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thesundaytimes June 24, 2012
Chen Shanshan
H
er friends spend their holidays padding
their resumes with internships and highly
paid temp work, but linguistics undergraduate Elia Nurbaya Mohamed Jais is earning her stripes at the Night Safari.
“I’ve always been passionate about wildlife,” says
the animal-show presenter, 21, at the popular Singapore attraction. She started working there in November
2009, after her A Levels, ushering visitors to the show.
Young people like her are seeking interesting
vacation jobs.
Parents concerned about their offspring’s career
prospects, however, need not fret over this new trend.
Experts say that these interest-led work experiences are
valuable, given that 21st-century careers are likely to be
more varied and unconventional.
School counsellor Ganapathi Saravana Kannan,
who works with Fajar Secondary School on pupil development, says: “There is some value in having a broader
perspective and exposure.”
He advises, however, that “students would need to
be able to articulate how these experiences can add value to the jobs they are applying for”.
Ultimately, it is not the job but the willingness to
try new things that matters.
Mr Josh Goh, assistant director of corporate services
at recruitment agency The GMP Group, says: “We basically want to know how street-smart and how corporate savvy they are.
“Any job experience is good. It gives the potential
employer the impression that this person is not so sheltered and has real-life working experience,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Ms Elia has no regrets about her choice.
“I would definitely list this job on my resume,” she
says. “It has given me confidence, taught me how to
think on my feet, and honed my presentation skills
which will be useful in future.”
She adds: “The most important thing is to be happy
and to like what I’m doing.”
Fun at work
Young adults are seeking unique vacation job opportunities
instead of settling for desk jobs
ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
Ms Anita Natasha Chand works part-time at
BooksActually and handstitches paper cahiers.
Bliss in a
bookshop
[email protected]
She’s got
the animal
instinct
You may put up with an office weasel, but undergraduate Elia Nurbaya Mohamed Jais’ part-time job requires
her to spend time with a python, spotted hyenas and a
binturong (Asian bearcat).
Three or four times a week, Ms Elia, 21, presents the
Creatures Of The Night Show at the Night Safari, from
about 6pm to midnight.
“It’s much easier to work with the animals than the
people,” says the second-year linguistics student at the
Nanyang Technological University, with a laugh. “Animals are much simpler. We shower them with love,
and they return the same.”
People, on the other hand, can be “unreasonable,
demanding and very rude”.
As an animal presenter, she feeds and cleans the
animals, and trains them to display their natural
behaviour during the educational show.
For instance, she assists her colleagues in conditioning raccoons, otters and servals (medium-sized African
Working as a
presenter at the
Night Safari, Ms
Elia Nurbaya gets
to hang out with
animals such as a
binturong.
ST PHOTO: SEAH KWANG PENG
wild cats) to perform, using a food reward system.
She became a presenter in December 2009, after a
one-week on-the-job training and assessment. She
enjoyed her job so much, she decided to continue
working partial shifts, chalking up 20 to 30 hours each
week, even during the school semester.
While she declines to say how much she is paid, a
similar job in the industry would pay between $7 and
$10 an hour. Her hours are flexible and her employer
allows her to take study breaks of up to three weeks
during the exams.
“Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m working. It’s more
like a hobby,” she says. “You’re not that tired when
you’re having fun.”
The romance of the indie bookstore led Ms Anita
Natasha Chand to become a part-time store assistant
at BooksActually.
She started working three or four days a week at
the bookshop in Tiong Bahru four months ago, after
graduating with a diploma in mass communication
from Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
“I just love being around books,” says Ms Chand,
20, whose favourite authors are Haruki Murakami,
Chuck Palahniuk and Sylvia Plath.
Never mind that most of her cohort were angling
for internships at media firms. In her last semester,
she had interned at a public relations agency, and
found it “quite stressful”.
So when she wrote in to BooksActually for a job,
she was hoping for “something not too stressful,
something more mellow”. “Basically, I wanted to
read,” she adds.
Her typical work day starts around 11am and ends
by 9pm. Duties include shelving books and manning
the counter. While she prefers not to say how much
she earns, bookstore assistants can earn between $5
and $7 an hour.
She has also picked up the craft of making handstitched paper cahiers, thin notebooks with stitched
spines, on the job. The 50 cahiers she makes a week
are sold at $4 or $5 at the store.
“I pricked my finger quite a few times at first, but I
learnt handstitching quite fast,” she says.
The bookstore employee has also learnt how to
use a typewriter. She uses different manual typewriters from the 1960s and 1970s owned by the store,
including an Olivetti, to type the quotes – usually the
opening sentences of selected novels and short
stories – that adorn the cover of the cahiers. “I’m not
used to there being no ‘backspace’,” she says ruefully.
Come August, she will matriculate to read history
at Nanyang Technological University. For now, however, the tactile world of old-school print beckons:
“It’s something I enjoy, and it’s nice having some
downtime before starting university.”
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
PHOTO: MARK CHEONG FOR THE STRAITS TIMES
Tossing and catching ice cream is part of Mr Ang Wei Xiang’s (right) job at Cold Stone Creamery.
Zouk bartender Woo Xin Lin has been mixing drinks for five years and plans to open her own restaurant in the future.
Stone cold and loving it
Happy to mix it up
Singing, dancing, and tossing and catching ice-cream
is all in a day’s work for Cold Stone Creamery crew
member Ang Wei Xiang.
Mr Ang, 23, followed his sweet tooth to the
ice-cream parlour after he completed his national service last July.
“I didn’t want to be stuck in an office. I wanted a
job that was more fun,” he says, of how he wanted to
spend his time before studying accounting and
finance at the Singapore Institute of Management
later this year. In the army, he had been a clerk, working nine to five.
Since joining the creamery’s Orchard Central
branch last November, he has progressed from baking
waffles to making ice cream. He now even performs
the shop’s signature ice-cream acrobatics, also known
She had just hit the legal drinking age of 18, when
Ms Woo Xin Lin applied to be a bartender at Zouk.
That was five years ago, while she was looking for a
holiday job before starting university.
Now 23, and a senior bartender overseeing a team
of six, she says: “My parents were fine with it. They
trust me not to pick up any bad habits.”
In fact, it was her mother who pointed out the job
opening to her, because the club was close to their
home in Zion Road.
As a rookie bartender, she worked about three
nights a week, from 7pm to 4.30am, earning $6.50 an
hour. Those with her experience and of her calibre
now can command hourly rates of around $12.
Mixology, or the art of preparing drinks, interested
as flaring, such as tossing scoops of ice cream from one
colleague to another.
At customers’ requests and whenever they receive
tips, the crew also breaks out into raucous cheers and
dance moves. Some of Mr Ang’s friends go to the shop
to request special performances, just to tease him.
He works eight-hour shifts, up to six days a week,
earning $5.50 an hour.
There are perks: He gets to eat ice cream on the job.
Staff can choose a scoop of ice cream of their choice
for free each day at work. Plus, at least once every two
months, he is among the first to taste new promotional flavours rolled out by the company.
“Working in the food and beverage business is not
easy,” he says. “But I believe I can bring this ‘work
hard, play hard’ spirit to my future job.”
her. “There’s endless room for creativity when it
comes to making a good cocktail,” she says.
As a young girl working the bar, dealing with drunk
men and being hit on was an almost daily affair.
Although she has never faced serious trouble from
inebriated customers, on several occasions, she has
had to call security to remove the rowdy ones.
Last December, she graduated with a double degree
in business and psychology from the University at Buffalo, at Singapore Institute of Management. She is
looking for a “proper job” in a corporate setting, but is
not quite ready to leave her bartending days behind.
She plans to open her own restaurant in future,
with a bar where customers can fix their own drinks
with professional guidance.