Things to do

After one hell of a weekend, its time to get working now. Job is going steady with sufficient work load and I need to start preparing for my INSEAD year. I now need to really sit down and figure out all the things which need to be taken care of straight away.

1. Resign from my job - I work under the Board of Directors of my company. All of them are very busy at this time but I have to get this done sooner than later. I want to give them enough time to fill my gap.

2. Secure finances - This is a tough one. I have some savings which wont be enough. I applied for 4 scholarships and should get the result by end of September. Raising loan from Banks seems to be difficult as I have never worked in my home country. Might just have to borrow from family and am really dreading that moment. But as of now, it will be waiting for Scholarship decisions.

3. Accommodation at Sgp - Dover & Heritage seem to be obvious favourites. But both are significantly expensive. Especially the two real estate firms mentioned on INSEAD Connect. At this point I am not sure what kind of accommodation I will need. My wife doesnt want to move to Singapore without a job and we need to figure that out latest by mid November. I would really miss her if she doesnt come along but I also totally understand her viewpoint. She wants to build up a career and thats great. But without knowing if she will be coming along or not, it doesnt make sense going apartment hunting.

4. Pack and Move - This is perhaps the easiest one. Packing shouldnt take more than a couple of days. Right now am thinking of leaving my job/ country by end of November. Would like to spend whole of December catching up with family & friends and of course a short vacation with my wife.

5. Pre-reading - The books mentioned are expensive (like most other things within the INSEAD loop). I am kind of fearing the quant heavy side of it and need to get started before its too late.

6. Exit Language - Mandarin will be my exit language and INSEAD needs basic fluency level. I am able to carry out pretty decent conversation in Mandarin but when it comes to reading or writing, then everything goes blank. I need to be able to read about 150-200 characters to get through this hurdle but as of now all Mandarin characters look the same to me.

7. GMAT - Yes, I really need to improve my GMAT. I will need it when gunning for placements during second half of 2009. From 660, I need to move up to at least 700. My Quant is acceptable, I averaged around 47-49, but Verbal is really weak and I really dont know why it is so. I scored 37 in GMAT verbal and need to be around 41+ to achieve 700 in GMAT.

Aargh...way too many things to do.

I will start working on my exit language from today. 1 hour everyday should get me at least 20 characters and I need about 200 to get through the test. Next in line is resigning from my job and I am hoping to do it sometime within this week. Actually the truth is, I have a part of my bonus still with the HR and I want to get it out before resigning. I dont want to be in a messed up situation where HR from UK and China are passing the ball and making my life difficult.

So thats it - Language + Resignation for this week !!