Confessions of a Cat-holic (186)

Fun times, he emphasized again. He was saying that the night life was unforgettable in Hong Kong. He was around 40s then and had a family and kids so he meant well enough he would not miss it anymore. Okay, so I learned about my hometown through the eyes of an expat from another perspective. I always wondered how Hong Kong was perceived from the other side of the world across the Atlantic Ocean. I had the idea that Hong Kong was supposed to be a tax-free haven for bankers with good pay and bonuses like low hanging fruits amidst a blue ocean. The glamorous nightlife at Lan Kwai Fong together with easy local girls ready to trade sex for a stable relationship attracted countless single foreign educated Asian guys in their twenties and thirties to try living abroad. It sounded like those Suzie Wong stories in the 60s; after all I grew up in Wanchai and the red light district was within walking distance from my home. Fair enough, I got the idea that Hong Kong was like an international port where the navy visited for a crazy weekend with aggressive prostitutes ready to bring the long awaited comfort for veterans. I knew how the story went; hey, I was not an ignoramus.

Immediately, I thought of Edmond. I guessed he must be having a great time in Hong Kong; working in the CBD with a glamorous title as an IBD analyst at Merrill Lynch right next to Lan Kwai Fong. What an enviable life, blown away with free flowing money bills and topless models in a Four Seasons hotel suite. Hey, he was single too after breaking up with me. (Yes, we broke up after he graduated from Yale). God bless him, I wished him the best of luck with wholehearted good will and benevolence. What could go wrong to follow the money, for god's sake?

I was taken to a conference room to wait for the decision with that Asian American interviewer. He gave me a pat on my shoulder, reassuring me that things would turn out alright. Then an Asian American student athlete from UChicago came in bursting in tears; he had a mental breakdown obviously. The worst thing was that he was not the only one. Overheard from chitchatting with other candidates, there were three other guys who had to terminate the interviews in the middle of super day because they could not handle the pressure.

I could not stay optimistic anymore thinking that I would forever be that lucky person who could get out of an unpleasant situation just fine. I had been told that the SEO interviews were one of the toughest on Wall Street. My mentors from SEO went bald by mid twenties and he said he could not speak or eat for the entire day after walking out from the SEO final interview. He was Prakash Raman, a driven Indian tennis player from Rice and the recruiter who went to all the colleges to give information sessions about the SEO program.

I was made aware of the intensity of the SEO interviews by staying informed and getting all the information from all sources possible, including my contacts from school and alumni of the program. I was invited to attend a high end dinner after winning an invention competition initiated by an alumnus of SWE Society of Women Engineers. The product I sold was a pair of invisibly heeled shoes that was very much similar to what Iijin would offer. My motivation was that many men around me were short so I wanted to invent a pair of shoes to facilitate men's ego and self confidence and compensate for their height. This idea won me a seat at the gala; I was greeted by a very successful woman and her husband who was a key leader of the SEO program. That was how I first knew about the program.

I came out fine that day at Morgan Stanley; but witnessing my peers break down on the trading floor sometimes felt like experiencing a shell shock. I was not under any physical attack but the psychological disturbance caused by prolonged exposure to active warfare, especially being in the front office had started to shatter my composure little by little without my knowing, until it accumulated to a point I could no longer ignore.