Working in Singapore? Noooooo...

Last Wednesday was a particular interesting experience. The Law office asked me to attend a tea session that was organised in conjunction with the Job Career Fair. I wasn't sure what it was and I thought it was one of the typical firms that are finding new people to join their company. When I received an e-mail information about the tea session, I had a chuckle. Apparently, the "typical firm" turns out to be a job agency from the Singapore government. And they are there to promote about working and living in Singapore! Haha..ok..this is hillarious. Here I am trying to get away from the southern island and now they're recruiting me to go back? Nooooo...

The tea session was a light and easy meeting. Basically, the agency promotes and gives information on finding a career down south. Haha..as usual, we were given brochures and plenty of information booklets and that is a typically Singaporean thing to do. Maybe I should term it 'propaganda'..haha. They asked us to pass them a copy of our individual CVs and I'm just curious how they would react if they found out that my secondary school and A' Levels entries are stuffs from their land when my nationality is Malaysian. Mhmmm..so, I just played along and acted like one of the Malaysians that are wide-eyed about the opportunities down south and have no in depth idea of the stuff there.

The agency also had this 3 days 2 nights exposure camp to the industries at Singapore. No, thank you. Being there for 8 years. Done that. Seen everything. I was tempted to say, "Can I stay over in my Mama's house for the camp?" or.."I know about the ERP, James Gomez and Botak Jones!" Okay, on a serious note, u gotta take your hats off to LKY's government in scouting for talents and running the economy. This is how they take the best brains from around the region and have follow-ups with them. Now, if only Malaysia had a similar scheme or have something to make sure that the JPA scholars stay to serve the country. Then perhaps our country will be handled by capable hands instead of goons.

I asked something about the legal field out of curiosity and it seems that I can't get any good information out of it. Clearly, LKY's government does not provide much opportunities for many people to enter into their legal market. This confirms my point that the legal field over there is reserved afterall for the higher echelons of the society there.

It's a great to be back at my home country in Malaysia but at times, I can't deny it that there were some sense of nostalgia of the 8 years of experience in Singapore. But I would say a majority of them are due to the good times that I spend with my best buddies over there. Whenever a Malaysian talks about his/her working or studying experience over in Singapore, I would always recall back the funny and wacky times I had there. I've been there before and it's deja vu hearing it all over again. The system efficiency and all the red tape over there.

It's really not that blissful once you look beyond the dollar exchange rate. This is especially true if one is a small fry when attempting to enter into the fabric of the Singaporean society. I can't foresee myself getting into that kind of rat race where at the end, I can't realize my full potential just because I missed it by 0.5 points or because I do not fit into LKY's economy scale. Well, it's a weird combination but I always find myself to possess the knowledge infrastructure from Singapore but have a very Malaysian heart inside me. That is why I would disagree on many of the things that they do down south. There is no way I would conform to the way they think although I may possess many of their knowledge in me. No matter how nonsensical Malaysia can get, it's still home to me afterall and I enjoy the freedom that I have here :)