EP 5: How I Managed Full-Time Studies With Holiday Work

LIVE TO SPARK WITH ERICA TEO EE TIEN

Hello and welcome to this episode. In my previous episode, I shared about how I experienced work for the first time during the six months break in-between college and waiting for my placement in the local university. It was a liberating experience to make your own money, to be able to afford to buy presents for loved ones, have a good meal at a fancier place as a student and no longer needed to ask for more money from my parents who were already stretched to their breaking points to make ends meet with their very low incomes.

The other reality that made me continue to work during school holidays was the fact that architecture school was not cheap. Aside from the school fees which I borrowed using my father’s retirement funds through the Central Provident Fund, known as CPF which are like compulsory savings deducted from the salary, the rest was mostly up to me.

I also discovered to my horror, design presentations are very common in architecture school and every single drawing material medium, every tool came with a hefty price tag. It was a time where there was no carousell app nor second hand market place for pre-loved tools. For example drawing blueprints on vellum paper required at least six pens each producing different thickness of lines. Even the paper itself was a eye-watering price per sheet of A1 or even as big as A0 size because the price of that paper itself was the equivalent of a good lunch in the campus canteen for students. Every student was required to buy a standard set of drawing tools, set squares, T-square, ink pens, clutch pencil, right down to kneadable erasers. Even before I start school proper, I have to invest a fortune to get started. There wasn’t much alternative as there is only one supplier in Singapore selling all these specialised art material and tools. I saw my savings took a hit just to prepare for the start of the semester. Some of which I never even seen before nor did I even know how to use them. I made up my mind I have to help myself and my parents by being able to partly afford this journey of architecture education. It was already tough and made even tougher by the lack of money.

And so through the university years, I worked during the school breaks or weekends or even holidays at local farms. I was thankful I had a close friend who remembered I stayed near the Lim Chu Kang farm area at that time and thought I might like a job nearby to earn some quick bucks. There was no contract, I was introduced to some workers that ran the farm area and we verbally agreed to an hourly rate and I started work. There was no formal training, I just followed the old hands on the job. Our job was bringing people out to see and spread awareness of Singapore’s local farms in Lim Chu Kang. They would come from Community Centre groups of elderly and middle-aged aunties and uncles, organisations for the disabled, private corporate companies, public sectors office workers and so on. I learnt through on the job training from the senior farm guides there. I would listen to how they shared about each farm and their specialities, what they breed on the farm, what was interesting about the animals and we often encourage visitors to patronise the farm by purchasing their fresh produce. They could be goat milk, vegetable that were freshly harvested from the fields that morning, quail eggs, fresh fish for soup or even bull frogs for cooking into the oh-so-yummy frog porridge. The perks of the job was a chance to meet celebrities once in a while, for example a local deejay from the mandarin radio station. I even learnt a tip or two from them. For instance he told me to stand a little more prominently in front so that people could see me. Sometimes in the whirlwind of people and bustling activities around you, it is normal to get carried away and you forget you are addressing a big group while standing near a building column that obstructed some people’s view of you.

Once we were done with the day’s work, we get paid in cash straight away. There was no deductibles, no strings attached. These handy cash meant I get injections of new funds to pay for something in school, whether it was for cardboards and glue to make building models, or printing huge A1 or A0-size glossy posters and I am truly blessed the universe gave me this help along the way to help fund my educational needs.

I learned that if I was willing to try and not afraid to learn on the job, I definitely can get work done and I could also improve yourself along the way. Whether it is knowledge, whether it is overcoming my initial perception of farms being smelly and dirty or overcoming my fear of public speaking and hearing my voice out loud sharing the tour agenda with visitors, I most certainly can take baby steps along the way to learn and move towards building up my self-confidence. Looking back with hindsight, I certainly placed a great deal of stress on myself. The truth is actually most people visiting the farm was looking for a day out to relax with their friends or colleagues, do a little of farm shopping and really just enjoying the outdoors. I could have relaxed a bit more, enjoyed myself a little more and place less stress on myself.

For the longer school holidays, I applied for temp jobs. I remember taking the lift up and combing floor by floor in the entire International Building at Tanjong Pagar where most recruiting companies were located. I knock door to door, filling paper application after application. I had no preference for any industry. I was young, driven to look for a temp job with an hourly wage and I will take just any admin job. The recruiters sometimes spoke to me to verify if I fitted the info I filled out on paper. I had luck with a chemical plant in Tuas industrial area where I was working for the Logistics dept as a temp staff. It was a MNC company that serviced many big clients and buildings in Singapore. I worked hard, made friends, slaved together with the staff to find substantiating documents for them to claw back money from big petro-chemical companies and for shortfalls in USD conversions rate through the years.

I learnt to take orders from the Sales people, prepare & print order forms, send packing list to the store, filing paperwork, and so on. The Logistics department staff liked me, I liked the overtime pay with the extra hours when necessary. So after the first school holidays, they called me back during the next school holidays for me to work and offered me as a temp directly with them so they could cut out the recruiter fees. I was more than happy because they paid me slightly more per hour. I needed the money to fund materials and printing during my university architecture course. My classmates found work in architecture firm, I refused to do the same because I remember telling myself: I have years and years ahead in my life to do architecture, let me do other things to take my mind off so I can stay sane. I didn’t want to have a narrow view of work revolving only around architecture, but I want to see how other kinds of work are like.

Starting work early in my life compared to my better-off friends who don’t need to work for their allowance gave me the opportunity over the years of temp jobs to build up my savings for retirement through the compulsory contributions through the Central Provident Fund board. The interest compounded over the years. Unconsciously that structured forced savings for my retirement money worked in the background to help me start to grow my money for my future retirement or housing needs.

So for you listening in today, ask yourself if you want to start taking actions? And what is the end goal you so desire that you will throw in what you have today to get started? How will your...