How to Stay Employable and Ace Your Interviews?

Career Survivor Tips

When you are young and energetic, you tend to worry lesser and have many job opportunities for you to choose from.

However as age catches up, your financial / personal commitment increases together with the chances of you getting retrenched as well. This is something very true in this pragmatic society. 

FACT #1: NOBODY IS INDISPENSABLE. 

You must accept this fact well. 

Very True Indeed.

You may slog your guts out for the company for the decades during your youth but this will still not guarantee that your boss might retain you in your job. 

Hence, how to stay employable?

The only way for you to stay employable is to make your bosses feel that you are a valuable asset to the company (not a liability). Does that mean you must be extremely hardworking and do overtimes all the time? I doubt so. I believed in working SMART, not too much on the HARD part. 

WORK SMART

Doing excessive Overtimes is not only detrimental to your health and your work-life balance, you might not get appreciated for doing them as well. 

Also, your other colleagues might see you as an eyesore or label you as an apple polisher for volunteering to do all that OTs.

Doing OTs might reflect that you are inefficient in your time management and hence you need to spend extra hours to clear your backlogs while your other colleagues can complete their tasks on time. This might be true if your workload is supposed to be manageable. 

However on the flip side, doing OTs might mean you are overloaded. Your department is understaffed but the management does not see the need to hire more employees because people like you are ever willing to stretch your own limits to do OTs. Hence why waste the money to hire more staff when they only have to pay for you to complete the jobs of 2 or 3 employees'? In this case, you are exploited. The only way for you to escape this tragedy is voice out to the management or learn how to refuse extra jobs (of course you must have enough bargaining chips to say NO). If not, just exit the company gracefully and find a more humane company to hire you.

UPGRADING IN PROGRESS...

The best way to stay employable is to constantly upgrade yourself with new skills that can be applicable to your job. 

Learning is a lifelong process and hence you should never resist the opportunity to upgrade yourselves. 

Invest in good courses to enrich yourselves / grab whatever training opportunities that your company offers. As a professional in the insurance industry, I would never hesitate to sign up for any insurance courses to upgrade myself when the opportunity arises. Also, we are regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and hence are required to clock our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Hours annually in order to be fit and proper to provide advices to our clients. 

Out of the many courses I have attended, I found the Microsoft Office Courses to be most beneficial. This is because we all need to use MS Excel to compare insurance quotations etc and hence knowing the correct techniques and shortcuts in using the software really did save a lot of my precious working hours trying to figure out how to perfect my work. I was really very grateful to my ex-boss (the irritating old maid) for recommending me to attend the courses (not to mention that she actually made me revise my Excel tables - be it format or template countless times in the past to suit her 'perfectionist' taste). 

*READERS' BENEFIT*

Affordable Upgrading Courses :)

Free MS Office Tutorials 

via Webucator

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I recently got to know this online portal which offers online tutorials / courses for Microsoft Office - Webucator. 

This is a more affordable channel to upgrade your IT Skills especially when your company is too stingy to sponsor you to such courses. Also, if you are too shy or too busy to attend the courses in a classroom setting, Webucator is the perfect solution for you. You can try out their free tutorials before committing to the paid lessons :)

INTERVIEW TIPS

I guess this is one of the most sought after tips you guys have been waiting for. 

I would not say I am an expert in interviews but I would say that I have attended many interviews in my life. I ever took a day's leave to attend 3 interviews in a row because I hated my previous working environment which was too micromanaged for my self development. Also, as I was working in that previous company for less than a year, it is expected that my interviewers might deem me as a "job-hopper" and my interview sessions were pretty grilling (thank God I wasn't burnt in the process). 

#1: STAY CALM

Keeping calm during the interviewing process is very important. 

My manager friend ever shared with me that he interviewed a guy who started the interview by commenting "I feel jittery when I am with strangers". This is the most suicidal statement one can ever make in an interview as it ruined the first impression. Indeed he remained jittery and stuttered throughout the interview.

Even if you are nervous and have sweaty palms, please do appear calm. Take a few deep breaths to calm yourself down. If you are not in your sane mind, chances are you will flop your interviews and say the wrong things at the wrong time. 

#2: CONFIDENCE IS THE KEY

After keeping your cool, you must exhibit your confidence. You must be comfortable with yourself in order to be confident. 

Have some confidence in your self worth - flaunt your skills and expertise if you have any. It would be good if you have an "Achievement" Section in your CV to make yourself more outstanding than the other interviewees. However, do not overdo it if not it will only make you appear too arrogant and aloof to be teachable. 

#3: PREPARE FOR ANSWERS

The most grilling interview I had was with my current company's HR which lasted for an hour. Switching from being a broker to insurer is not easy as I had never been an insurer before. Hence it would be vital to prepare for wise answers to tackle difficult questions raised. 

Below are some common questions that interviewers might raise during an interview.

a. Why are you leaving your current employment?

In order not to be seen as a potential job-hopper, please do spend some time to prepare your answer for this. The excuse I gave is because I wanted to try something different. 

Never badmouth your boss / company too much as this will make your interviewer think that you will do likewise after you join their company. This is a taboo unless your company is infamous for its harsh working environment. Nevertheless, less complaining and saying more positive things would be the wiser choice. 

Always picture yourself as the potential employer. What kind of response from the interviewee will you like to hear? After all, the purpose of interviews is to impress. 

b. Self-Introduction

This is a test of your presentation skills. How would you sell yourself to your potential employer?

I made a terrible mistake in my first interview with a manager from a local recruiting agency - Recruits Express Pte Ltd (Singapore). As a fresh grad not trained to perform in interviews, I learnt my lesson the hard way. 

When told to do a self-intro, I simply blabbered about my family and life etc and the manager humiliated me saying that I was too naïve for the job. You should start by introducing your relevant job experiences and capabilities that are related to the job you are interviewing for. 

You might be happy with your personal life and supportive family, but please only talk about them when you are socialising with your friends. 

c. Strengths and Weaknesses

You might be compelled to list down 3 strengths and weaknesses in the job application form or be asked during your interview. So be wise and ponder through them before you get dumbfounded during the interview. 

My key strength is that I can complete tasks very fast. However doing things fast might compromise on the accuracy of my work. OK, I listed down one strength and weakness at the same time. On the weakness part, I went on to elaborate that throughout the years of working, I have constantly improved on my careless aspect as I force myself to check my work before submitting it up. Sounds appealing to the interviewer isn't it?

Another strength is that I can convey my ideas very well across in writing - that is why I am a blogger. I prefer to write more than talk to others as my weakness is that I am introverted and am not as charismatic as others. However during my holiday job as a customer service officer in a call centre, I was trained to answer the clients' queries with tact. I might not be very eloquent but I am trying hard to improve on this over the years as an insurance broker. I was really relieved when the interviewer complimented that I can express myself clearly throughout the interview. I have finally overcame this weakness ;)

Hence the above are 2 examples for reference. I leave you to think of the third one for me. 

d. What do you see yourself / want to achieve in 5 Years' Time?

I ultra HATE this question. It is so cliché but interviewers will never quit asking this ALL the time.

When asked this question during my first interview with Recruits Express, I replied "I don't know" honestly. 

I was still young and fresh from university but not knowing exactly what jobs would I want to take up. All I knew is that my character is too introverted and hence I would shun from doing sales job. Also, I value work-life balance and hence I do not want to see myself doing OT. That was all I told the interviewer before getting labelled as NAÏVE.

The above is a classic example that being honest is never going to help.

Hence, you just have to find something that the interviewer likes to hear instead. This question is asked simply to test if you have any aspirations in life. If you do not have any goals in life, perhaps you will not be seen as capable in your job. 

Although deep down in my heart all I wanted is a stable job which offers me a decent pay and yet the flexibility to do whatever I like after office hours (like blogging), I can never say that straight into my interviewer's face because it will just be too suicidal *sigh*

e. What Will You Do During Your Probation?

Another silly question. I have yet to join the company how would I know what I should do? I just react accordingly.. But hell no. You need to give a good answer to satisfy their desire.

Hence I replied that I would read the past correspondences to understand how are things being done and ask around to find out more etc. Just respond to that wisely. 

f. Share on one difficult situation faced and how you resolve it.

OK easy peasy. Just find something good to share to boost your confidence.

I'm sure you have encountered some troubles in your life (or more relevant - during your current job) and enjoyed the satisfaction of resolving the problem yourself (or with the help of your peers). 

g. Any Questions?

Yes! It is PAYBACK TIME!

After being grilled with those uncomfortable questions, it is the time you want to give your feedbacks! When asked with this question, make doubly sure you have already prepared a list of questions you want to ask that is related to the position you are interviewing for to find out whether you are suitable for this role. 

I know you must be burning to know what are the Employees' Benefits and Remuneration Packages like but please refrain from asking blatantly and reserve them during the end of your conversation if you do not want to be labelled as "money-faced". 

Ask as many intelligent questions as possible to show your interest in the job. Perhaps you may ask about the challenges you might face if you join that company. Or you might want to find out about the prospects of the job etc. 

The best way to know whether the company is suitable for you to stay is perhaps ask the interviewer if they enjoy working for that particular company. If you sense any uneasiness / hesitation from the interviewer, this might be a good indication for you to consider your choices prudently.

I used to enquire about the workload during interviewers but gave up after a while as the interviewers will throw back the question to you to say that everything is about time management. Hence perhaps you can just ask them what is the average time the employees in that team / department knock off as a gauge on the level of work-life balance they are enjoying. I ever heard that the average time to knock off was 7pm from one of my interviews (which I secretly blacklisted) but the interviewer explained the prospects of the job that I will get to learn many things etc. Never be enticed / tricked that you get to learn many things by staying back late after office hours. Chances are you might be too burnt-out to absorb what you have 'learnt'. 

#4: NEGOTIATE

Congrats! I suppose you have been offered a job when you reach this stage. 

Never sign on the dotted line out of desperation. Weigh your options carefully.

Do a detailed comparison of your renumeration package / career prospects before deciding on what to do. If you like the career prospects but feel that the salary wise is too little, you can actually go back to the HR to negotiate. Of course, you have to negotiate tactfully in order not to break the deal. 

Remember - you must have enough bargaining chips on your hand in order to negotiate well. You must justify your counter proposals in a logical manner and prove to them you are definitely worth your price tag. Never compromise your self worth to avoid future regrets. 

If that company is short of manpower and is desperate to hire - better still. Take the opportunity to raise your worth if you think you are deemed to be a good fit for the job by your potential employer. I managed to negotiate a higher salary on the reason that I would be compromising my Annual Leave (from 18 days to 15 days) and other staff benefits prior to joining my ex-company (so now you know how stingy and micromanaged they are right?). To be honest, I actually declined that job offer when the HR refused to increase their offer but they acceded to my request as they were desperate for manpower. I was glad I had a higher pay at that time which made it easy for my current company to match and better my package when I joined :D

#5: BE YOURSELF

Although I mentioned earlier that interview is all about saying the things the interviewer loves to hear, you still have to be yourself in order to make your interview successful. Being overly pretentious and hypocritical might not reflect well on you - you might clinch the job but not survive your probation period because you have bitten on something bigger than you can chew. 

I have started off not knowing what I want in my career but life is a continuous journey of self-discovery. Never be afraid to be true to yourself and discover on what you want in your career path before making your own decisions. 

I was offered to another insurance broker role when I was in my ex-company but I declined that offer as I wasn't too comfortable with the job scope. I prefer to handle insurance programs for small / medium-sized corporations but I was offered a role to handle large global accounts with the promise by the potential employer to give me the relevant coaching and guidance. 

Handling huge portfolios might sound prestige to others but I chose to stay true to my preference and declined the job offer as I knew I would be stressed out and unhappy again handling those global portfolio which require a lot of coordination work with our overseas offices which can be frustrating especially with the time difference. I have handled similar accounts before and hence I knew that it would not be a personality-job fit for me.

Despite being desperate to leave my previous company due to my many grievances, I declined that offer as I did not want to regret my choice. I was glad I declined that offer as something unexpected and better came along and I took up that offer heartily.

CONCLUSION

I do hope you benefited from my sharing (or rather ranting) on my career experiences. 

Do share with us your feedback / experiences in the comment box below as I am very interested to hear alternative opinions to broaden my knowledge :D

Also, please do read my other posts from my Career Series if you have not done so. 

God Bless!

Check Out My FULL Career Series Below :)
Part 1: Career and Aspirations (Career VS Job)
Part 2: How do your know it is the TIME (to Quit)?
Part 3: How to Stay Employable and Ace Your Interviews?

P.S.
Find this post amusing?? Please stay tuned to my future musings by clicking the icons below:

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How do you know it is the TIME (to Quit)?

Tell-Tale Signs of You Leaving Your Employment...

Many people would ask me: "How do you know that XXX is going to quit?"

The answer is simple and based on astute observation. DUH. 

Having worked in a team whereby the team-mates start to resign one by one, leaving myself as the 'sole survivor' in that team, my experience in observing and identifying the tell-tale signs of one going to leave their employment wouldn't go too wrong. 

The common tell-tale signs are:

• Taking frequent half-day leaves / Medical Leaves or Urgent Leaves etc

Although leaves are an entitlement to an employee, taking frequent leaves over a short period of time can be a warning sign that the employee might be taking time off for job interviews!

• Low Morale during Work - can be observed by bad mood, low spirits and even venting of frustrations at himself / herself or others

This is very obvious when I see my immediate superior dragging her body to work and collapse into the chair right in front of me with an ultra stressed out look. Also, if you are sensitive enough, you might sense a dark cloud looming over her head.. Man.. That's just bad!

Also, during the period she was in my team, she would vent her frustration by crumpling papers or tearing them up to produce some noise that would draw attention to herself - that is simply too extreme but what do you expect from old maids? (*disclaimer: I do not mean that all old maids behave like that, but old maids are generally moodier as their hormones are imbalanced)

• Incessant complaining about how shitty their work is and saying negative things about the company

This is the most common way to vent you frustration. But overly complaining about your work might be one of the signs to mark the end of your tenure with that particular company.

• Doing Overtime over prolonged period

Never ever think that this is a sign of handwork (although some people might purposely do OT to demonstrate their 'competence'). This might just be an indication that the employee is overloaded.

What happens when you overstretch a rubber band? - It simply SNAPS!

How do YOU know it's Your Turn?

After learning to observe the tell-tale signs of others, how do you apply them on yourself and know it's your turn to resign?

The above-mentioned tell-tale signs are usually reflected during the 'terminal stages' of one's employment. It would be good if you can detect them early so that you can plan an alternative sooner. 

• You feel that you do not have any potential to grow

Your efforts and handwork are not being recognised by the management and you feel that you are not rewarded well enough for all the efforts you have placed in during your employment in the company. 

This becomes more apparent when your bosses are out to exploit you to make you work like a robot and yet unwilling to pay more that they think you are worth.

Never ever think that your loyalty towards your boss / company will pay off in this case - because it never will. Forcing yourself to stay in such a place will stagnate your growth within the organisation and be prepared to receive a nominal SGD50- SGD100 increment year upon year with a thin bonus!

After a decade (or more) in that same company, this heightens your fear to move on and you will forever be enslaved to that company till you retire perhaps!

• You are unhappy with your immediate boss

This is one of the very common reasons why people leave the organisation. 

The company might be very rewarding towards their employees and they might offer really attractive staff benefits and salary, but having a devil for an immediate boss might deter you from working for that organisation totally.

I was never fond of my ex-boss who was a perfectionist in all ways (an old maid syndrome I think). She would force her opinions / ideology upon me and micro-manage me all the time that at a point in time I felt that I was suffocating. C'mmon, we are all salaried workers so why take everything so seriously? If you want everything to be done YOUR way, YOU should do it with YOUR own hands and not dictate your subordinates to carry them out for you. I do have my own opinions and mindset and ways in doing things and I do NOT agree that your way is much superior than mine. 

As long as things are done properly, why do you want to care how are they done? I simply hated it when she struts into the office and started to question me on her 'outstanding jobs list' even before my chair gets warmed up in the morning. The incessant nagging and consistently checking up on my status is killing my passion to work for her. I am a human who needs freedom and breathing space to execute my own judgement and creativity. Moreover, her micro-managing ways were getting a little overboard as she would ensure that I am busy completing the tasks at all times. She would intrude into my conversation with my other colleagues by asking me whether this and that is done. That is ultra disrespectful and most of my colleagues disliked her as well. 

Also, our Annual Leave is our entitlement. I never felt guilty about taking time off to chill and relax and do my own stuff. However, my ex-boss think otherwise. She would like to have the control on when I take my leaves and disapprove it for fear that she has to cover my work during my absence. How absurdly tyrannical! 

Not everyone of us works the same as our immediate bosses. If the disagreements are more than agreements, then it will be better to end all these miseries by parting ways. In this case, I 'out-lived' my previous boss as she threw in the towel before I did as I simply continued to ignore her and do my own work and leave her to nag all the time. 

• Your voice / opinion is never heard

Some people are just stubborn and insistent on their ways. No matter how you voice your disagreement / suggestions, they would never be heard. 

There was once my ex-boss (yes, that old maid) enquired on how do I file my emails. I explained to her into details on how I did my filing and she disagreed and insisted that I follow her way which is causing me great inconvenience. I explained to her that I would be the one doing ALL the filings, so I should file it in my way which suits my logic. However, she was adamant and only considered her stance that she would not be able to retrieve the information when I am on leave. I do not see that as a concern after all I have already explained to her on how I file my stuff - even my Admin auntie can understand, why can't she?

Whenever I suggest ideas on how to improve our workflow, my ex-boss would start rattling: "Last Time Ah..." 

This is the 21st Century - she should just stop living in the past and embrace a brighter future. If you are working for a boss who is unable to adapt to changes, chances are you will have to adopt her style which is a lot less efficient and hence your frustration towards your work builds up over time.

• You are not picking up any new things

If you are always looking out to learn new things and be in contact with novel stuff, chances are you will not want to do the same old routine stuff over and over again. 

Some people gets excited to learn new things whereas some are resistant to learn new things. Hence it really depends on your personality.

• You dislike the company's culture / structure 

This is one of the major reason why I chose to leave my previous company. After being worked for an MNC that is very westernised, working under an Asian culture might cause many resentment. 

The difference between Westernised and Asian culture is that the first allows you more flexibility in your work. The management does not care how you do your work as long as you produce desirable results. The Asian way focus more on the details like punctuality, SOPs, compliance etc. You simply feel that you are back to school with your immediate supervisors looking like a Principal or Discipline Master. 

I am somebody who loves freedom. I work very hard during office hours but I would look forward to work-life balance. Hence it is very hard for me to accept the calculative culture of Asians somehow. Why would you want to restrict my working hours / lunch hours when I am working hard and meeting deadlines right? And not doing OT means I'm lazy and will not be entitled to good bonus / higher increments? What nonsense!

• You do not feel motivated to work. To you, it's just a job and you only look forward to receive the next pay check. 

The most pathetic part of your employment is that you are just in Zombie mode everyday you report to work. You cannot leave your employment as you have financial commitments. Yet, you are unable to find a better job elsewhere - perhaps due to your age and experience. 

Hence I would really encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and experiment with other jobs when you are still young and employable. You will not know what you really like unless you try them out for yourself. 

Ending off with my favourite quote from Steve Jobs:

"Stay HUNGRY, Stay FOOLISH"

That is indeed the key ingredient to success. 

Check Out My FULL Career Series Below :)
Part 1: Career and Aspirations (Career VS Job)
Part 2: How do your know it is the TIME (to Quit)?
Part 3: How to Stay Employable and Ace Your Interviews?

P.S.
Find this post amusing?? Please stay tuned to my future musings by clicking the icons below:

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Career & Aspirations...

Food For Thought: Job or Career?

Ever wondered what is the stark difference between a Job and Career?

Below is a very detailed comparison to show you the difference between a JOB and a CAREER. 

	Career	Job
What is it?	A career is the pursuit of a lifelong ambition or the general course of progression towards lifelong goals.	Job is an activity through which an individual can earn money. It is a regular activity in exchange of payment.
Requirements	Usually requires special learning that includes individualized components that develop abilities beyond that which training is capable of.	Education or Special training may or may not be required
Risk taking	A career may not mean stability of work as it encourages one to take risks. The risks are often internal and therefore planned.	A job is “safe”, as stability of work and income is there. However shifting priorities, especially in resource jobs, can abruptly change the demand and require relocation which is an unstable factor. Risks may be completely external.
Time	Long term	Short term
Income	Varies depending on value to society or to some other entity. Non-monetary benefits may be higher. Salary is more common.	Varies by demand. More likely to be wage.
Contribution to society	May have high value as social change/progress may be possible.	May actually have a negative impact when counterproductive social practices are continued in the name of protecting jobs.

Adapted from http://www.diffen.com/difference/Career_vs_Job

FOOD for THOUGHT - do you slog your guts out for the sake of your 'rice bowl'?

In short, PASSION is the key ingredient present in a career. You enjoy what you are doing and you cannot wait to do more than what is expected of you.

Long, Long Ago...

When I was really small, my parents would educate us to study hard and get the necessary qualifications in order to land ourselves in a decent and stable job. The story ends there (perhaps with the 'happily ever after' connotation). It is a societal norm to follow the crowd, get a degree, get a stable job and live on.

However as our society gets more and more educated, our ideology gets more and more complex and we are not easily contented with our regular 9 to 5 jobs. 

Instead, we start to talk about our ideals, our aspirations and what we perceive ourselves to be. We want to be unique and not trapped along with the mainstream.

Life as a Fresh Grad

Never think that the World is at your fingertips once you have graduated from university...

Being taught that graduating with a decent university degree would land myself into a stable job, life was not so when I graduated. 

I graduated with a degree in Banking and Finance shortly after the Lehman Brothers collapsed and retrenchment abounded. I was convinced to major in Banking and Finance as my dad commented that working in banks is great as they are a flourishing industry. Life is unpredictable and yes, I sold my 3 years studying a course I didn't like for the sake of a valuable piece of paper - my education certificate. This piece of paper is still of some use as it decorates my CV but it is as good as toilet paper as I did not get to apply much of what I learnt in university on my job. 

Having worked for a local bank during my school holidays was not a great experience either. I disliked the political culture in that particular bank. The colleagues were not helpful, and the supervisor ever hurled blatant insults on an admin staff. Moreover, the staff was doing a lot of OT in order to earn extra income. To me, that was a meaningless and repetitive job with no value at all. 

Hence, I graduated from university being deterred to work for banks ever again. 

As a very fresh fresh grad, I met with many obstacles in finding a job and I was insulted in interviews as I could not answer the questions thrown by the interviewers with tact - I will share more on my interviewing experience in a separate post. 

I am very much of an introvert and hence am unable to express myself in many occasions. I am already improving my communication skills as the years go by and after being educated by my career... 

My First Job

As I have mentioned earlier, failure to perform eloquently in interviews have prevented me to get the jobs I interviewed for. 

As an introverted individual, I wanted a backend job like accounting, administrative, data analyst sort of role. 

However, due to a twist of fate and through a friend referral, I ended up attending an interview with a Insurance Broking Firm. The interviewer, also the COO of the company was very enthusiastic about describing the job scope to me. 

The first misconception when one comes across with the term 'insurance' would be very much a sales job. Perhaps you guys might have enrolled yourselves eagerly under the "Do Not Call" register already. However, insurance have many facets too. Those who bugs you with the sales calls normally are insurance agents who represent life insurance companies (i.e. AIA, Prudential etc). 

Brokers on the other hand, are the intermediary between the client and the insurance companies. The interests of the brokers are towards their clients (aka Insureds). Hence that is the main difference between brokers and agents. Further to that, brokers have unlimited access to the insurance market (i.e. they can source for quotations from all the insurance companies available) whereas agents are tied to 3 designated insurers which they are representing. The insurance industry in Singapore is heavily regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Anyways, I was really grateful that I was accepted as a fresh grad into that company (after an hour's interview with the interview blabbering non-stop of the roles etc). 

Life as an Insurance Broker

Thank God, once again that I ended up in the insurance industry. Although the industry industry can be deemed as a 'dirty job' thanks to the hardworking insurance agents who were trying their best to solicit sales, I find this job a very meaningful one. 

Insurance policies actually are a 'promise' in a form of an insurance contract to indemnify the Insured (our clients) of an insurable event (i.e. in the event that the clients' premises get burnt down and they require time to be in operation again; in the event that the Insured's employees are injured in the course of employment; in the event that the Insured's employee embezzle funds from the company etc). These 'promises' come with a reasonable 'protection fee' which we term as 'premium' of course. Most of these policies are annually renewable and can be terminated with the Insured's order. However, some insurance coverages are mandatory by the legislation i.e. Work Injury Compensation and Motor Insurance. 

As a broker, I specialise in servicing our corporate clients and helped them arrange their insurance programs to cater to their business needs. Also, as an intermediary between clients and insurers, we are obligated to get the best insurance deal for our valued clients. 

The insurance industry is heavily regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and we are required to undergo proper licensing and training on a regular basis in order to be in this profession. 

What I LOVE

I love the nature of my job. It is a continuous learning process whereby we have to adapt according to  frequent changes to market trends / new legislations - you will never be bored of this job :)

Also, this job hones my communication skills as I am compelled to face my clients and liaise with the insurers to get things done. It is a lot of coordination work and it can be rather challenging to work in such a fast-paced environment.

As I dread doing a sales job, and yet do not like to do a pure admin job (I suck at data entry), the role of an insurance broker caters to my needs as I get to interact with others and there is also a fair mixture of administrative component to my job scope as I get to prepare reports, check policies and prepare comparison tables. The job scope offers a good variety of work to be done and it is also challenging as you have to juggle so much work at one shot. 

Trust me, all the hard work would have paid off when your client appreciates you and compliments you for your effort :) Also, when I first successfully to negotiate a better term for my client from the Insurer, the amount of job satisfaction gained was immeasurable! 

What I Dislike

I would not say that my job is the best out there as there are times when I landed myself on record low as well. 

Corporate clients (especially MNCs) are getting more and more demanding and less appreciative. They would demand service quality and prompt responses. It can be stressful managing their expectations and forcing the insurers to compromise on the terms offered as well. 

As we are not a non-profit organisation, we operate to reap from our commissions as well. Hence we get pressurised to cross sell different products to our clients in order to hit our budget as well. It is perfectly fine to recommend our clients to take up some insurance covers that are beneficial to their businesses but not to the extent of shoving the policies down their throat and psycho-ing the clients to purchase the covers when they are not necessarily required. If our KPI (Key Performance Index) is based on that, then the system is basically flawed as I was taught that our interest is always towards our clients as a broker from day 1 of my career as a broker. We do face many conflicts of interest in our day-to-day work as brokers as our remuneration may come from the insurers in the form of commission. 

In order to maintain my integrity in the long run, I have decided to join an Insurance company as an Insurer instead so as to avoid such conflicting interests between earning more commission and compromising our clients' interest in the process. 

Life as an Insurer

I am already 2 months in my new role (my 4th company since graduation) and I can feel the change already! I have joined an Insurance company as a key account manager responsible to support and grow the portfolio of insurance agents assigned under my care.

In the past, I used to bug insurers to provide me their best terms.. It seems that things have felt so different once I have went to the other side.. 

I was constantly being bugged by my insurance agents for advice and quotes. My inbox is constantly flooded by their email requests and what nots.. It took me like a couple of weeks in order to adapt to this change. Thank God I adapted well as a regular job hopper *LOL*

What I LOVE

My admin work is reduced by a lot. In the past, my desk was messed up with a lot of policy documents which require detailed checking.. Now, we have gone paperless!

The tight schedules and deadlines were reduced as I do not need to remember the policy expiration dates and track them diligently. 

Gone were the days where I have to go 'shopping' in the market for alternative quotes and doing up mega Excel spreadsheets to compare the premiums, claims stats etc. It can be really tiring especially when you are bogged with all the mundane servicing activities and have to do remarketing on top of them.

I still get to hone my communication skills like in the past, just that my clients have became insurance agents now. I still get to do my coordination work with the backend staff for policy processing etc. The same skill set can still be applied here :)

This job offers me with a lot of flexibility. In fact, this job is 30% knowledge and 70% problem solving. The problems faced are unpredictable and you get to rack your brains on how to troubleshoot them within the shortest time available. The working environment is desirable as minimal micromanaging is present in my team. We work rather independently managing our own portfolio of agents and we only go to our superiors when faced with difficulties. This is something I will never enjoy in my previous company and hence I really do cherish the opportunity to breathe the fresh air of freedom *LOL* 

Further to that, I still do get my job satisfaction as my agents do appreciate my hard work and did not create much trouble for me *fingers crossed*

Challenges Faced

The downside of this job is that it is very fast-paced. As a perfectionist, I hate to see my inbox flooded with many unread mails and I will try my best to clear them whenever I can ASAP. This was a great challenge to me during my first month as I was unfamiliar with many things and the email requests were swarming in like some form of plague. 

As I familiarised myself with the systems and organisational structure, attending to general requests is a breeze and I manage to have more time to breathe and more time to attend to more complex issues as well. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are pros and cons in whatever jobs we are in. I would not say that I have found a career in any given company as of yet, but I am happy to be working in the insurance industry as I get to learn many new things at different stages. My passion is fuelled with my curiosity and desire to learn things that are of interest to me and to be of value to the organisation during my tenure there. 

Most importantly, you must enjoy what you are doing and not working for the sake of working in order to make it your career. 

I will talk about the tell-tale signs on how to tell if your current job is NOT for you and share with you on my interview tips in a separate post.

Stay tuned to my career series and I really do hope you can get a career which is satisfactory to you soon :)

Check Out My FULL Career Series Below :)
Part 1: Career and Aspirations (Career VS Job)
Part 2: How do your know it is the TIME (to Quit)?
Part 3: How to Stay Employable and Ace Your Interviews?

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