I recently read the excerpt below from a newsletter on an inspirational website called briankim.net.
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Here’s a great question to ask to see if you’re associating with the right people.

Who do the people you consistently spend time with expect of you?

Be brutally honest with yourself when you answer.

Do they even expect anything at all from you?

Or worse yet, do they expect you to fail?

You’ll find that our lives are usually consistent with the expectations of those we
associate with on a consistent basis.

Expect the best effort from yourself.

Those who you associate with should expect nothing less as well.
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is this true? i wonder.

thus, it must produce value for its clients. it cannot exist to serve the student or the entrepreneur. it exists to serve others. the customer.

Thus far, in university, I have been a research assistant twice. Working as a research assistant enables you to learn many more technical skills and knowledge than at an internship at an outside corporation. During such an internship, you will rarely have any colleagues, except for a boss, which is your supervisor. I didn’t have any colleagues. Thus, I worked directly with my professor, otherwise known as your supervisor. Professors or lecturers in university are usually congenial and forgiving, but they also want to see students doing a good job. How else would they get their projects or research completed on time?

For such assignments, your pay would be hourly or by rate, or might be a lump sum for th e project at hand. Such work then is similar to contract work in terms of pay, but professors are usually glad to impart new technical knowledge or skills to you. Thus, it is also for your own learning as well as to assist the professor in his duties. One of the best parts is that many aspects of the job allow you to work at home or around campus. Thus, you are not confined to an office. Take these kind of Research Assistant jobs as a learning experience.

An internship at a bank is different from the others because of the posh interior of the facilities, the well-structured systems, and the really hardworking colleagues. I was an intern at one of the banks down in Suntec City, the city area of Singapore, for around three months. It was not the toughest internship, but it was an exciting one. And no, toughness does not determine the quality of an internship experience. Some bosses think that if they work you to the bone, it’s actually beneficial to you yourself- that’s a totally wrong concept. It’s about working to the optimum and then giving some room for creativity. That will give a much better benefit to the employee. And when the employee is happy, he will feel motivated to contribute, and would apply self-motivation. There are some employees who would not react to such principles, but the task of a manager then is to identify which are the self-starters and which need pushing.

At the investment bank, my bosses and colleagues were extremely helpful, and allowed me to grow. I would say that the working environment is congenial. Besides that, they incorporate many best practices. There are frequent trainings, little outings to the main headquarters, talks by senior staff on their job scopes and their working lives. The IT systems are very complete and secure, and you can get a feel that the programmers on the IT systems have done a good job at that. Overall, because of the large amounts of infrastructure invested and the various facets of work done, you feel very well taken care of.

To even enter an investment bank as an intern, your grades have to be above average. Another piece of advice, upon entry, focus on the work. Engaging in petty politics is for those who wish to gain power through politics instead of actually adding value to the organisation. Remember, petty politics adds no value to the company you are working for. Thus, if you want to do good for the company and colleagues, produce excellent work which assists other functions of the company or even directly contributes to the bottomline of the company.

The overall congeniality and the motivation of my colleagues helped to make this internship a memorable one.

LISTEN…you can feel it in your bones.. Yes, you can feel the tremors in your soul. The demise of Facebook is about to begin. The winds of change always bring about a new technology. A technology that will replace the dominant one before…eviscerate the previous one…no, it will not be labelled social networking. It will appear in an incarnation BEYOND your imagination… the end is nigh, facebook, the end is nigh

I interned at a Marketing company for my second internship in NUS.

The company was a multinational which was headquarted in Switzerland, and it was a market leader in many industries. It sold high-end plastic products to heavy industries like factories or builder, like swimming pool construction.

Having a good boss and colleagues takes luck. I was fortunate to have a good boss and an amiable colleague who I had to work closely with.

At a sales company, trainings are frequent for the sales staff, and sales calls are also frequent. The objective is to sell parts to other businesses. This was my first-hand experience at B2B companies.

During my first few weeks, I learned a lot by reading technical manuals filled with measurements of products and company brochures on company structure and organisation. These European multinational companies are good because they are well-structured and pay attention to many finer details like how you would rise in the organization, your well-being, etc.

I interned at a start-up headed by a Singaporean during my first ever internship in college, i.e. National University of Singapore. I obtained this internship through the NUS Career Center web portal. This start-up was located in Singapore Management University.

The founder was pretty renowned in the local papers for having started companies and for being young and being a boss at the same time.

During this internship, I worked as a website designer. The team was small but this meant it was tightly knit. My colleagues were college undergraduates too, so we got along well.

Working at a start-up company means that you report directly to the boss. In this case I reported directly to the boss.

Looking back, I would offer some tips before you work in a start-up company, and one that is headed by a Singaporean:

1. You will need to take initiative to start working on projects or ask for projects when there seems to be no work going on. At a start-up company, no one really knows where the company is headed to. The boss/CEO is actively trying to make the business succeed. And sometimes he is tied up with that task, and thus you will need to take the initiative to help the company in any way you can.

2. Before you enter the start-up, be aware of your skills and be prepared to utilize them or improve on them. A start up is a company that requires every man to count. Thus you need to know what you are good at, i.e. sales, computer programming, communications, media. And thus, you need to be an expert in that. That means a lot of hard work to brush up that skill.

3. In a start-up, there are finite resources, and YOU are its greatest resource. Yes, people count. And a start up does not have very much money. You either bring in the money, or you contribute in some way to the bottom line.

All in all, my training as an intern at a start up company has enabled me to learn to watch the company’s bottomline. Meaning that I should contribute towards high-impact high value activities. To do that, you have to be resourceful and creative.

To my international readers, this is a film in a Singaporean setting. Nevertheless, It contains a very touching message, which will resonate with any human being. The central theme here is filial piety, or caring for our parents and grandparents. This video really touched my heart, especially towards the ending.

You wil not waste any time watching it. Highly Recommended. 5 Stars out of 5.

Recently I tried to make funny comments on facebook. After it’s posted, I tell myself it isn’t funny. But since I have to make a constant flow of blog posts, here you go. Sarcasm is a good thing.

Just what is fun?

A game of laser tag? A game of paintball? A hearty meal?

a good tv show? a heart to heart chat? a skydive?

fun…

a word to ponder upon in our meaningless world.