Chersiong is a 4th year Economics student at the Nanyang Technological University School of Humanities and Social Sciences. He is not your typical student as he started working part time two years ago. Find out about his experiences and how he juggles between work and school in the following interview.
Tony (T): Tell me who are you currently working for?
Chersiong (CS): I am doing free lance consulting services, providing technical and management advice to a property agent. We have been working together to share and experiment ideas on how to make use of the internet to open up new markets or to expand her customer base.
T: How long have you been working?
CS: For 2 years already.
T: How did it all start?
CS: It all started from a friend’s recommendation as a photoshop consultant. As I started working, the property agent requested me to do more things. As her ideas bloomed, we discussed about the ways to materialised and carry out these ideas. There were many learning opportunities and she gave me the free rein to experiment and learn about web design and email marketing in the process.
T: How much time is allocated on a per day basis for your work and on your studies?
CS: It really depends on the situation. If the work is urgent, I will dedicate time for the work first. However, I will try not to spend more than 2 hours per day on the work. The rest of the time will be for studies and other things.
T: Describe to me a typical week.
CS: During weekdays, I will work in the morning and meet my client before my lesson starts. At night, I will dedicate some time for work and for studies. Weekends will be reserved for revision as well. To keep in touch with my friends, I will study with a group of friends. I volunteer on Saturdays and have a weekly basketball session every Sunday with my secondary school friends.
T: Wow, that’s hectic. What is your most challenging assignment so far?
CS: It has to be image piercing. It took me three days to complete this assignment.
T: What is image piercing?
CS: Hmmm. Just take it as joining different images together to form a large collage. I cannot disclose the actual assignment. I will have to kill you if I do. :P
T: How do you feel this job? Does it value-add to you as a soon-to-be graduate?
CS: Personally, I have a deep interest in I.T. I have been exposed to these skills sets but kind of lost it along the way. Therefore this job helped me in revising my photoshop, webpage editing and video editing skills. Though it does not add value to my studies, but one must realise that in the future, there are bound to be instances where you will be forced to do things you are unfamiliar with. Therefore, one has to be prepared to pick up new skills from scratch and have the right attitude to approach things.
T: What are some tips or advice you would give to someone who wants to work adhoc assignment like yours? How should they go about looking for one?
CS: These jobs mainly come by word of mouth. So don’t hide your skills. If you have the skills, make use of opportunities to show them off. Through your CCAs or projects maybe? If you are good, you will get noticed and assignments like these will come.
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