Starting

Before I was invited to be a helper of a function which took place in a hotel yesterday, I never knew the meaning of "Starting".

The function was a whole day event hold by a French corporate bank named "Societe General". I have heard of this bank before since it is one of the biggest banks in Europe. At first, I thought such a big function should be related to business and they would invite clients to join the promotion program in order to sell their newest product because the cost of holding such a whole day function in a four star hotel with lunch, cocktail reception, dinner and a group of helpers, the expenses would be huge.

In reality, the bank invited more than 100 new joiners of their bank from around 10 countries/cities in Asia Pacific to join the function in Hong Kong yesterday. It was not for business and not for promotion but for the benefit of their employees. The "Starting" is for the induction of the new employees of the bank and it was the first time for the bank to have an induction outside of France. It took place in Hong Kong because 50% of the new joiners was from Hong Kong. The bank took the induction very seriously as most of the executives and management staff of the bank from Asia Pacific attended it. What's more, there was a video conference with the president of the bank and the staff in French Headquarters at night.

As a helper of the function, I was assigned to do the registration and took care any unexpected things during the function. At first, I thought it would be simple, but it turned out to be not easy at all. I was completely exhausted after twelve hours of strenuous work. However, I was impressed by the sincerity of a corporate to its employees. The sub-topic of the Starting was "We'll go far together". I think it would make employees work hard for the company as the future of the company is their future.

I did not only earn some extra pocket money from the function, but also came to know the difference between a multi national corporate and a local firm. Now, after the function, I find that my current company do not care much about people...