Presentable

I went to a meeting in Essex today. Chav-town central. I stepped out of the train station and saw this kid with a burberry cap,turquoise Nike tracksuit, Nike shoes, and gold chains hanging on his neck. Something like this...

His girlfriend was wearing a bellybutton bearing top, and pushing a stroller with a baby in it. They both looked at most 17 years old. Such a waste...


Anyways, I got to the client's office and was shown into a meeting room. While waiting for everyone else to show up, I looked at my notes to refresh myself. You see, this is my FIRST ever client presentation. GULP. We did some advisory work for the client, where we prepared their first set of IFRS accounts, and today we had to present our findings to the client and their auditors. Mainly talking about how we identified the relevant adjustments to be made, what our sampling methodology was, what work we have done so far, go through the adjustments we have posted, outstanding points, and timetable to completion. Easy stuff... 

NOT. 

I went to the toilet twice before the meeting started. I couldn't eat anything in the morning as I was too nervous. My manager asked me to lead the meeting, and basically do the presentation. He'll just 'jump in' whenever relevant. Said it's a good opportunity to develop my presentation skills, and increase my confidence when talking to senior management. I heard it as him being a lazy-ass lol. 

I spent 2 days preparing for the presentation. Drafted an agenda, prepared the slides, printed little A5 booklets for everyone with copies of the slides and rehearsed the presentation. We did a dry run of the presentation in the office. This involved me presenting and the manager and partner asking questions that they expect the client and their auditor to ask. Hard core k my team. I didn't realise how much work goes into client presentations, now I know!

When printing out the presentation booklets, I asked the client how many people will be coming to the meeting. He said, including me and my manager, there will be about 10-12 people altogether. This includes the Finance Director, Assistant Finance Director, and the audit manager & partner from Grant Thornton.

SHIT IN MY PANTS THERE AND THEN.

I was expecting a group of 5, which will be me, my manager, the financial controller, his assistant and the audit manager. Now that the audit partner is coming, my nervousness escalated! Haiyo stress

So I had the presentation today and I thought it went well. The auditors didn't ask anything unusual, and I was able to provide reasonable answers. Whenever in doubt, just say, "I'll have a look and get back to you on that". Can never go wrong. 

After the meeting, I walked back to the train station and passed a woman along the way. I smiled and she looked at me funny, and said "Bloody chink" as she passed by and spat at my feet! I didn't know how to react, mostly from shock and also from the fear of getting stabbed in the middle of nowhere. Firstly, I am not Chinese so get your race right woman! Secondly, my taxes pay for your clothes, food and the roof over your head, so a little appreciation would have been good. I was still shaken up on the train back to London but reassured myself it wouldn't happen again insyaallah.

My first presentation and my first racist attack all in 1 day. What a day!