ReUnion - An Exhibition by NTUC.

I told myself to blog about something else out of work for my next blog post. Like my current favourite food or the shows I've been watching on NetFlix, (Stranger Things 3 is reallllly good!!) but as I sat down in front of the computer in the middle of the night thinking of what to share, my mind can't help but wander back to something work related. 

ReUnion - An Exhibition by NTUC. Although I'm relatively new to the organisation (as a legit staff), I felt a sense of pride when I stepped into the exhibition for the very first time.

Of course, the intention of this post is not to tell you the full history of NTUC and why we played an important role in Singapore's history. The intention is to show you some of the nice pictures I took at the ReUnion exhibition. Yeah, it is always about me LOL. The exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of our watershed event - THE Modernization Seminar.   

So what exactly is the exhibition about? Is it just to talk about NTUC's contribution in/since 1969 and stroke our own ego? I wish I could say yes and just sum the article up now but it is far from that. The exhibition takes you back to the 1940s and through to the current day, and explains the role trade unions played then and now.

You will also get to see some of the interesting artefacts. 

So what exactly happened in 1969? In short, after Singapore's independence in 1965, (you SHOULD know this HARLO!!), many workers felt that trade unions were no longer relevant with the new labour legislations so union membership declined from 120,000 to 90,000. There was a need to re-examine how the Labour Movement should exist to better represent and help workers. And the rest is history. (That you should know and can learn by visiting the exhibition.)

Besides learning about our history, there are also other interesting activities that you can be part of.

Augmented reality application where you can put on Mr. and Mrs. Lee's watch. Why the watch? You gonna be at the exhibition to find out!

A little customized "slide show" showing you some of the very interesting archive images.

Also a GIF Photo Booth! 

Interestingly I've also signed myself up as a volunteer guide with the museum for this event, so if any of you want to visit, DO LET ME KNOW!!!

Details: 

Venue: National Museum of Singapore, Glass Atrium, Level 2. 

Date: 4 July to 10 November 2019. 

Time: Opens daily from 10am to 7pm. 

Fee: Admission is free.

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Is Kampung Spirit dead in Singapore?

What is Kampung spirit to you? Is it simply a matter of knowing your neighbour’s name? Being friends with your neighbours? I mean we know how difficult it is these days for various reasons (or excuse. LOL). For starter, we are not at home as much as our grandparents who really lived in a kampung back in the days and that gave us very little opportunities and reasons to keep the whole kampung spirit alive.

I’m saying it’s difficult but I’m not saying it’s impossible. I do remember being rather close with my neighbours growing up. We use to play together, run around the corridor, playing block catching, and probably partly because my neighbours were really nice and lend me all their toys. This whole friendly neighbourhood thing needs two hands to clap. I remember the last time I tried saying hi to my new neighbour and all I got was a weird “do i know you?” stare. #TrueStory.

You guys remember project refresh? Yeah, it’s that event where Young NTUC partners with the North East Community Development Council (CDC) to aggregate stakeholders within the North East District to help their residents. This includes GRCs/SMCs, SACs, schools and corporations who provide essential goods and services such as furniture, appliances, pest control services, as well as cleaning and painting equipment and supplies.

Life works strangely in full circle for me. So right after the previous event where they help the residents at Punggol where I am staying now, their latest project which happened before Chinese New Year happened at my “hometown” – Tampines.

The 12th iteration/edition of Project Refresh returned with the highest number of volunteers ever. Some 1,000 volunteers from unions, schools, corporate organisations, grassroots and Tampines residents stepped up to refresh the homes of low-income seniors and seniors, who are living alone in Tampines.

I met these two young ladies, Yan Tong and Wendy at the event. They are both 1st time volunteers at Project Refresh and also residents of Tampines.

After talking to them, I learnt that Yan Tong found out about this event via a direct mailer which she found in her e-mail for being a NTUC Member because of her PLUS CARD. I was pretty amazed/amused at the same time that someone actually reads those mailers! I mean there are a lot of stats that shows the fact that the conversion rate of edm has been on a decrease.

After reading the email, Yan Tong decided to be part of the event and try something new. Meanwhile she also invited a few friends to come along and that’s how Wendy ended up at the event as well. It must be a good day for them since they got to help out in the neighbourhood and also met me in the process. Right? RIGHT? RIGHTTTT??? XD

Besides cleaning the unit they also spent some time talking to the resident which they find it really meaningful not just because of the cleaning but actually having an opportunity to make a new friend.

Me being me… I have to ask some difficult questions right?

“Since we are on the subject of spring cleaning… Have you spring clean your own house?”

Them;

“Actually no. HAHAHAHHA. Can don’t tell my mum about it?”

See! Putting others before themselves. Good people lah. However, I forgot to check if they are single, else I can also help to promote them and hope they find true love. LOL. (Damn kaypo I know. Typical uncle and auntie… Truly one of the many signs of aging.)

Besides them, other volunteers from the PAP Community Foundation (PCF) and Tampines grassroots also contributed their time not only to clean the houses but also come together to put a smile of the residents’ faces in different ways such as help with Chinese New Year decorations such as Chinese calligraphy writings as well as red packet lantern making and more to decorate 59 Chinese households. Volunteers also extended the spirit of celebration and brought cheer to the homes of Malay and Indian residents by giving handmade cookies, mandarin oranges and red packets to less-privileged families.

Remember your primary school Chinese education where they taught us the saying of 远亲不如近邻 as well as 远水救不了近火？If your answer is yes, your Chinese teacher would be proud of you. So I guess that’s the meaning of Kampung spirit isn’t it? Getting help from your neighbours when you need it.

P.S. But please don’t tell people you read this article and anyhow go knock on your neighbour’s door and ask them to clean your toilet because Smith said so lah. Help lah!

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Working with Millennials. What are the employers looking for?

“It’s not good to hire the right people in my business now, do you face the same problem?” 

I guess this has always been a problem for SME business owners like myself and this is just one of the many complains that we talked about everytime we gather around over a coffee. 

And one fine day this person gave me a pretty interesting answer. 

“Maybe you just ain’t doing the right thing to attract the right people.” 

More often than not we will put the blame on the problem when we face it instead of asking ourselves if the problem lies within us. 

While we were having such conversations, one of the other questions that always pop up would be about how we handle and work with younger staffs. I guess it’s very common for employers to find that the kids these days just isn’t as good regardless of attitude or quality of work. Don’t quote me, it’s not my words but more of what I hear from others. The narratives are always revolving around the fact that “they are spoilt.”, “they are too privileged.”, or even like “they are too soft.” 

Well, not Elijah, Head of Business Development from Shopee. I guess we do not need much introduction for this e-commerce platform. In fact I’m such a big fan that I log in daily just to browse items to kill time. (Goodbye productivity. :x)

I digress. So I actually met Elijah at the recent Todo Todo Skills Marketplace @ Central Singapore. If you find this name familiar, that is probably because you heard me talking about it last year. So much has changed over the last year. It was also because of this event where I found out more about being a youth career guide which I ended up being one. The journey has been more than rewarding so far. 

So just a little refresher in case you are unfamiliar with Todo Todo Skills Marketplace; The event is a joint effort by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and People’s Association (PA) to form a new career support initiative, specifically for fresh graduates and young professionals, managers, executives (PMEs). The two partners, with a combined youth network of 750,000, launched the new integrated online-to-offline approach to help new job entrants achieve professional success.

With this initiative, youths no longer need to wait for luck and opportunity to meet the right people to guide them but instead they actively seek help within the network. The network does not provide you with successful businessmen telling you about how good they are but instead, we are talking about fellow young adults who have been in the workforce for about 10 years where they can share their own experiences that are more relatable.

Elijah was one of the guest speakers for that day. Besides him , there were other talks/masterclasses, career sharing session by youth career guides like myself, and also networking sessions where you can talk to industry professionals from/hiring employers from different companies such as Mileslife, FinTech Academy, Tata Consultancy and even Shalom Movers. You might be wondering if Shalom Movers were there to hire movers but fun fact for you guys, they are actually hiring staffs for different functions like digital marketing person.

So Elijah was sharing with me about his very own experience with working with millennials and interestingly he has nothing but praises for them. Here’s some answers I managed to get from the man himself. 

Your comments about working with millennials.

They are the hardest working generation. 

They don’t treat a job like 9-5, it’s their life.

It’s not just a job. Overtime is not an issue. 

They care about the environment and more. It’s about purpose and value, and they have to make sure it’s inline with their own beliefs. 

So what do you look for when it comes to hiring? 

1 word - Attitude. Skills can be learnt easily but attitude is what that counts. 

What’s the most sort for skill these days? 

Data Scientist and Digital Marketer.

Is Shopee and their staffs 4.0? 

We are born digital. We are all about making sure we are ready for any changes in the industry. We make sure our staff are constantly innovating and staying relevant in the industry. The industry is very volatile so we have to evolve and be resilient to changes.

One tip for our millennials and work. 

As cliche as it sounds, “"Do What You Love, and You'll Never Work Another Day in Your Life”. 

Conclusion...

So I guess there is no shortcut to success when it comes to working with them. As an employer you have to be yourself, you have to talk to them to know them and know that they want. It is no longer just about money. 

I guess good Human Resources practice especially these days is all about how the organisation give the employee a sense of purpose as compared to back in the days during our parents’ era where it’s all about employers paying staffs money to do their work and call it a day. 

As much as we commonly like to call the millennials the strawberry generation, everyone has to start somewhere and employers need to give them some time to grow and invest even more time to know them better and help them to be the best version of themselves that will benefit the organisation.

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#SethAsks - What is volunteerism?

“Papa, where are you going? You must work today?”

Although Seth still doesn’t know his days accurately yet he do know that on certain days I shouldn’t be working because both him and the wife will be at home instead of being in school.

“No Seth, I’m going to an event. Papa volunteers on an ad-hoc basis with NTUC.”

Many parents like to simplify answers to their children but not me. I do not believe in the whole “you will get it when you grow up” thing. I believe that as long as we make an effort to explain ourselves, your child will eventually get it.

“Can I go with you? Event. Got popcorn?”

I was kinda surprise that he actually remembered Project Refresh which I brought him along previously. Or rather the popcorn he ate.

“No Seth, Papa is going to be busy at the event.”

“Why? What you do? Why?”

Like every kid has went through, my son is currently in the “WHY, WHERE, WHAT, WHO,” stage. He is very curious about everything.

Although I did say that I love to explain things to him, I was in a bit of a hurry because I spent the whole of my morning, despite waking up early playing with my newly purchased Nintendo Switch. I know, I can mix up my priorities every now and then. So I told him I would explain it to him when I get back and show him some pictures. (Which I totally thought he would have forgotten by then but who knows this kid has a memory of a woman. LOL.)

I started asking myself when I was driving to “Pasar Fiesta”, an event by Young NTUC U Heart (U Heart), in collaboration with OrangeAid, NTUC Income’s community development and involvement arm. “Pasar Fiesta” is a pop-up supermarket, that is aimed at reaching out to and helping under-privileged Yio Chu Kang residents offset their monthly expenditure.

How do I explain volunteerism to a 3 years old?

Do I just tell him that it is an act of kindness to help others? Wouldn’t that be a little too brief and lacks a bit of depth since helping someone crossing the road also falls under that category of act of kindness but I wouldn’t really call it volunteerism.

What about me just flipping through the dictionary and share with him the meaning of it? That can be pretty straightforward and easy. Then I asked myself, what is volunteerism to volunteers and the bigger question of “WHY”.

I’m a through and through cynic when it comes to things like these especially after reading articles online about the inconvenience brought by voluntourism. If you are unfamiliar with that term, you can probably guess that it just means volunteerism and tourism. It is something where people pays money to go to the less fortunate countries and “help out”. While they were there, they ain’t exactly into helping people but more for their own personal gains such as tax evasion, glorifying themselves by taking loads of pictures of them pretending to build a school which the villagers might have to tear down the wall after the event due to poor workmanship, and even as basic as wanting to gain some positive karma for themselves.

Me? I would not exactly call myself a noble person or even a selfless person till a certain extent. Truth is I just got associated to these events because of my work and more often than not I wouldn’t say no when I get “jio-ed” by the other volunteers. I tag-along mostly because my friends needed help and I am the “why not” kind of guy.

Upon reaching the event, I was telling my friends about what happened and the convo between me and my son. Ya, that’s pretty much me now, one of those annoying parents who is always talking about their child like their prize possession. So they actually introduced me to these two volunteers who have been with U Heart for years.

“Ask them ask them, they are very friendly and you probably can get some answers for your son or write on your blog or else you always no updates.”

You see, people like to encourage me to write things on my blog which I appreciates from time to time but it’s never about not having a story to tell, it’s really more about how lazy I am sometimes LOL. Hopefully I can inspire some of you guys to give back to the society. That’s being a positive influencer right? So I guess I shall try to use my influence in a more positive way instead of just telling you where to eat and get fat like I did. LOL.

“Taking Care of Others.”

Thuvinder is the general secretary of Union of Telecoms Employee of Singapore or better known as UTES. He first started being part of the union in 2006 when they were looking for volunteers to be a union leader.

What is his motivation behind volunteering?

I mean if you did not put your primary school education to a waste, you would have figured out that he has been a volunteer for 12 years. 12 years is no joke seriously. If you had a kid 12 yrs ago, you would be at the edge of your seat this year because he is going to take his PSLE! (For context lah.)

From my short chat with him I can tell that he is a very passionate and big man. (no pun intended). His motivation is as simple as seeing the smile on others’ face. It’s that simple.

So what is volunteerism to him?

“Volunteerism is about taking care of others. Taking care of workers in a Union Context.”

“It’s all heart.”

Nurhafizah is an exco with UTES and has been a volunteer for around 5 years. What started off as a challenge and self-improvement for her introverted self later became something more rewarding than she expected.

The social element of volunteering with UTES is something she finds really rewarding. It helps her to be more confident, give back to the society, and it’s something different from “just work”. It gives her an extra sense of purpose.

So what is volunteerism to her?

“It’s all heart. It’s meaningful work.”

Pasar Fiesta

So what happened at the event?

Approximately 250 volunteers from the unions, grassroots and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) participated in this initiative serving a variety of functions, these include helping to man stalls and serving as befrienders to the residents. This event touched over 1,700 underprivileged families. Beneficiaries from each household would be provided a trolley bag to “shop” (for free!) at Pasar Fiesta that was held across five distribution sites within Yio Chu Kang. They received some standard items such as a tin of Milo, a can of Tulip Chicken Luncheon Meat, a packet of Myojo Chicken Abalone Bowl Noodles and a tin of Julie's Assorted Biscuits. On top of these items, they would also get to “shop” for other canned foods, beverages and snacks.

Young NTUC’s learning partners – NTUC health, FindJobs, NTUC LearningHub, NTUC Membership and Growthbeans – were also present to meet residents and help them understand how they can improve their employability as well as source for new employment.

After a year of attending various voluntary work with NTUC, I must say that there is something for everyone. It’s not always about painting houses, or career guiding, or even donating money, there are a lot more than that. One can choose to challenge oneself and do something one is uncomfortable with to grow or simply do what you are best at and have fun during the process!

So what is volunteerism to me? What did I tell Seth at the end of the day?

 

“Volunteerism is… Love.”

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Project Refresh X Switch and Save – Use LED @ North East

Lil Seth at Project Refresh. Erm.. Refreshing his tummy. LOL.

While my wife and I are discussing if we should upgrade our place to a condo or even landed property, we might think that this is a common topic that people are talking about in Singapore. However, we may not know that there are still many individuals that cannot even afford a roof above their head.

We are considered lucky that we started working early and we managed to get our what seems almost “free” place to stay at an early age thanks to our CPF. Truth is the house is mostly paid for using our CPF. The only thing that we fork out cash for was our renovation and it’s a choice we had to live simply without much renovation during that time. Being a young couple with other priorities, we really did not spend too much on our renovation.

That being said, the less fortunate ones for whatever reasons are still being taken care of with affordable rental flats. Albeit it’s affordable, it is not exactly the most comfortable thing to do living in a rental flat which often are tiny and cramped.

Sadly, most of these rental flats are occupied by elderlies who have multiple health problem.

Thankfully, Singapore is a place full of people who are willing to lend a helping hand. Young NTUC actually initiated a program back in 2016 known as Project Refresh. If you follow this space closely, you will remember that this is not the very 1st time I mentioned this.

The objective of Project Refresh is to improve the living condition of elderlies staying in rental units through a series of refurbishment works including painting, cleaning, bed bug fumigation and decluttering.

Since 2017, Young NTUC has partnered with the North East Community Development Council (CDC) to aggregate stakeholders within the North East District. This includes GRCs/SMCs, SACs, schools and corporations who provide essential goods and services such as furniture, appliances, pest control services, as well as cleaning and painting equipment and supplies.

To date, Project Refresh has cleaned up 175 rental units over five sessions, with the help of 1,250 volunteers.

Over the years, Project Refresh has evolved to improve our residents’ quality of lives. The latest is a partnership with the National Environment Agency (NEA) to launch the “Switch and Save – Use LED” @ North East” programme for the first time; where all households living in one- and two-room public housing flats in the North East District will be offered $25 vouchers to buy LED lights. At the same time, North East CDC has also partnered IMDA to offer Digital TV (DTV) Starter Kits for households to switch to DTV.

 Some games and roadshow to educate residents about LED bulbs was set up during the event as well.

I know people would probably say that Singapore's government very wayang when it comes to such thing. Do you know that we actually have a campaign set up knows as the "Climate Action"? I know, this is the part that you guys will probably go, "Standard lah Singapore. Everything also want to campaign. Even moving into train also must campaign." 

As silly as it sounds but do you know why? It's simply because we ourselves as individuals are not doing it! For example, if you were to wash your own plates after dinner, does you mum need to nag remind you all the time? The answer is obvious. 

I digress.

Truth is such campaigns do not just help the people but also mother earth.

You most likely wouldn't know but, Singapore’s total household electricity consumption has gone up by about 17 per cent in the last decade due to a growing population. As electricity is largely produced by the burning of fossil fuels, lowering our electricity consumption can help reduce the environmental impact of resource mining and emissions produced to generate electricity. The Household Energy Consumption Study conducted by NEA in 2017 showed that lights are one of the top five electricity-consuming appliances in a home.

Minsters helping resident to set up Digital TV box as well as changing his light bulbs. Damn cool right? Can ministers help me as well? LOL. 

There are many ways that you can change this for example like turning off the lights earlier and go make babies instead (1 stone 2 birds), having more people in the same room instead of turning multiple lights all around the house, or simply install LED bulbs which uses about 80% less electricity compared to an incandescent bulb. LED lights also generally last 5 times longer than incandescent lights. 

More than 13,000 households in the North East District will benefit from this programme. If all these households switch to LED lights, they are expected to collectively save about 360,000 kWh annually – equivalent to more than $70,000 in energy savings – and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 150 tonnes per annum. All eligible households in the North East District will be notified via mail to collect their vouchers from designated collection points, such as their nearest community centre. The $25 voucher can be used at all Home-Fix, Selffix and Sheng Siong stores across Singapore, Philips Light Lab, as well as roadshows organised by NEA and North East CDC. 

Now that's an idea! 

More information

Switch and Save: www.cgs.sg/switchandsave.

Young NTUC: www.youngntuc.org.sg 

North East Community Development Council: 

https://www.cdc.org.sg/northeast

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What's my career journey?

Hi, I'm Smith and I'm a career guide.



After watching 10936501293 America movies and dramas where I always thought I would end up in one of those AA session with some other alcoholics or something and meet Jessica Jones. Lucky for me and my mum, my life didn't turn out the way I thought it might. In fact instead of being caught in the downward spiral of being an alcoholic, I am actually part of a Youth Career Network (YCN) where I give back a little.

Yes, I'm a career guide. 


They also make me take nice nice professional photo for portfolio. Me being me didn't wear a suit for it. #SmithStyle

Not to get confused with career coach, a career guide is something voluntary unlike career coach which is a job/career itself.

How did I end up here? 

If you have been following my blog or my Instagram, you will see that I attend quite a bit of networking sessions and events organized by NTUC Youth Career Network. That was the very first time I came across this program and got interested.

In fact, if you have a good memory, you will remember me talking about this program and my secondary school friend – Rondy who is also part of this network.

I got really interested after learning about this during the event. And I stood up (actually clicked the link) and volunteered myself when I saw a Facebook post that they were recruiting new career guides.

What do I actually do? 

I know I look kinda scary when I'm serious. STOP IT. 

It's not like I am Jack Ma or Bill Gates that I've an amazing career to share. In fact, that is the reason why they need people like me to be part of this program. The truth is that not everyone is and/or going to become the next Jack Ma but everyone have their own interesting career path and experience to share.

So primarily our role is to attend different networking sessions and share about our experience in a small group setting. If any of those "many" are interested in knowing you better or embark on a journey with you as your mentee, they will be paired and attached to you. It is kinda like tinder but less the romance and "xiao long bao eating" if you get what I mean.

Not to be mistaken with internship or offering them a job in my company, career guides just basically give them advise on their potential career choices and also give them more insights about certain career. For example how I will always scare the potential mentees with the fact that being part of advertising agency just means that sleeping is secondary and in fact sometimes optional. A real Ad (wo)man needs no sleep.

Not trying to be "Old Wong" selling my own melon (that sounded wrong) but the truth about career guides is that the experience they have are really something that assist young people with their career choice. I mean there are a lot of self help books or articles about very successful people but truth is not everyone of us are going to be very successful. It's good to listen to experience from people closer to heart and more realistic isn't it? The truth might hurt but sometimes it's really what we need. And if you are interested to find out more about this, continue reading OR you can simply scroll ALLLLLL the way down to the end of the article where I will provide more information.

So basically you just attend events and haolian about your achievement lah? 

I mean that's one of the many ways to look at it but I choose to look at it that we are giving back. Think about it, how many times can a person change his/her industry in a life time? Wouldn't you wished that someone gave you some insights about an industry before you jump all into it and regret?

In fact, it's a very good learning opportunity for not just the mentees but also for mentors like myself. You know what they say about you learning more when you are teaching? That's pretty much how I feel about this program. Sometimes the mentees just ask the most interesting questions that put you thinking.

I didn't exactly have the smoothest career path considering that I graduated with an Engineering Diploma but decided that events, marketing, advertising, media, and writing is probably a better career path for me. I basically had to start all over again and get myself a marketing degree mid career which wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do.

If all I've to do is to give up a few hours of my time every week/month and I can actually make a difference in someone's life, why not?

Who are these mentees? 

They can be people from all walks of life. Starting from polytechnic students who has no working experience all the way to people who are in their first career and interested in a career change.

And yes, you can be one of them too if you happen to be a young person (or similar) who is feeling lost in their career. Or life. Or both. Or you are just looking for someone to affirm you decisions. You don't really have to be that lost.

So what do you get out of it? 

Satisfaction? I mean that is if you are like me who is a person who believes greatly in nurturing. Like I've mentioned more than once, I believe that education would probably be my final career path when everything I've ever wanted to do is done. I mean I've always enjoy handling like interns, my young crews, and even the youngsters from my basketball team. I guess it's a calling for me. Or maybe I just like to talk and talk.

Besides that, you will also get access to the vast network of NTUC where you get to rub shoulders with other career guides during events as well as meeting even more experience working professionals like Mr Abraham Thomas, Managing Director, IBM Singapore himself who was present at the recent event – LIT Xchange.

And of course if your line of work always require young people like mine, you never know when you will actually meet your next creative executive who might help you ace your next campaign.

LIT Xchange? 

So besides career mentorship program where you are needed to talk and talk right, they will also organized events where you get to learn as well. You know the Chinese saying about 1 mountain still got 1 mountain higher right? So there will be events such as learning journey where you get access to some of the bigger companies in Singapore such as Microsoft, Grab, or IBM to see the behind the scene stuff. I'm a very curious person so this is totally up my alley.

Besides such learning journeys, NTUC YCN will also organize events of different scales once in awhile and invite special speakers to share as well as to network. From the smaller scales ones where it can be courses of any kind to equip you with more skills to aid you with being a menthor, to the bigger scale kinda event like LIT Xchange. During the event and we were all very lucky as we have 3 very experienced speakers to share with us a little more about their companies, the industry, and some of the challenges they face every now and then.

The 3 speakers were Mr Abraham Thomas whom I've already mentioned earlier, as well as Mr. Oliver Tan, CEO and Co-Founder of artificial intelligence company, ViSenze and Ms. Anouk De Blieck, Senior Vice President, Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific, Visa Inc. You know these people are very important people when their titles are so long right. #Sizedoesmatters.

I swear I wasn't scolding this person. 

Besides the guest speakers, there was also a networking session (Career guides will be present to answer the questions of participants). The whole idea of Lit Xchange is to broaden youths’ horizons with global perspectives and connect them to a vast network of industry professionals who can provide career insights and advice. And yup, this was the session that I felt kinda like those guys doing sales at departmental store where I just stand and talk non-stop about my product. The event attracted over almost 600 participants including both career guides and potential mentees.

Information Time! 

This might sound interesting but yet the information are all over the place because you know, I like to talk and share my experience. But if you are the kind of person who just needs information, here are some of the important information that might just change your life.

How to be a career guide with Young NTUC Youth Career Network? 

HERE: If you have at least 5 years of working experience in your industry/field and is able to commit your time to mentor younger peers, sign up at www.yntuc.sg/careerguides!

P.S. You will need to go through interviews before becoming a guide.

How to be part of the program aka join as mentee? 

You can sign-up as an individual!

HERE: Here’s 3 websites you can check out if you are looking for any career programmes:

From now till 1st August 2018, follow www.lit.sg for upcoming mentorship, discovery and learning journeys offered under Young NTUC LIT series, in support of SkillsFuture Festival 2018.

There’s a mentorship session coming up on 25th July, 7pm – 9.30pm!

You can also check out www.yntuc.sg for more information!

If you are looking for career programmes to attend near your home, we are coming to Chua Chu Kang and West Coast area! Find out more on the lineup of mentorship and discovery sessions at www.todotodo.sg

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The Cathay - Ink and Cut 2018

The little new ink that I got from the event.


Would you put a tattoo on you that is not selected by yourself? What if it's something you don't like? These are some of the questions I've been getting from friends and readers about The Cathay's ink and cut event.

Let's put a pin on that and let me share with you more about this event. How does it really works?

INK

Step 1: Pick a word of inspiration.

There is this word with a whole list of keywords like strength, strive, rockstar, etc etc. It's random so the design is actually based on the word you picked. Of course if you pick a word that is totally not you, I'm sure you can negotiate with the organizers that you want to change a word.

What did I get?

It's not too bad fit for me considering how I like to travel ever since I started having the whole shutterbug thing infected on me. I don't mean a real illness, I just meant I started shooting for a living.

BUT... I thought this might be a better word for me.

THAT'S RIGHT! And please don't tell my wife. :x

Step 0: Spent $50 

Actually I kinda got it wrong. So I'm doing this starwars thing where I will release prequels. In order to be part of this event, one need to spend $50 at The Cathay and redeem this tattoo or hair cut/hair tattoo. It's really not difficult since The Cathay is filled with so many different type of food, services and retail. If you remember, my chio chio skin doctor, Dr Kellyn is also in the building.

Step 2: GET READY! 

So it's really that simple to be honest. All you had to do is to get the word and that's all. Insert your hand into the erm... "glory hole" hang on and wait for the surprise!

No, she wasn't tickling my armpit but I can't exactly remember why I was laughing so happily.

FAQ 

I always wanted to do a tattoo FAQ but this time round I would just like to answer this one question and also some others about this event.

IS IT PAINFUL? 

This picture should probably answer everything.

I was using my phone as if nothing was happening. I mean, look at me, I've this whole sleeve thing going on and if it was pain, that probably wouldn't have happen. Truth is everyone has different pain threshold as well as when it comes to different parts of your body. Your biceps and forearms are probably the strongest. You hardly feel anything really.

Because my crew asked me to act like it's very pain. I've no idea why he asked for it but I did it to entertain him anyway.

Would you put a tattoo on you that is not selected by yourself? 

Yes and I did. I did it because I like the element of surprise! It's kinda like arrange marriage. You have no idea what you are getting into and the commitment could probably be for a life time.

What if it's something you don't like? 

I believe that every tattoo tells a story and if the story is ugly or something I hate, I guess it still makes a good story right? And I guess was pretty lucky to get a word of inspiration that really meant something to me.

What if you see this person with the same tattoo with you because he/she went to the same event? 

There are pretty limited slots per day. Each tattoo takes around 30mins to 1hr so based on what I've gathered, the event ink no more than 10 pax a day and they actually remove certain keywords after they are being used but I'm not sure how many times will they actually ink them before they eventually remove it.

CUT

As you guys should know I've not much hair to begin with so the "cut" segment of the event do not really applies to me. So instead one of my crew actually went and gave it a go. The guys behind the cut segment are actually from THE GOLDEN RULE BARBER CO. These guys are so cool. They look like they walk straight out from a show set in Harlem or something.

I apologize for this out of focus image. And also because it wasn't taken by me. :x

If you noticed. The guy from the right actually look a lot like Ice 3. When asked, he said he knows and he calls himself Ice box. No clue why box but my best guest is before a box has 4 corners and 4 is bigger than 3. LOL.

Besides ink and hair cutting there were also other fringe event like this dude that does customized note books and stuff. This event is really my kinda thing where it's all about making things the way you like it.

Anyway, for those who had no idea, this event is actually their 2nd installment. If you are reading this in 2019 because you googled and was trying to find out more information about the event, it means that the 3rd edition is on it's way and hope to see you there! That is if I still have space for more ink. LOL.

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