I came to
Singapore
right after my
U.S.
graduate studies in
December 2003.
I started to search for a job in
Singapore
in January 2004. I sent out about
30 resumes. My first interview was
a bathroom accessories company called
RIGEL. The job was a programming related to deal with the
light motion sensor. Then, I also had an interview with
National
Instrument company for application trainer. Basically, you are teaching the
Labview software for the potential clients. I also went to
Chartered Semiconductor for Turn Key Engineer interview.
At the same time, I got the interview from
Leica for
Development Engineer position. Leica was the first company offering a firm job so
I just took up the job happily in
early March 2004. Indeed Leica was a great Swiss/
German company. I learnt a lot on the job, simply because I had a very
good mentor, probably the best engineer in the company and he is still with the
company today. I was deeply grateful that as a
fresh graduate, I was
given an important task to do the
new production transfer from
Germany to Singapore.
It was a confocal laser scanning microscope project. I went to
Mannheim,
Germany
extensively for the first 6 months to understand the complicated product completely and to
build it/test it and qualify it all my myself. I then became a
Process Engineer. I actually
hold multiple
jobs, namely,
Process Engineer, Test Engineer, Quality Engineer,
Troubleshooting/Rework Engineer and Project
Engineer. I had to do all these functions and that was how I learnt a lot on
the job. I now appreciate the great learning curve. That was the time I learnt how to create BOM (Bill of Materials) on
SAP,
CK11N cost roll up the BOM with the tooling cost, MMBE to check the stock
overview/ goods movements to ensure we had good inventories, etc..
At Leica for 6 years and 10 months, I completed 12
business trips. Total duration of the 12 business trips was close to one year stay. All 12 business trips were at Germany
(Mannheim and Wetzlar). Those were the days that Leica gave me winter
cloths allowance (S$400 every 2 years) and daily allowance of S$85 at overseas.
So, literally, I had extra S$85 (daily allowance) x 365 days = S$31,025 given for the business trips. Not to forget that my Singapore pay cheque was untouched when I was at overseas. S$0 living cost spent
in Singapore when I was away for total 12 months. I saved a lot during my
first employment in Singapore. I also became the first batch of engineers going to Germany
for the new product transfer (others were sent to Switzerland
only in the past). Because of this reason, the HR rewarded me an additional S$3,000. The HR did not know if the Germany
living cost was higher than Switzerland
(as I was the first one to go to Germany).
It actually turned out the other way round. The living cost in Germany
was so much cheaper than Switzerland!
That's my first 7 years in Singapore.
During my two years of
graduate studies in
Michigan, U.S.A.
(year 2002 and 2003), I was a
Teaching Assistant (TA) for sophomore
laboratory class, which was
Electronic Circuit Analysis (
ECE 210 module). The university
waived my graduate school course fees completely (
FREE
studies for 2 years!). They also gave me a good stipend of
US$4,500 per
semester (
one semester duration is
4 months). There are two semesters per year
(
Fall semester and
Winter semester). So, total
US$9,000 salaries per year. With
this full time teaching assistantship, I was
no longer allowed to work on
campus. But, I did open a private tuition class on campus. I once had
10
students at my private tuition class and I charged
US$20 per hour each
person. So, easily, I can
earn US$200 in just one hour. It was indeed good
earning money especially you were still a student! My private tuition
students were mostly from very rich countries like South
Africa
and
Middle East. I should have charged them more!
Before I became a Teaching Assistant in year 2002, I worked
various jobs on the campus. I started as a dish washer at the residence dining hall
on the campus. I worked 20 hours (maximum allowed hours) per week. The pay
was like US$6.50 per hour and you enjoyed free meal after work. It was
good deal. I also worked as residence hall receptionist during the
summer in year 2000. I remembered I slept at the sofa at
the reception! Just imagine there was completely no one coming into the
residence hall during the time from 1 a.m.
to 5 a.m. It was an easy job
obviously. I even slept during my work! My jobs were to distribute the
mails to the letter boxes (that’s how I know the PLAYBOY magazine was sealed in the special BLACK
plastic bag) and to watch/monitor the students coming into the residence hall, that was it!
At my fourth year of undergraduate studies in year 2001, I
realized I need to do more value added jobs on campus in order to win the
recognition from the professors and subsequently, I needed their recommendation
to apply for the university scholarships for the graduate program, which is Teaching
Assistantship. So I started as a grading assistant. I graded papers for the
professors, e.g. the homework, exam 1 and exam 2 but not the final exam paper.
So, in some classes, 70% of the students’ grade falls onto my hands. It was because the final exam was only 30% of the grade. I also became a
lab programming assistant at the Visual Basic programming class, answered all kind of
programming code problems raised by the students in the lab class.
Thereafter, I knew
to get a Teaching Assistantship, I must teach laboratory class.
I happened to
have one good summer semester in year 2001 to horn my teaching skills. That was
the first time I taught the electric circuit analysis laboratory session in front of a class of 18 students. During my
Teaching Assistant career, I had to teach 2 classes of laboratory per semester
and the lab contents were all the same every single semesters. Once you knew the materials for the
first time, subsequently, the teaching was so damn easy. Just imagine at the end of
the day, I had to teach the same class for 10 times. I literally could close my
eyes and teach and write on the chalk boards. P-SPICE was the software
simulator we used to simulate the electric circuit analysis, to plot the voltage
graph, current graph, etc..
I also had the privilege to serve at the President Bush Gala
dinner at our campus in year 2001. That was the craziest working day in my
life. We started working at 8 A.M. all
the way until the following day at 3 A.M. That
included a lot of over time. We decorated the dining hall, served the dinner at
night and we had to wash all the dishes and put down all the decoration too. By
then, I was dragging my feet in the snow, going back home at late night
(3.A.M.). That was one day in December 2001. It was a great experience and that one
day pay cheque was like US$ 180 (overtime pay was included).
During the
summer time each year, I would run around the professor
offices and collected the
unwanted textbooks at the school corridor. Professors always
receive the latest edition of the text books from the publishers and they will
throw away the older edition of the text books by just placing them outside the
office (it is a kind of recycling). I took back all the books and sold it at
www.half.com . I think the website was later
acquired by
eBay. For me, the inventory was free, obviously and I just need to
pay
UPS ground shipping cost of US$2.30 to
ship the book to the buyers and I always managed to clear off all my
inventories.
Those are my working experiences in the United States of America.
To be continued ... .... ( the new chapter of work life)
http://jkfund.blogspot.sg/2016/12/new-chapter-of-life-my-work-life.html
Oh ya, out of no where, a consulting firm sent me a message through
LinkedIn, asking me to give a
phone consultation for
Molecular Diagnostic Market in Singapore & APAC.
I just
chit chatted with the lady on the phone for a good
62 minutes and I was paid
US$186 for phone consultation. Damn,
US$3 per minute consultation fee is so damn cool ! Please find me more often!
