Its gonna be a smashing semester that is fit for an ending to my formal education!
Taking a lot of modules for interest:
Tembusu's Biomedicine and Singapore Society
Arts' Bahasa Indonesia 2
Engineering's Automation in Manufacturing (and FYP of course)
Science's Nanotechnology: Smartphone and beyond
So basically I will be running around everywhere for classes which is much better than last semester when I pretty much stayed in my room all the time.
In the meantime, I have decided to make this blog a personal development tracker for this year as this year is quite an important year as I am going to graduate and step into the working world.
I was reading about Google's OKR (Objectives and Key Results) which can be applied at any level, companies, team or individual as it is a simple and easy to follow system of getting things done.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-ranking-system-okr-2014-1
So every quarterly I shall review and set new objectives.
Improve Fitness:
Gym 3 times a week
Slalom 3 times a week
Improve HR:
Finding people to take over/ help organize tea club and skating club.
Getting designers motivated for people of Tembusu project.
Career Planning:
3 Job Applications that are to your interest after a elimination of other alternatives
Wealth management by making a portfolio about current insurance and financial plans
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Friday, 27 December 2013
ITS A BRAND NEW YEAR! 2014 HERE WE GO!
2013 was the year when I had best semester of my life travelling around in Europe and leading the life of a european student (EASY EXAMS!!!) and also one of the worst semester of my life doing my FYP.
So.... its NEW YEAR RESOLUTION time!!!!!!
it always doesn't last but who says we should stop trying?
Resolutions should have a goal and an action plan:
1) Be fitter than last year (my most unfit year since secondary school)
by
Exercising (Run Bike Weights in Gym, Swim in infinity pool, Skate, etc.) 1-2 hours on weekdays
2) Be Better in HR in the clubs, activities I'm in so that I can participate, run them better
e.g. tea club: get more people to organize, skating club: find succession and teach people how to teach, tstudios: engage with the juniors especially to have ownership over the club, resident assistant: interact with people from other floors by having more informal gatherings
3) Career Planning
thinking about the engineering roles that I could play by going for internships, mentorship program, career fairs, research online or by asking people. I realize that I really is not a design engineer or research people. Operations like manufacturing is more interesting to me so probably gonna look into that.
also explore more about alternative jobs (mentioned in previous post)
wealth management (investment, savings, insurance)
4) Personal Development
Question yourself all the time, make better informed decisions, double loop learning, self-confidence, self-discipine, self motivation, increase productivity.
by ?????
We spend our lives looking for answers, but we always get sidetrack along the way. The key thing is that we eventually get back on the main road and continue to plow through until we reach our destination.
and if we don't like our destination, or get tired of the place,
it signals another journey, hopefully
a brave and victorious journey.
So.... its NEW YEAR RESOLUTION time!!!!!!
it always doesn't last but who says we should stop trying?
Resolutions should have a goal and an action plan:
1) Be fitter than last year (my most unfit year since secondary school)
by
Exercising (Run Bike Weights in Gym, Swim in infinity pool, Skate, etc.) 1-2 hours on weekdays
2) Be Better in HR in the clubs, activities I'm in so that I can participate, run them better
e.g. tea club: get more people to organize, skating club: find succession and teach people how to teach, tstudios: engage with the juniors especially to have ownership over the club, resident assistant: interact with people from other floors by having more informal gatherings
3) Career Planning
thinking about the engineering roles that I could play by going for internships, mentorship program, career fairs, research online or by asking people. I realize that I really is not a design engineer or research people. Operations like manufacturing is more interesting to me so probably gonna look into that.
also explore more about alternative jobs (mentioned in previous post)
wealth management (investment, savings, insurance)
4) Personal Development
Question yourself all the time, make better informed decisions, double loop learning, self-confidence, self-discipine, self motivation, increase productivity.
by ?????
We spend our lives looking for answers, but we always get sidetrack along the way. The key thing is that we eventually get back on the main road and continue to plow through until we reach our destination.
and if we don't like our destination, or get tired of the place,
it signals another journey, hopefully
a brave and victorious journey.
Tuesday, 24 December 2013
Cambodia and X'MAS!
Its been a funny holiday. Just got my results and its not really ideal but within my expectations.
Oh wells one more semester till graduation and I'm really glad to finish my university education after 4 years.
But the question that I have been really thinking about is what happens next. What would my career be like?
I have always plan my life until the end of university but not after so I am really clueless at the moment but this academic year I have started to question a lot of my values and motivation in life and hope to find my answer soon.
Some of the alternate jobs that I considered was being:
1) Tour guide - flexible lifestyle, get to meet a lot of people, have fun showing people my country which I love very much
2) Skating instructor - skate a lot, get to impart my skills and also encourage people to be more serious in the sport, I like skater friends
3) Cafe? haha I had this idea because my sister could make nice cakes and macarons and I have a really sweet tooth.
These alternatives would have to come with lower expectations when it come to pay, career progression and job stability especially since it is not something I was trained for my entire life! Something to thing about for the rest of my life...
But anyway after my exams when I went to Cambodia! and its my first time there and it was a really nice chill place to be in where everything is cheap. Yay!
Haha but seriously, I was there for an OCIP feasibility study to see what can we do to kickstart a new OCIP project for tembusu students. 3 focus that we decided the project should head in are:
All in all it was quite a awesome feel-good experience as we got to see the touristy things, volunteer and also chill every night in this really cheap place! (haha I'm such a cheapo) The only bad thing I would say was that the travelling from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was arduous.
Can't wait to see this OCIP get up and running!
Oh wells one more semester till graduation and I'm really glad to finish my university education after 4 years.
But the question that I have been really thinking about is what happens next. What would my career be like?
I have always plan my life until the end of university but not after so I am really clueless at the moment but this academic year I have started to question a lot of my values and motivation in life and hope to find my answer soon.
Some of the alternate jobs that I considered was being:
1) Tour guide - flexible lifestyle, get to meet a lot of people, have fun showing people my country which I love very much
2) Skating instructor - skate a lot, get to impart my skills and also encourage people to be more serious in the sport, I like skater friends
3) Cafe? haha I had this idea because my sister could make nice cakes and macarons and I have a really sweet tooth.
These alternatives would have to come with lower expectations when it come to pay, career progression and job stability especially since it is not something I was trained for my entire life! Something to thing about for the rest of my life...
But anyway after my exams when I went to Cambodia! and its my first time there and it was a really nice chill place to be in where everything is cheap. Yay!
Haha but seriously, I was there for an OCIP feasibility study to see what can we do to kickstart a new OCIP project for tembusu students. 3 focus that we decided the project should head in are:
 |
| Heritage - Angkor Wat |
 |
| Helping out with the school that Winson is setting up to teach English to poor students |
 |
| Making and distributing meals to the poor people in Siem Reap |
Can't wait to see this OCIP get up and running!
MERRY XMAS!
Saturday, 23 November 2013
Finally Finals...and some important insights from over the semester
Can't believe its finals already!
This is the time when I tend to watch the most movies and dramas while studying.
I dunno why but I seem to actually spend less time studying than watching shows...Game of Thrones that i didnt finish watching the last time exams came around last semester, Man of Steel, Lone Ranger, etc.
Anyway the heat transfer module is just learning how to tackle the exam questions which is practicing my problem solving skills which is like the most of the rest of the modules that I took in these 4 years.
Human Resource module is more useful in that you get to learn how to conceptualize things about myself and about aligning yourself for the future. You learn about multiple role identities that you form about yourself and how it can conflict with each other. Some is definitely prioritized over others and some fade away with time and thus it is always changing. We seek to legitimize our role identity by our role performance to gain role support from people around us and more importantly from ourselves. This I find is very interesting and insightful as in conflicting times like now when I am on a crossroads of different paths I can take in my life I kind of gives hints of what each directions will lead to.
Another important thing that I learn is about career. It is not about achieving a work-life balance where I get to enjoy a lot of free time outside work (which I probably won't like) to do things I really enjoy. Instead I should be aiming more at work life integration where I really enjoy what I am doing. I guess I always know this but it kind of slipped my mind along the way. To forge my own career with a heart, I need to utilize the 5W1H, mainly the how, whom and why (technical know HOW, knowing WHOM is to socialize with the correct people, and WHY do I want this job requires a clear examinations of my motivations, values and beliefs.) And if my dream career does not fit my current ASK(ability, skill, knowledge) I need to have an action plan to fill in the gaps. In fact I should have an action plan for everything I do.
One more thing that I realize about university is that while I had a really fun time in Tembusu, it is a terrible place to socialize if you are looking to graduation as people in Tembusu are mainly year 1s and 2s who just entered university and are having the time of their lives (even if they dun realize it yet) and a handful of year 3 who are going on exchange programs. In these years of my university life, I am more attached to tembusu rather than my faculty which I really spend very little time in and studying as I study on my own a lot (I didn't even go for a single tutorial). The only things that require discussions are either non-engineering modules like HR or design project that does not really deal with very intense engineering problems. As such, I have absolutely no confidence in my problem solving abilities as I seem to just do my quiz and final exams without any feedback, so I never know whether I am right in my concepts. This was something that was form progressively over the years and now I realize it in my final year and I think I have given up on knowing the engineering concepts thoroughly and just going with the system. This makes me doubt myself of getting into an engineering career and seriously considering a non-engineering one.
So what went wrong in my education is that I really should have seek feedback in what I am learning (double loop learning) not just from the teachers and friends but also do some self-monitoring and feedback. And I think with my brain when I plan out my route in year 1 but not with the heart (which is equally important especially with decisions that would be influential in my life)
Well, that's life and it's great that I learnt about myself and how I see my education in NUS for the past 4 years and I will continue learning.
(Sorry for this long wordy post but this is a memory that I want to remember for the rest of my life)
This is the time when I tend to watch the most movies and dramas while studying.
I dunno why but I seem to actually spend less time studying than watching shows...Game of Thrones that i didnt finish watching the last time exams came around last semester, Man of Steel, Lone Ranger, etc.
Anyway the heat transfer module is just learning how to tackle the exam questions which is practicing my problem solving skills which is like the most of the rest of the modules that I took in these 4 years.
Human Resource module is more useful in that you get to learn how to conceptualize things about myself and about aligning yourself for the future. You learn about multiple role identities that you form about yourself and how it can conflict with each other. Some is definitely prioritized over others and some fade away with time and thus it is always changing. We seek to legitimize our role identity by our role performance to gain role support from people around us and more importantly from ourselves. This I find is very interesting and insightful as in conflicting times like now when I am on a crossroads of different paths I can take in my life I kind of gives hints of what each directions will lead to.
Another important thing that I learn is about career. It is not about achieving a work-life balance where I get to enjoy a lot of free time outside work (which I probably won't like) to do things I really enjoy. Instead I should be aiming more at work life integration where I really enjoy what I am doing. I guess I always know this but it kind of slipped my mind along the way. To forge my own career with a heart, I need to utilize the 5W1H, mainly the how, whom and why (technical know HOW, knowing WHOM is to socialize with the correct people, and WHY do I want this job requires a clear examinations of my motivations, values and beliefs.) And if my dream career does not fit my current ASK(ability, skill, knowledge) I need to have an action plan to fill in the gaps. In fact I should have an action plan for everything I do.
One more thing that I realize about university is that while I had a really fun time in Tembusu, it is a terrible place to socialize if you are looking to graduation as people in Tembusu are mainly year 1s and 2s who just entered university and are having the time of their lives (even if they dun realize it yet) and a handful of year 3 who are going on exchange programs. In these years of my university life, I am more attached to tembusu rather than my faculty which I really spend very little time in and studying as I study on my own a lot (I didn't even go for a single tutorial). The only things that require discussions are either non-engineering modules like HR or design project that does not really deal with very intense engineering problems. As such, I have absolutely no confidence in my problem solving abilities as I seem to just do my quiz and final exams without any feedback, so I never know whether I am right in my concepts. This was something that was form progressively over the years and now I realize it in my final year and I think I have given up on knowing the engineering concepts thoroughly and just going with the system. This makes me doubt myself of getting into an engineering career and seriously considering a non-engineering one.
So what went wrong in my education is that I really should have seek feedback in what I am learning (double loop learning) not just from the teachers and friends but also do some self-monitoring and feedback. And I think with my brain when I plan out my route in year 1 but not with the heart (which is equally important especially with decisions that would be influential in my life)
Well, that's life and it's great that I learnt about myself and how I see my education in NUS for the past 4 years and I will continue learning.
(Sorry for this long wordy post but this is a memory that I want to remember for the rest of my life)
Sunday, 3 November 2013
Working with highly motivated people
As we come to the end of my design project, I realized that one common trait between the FMC scholars is that they are all highly motivated and productive individuals that wants to do a lot of work and can churn out results very quickly. In contrast, the rest of us are more chilled and laid-back and less proactive in doing work. As such work are mostly done by them and we didn't get to learn a lot on the design process. While it is good to have such teammates, I feel that I didn't learn as much as I should have in terms of learning the design process. If I was in a slack group, I am more generally more proactive in learning and leading.
Maybe a thing I could do at this moment is to really read and understand the report well and each person's part so during the presentation, I would be able to have as good an understanding as everyone else.
Maybe a thing I could do at this moment is to really read and understand the report well and each person's part so during the presentation, I would be able to have as good an understanding as everyone else.
Friday, 25 October 2013
Busy week that ended with sad news
Just before I wrote this I found out that my favourite model Miranda Kerr just split from Orlando Bloom, probably the only man I think is worthy of her. WHYYY!!!!
 |
| NO MORE?? |
Anyway this week was quite a hectic week, lucky I am quitting my addiction, got lots more time now. I had a photoshoot and interview with all 5 Amandas in Tembusu and chiong through the night to get the 3 posters ready. It was quite a adrenaline rush when you have this creative spark that can keep you going and when you get your end product which you are satisfied with and people 'like' it, you just feel so accomplished! Wee!!!
Its not out yet so here is the sneak preview! I really love the rainbow background hehe!
My Design Project also seem to be running well so another YAY! Learning Circle also went well with Prof Catelijne as I felt I could contribute better than the first time that I did it. The Masters Tea with Jim Rogers was kind of interesting in the beginning with his 5yo daughter singing in mandarin and reciting 2 Tang poems. He lives in SG and that shows his belief in SG and the region. I didn't like it so much when everyone was just concern about how should you invest and stuff when there is no concrete answer and the answer is always to work hard but don't conform with the rest of the society. Insights about north korea was interesting no doubt but I was hoping for questions that were more interesting.
My mom's birthday was yesterday and we had dinner at Jamie's Italian where we ordered the meat and fish planks and 2 pasta that I had the other time. It was her 50th birthday and I wish her lots of success in playing candy crush and all the other games she plays on her iPad hehe.
This week seems to say that love never last and I should focus on other stuff...for now!
Monday, 21 October 2013
Another type of journey
It took me 4 years to realise that I have never really liked Mechanical Engineering at all.
In year 1, I identified the sector or specialization with the best opportunity and how it had the best chance of getting me a job, good salary, exchange program. With this plan in mind, I just went along with it blindly and thought that I would like it. Along the way, I just took my modules without much understanding and just using a pass the exam method to get through it. With the way NUS modules are being taught and maybe it is because my peers are not very good either, I was able to get a above average grade. Maybe if I did badly I would have realize this sooner as they say that when you are doing badly and you are passionate about it you will still push through. I definitely won't. Maybe when I was in Aberdeen, I would have been more interested as I did not have as much distractions as in Tembusu which totally turned me away from engineering. In the end, I became someone who is not very good at engineering but is unable to turn away from engineering to do things that I like. I spend long hours procrastinating and doing things that hide from this issues and that just sucks....Where shall I go from here....
Day 1 of quitting my addiction....the withdrawal symptoms are appearing. How did it ever become such a big part of my life?!?
Day 1 of quitting my addiction....the withdrawal symptoms are appearing. How did it ever become such a big part of my life?!?
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