Your mission, should you choose to accept it...

"I am a goddess!"

Yes, I did indeed utter those words to my co-worker, J, earlier today. I had succeeded in removing the Personal Shield Pro virus from the shared computer in our office without losing any of our files, and I was feeling pretty stoked.

That feeling carried me through the workday until my 8pm break, when I sat down to check my email. I had received an email from the company in Seoul. I opened it expecting either a 'You're hired!' or a 'Thank you for your interest, but...' Instead, I received this:

It was really nice to have interview with you. It may seem to surprise you, but there is one more step for employment. This step is one of our regular recruiting process and usually given for whom is waiting for our final decision.

The mission is,

Write one page of complete paper (MS Word Format) introducing our product [******] to people who are the target of our sales.

Target readers are native English speaker. In this way, please fully show your English writing skill in the best manner.

Also, please show your understanding ability for our product.

Since our [...] executives will make decision by this Friday, I would be appreciated if you could send the paper by tomorrow, 7th July, 18:00.

They included a document on the product to which they refer (the sort of file which could be used as a promotional brochure or in the background of a presentation) for me to use in writing this paper.

I have to admit that my initial reaction may have involved a lot of profanity. It was 8pm on July 6th, and they needed this by 6pm July 7th? It's not like I'm unemployed here - I have a full-time job! I've been talking with these people for months now. Couldn't they have given me more warning? I mean, I spent most of the rainy weekend inside, kicking my heels. I could've been working on this!

And then I got over it. Yeah, it's annoying, but Korea is the land of the last-minute. That class you were told you weren't teaching today? You need to teach it. It starts in five minutes. That meeting we scheduled for later this week? Actually, it's tomorrow morning. I'm half convinced that if the South ever decides to attack the North, the US forces stationed on the peninsula will find out as the attack gets underway. (Oh, BTW, we decided to launch airstrikes. Didn't anyone tell you?)

I went home (my work day ends at 10pm), juiced myself with caffeine (which is why it's now 3:30am and I'm blogging...), and sat down and typed out a kickass paper. Well, I think it's pretty kickass anyway. If they disagree, well, it wouldn't have worked out between us. And then, because I was feeling awfully go-gettery, I edited the document they'd emailed me - complete with MS Word markups, detailing what I had done, and why.

Then I walked to my local convenience store, only to discover that they aren't actually open 24/7. Damn. And here I've gone and drunk my morning coffee.