NUS Commencement Admin: Job Reflections
It lasted a mere 3 weeks, but it was my first paid job (less NS) in over 3 years.
Often guilty of being too idealistic, I recently picked up a few career-related books from the library. One of it is And What Do You Do? by two portfolio careerists. The introduction is worth a quick browse, to challenge notions that our career paths are rigid and fixed. And perhaps do the questionnaire to test if you are suited to a “portfolio career”. (As expected, I’m in the ‘Maybe’ zone.)
I chanced upon a simple exercise: 1) Identify the specific components on your job, 2) Calculate proportion of time spent on each, 3) Rate how much you enjoy each. Since I’ve been plodding on this post, I thought, why not work on it?
Do take a moment to digest the items before reading on:
(Enjoyment from 1 to 10, 10 being highest)
Waiting for work can be even more taxing than work!
The next step of this exercise is to identify the more enjoyable activities and brainstorm how they could be relevant for other jobs. Naturally, I’m looking at those I rated 7 and above. What follows is quite farcical.
1. Deciding where to eat for lunch
We call it the “decision of the day”. But school canteens cannot prepare us for the world of food out there. And we weren’t very good at it anyway.
2. Counting invitation cards
Our first task was to count 1000 cards for each ceremony. I was able to count by flipping the sides – 4, 7, 11, 16, 21, 25! Apart from being faster for it, I made a boring activity interesting (for me at least). Our later tasks would reveal hundreds of excess cards, which made us wonder why we had to count 1000 in the first place…
3. Embossing degree scrolls
This meant stamping the imprint in a pre-printed circular space on the scrolls to give it the ‘wow’ factor. More precisely, it meant letting the machine stamp its authority while I take blame for any mistakes. That’s not enjoyable. But I liked the rumbling of the machine and spacing out while I’m at it. And I learnt a new word!
4. Marvelling at top students
This is way more fun than checking the factual details on the transcript. I wrote some observations in an earlier post. I’m pretty sure no other work environment would allow me to do this.
Therefore, I’ve learnt a lot from this job. Really?!
I’ve learnt that admin jobs typically involve a lot of unpleasant labour, that my clerk responsibilities in NS were much greater, and that attempts to over-analyze will probably result in humour.
But I’ve also learnt that job satisfaction often comes from more than its component tasks. Yes, the people. My lead treated us very well, as equals. I got on well with my fellow student colleagues.
When I cannot be creative, I still try to make menial tasks more manageable. Every job has its undesirables, so managing our subjective experience is a useful skill. Like what you do, as I’d say in the past. Such optimism… killed by NS. I wouldn’t take this job again next year, because we should strive to do what we like before we try to like what we don’t like but have to do.
Conscious decisions like these will help prepare us for our careers, whatever shapes they may take.
