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  • To Hire and Be Hired

    So wifey’s colleague will be going on a long leave for a period of 3 months and she had to sit-in in an interview of a new guy who would be covering her colleague.

    According to her, the interviewee – a FT, apparently, from another part of Asia – was able to describe his job scope and responsibilities so well she felt that Singaporeans were at the losing end for being really bad at articulating their work experiences.

    However, wifey had a feeling this guy was half bullshitting as he used the term “we” more often than “I”, meaning he was describing his team’s work rather than his individual contribution. However when probed, the interviewee was capable of elaborating details of processes, so she couldn’t really ascertain if it was really bull or not.

    Then I spoke to another friend who had some bad brushes with FTs and he asked if her colleague had asked more objective questions rather than open-ended questions such as “describe your role in your previous job” and wifey said: “Not really.”

    So there are two problems here. We suck at both ends – as an interviewee and interviewer.

    When I was in my first job in a small local start-up I had similar problems with interviewing, so I came up with a 3-page technical test. Rather fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) the test filtered out a lot of candidates and it became really difficult to find a decent hire and eventually we were a little starved for manpower. Over time, some random hires got in and were asked to go, or quit shortly after anyway.

    Where have all the good people gone?

    I’m suspecting the big companies are sucking them all up, leaving small start-ups in the ditch.

    So it leaves all the Tom, Dick & Harrys (hereinafter “TDH”) to search for small-timers who are desperate for manpower to fulfill their growing business.

    But if small companies don’t firm up their hiring process and start hiring any TDH, they may be in for a rough ride.

    TDHs don’t really bother with company culture. They follow some rules set out by HR just for the sake of it. And for a start, many small start-ups lack culture, so TDHs will readily mess that up.

    A lot of TDHs I’ve seen are in for the money, or it’s just another job to fill their idle time. TDHs lack commitment, and will readily switch jobs when a better monetary offer comes along.

    Lastly, TDHs are a waste of time if you send them for certifications. They lack passion and will use your certifications as an opportunity to get a better hire elsewhere, and all your money would have been gone to waste after a year of intensive training.

    So if you run a small start-up, I’d like to suggest that you firm up your hiring process. One good employee is better than many crappy ones. They bring a lot of intangible benefits to a company.

    It’s really not difficult to weed out the TDHs. Test their thought processes, ask them whacky questions, push them to the limits of their answers. A passionate hire will pay attention to detail and will offer creative suggestions. TDHs will probably just answer “I don’t know” and go in search for the next easier target.

    However, if you’re on the opposite side and is going for an interview soon, learn to talk. It’s really a skill, especially if you’re still in school – take your presentations seriously and aim to capture your audience. These are real life skills. If you can’t sell, you have no money! I wished I had taken them more seriously 10 years ago, but it’s a little too late for me now 😉

  • Truth or Dare?

    Do you dare to take the road less travelled? Or simply stick to what you’ve been doing only to find the truth a little too late?

    It’s not all about guts of course, but it’s a calculated risk. The difference is in the calculation.

    That’s probably why Singapore lacks an entrepreneurial spirit – we got the risk formular wrong.

    Many success stories may seem like luck – being there at the right time, in the right place.

    Lee Kuan Yew once said, the situation makes the people. The people does not make the situation.

    I’ve come to believe if one searches hard enough for it, be it anything – love, money, fame, career – you will find it someday.

    Gambatte!

  • Inspiration

    Time to find some arty farty inspiration back. I’ll start on a new musical arrangement for CO, but I will not set a deadline. Let’s see what I can come up with. 😀

  • Selfish Bastards

    Was having dinner at Qi Ji Tiong Bahru Plaza when a guy found the empty seat beside us and placed his bag to “chop” the seats.

    Mind you it was a table for six. Me and wife were seated across each other at one corner, so there was space for four. That guy placed his bag in the middle seat beside wife.

    --Me----**----**--
    [XXXX][XXXX][XXXX]
    -Wife--Bag----**--

    One boy came over and asked if the seat was taken, the man said no YES. (Edit: Sorry, he said YES, meaning the seat was taken.)

    Then he went to queue for food and came back. Guess what? Yes, he was alone. But the best part was he sat in the following seat labelled as Ass, leaving two empty unoccupied seats across him.

    --Me----**----**--
    [XXXX][XXXX][XXXX]
    -Wife--Bag---Ass--

    Then as he started on his laksa, he didn’t like the chilli, so he scooped it and poured it on the table top, leaving the mess behind so the next guy in line had to either wait for somebody to clean the table or avoid the seat.

    Mind you this guy was not some old grouchy uncle you may be thinking. He’s a young man, well dressed, well groomed, wearing that few thousand dollar watch Bvlgari watch.

    I was tempted to take a photo of him, but I didn’t. Me and wife decided to clear the place and grab a coffee instead.

    Such inconsiderate people exists.

  • Life is like a cuppa kopi

    A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

    Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

    When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

    Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

    Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

    Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

    Taken from: http://www.spiritual-short-stories.com/spiritual-short-story-106-Life+is+Like+a+Cup+of+Coffee.html

  • Image and Social Status

    I had a discussion with wifey while driving home from dinner today that no matter how we tell ourselves not to judge a book by its cover, it’s only human that we do. Afterall we have two eyes.

    (This is semi-related to my earlier post on the Chinese MTV.)

    We were at Marina Square and were window-browsing some watches. Not Swatch or Seiko – I’m talking about Tag Hauer, Longines, Rolex, etc. These watches easily cost $3,000 up to $100,000+. Then comes the question: Why do people wear such expensive watches?

    Back in the early days, a watch is a watch. It does one simple thing – tell time (and maybe day/date). Mechanical watch movements have been invented long, long ago. I don’t think it gets any more complicated these days. Digital watches can do miracles as well. Even back when I was in primary school some 20 years ago, I had Casio watches that could store phonebook entries of my entire class… and maybe some exam answers. Nowadays there’s even GPS watches accurate to the millisecond. Patek Philippe, beat that!

    Today’s watches are jewelry. They not only make you look better; they also convey a hidden message to people who “know” them, like how you’ll know that an auntie’s pasar malam LV bag is an obvious fake, or that a Lexus RX300 is actually a Toyota Harrier rebadged.

    At different “levels” of society, we use material items to communicate subtle messages related to ones’ wealth and social status. Why?

    When wealth catches up with us, it’s only natural that we spend some to improve our quality of life. Some of us buy a car or a bigger house, or go on a holiday in a more exquisite airline. Over time, we get used to our higher standards of living.

    But as with any living thing, humans are resistant to change. By change meaning anything – environment, wealth, people, comfort. We will try to keep things at our comfort level (and thus happiness), and that also means getting around people of the same comfort level. To do so, we establish a connection by using material items to send each other subtle messages: “Hi, I am as ho seh (well to do) as you are.”

    Just think about it for a moment. I’m not going to cite any examples here for racial/religious/social reasons but you get the idea.

    I know, it’s weird analogy of mine, but people spend tonnes of money to make themselves look good and feel confident. People go after branded goods for this very reason. Is a LV bag really worth $3,000? Is a Rolex really worth $8,000?

    But how much is enough? Wealth can buy happiness, but only up to a certain extent. Once you’ve gone over the threshold, things start to go downhill. Studies say it’s approximately $75,000 per year.

    To break this cycle we need to resist temptation to “level up” further. Some of us simply just move away from a city to a town where the pace of life becomes slower. Some of us just occupy ourselves with silly hobbies. But some of us are stuck in a rat race.

    I don’t really have a closure to this discussion yet, so I’ll think more about it and post an update. Meanwhile do drop a note if you have any thoughts…