summer internship has come to the end. Great experience for a newbie like me. I'll miss it here after I'm gone.    

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