 Thanks for all of you coming in this evening, Friday. Normally, I would be in a happy hour, but I don't have. Let me just, can I share my slides? Yes, you may. Sure, sure. Okay. Just, all right, let me, okay. So can you see? Yeah, yes. Ken, okay. Ken, thanks for inviting me to, you know, share with you just some stuff that I do and how I can help you. When Max first approached me, I think he was just being concerned that, you know, the job market isn't that great and, you know, startups are laying off a lot of people and all that and everybody's affected developers and all that, right? So just, so today is just really a finding out, get to know you guys, because, you know, as a career coach, normally coaching takes a process. So I'm not here to present some magic bullets or something like that, you know, but really just to find out some of you, what are your concerns and all that. I had a brief look at the form and so I know what some of you guys are going through and where your needs are, but maybe I'd just like to hear more from you later. Okay, so let me just click on the next thing. So this is, I mean, if you all haven't read my background, then never mind, you know, I don't want to bore you with it, but basically I used to come from the startup sector and then I made a career switch some years ago and I was a recruiter for a short time and then now on my own, I do freelance work. I work with a technology futurist to conduct skills future course. So something that we are both passionate about. He talks about disruptions, I talk about careers. So that's how we do things together. And so I just approach career coaching from a startup mindset. So it's a little bit different from the traditional career coaches. Anyways, you can always read more about me online and all that. So just a very, very quick one where I've worked and what I've done. So the first half of my career, I spent in NUS Enterprise. So I was there for 10 years. And primarily I work with tech innovators, scientists, researchers, and students, student entrepreneurs, and all that. So that was the first half of my career. Then I worked shortly in a private education sector. Thinking that funny things that I thought that, a lot of startups fail because they lack the skills. So I went to the skills part, hoping to equip people with more skills. And then when I went to the private education sector, I realized that it's not really about skills. It's not about the ideas either. I think a lot of time has got to do with the purpose, your career path and your mindset. So that's where I made a more formal switch to career development into the HR view. And actually my passion is really helping mid-career professionals above 40 to help them do a career switch. Because in my previous work, I, there's my target audience I enjoy and I'm passionate about helping this group of people making career switch. Usually they are in their mid-40s to 50s, right? So today this talk, I can see there are young people on this group. I still like hanging around young people. So that's why I agree to what Max asked me to talk about. So let me just, I really want to get to know you. So I would like you to do it this way. So instead of just the traditional way of telling people, hi, my name is, so and so I'm a software engineer, I'm a career coach, I'm a businessman. I would like you to share in this way, my name is this, I built or I do or I help for who to do what. So I give you my example below. I help make career PMETs to make career transition. So I want something really short and I hope that it takes a couple of minutes I can hear from what you guys really do for others. So can I just maybe just stretch my screen a little bit. So the top of my screen, I see Max. I know Max, so I will skip him. So I see this person called Xian Jin. Nice to see you. Can I know what you do? Hi, my name is Xian Jin. I am looking for a data science job right now or data engineering. But like after doing it for all, I realized I don't really like doing stats and all the statistical analysis is really, really boring. So then I went into, I just got a web dem bootcamp course recently and I'm trying it out. So far I'm on HTML, CSS and bootstrap and I like it so far. So I'm trying to explore more in this path to see if it's more viable and brings more job satisfaction as compared to a data. Okay, okay. All right. Okay, thanks. So you want to build and the data science is not really your cup of tea. Yeah, it's not. Okay. All right. Ken, thanks very much. How about Xiong Tic? Wow, he's got really cool glasses. Yeah. All right, thank you. Yeah. Hello, I'm a software engineer. So currently I'm a contractor for ST Engineering. Okay. So what I'm here to ask is what do you think about? Like, should I stay in a job for more than five years? Or is it more advisable for me to jump across different companies? And because you have more exposure instead of staying in a company for a long time and then just limited to have a certain experience within a certain domain. Yeah, so that's what I'm more interested about. You know, because technology is moving very fast. So it will be quite hard to keep up. Okay, so your main question is whether you want to stay five years or go. Yeah, correct. That means should I stay in a job for more than a certain number of years? Or should I jump like two years, every two years, every three years, like a job in kind of a way? Okay, okay. All right, thanks very much. All right, just a quick share about yourself. We'll talk about your needs and wants later because I got them all down in the other slide based on the comments you gave in the form. How about Benjamin Lim? Thanks, Yongtec. Benjamin. Hello. Hi. Yeah, Ben here. I help Treasury at Senate Chartered monitor their bond positions and swaps. Okay. Yeah, so you're working in the bank, currently employed. Yeah, that's right. Okay, okay. So you're Ben, Danny or Benjamin? Benjamin. Benjamin, okay, so I thought I heard Ben. Danny, okay. Thanks. All right, great. Alfred. Hi, so my name is Alfred. I help companies find out more, what else they can do with their internal data sets. So data consultancy, if you will. Okay, okay. So you're a data consultant. Okay, do you like that? Not really. So I'm actually in quite a similar position as C&C in where I'm actually looking at transitioning into a software development role. Yes. Okay. Okay, okay. Some, okay. Ken, we'll talk about that in a bit. Okay, thanks very much. How about, let me see, Ying Hao? Yeah, hi. My name is Ying Hao. I'm a web developer for Mokori. I build trading web software. Yeah. Okay, so you are currently employed. Okay, working with our trading software. Yeah, so for me, my contract will be up soon. Just wondering what kind of, how do you calibrate your compensation in a time like crisis like this? Because this is quite unprecedented. Yeah. Okay, oh, so you're concerned about how to negotiate your salary? Yes, correct. Because you don't want to, I mean, if you go by the rates that are like half a year ago. Yeah. There's too much to ask, right? Yeah, so. Yeah. Okay. There's pretty much I want to find out. Yeah. Okay. Great for the employer. Okay. Very good. I heard that some people still asking for a raise even in COVID times. So, yeah, I don't know. Anyways. You don't want to, you don't want to price yourself out of the market, right? Yeah. True, true, true. Right? Yeah, we always go according to times. Okay, thanks, Ying Hao. How about Ying Qian? Is Ying Qian there? Yeah, hi. Hello. I think maybe I'm one of the oldest here. I'm actually in the 50s. Yeah, so, yeah. So, previously I'm from another world in the sense that I'm an engineer, chemical engineer. And I've been doing all this projects and so forth. And I've been out for several years in the sense that I'm doing things. I, okay, several things I'm doing, of which one of them actually that I'm trying out with overseas company in the aviation side, they do predictive analytics. Whereby they predict planes that come in to get service. What are the parts that can fail before it happens? And so this predictive analytics. So actually, you're still very small looking for the projects coming. We work with them, are you okay about because of COVID situation? You almost kind of get into a project in Singapore, but because of COVID and so hanging there for a moment. So in the sense it's actually talking about those predictive analytics and the solution that we have to solve things which can improve productive use for many of the actually with good time record. And on the part of it is actually I was also involved in some product development. Yes, actually, I don't know whether it's irrelevant here or not, but basically, we talk about energy savings and using a product that has a neural network base that we actually bring solutions to the real environments and to save energy by integrating smart lighting and smart aircon. And just spoke to someone from MU-10TU talking about same integrated energy and more efficiency. And they are interested in so-called AI perhaps the main thing, building smart. So they're using AI. Okay, I'm currently employed or self-employed? I'm running my company. So I'm looking into integrating on products. And also as I said, this part might be... Okay, so you run your own company? Okay. All right, okay. Thanks very much for sharing. How about PW Wong? Oh, hi, I'm Pee Wei. I'm a web developer working in a startup. You're a web developer working in a startup? Yeah. Okay, all right. Your startup is in which area of work? What does it do? It can be considered as a fintech. It's actually based in Indonesia. And we create products that can help Indonesian to file and pay their tax. Ah, I see. Okay, okay. All right, thanks very much. How about... Oh, we have another lady. I think Denise. Hi, good evening, everyone. Hi. Hi, I'm Denise. I actually, I'm working in the marketing field in education. So basically, I just took on a course in a book camp in software development. So I... Yeah, now I'm currently still in the marketing role. So in the near future, I'll see myself to be joining the tech sector in software development. So I'm keen to find out a bit more about the industry, how it is inside of me. So you're currently doing the part-time studies? Yes. Okay. All right, wow. So studying and working at the same time, not easy. All right, anyone? Yeah, never easy. Thanks very much. How about Nevin? Yeah, okay, hi. My name is Nevin. I just graduated from a full-time coding book camp in March, it was three months. And now I am looking for employment as either a full-stack developer or a fun-hand developer. Okay, okay. And what was your previous job? What was it? It was related to web development, but we were using WordPress and mostly... So we didn't have to deal a lot with the coding itself. So I decided to get a step further and be the person who can create the plug-ins or something along those lines. Okay, okay, good. Well, okay, thanks very much. A lot of ambitious, aspiring software developers here. Benjamin Lin. Have we... Okay, sorry, there's two Benjamin over here. Okay, same icon. Okay, sorry. Gabriel. Okay, as a fun-hand developer for... You just graduated as a fun-hand developer. No, I'm a fun-hand developer working for the police force. So I built a police force website. Oh, okay, okay. Working for police, the website, okay. Okay, so recently I filed a report with the police. So maybe I went through one of your forms. Yeah, the forms is quite messy, actually. Yeah, fixing it. Oh, it's not too bad already. You know, I'm quite impressed with the work done so far by the police. Okay, now you're there. I know I'm safe. So next time, I'll file a second complaint or something like that. I know I'll have better user experience. Okay, thanks very much, Gabriel. How about Elwin Tan? So hi, my name's Elwin and I built a tag for the public good on behalf of the Singapore government. So you are with what? GavTech? Yes, specifically open government products. Open government products. We have a team behind parking history. Oh, okay. Okay, that's my favorite app, by the way. Thanks so much for doing that. Team... Okay, so you are with... So you're GavTech, basically? Yes. Okay. And so what you are thinking of a career move? I'm just observing proceedings tonight, so don't mind me. Okay, no problem, no problem. Yeah. How about Benny? Thanks, Elwin. Benny? I'm Benny. I'm a full-step web developer. Just graduated from Poly. So I'm going for NS soon. Okay, so just graduated from Poly. In what? Business Enterprise IT. SAP. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay, going to Army soon. Yeah. So I'm just looking about what I can do now, like up-scaling and how can I be prepared when I finish NS. Okay, so it depends how long you have to... How long more do you have to wait to go to NS and you can do something now? You're talking about months? Two months. Okay, so you only have two months left before you go. Okay, all right. Okay, thanks, Benny. And wow, I've got a wee bit more. How about Irvan Tan? Hi, can you hear me? Law and clear? Yeah. Okay, my name is Irvan. So initially I started my career as a specialist then later part I moved on to system engineering. So mainly system integration, deployments and support. So I was thinking, you know, I'm thinking to maybe go back to development. So that's why I joined Q&A recently. Recently you joined what, sorry? I'm thinking to go back to development work. So because currently I'm now in the system engineering. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And you currently employed, right? No, I'm not. Okay. Okay. All right, Ken. Thanks very much. Burak Satar. I think there's something wrong with this. Okay, he typed it. Yeah, right. Okay, got it. So he built a deep learning project for university as a student. Okay, great. And William, how? Hi, everyone. I'm William. So currently I'm working at Agoda, mostly on the search systems. So yeah. Okay. And you want to know? I mean, I'm just here to keep all, but maybe one of the questions I want to answer is what kind of considerations are there if you want to move overseas to work? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. It depends where overseas. Have you thought about which part? U.S. Maybe. Okay. All right. Ken. Thanks very much. With Mohammed Ibrahim. Good evening. My name is. I'm currently working with Lazada for the past two years. I have nine years of experience in IT infrastructure and cloud. Currently I joined as a technical project manager in infrastructure team. Responsible of Lazada production. Last two years I delivered Ali cloud infrastructure in a back region. This role mainly focus on Ali cloud data center built. Power cooling. When networks and delivery. Also I am part of. Steering committee to my great red mud AWS infrastructure infrastructure to Ali cloud and hybrid data center in Singapore. My team is responsible off red mud production in AWS and Ali cloud. So in the last two years I'm working with three different teams within Lazada. Lazada infrastructure, Ali by infrastructure and corporate security and risk management. So if you see my profile, I changed three teams within two years within Lazada itself. So currently I want to explore into a cloud solution architecture kind of role within Singapore. I'm an expert living in Singapore. Okay. Okay. Okay. You just you basically want to move on to another cloud company. Kind of a kind of a cloud solution provider for the end customers to onboard the new new new customers who are in a physical on-prem data center into a cloud solution based kind of. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Okay. Thanks very much. If I miss anybody. Lee jm. Working at HP at the moment as a software engineer. Yeah, you're back at the price. Okay. Okay. And thinking of moving on. Yeah, trying to explore other industries. But still it lah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, got it. What do you do in HP enterprise? Currently doing a mix of work. Currently not doing documentation, but sometimes I do front end profile concept for clients. Okay. Okay, got it. Okay. Thanks very much. I've got Eunice. Eunice. Okay, Eunice. Okay, you completed a coding bootcamp looking for entry level role in web. Okay, let me just jot that down. Okay. All right. How about we chair. Thanks Eunice. Everyone. Hi, can you hear me? Yeah. So I, same as Eunice, my, I just graduated from bootcamp as well, according bootcamp. So was there for three months full time. And then now I've graduated for about one and a half months going two months. Yeah, so I'm currently job searching. Yeah, so I'm interested mostly on the front end side. And before the bootcamp I was a multimedia designer. So I really wanted to merge design and technology together so that I can do majority of the things for development. Yeah. Okay, your multimedia designer. Okay. All right, thanks very much. Okay, great. I got a couple more to go. My name is Kyle. I'm currently working in a startup and I'm building digital products for travelers to be connected with people who matter to them. Build travel products. Okay. Okay. And what do you want to do next? I mean, I just joined, not just joined. I've been here for about eight months or so. Yeah, I'm actually here because like, I'm involved in the hiring process for other developers, although we're not currently hiring because of the economy but yeah just wanted to look and see what's happening in the market right now. Okay. All right. Okay, thanks. How about Joey. Joey here currently working for Deloitte as an IT consultant mainly doing for SaaS implementation. Also just started out in the software industry last year about September joined the bootcamp there. Did some short term work for a web development company as well building apps for about two months and I got this opportunity here. So yeah, so I've been working for Deloitte for the past two months also. And just mainly here just to check out the industry here and actually pretty interested to know how, how do you actually do freelance while working, let's say like a full time job. So just wanted to ask that. Okay, I don't know, but the people who work for the big four. I hear no time to do freelancing because they work long hours, but maybe there's some way I don't know. Let's get to know each other a little bit more. Can't answer that question so soon. Okay, thanks very much. How about DW. Very mysterious. I need to know what DW means. Dylan. Okay. Right. Okay, student. Alright. I'm here to observe the session. I couldn't find internship. Okay. All right. Can thanks Dylan. So you're still, still studying. Okay, good. Okay. Thanks very much. And then last one I think should be keen. Hi everyone. I'm currently studying computer science in university and I'm doing hard time job for one of the research centers in my uni and I'm looking for an internship for the upcoming months or either that or for the next summer internship. Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks. Thanks very much. I have a couple of students here. Have I missed out anybody. I hope not. Okay, don't think I'm missing. If there is, please just shout or something like that. Yeah, take me on chat. Okay, so the reason why I make each other, you know, introduce ourselves is because I always believe that networking is still by far the best way to find your next job. We can apply for jobs and all that, but networking is still by far the best way and I've been through that myself and some of my former clients in the previous company have found jobs really through their networks. So, if you hear an opportunity that might fit any of these, any of you here, please really just reach out to the person say hey I know someone who could use your skills and talent. Please do that. Okay. Okay, let me just move on in a bit right now. Okay. So really I'll go today. I just got to know you guys. No magic bullet doesn't have a crystal ball. Even when I work with my tech futurist friend, he also say that I cannot predict the future, but I can give you a hint of what is to come. So, so I think my goal today is just share some things that I know, and just clarify some stuff clarity is very important before you make the first step or your next step. So, I think that's what we're going to do. And if, and if you think this is very helpful, we can go for another one or two sessions. And I'll share that with you at the end of the session my last slide, how we can move forward if there's, if there's some interest to move forward. Okay. So, the expectation today is really just to clarify some stuff. I'll give you some framework to think about your next book. Okay, here we go. So, okay, so based on what I gather so far. The responses I get is more than half more than half of you are employed. But the other half is looking for work. Okay, I got a question here for you guys to consider you don't have to answer but I want you to think about this, because that also plays an important factor in deciding what you want to do next. If you have family commitments, you know, you could be married, have kids like me, or you, you have to take care of a parent or somebody else. Basically, besides taking care of yourself, you take care of something else. And then that plays an important consideration when you plan your next move because the financial runway is rather important, especially in COVID times, we really are uncertain what's going to happen. So, but if you are single, living your parents or you still have a job, you know, that's fine and that's a good position to be in right now so that you can take your time to really explore what you want to do next. So some of the skill sets that you guys have said you have the most popular are the top three and top three. And then some I've never heard before below so but I think it's probably within the development space. So these are good technologies to have. And then the next one is that 70% of you here have less than one year of coding programming experience. I'm not sure if that's totally true because I was a little bit surprised that quite a number of you have less than one year but maybe because it's a junior deaf community community right so I should, I should actually expect that. Some of you are quite experienced you guys have more than four or five years experience in in this skill skill set. Um, can I can I add okay so I don't have to ask that question how many of you are below 35 I'm from the way you sounded and what you tell me. I think most of you will be below the age of 35 right some of you are still in school some of you guys are starting out. You are still fairly young in the first half of your career, and with the exception of a couple of you here, your past 35. Okay. Okay, so this is what I gather from you, right I try to make sense of what I read. So please, hands up and raise your hand if you if you raise your hand if you think that I've not got it right. I've summarized them. So if you are working on interesting projects, you know, I like the first one recognize emotions based on your facial expression from a video feed, and recommend you a song accordingly. Wow. Okay. And then we've got more industrial type one you know, mechanical for detection dashboard and all that training app, I'll be interested in that you know, because I'm a trainer as well. Some of you are still learning or building a portfolio. Some of you are self taught doing your own projects, tinkering and experimenting with things okay so that's a good thing so far right. Okay, and you guys have expressed some concerns or issues, or just maybe just have thoughts about what's going to happen next. And I just basically sum it up in three sections, right so most of you are seeking some form of career change or career direction so you need some clarity. Some thinking of, you know, what should you do to stay employable, some thinking of thinking of a career switch but you, you think that you lack some like the skills in order for you to do the switch. Some wants to get next job opportunity in, in COVID-19 times. Some say there is lack of growth I don't know what that means it could either mean you lack of growth in your current job or is it there's lack of growth in the job market. Right. And an employability skills some, I like this one, some feel that you're not learning fast enough. Some things that they are not learning anything in the job so for the white spectrum. Some felt that you're not good enough. And then on the other spectrum, some are sick and tired of a constant upgrading and learning new technologies. Right. So we got a white diverse group of people here, and some would like to be in the middle and say okay how can I learn and retain knowledge and apply what we learn in our jobs. Definitely we need to apply what we learn. Right. And then other questions I get, which may be a little bit out of the scope today, but anyways, it's freelancing sustainable. Okay. And someone put lack of young talents interested in coding. So I looks like you're an educator or something. And some of some of you seems to have grievance, you know how to deal with politics in the office. That one, we need a separate zoom session six hours we can talk, you know. All right. And what are your next plans or some ideas of what you want to do right. So I gain three categories but broadly that they are two major ones which is people seeking change. You want to find jobs in other companies or industries. Go of your first job or continue to find jobs, or maybe find a gig. Okay. So this is what I gather and then from the skills part I think most of you are trying to improve your skills, refine your skills, learn new ones some attended boot camps and all that. Those are good things to do. Someone to join IMDA program I used to be from IMDA actually is formerly IDA now the change name IMDA want to participate in a PCP program or the TPP, TIPP boot camp. Okay. Explore technology in other domains to get a breath of knowledge. That's good. And this one is slightly different improved interview skills. Okay, so that one I run a separate pro bono session maybe next time you all can join in because interview skills are rather important. And, and I think this comes from the same same person attract young talent. Okay, so, okay. I ask you also what kind of products customers or industry you might be interested in working in. So I get a whole wide range of interesting I'm not going to read all of them you can see for yourself. Big companies like Facebook, Google, some wants to work in healthcare IT FMB. Someone's to create interesting products. You know, someone's to help businesses reach out to customers easily. And basically just how to how to get entry level experience. Right. So I think these are all good things to have. I try around answer these are just good opportunities to do. It's just a matter of aligning your goals and interests to what's happening out there right now and so we'll talk about that later. Hey, so let me share with you. So how I normally do things are is I'm not going to do it in a lecture style and and all that. I usually like to share my thoughts on some things and actually indirectly. I would have answered your questions right because there's so many questions so many diverse thoughts and and and you know interest here so I hope that when I share some stuff you can get the answer. If not, again, no, you know just just raise your hand you can stop me anytime. So but I just want to bring you the big picture first. Because some of the questions that I hear from you. It shows me that you need certain clarity. So, and I don't have the I don't have the also the full clarity but I think I met enough people and done a lot of stuff and seen other people that I can gather from their experience and share them with you right so what other people are going through themselves that hopefully can come like for you. Okay, so you know I, I'm, I'm older than most of you here, except a few few of you. And I call it that our past economy as well as present economy, or what I'll like to call it our parents generation, our parents generation is where the Singapore industrialized really very quickly. And it is just a very straightforward chung kind of growth path, right the trajectory is pretty much on the upward, most of the time, right so everything was actually quite predictable is rare performance driven you just do your job, you, you will get promoted you, you, you, you just climb the corporate ladder your career ladder, right. And I like I liken it to to to dragon boat racing, no offense if any of you here are dragon boat racers or you know athletes here I'm not offending you anything I'm not trying to offend you but I'm just trying to use analogy that in the past, it was rather straightforward, you know, dragon boat just go in a straight line, waters must become the boat is shaped in the way that is is meant for efficiency and speed and you and most importantly you just need one skill. And then there'll be a guy at the back to steer. And in the front there's someone beating the drum right it's probably your boss or something like that right or the government trying to tell you to work harder and all that. And then you just need one one skill and and actually you know it's quite predictable. Because in this race, it's all about strength and speed right so from the moment the gun sound, you sort of know who will win them in the first few seconds you will know because the one that is ahead, if it keeps doing it, you end up finishing first and finishing line you can also see right. And another thing is that in dragon boat race, you know you you don't come into my lane I don't come into your lane right each have your own lane. Right. So, so you know everything has control environment is this is what I feel. Okay. So, if you liken it to your career. You just need one skill, one role. Right. And, and you pretty much can survive that that is a good old days. Right. And, and career career career choices are very much limited in the in the past because you know as we industrialize the government has certain sectors that they depend on and they produce and immediately fit into the workforce. Today is different. Today our economy is going through changes. The landscape is different. And the future is what one of my, what one of my training partner, the futurist he says it's a diva car environment. A diva car stands for destructive exponential volatile uncertain complex and ambiguous diva car. Right. You heard of Vuka but he added D and E right diva car environment. Right. And I liken it to a yacht race. Right. Stormy waters. Stormy waters. Everybody have to work together. There's no much of a leader actually everyone is multi skilled you have to adjust your, your sales. You don't know where your competitors competitors are they're all over the place you know they can eat in your lane you can eat in their lane and what's what what's wonderful about about your race is that they take advantage of, of, of where the wind blows. Right. And you can even be last but if you navigate well you navigate skillfully. You can end up being first right and don't make sure you don't have size along the way. Right. And, and, and you can see that things don't look very streamlined in your race like that. Right. So this as far as what I observed right so if any of you are your races and I'm wrong please shout out. Okay. And so therefore it requires a multi skill. Multi role type of a professional to work in today's job market. Right. So some of you have have I've seen right from from from the what you've submitted in the forms, you guys have picked up a lot of programming languages and and also those are great. So you guys know a bunch of technologies and you know expose a lot of things on internet. So great. Some of you are even working in the startup sector so you are really at the forefront of change. So that's good thing. Right. Very different from even my time when I was starting work. Very different. Okay. So the big question that I try to address in our short time together today. And hopefully that will address most of your questions if not we can always leave it to the end of it for Q&A. So the big question today we're going to ask are you employable in today's people come market. Right. The word people come right that. So are we employable in today's market. Right. So what what are the factors involved that that that will help us get our next job, you know, and and make sure that, you know, we stay relevant in our careers. Right. So are we employable in today's market and how prepared are we. Right. So let me just define a few terminology so that we can we can move forward right employability. Basically, when we talk about employability, you read that word a lot more in the news in the news. Right. Basically just refers to attribute of a person that makes a person able to gain and maintain employment. Simply put, in my own definition is a mixture of skills, abilities and personal qualities that you have that sets you apart from others in a job market. These keeps you employable. Right. So it's a unique mix of skills, abilities and qualities and this is something that I would like to focus on your next few slides. Okay. So I'm going to pause here right now and I'm going to ask you a few things. I'll ask you this question. I'm going to jot down a few things right what are some qualities that employers are looking for. Right. Maybe I'll just ask three person what are the qualities that employers are looking for. Can I just randomly arrow. Maybe first one arrow Max since he's he didn't get to introduce himself later. Max, are you there. So the first thing probably will be attitude. Okay. Okay. How about anyone else. I see. Okay, I see the name Denise. I guess relevant skills to what employees looking for. Okay, okay, relevant skills gaps. Okay, maybe one last person. I'll just search the list. Okay, William, because he is the most cheerful profile picture so cannot arrow. So it was a question question is what are the quality what are some qualities that employers are looking for. As anyone said, can get stuff done can get stuff done. Wow. Okay. Not yet. But that's a very good one right can get stuff done. Okay, I'm sure you guys have more or less have similar thoughts with these three guys is three person that just shared. And of course there are many qualities you can name right. But I just sum it up to three things that should encompass most of the qualities that employers do look for. And I just let me just quickly just show you all the three. And I really want to explain this really well because career coaches like to explain this really well in in helping the job seeker find your next job. Yeah, they're just three C's that basically covers a lot of what the employers look for that of course there are many more, but I think primarily if we can address these three. You can get your job. Okay, no matter what what times COVID-19 or whatever COVID-21 COVID-92 whatever right focus on these three right so many of you are right still very young in your careers. And this is now a good time to develop other areas that you probably would not have time to develop in the past right on top of what you're already doing. Okay, character competence and chemistry. Let me just go and explain each and one of them quickly for you. Okay, in my experience and those of my colleagues ex colleagues and and and employers that I know I've come across good and bad employers right and downright terrible ones as well. But so far I in either fortune. I'm unfortunate to work for a couple of good employers and and and I'm very glad to work for them. A good employer highest for attitude and character, not just for talent and skills right skill sets, you can easily just get get it in the bootcamp you can always go back to school. You can learn online talents is something that God given God gives to you whatever that talent is my attitude and character is something that needs to be molded through a process. And this is something that cannot be underestimated in your job search. Right. People don't hire a VC a CV they don't hire a piece of paper the higher people they like and trust this is one of the most important things that I need you to know when you're interviewing for a job. When you're networking with people finding out about industry, whatever it is. People actually hire people that they like and trust right if really they don't like you for something, you're not going to get hired no matter how competent you are, and if they cannot trust you to do a job, you're not going to get hired. So how do you demonstrate, like ability, and most important, how do you make people trust you, right, how to develop that attribute that people want. Yeah, I don't think we can cover that today but it's something food for thought. Then I would like to rephrase that into, you know, in this question what kind of what kind of person do you want to grow into professionally and personally. Some of you may not be working, some of you are working contemplating a switch. Besides growing professionally and climbing the corporate ladder or whatever you know fulfilling your your aspirations. Think also about the kind of person that you want to grow into right both professionally and personally as well. Right. And because this is what you'll be known throughout for your career. You may think career, some of you are young so you got a long way to go but actually, you, I mean, I come that I come that journey goes close your eyes and then 20 years have passed. Right. So you want to start building your reputation now when you're still young. Right. And not later. It takes 20 years to build reputation and five minutes to just ruin it. If you think about that, you do things differently. Right. So that should factor in when you think about your next career move. Right. I hope I'm getting making some sense here. If not, please again, raise your hand and all that. Right. So character, a good employer hires for attitude and character, not just talent and skills. So remember, when you're out networking getting a job applying for a job. Be sure to highlight more than just your talents and skills. I like to bring it down further. The next one, competence. I just call it cash. Right. This is something that, you know, definitely you must have or else people won't hire you. I mean, either you can do the job or cannot do the job. Right. So after character, they're going to assess if I give you this job today, can you do it. Right. And how, how they know you do it is hopefully one of these, or four of these things are right knowledge skills, attitude habits. Right. Knowledge we all have, we all go to school, we can pick it up easily. We are some of us are even industry experts by now. Right. Skills we have learned them is a learned ability skills are learned abilities they are different from talents, talents are natural abilities. Right. Skills are learned ability and so things that you picked up in your bootcamp things you picked up in your school. Right. To be able to perform a task and all that. Right. So coding is one skill. Right. I want to talk about attitudes, attitude is defined as something that you what you feel or believe or values or motivation about something. So for example, a simple one could be doing your best. Right. My attitude towards what is, I want to do my best. Right. And I don't could be I got a friend who is a very meticulous one. Right. I got a colleague from government. She's known for not not leaving any his own turn kind of thing. Right. That is the attitude towards work. She'll get everything done right down to the dot right attitude is what what people look for and appreciate habits. I think a lot of people overlook this part. It's basically a routine. Right. If you don't set yourself in a routine into a habit. People can notice that quite easily. Right. And of course, unfortunately, when at the interview room interviewing for a next job, your employers are taking a risk on you they won't be able to know your attitude or habits they will try their best. Right. And then when they hire then they will know whether they make a mistake or not. Right. But don't leave it to chance, you know, work on some of some of these good habits that you have. Right. It can be a whole wide range of things. Right. So cash. So if you want to earn cash, you must remember cash. Right. Okay, feel free to stop me if you want to add anything else disagree whatever share is. I'm not the guru here. Right. All these things I learned from others from my own experience and all that and I share. Okay. And the last one I think is also rather important. You may have character and competence. But chemistry is something that you cannot be a cannot overlook. And again, a good employer will consider these factors. Are you coachable or teachable. We may have tremendous talent. We may be damn good in doing something but I've come across employers because when I was a recruiter I've got employers who tell me that, you know, I look past the CV. I want to know whether that person that you are presenting before me is the person coachable or not. Wow. So as a recruiter I sort of have a hard time to give the answer because you know I have to how do I know whether that person is coachable right right but I have to do my best and there is actually a very good question. You know that this employer asked you know I is this candidate of yours that you're presenting to me is he or she coachable right you see teachable right if you cannot I don't hire no matter how talented he or she is right. The employer will also ask, do you have the potential to grow and contribute to my organization. Right. Again, they will never know but this one thing that they really want to find out. And how you can present that and demonstrate that is really have someone about your abilities, but you have to demonstrate that. And, and they also want to know how well can you work with others. And the last one is one my my boss actually asked, you know, she asked point blank. You know, my boss is a female and she's yet she's a point blank person she actually asked a candidate. You know I've sat in and heard her say you know how can I manage you. Well, I think the candidate also stump. Right. So how can I manage you if your boss find it hard to manage you. He's not gonna, he's not gonna hire you. You spend time fixing a problem, right when he's got many other problems to fix. So I, you know, there are many more. I can share with you, but I think this will be four good questions that we have to think about. When you walk into a job, it's not you bring whatever you have to the job, you know, are you able to form synergies with the people that you work. Okay, are you aligned with the culture of the company. Right, so some of you here have worked with startups before right so all you currently working in the startup. So culture matters in the start up a lot. So, Yeah, so this is something that you want to think about. Okay. Okay, before I go that. Okay, good to do. We are reaching the end. Can I can, can someone share. How do you demonstrate those qualities. When you go for a job interview. How do you demonstrate character. In an interview anyone. Maybe some of you have hired people before. So, how do you pick the person. I mean, I was. I wasn't the hiring manager. And that was really just for intern. But what we like to do is that we asked them to describe a personal project that they have done. So this is very coding specific. So, then after that we will question their choices. Yeah, so actually from this experience right, we usually get a glimpse to see whether. Is this a person who made informed choice in a sense that he makes hitting through about his choice. So that's like a talkfulness counting. And the other thing that we like to do is that we like to ask. If you were to start all over again, will you what are the different choices that you'll make. I mean that also highlight a technicality side that highlights a willingness to learn that also highlight a point where whether he see humble enough to say that he is wrong or this could have done better. So, but this is a very specific question. I'm not sure whether there are any other way actually, but yeah. Yeah. Okay, thanks for sharing very good point. I would like to present him a situation and then ask him to talk through it and go through the process, try to pick his thoughts. Anyone else have something to add. Benny would you like to check speak about it because you say there's something as well. Would you be interested as well. Okay, it's beyond time take informal discussions not in classroom, but maybe a cup of coffee a lot of things can happen over coffee. Give other person comfortable, comfortably to express. Okay. Okay. Okay. Benny asked how can help them. Okay. So a lot of a lot of these actually quite situational right. The lawyers like to use situational interview questions. You can always easy Google and see a whole bunch of them. Right. They want to know your thoughts and actions you'll take when encountered with a certain situation. Right. And in the, I run another session, a pro bono session on interview skills, and we use this technique. You can, you can easily Google them. Easy, but the problem is very hard to do. It's called the star technique. Right. So it's a situation. Task action and results situation tasks action results. Right. So they'll ask you questions like okay in this situation. Can you share with me what you have done and what happened in the end. Right. So situation you share and then describe what was a target or the task that you asked to do. Right. And then what action you took to solve that problem. What was the result in the end. Did it meet the target or did not. Right. And how did you overcome if you did not do it. What happened. So if, and if you did it how did you overcome it so they want to know all these things right and from there they're trying to get some assurance that you have a certain character. Okay. One quite easy. Right. If you're, if you're a coder, right, they'll just send you for a coding test you can make you pass you get the job you don't pass don't get a job so come testing is, is, is rather easy. But checking back on on the character is, is a bit hard. And that's where you actually have to set yourself apart in your next job search to highlight who you really are. You want to know what you who you are what you do. Right. Even outside of work. Right. My, my, my, my Xbox and the recruiting company like to ask people what do you do outside of work. You know, when I first joined that I'll find it a weird question but start to realize why, why she's interested to know. She asked that gives a additional aspect perspective on that person for herself. And then, and then she's, she's comfortable enough to, to highlight the person CV to them to the potential employer. Right. And she have lots of coffee chats and try and ask a lot of questions and all that. So if you're prepared to give the right facts and figures tell the story and use the star technique to do it. It's a very simple technique but it takes a lot of practice. Right. You actually have to internalize remember a lot of things and let it come naturally naturally to you. So, so situational behavioral real type questions you'll be asked during interviews and all that right. How about. Okay, so, so how do you demonstrate qualities of competence so that one I said that you know that one easy that you know you have got you, especially for technical roles. You guys and I technical role that was easy people just ask you to show your what you have done show your results get someone to testify that that's great. All right, so that's called competence. Right. How about chemistry. How do you demonstrate chemistry to your future employers, right, or to your potential hires. Anyone anyone here want to share chemistry. I guess looking up the values that the company aligns themselves with and exhibit showing some way of exhibiting them as a person. Okay. Okay. All right. So you want to make sure that you align to the company values right and and even better. The company values the founders value if you're working for a company working for a startup. You'd like to know what the founder values and all that. When I was a recruiter. Some of the more seasoned job seeker will ask me. How is the founder like. Right, because they want to know whether if I joined this company, can I work with a boss, can I work with a founder, right. Does a founder has attitude problem himself does a founder is a founder himself coachable right him, you know, if the founder is stubborn or have some some problem. Right. This guy is not going to work for him. Right, so you also want to have chemistry with with not just your immediate boss your big boss or so. What are the ways that you can demonstrate chemistry. You're able to work with people. Anybody for my end probably usually in terms of how the social skills like so how they talk to you, the body language. For once and how how we ask questions are interested in them. Both others. You know in thanks Max. In my previous role in, in a job placement agency where a partner of WSG work for Singapore and we sort of do the receptionist test I'm not sure if you know what the receptionist test, but anyways, when my job seekers come to me for help in their job search. It's almost like an interview right so my receptionist is actually interviewing him ready. Right. You'll be surprised at people who walk into my office right see my receptionist. You know, they are they don't smile. They are also rude to my receptionist. Some of them yell at her and we have one or two cases, you know my receptionist got yell at and all that. And all this happened. It's similar to me as a coach meeting them. Right. So my receptionist will be very fed up and then she will send me a secret text and saying that be aware of this guy he's coming in 15 minutes time to see you. And he's waiting outside right now this guy is a no no. So you know. And yeah, change we says in short be nice. Right. So I always tell people your interviews, your interview starts the moment you walk into the office. Not not when not it doesn't start when you are in the interview room. It starts when you are at the doorstep of the company. Right. So everything happens from there. Right. Some even say starts from the lift because you never know you might be meeting your future boss in the lift. Right. I actually met my future boss believe it or not. A long time ago in the dot com bus in the year 2001 in the dot com bus bus at time. There was this there's this very popular concept called the pink slip party so in US pink slip means means you are asked to go. Right. And so some some savvy entrepreneur brought the concept of a pink slip party to Singapore and they just organize a hiring, you know, a job fair for hiring it in a pub. So people come over and drink beer and you meet your potential employers. I went into over to one of the booths and I spoke to this lady and I thought she's a HR person so I chit chat share my views about stuff this and that, handed in my application form. And two weeks later when I was caught up for interview, I went there and I realized that the person I was speaking to was actually the center director. So she's the ultimate big boss, you know, and I was so surprised. So the interview started in the in a in a pub in River Valley. Two weeks before I even went for the actual interview. So you're so you have to be presentable presentable at all times. Okay. Now, one way to do to demonstrate chemistry is actually indirect way. Frankly, in today's job market referrals work best. If you have someone that can vouch for your abilities, your character. That helps way much more than even way works way better than a beautiful CV or the LinkedIn profile. Of course, those are very important. Your CV or LinkedIn profile and all that. They are very important but nothing beats having someone to say that a, you know, boss, there's this person here. You can really take a look and and hire him or her if possible because he will be a great addition or great asset to our company. Right. So nothing beats having someone to vouch for you so the so one of the best ways is always to have a good network of people who can vouch for your abilities like demonstrate that you can contribute to something right. I'm not sure if you if you if you know these people I met my I met them throughout all my career. There are people who are always the takers never to give us right when they come for a community meet up or or or even in the office right there are people who are tickers they never give one they will take first. They'll never give right so they are reputation people know already so in the next job you know none of us would like to vote for this guy for his next job right got good got good low bang we won't recommend him or we'll we'll we'll recommend to our other friends right. So learn to be a giver as well. Contribute where you can because the only way you, you, you, you demonstrate some of your personality and it's where it's let people know you and and and and so it could be in a form of teaching somebody or participating in community event volunteering for something doing a project together. You know I've got a few of my ex clients. These are all the like I mentioned before these are all my mid career 4050 year old job seekers. They found their jobs when they are taking a course right so I remember this lady she's a she's a she's a she's a former marketing person and she wanted to do a career switch to counseling. And it's really tough because I told her what from marketing to counseling is a woes apart you know I also do not help you but but try and get get to know people right and and she's taking her diploma and counseling course for one year and in in her class. There are several people obviously they are from the VWO just from the social sector and all that, and they work on projects and you know I'm working on a course to get sorry studying a course together you will get to work on project so some of a project teammates are very comfortable with her and when there was a job opening in in their organization they actually put forth a CV for her and a long story short she got hired. So sometimes when you are taking a course. It's not about learning new knowledge and that and all that I mean of course that's important but it's the people that you meet in class right. What's the impression of you and like I said people hire people that they like and trust right. On top of your of your skill sets and all that so people like to hire people that they like and trust so find all kinds of way to demonstrate that you are who you are and what you stand for. Right so that speaks louder than your CV or LinkedIn profile. Anybody have else have interesting stories to share. Right. Anybody else. So I think maybe I can comment a little bit about the chemistry aspect of doing interviews. So it's tangentially related but generally it helps to actually prepare beforehand and to actually understand the company, both in terms of its strengths and and its weaknesses before you actually come for interviews. So on my side of the interviewing table where where I'm the interviewer one of the things that we kind of look out for at open government products is whether the person actually actually cares about public service. And that's so just to illustrate like often when we are when we when we grill our candidates one of the things we will ask them is about it's like, are there any interesting public public sector problems that you think are worth addressing. And usually the ones who do well tend to be people who have actually spent quite some time thinking about some of the things that they kind of want to want to do. And it's also quite. It's also quite relatively easy to actually spot the ones who have actually prepared like maybe two weeks before the interview and those who have actually spent a long time thinking about these things. Yeah, so I guess I guess the point here is that it definitely aids the interviewer at the very least to know that he that you know the candidate has actually taken time to understand what he's what he's signing up for. And that's that's always very helpful when it when it comes to when it comes to like interviewing. Right, right. Well, definitely. Yeah. So I think preparation is very important. I think you brought up a good point. The good question I said, does a person show that he really he or she really care right about the work about the problem that they're going to be solving right are they passionate about that. It brings to mind. One of the things that my my exports and recruitment company says is that she wants to know whether you're all in into the job. Right. You bring your whole self to the job you know you do you really, you know care about the problem. Do you see the company's mission as your own mission as well. Right. That will make you as a job seeker be more selective in who you pick right in a good old times are like I said in our parents generation is a spray spray and pray. I just send my CV just sent to a thousand organizations and then just pray that one or two will call me for interview and then I'll most likely get the job kind of thing well those are the good old days spray and pray and something will come up today you cannot spray and pray you spray but and pray and nothing will happen right so a lot of times it's really true to really being selective about what you want to do and all that and that's that that that brings to the question of a career directions and charity right which I think I will address next anyone else. Yeah maybe if I can sharpen my my my last comment a little bit more so don't get me wrong it's it's not that you have it's not that like every time you go for interview basically have to like like mark for the mark for the interviews to understand the company right it's it's perfectly fine to actually tell to be honest with the interview this just happens to be one of the jobs that I apply for so long as you know why you are applying for it so so typically when I when I go for interviews what I'll do is to be like it just happens to be one of the job that I'm applying for but if I decide to take up this offer it's because so so and such and such and such so so that that gives the interviewer added confidence that like you have been doing your homework you have been like doing your research you understand the the pros and cons of like of each of each job offer that you might be considering and so on so right yeah right okay great one thanks thanks so much anybody else have something to add okay now if not what I'm going to do is go back okay wait I'm trying to fiddle with my zoom okay so we're going to go back to this and through now go into the questions that some of you guys are going to be asking right I think this would be a good question to dwell on for the next 10 minutes before I just end off what are some of your plans or some of idea what you want to do right you know seeking change some of you are seeking employment seeking change get your first job some of you are unemployed continue to find your find your find your next opportunity and someone also asked me at the beginning do I stay five years or do I do I stay every two years and then and then move along right yeah there's no magical answer there's no five years or two years I don't like to use a timeline to measure my career progress or dictate what I do timeline should not be the key factor it can be one factor but I don't think it should be you know a major factor I think I think more important you have to ask yourself is what have you learned and contribute in those years that you are going to be working in an organization right I also have I saw someone's comment earlier right back to this slide right the second sections employable skills right someone is saying that they are not learning anything in the job well if you are not learning anything in the job then perhaps either you ask your boss to give you a new job responsibility or you have to move on to another job that allows you to learn I remember you you you don't just go there you have to go and contribute and make an impact some people can make an impact within to your some needs five right it depends on what the job job requires of you if you are if you are not learning anything in in the job there are two ways either you are not progressing or the company is not progressing right there are situations where I've unfortunately I got friends who are stuck in not a day and job their type of roles probably can flourish elsewhere but it's a company that is not moving right so it's all boils down to the founder right the founder is just happy and contented to do what they do and it's always been done this way and actually thank goodness there's COVID-19 because I joke with my friends nowadays that COVID-19 should be to be voted the CEO of the century for leading digital transformation everybody have to go go digital now whatever business you are in right so COVID-19 should be given an award or something like that so it forces everyone to change right and go digital and and and if you are not learning anything and on the job you you got to ask then what is it that you want to learn right if you cannot get it in your company then where else are you going to learn those those things okay let's go back to to this one first you know what are your next plans or ideas you want to do right finding finding jobs in other companies industries get hold of my first job and all that I tie it back to this one career directions I better clarity for next steps staying employable right all this is all part of this career direction part so I explained earlier that we're an economy where it's pretty much the VUCA right there's no there's no clear clear and to all these things right who knows what's going to happen after COVID-19 is over or maybe you will not be over right in my in my class which I run with my partner Charlie we always preach this this thing called the ambidextrous thinking right for those of you who may not know what ambidextrous basically means you are good with both hands right you know you can write with both hands you can draw with both hands I got a classmate they can play badminton with both hands and he's a national player a former national player right ambidextrous before COVID-19 happens an ambidextrous approach means while you're in your job you improve and explore as much as much as possible you take on different tasks you learn new things you apply yourself and you improve by taking on more job responsibility tackle tackle new challenges and all that I just classified that under improving but on the on on the on the other hand at the same time you will need to have a plan B right to prepare for your second job or second career or or or basically your next opportunity that comes along right so what new things you have to learn so I call it the innovate right so in your current job you improve and at the same time you are thinking of how can you innovate and do something in case you lose your first job right or your current job right you you lose your job and and what are you going to depend on a lot of my ex clients who are in their 40s and 50s had tremendous careers you just don't believe you couldn't believe them they are like CEOs of companies and all that but when retrenchment you know retrenchment and job market start to turn back at the beginning of 2016 2017 right and then now with COVID everything just accelerates right so a lot of people are caught off guard because they are like the dragon boat mentality I just learned one skill I do well in it and I never thought that I would get retrenched I never thought that I would lose my job or my company restructure and all that no fault of theirs they are highly competent people right but they are competent in only one thing right so I always advocate having an ambidextrous mindset while you are in your job you are improving all the time but you are also innovating and doing something new cutting edge so that you catch a trend right so let me just look at this back to this one right skills some of you have said that I want to develop a skill that enjoy right and work remotely okay some of you want to attend a software engineering bootcamp and build a portfolio currently you are self learning full stack development and all that attend course keep learning new things and joint programs and all that so all these are great things but again I tie it back to all these skills are in the end whatever pick you pick up I call them marketable skills right I always ask people do you have marketable skills right marketable skills basically means do you have skills that employers one or the industry ones right if you pick up good skills but skills that don't meet today's employers requirements it doesn't help right so how do you know what employers one right how do you know that you have invested in the right skill sets learning the new skill sets right you go for Sarah for a few days you go back to university for a year I don't know some maybe you know I got a friend who takes the MBA from MBA from insya and you know executive MBA you know and he jokingly told me after I graduate you know I totally I spent a total of 150,000 all in everything and to today I still have not got my ROI right so so so I don't know it's good to have the MBA is good to have is a very well branded university but in his in his opinion he didn't really get his ROI right so how do you want to invest your time well I don't have a magic answer but I treat the writings on the wall you you you my my partner with my training partner will say that they're four megatrends and today the four megatrends are just all intertwined connectedly right he's having a talk next week so I should just send the link to you guys I'm not I'm not good I'm not like him right he thinks on a different level there are four megatrends that we all need to look out for and this should give you some clues for your next steps. Joe politics, right he mentions geopolitics, right, you know he started with all the trade war and all that, right, and then climate change, right, climate change, geopolitics, climate change, technology, technology disrupts everything right the way we work with them play and everything and fork one is G I can't remember I'm sure if Max could remember but basically these are some of the four megatrends oh yeah one more thing is the demographics the fourth thing is demographics right and you cannot look at each of them as silos they're all intertwined together right and now the worst thing is everything happens all at once and and the world will just get more complex and ambiguous moving forward then then the ambidextrous strategy does it work yeah it still works we just put it in a different context right in COVID-19 the ambidextrous strategy is you plan for the short term but you also look out for the long term right for some of you who could be financially strapped if you're a single you're living your parents and all this is great but some of us could be our income is really impacted so you know do all you need to do for the for the short term right if you take the right actions today then in 18 months time you know 24 months time your opportunities will present itself so everything lies in what you do today if you take the wrong step you know you just go out for different path in the forest right so look at the scenarios that is in front of you right we need to look beyond our jobs beyond the industry that we in and we look at the bigger picture many things have changed right think about second and third order effects right if something happens today right now then what other industries really impact what what is cause impact cause cause cause cause an effect of things and then then the third order also what will happen after that also right it's like a domino thing so so if if something happens today then what's next and next and next right and try and peer as far far out as possible right and then take some of the steps you need to take today someone asked me oh so what happens after COVID-19 where are the emerging job opportunities I told them there's there's there's no clear like okay this job this industry this and it but everything lies in what you do today right so if you do some things today 612 18 months down you will start to see that a actually the opportunity is something to slowly emerge and present itself before you but if you take the wrong actions or don't take action or just continue business as usual then you then 18 months later you you you you you sort of like struggle still struggling right and I always like to challenge some of the coaches that I help with and and and let's say today is 22nd May 2020 right I always challenge them in 20 seconds on 22nd May 2021 imagine today is 22nd May 2021 what will you be doing will you still be doing the same thing as you're doing in 2020 or is different right so you don't really need to look to be a futurist futurist also cannot tell you the answer you don't need to look 510 years down you just have to look 1218 24 months down and then ask yourself if today you are there now and what what what what what will you likely be doing right okay any any talk so far have I addressed all your questions someone asked how devastating could it be potentially to be make a wrong step in your Torah how devastating could it be if you make a wrong step in your career direction well if you take a big step and then you fall that is quite devastating right so I never advocate a major career switch right prior to all this COVID thing right all the career coaches like to share this thing oh take a big step and plunge into it you know yeah so I've heard of many people who take the plunge and they didn't survive so especially not in the Singapore context so what I would just encourage you guys do is take small steps experiment steps right I mean some of you are from the startup background you know right so experiment you do that in your careers as well so like what LinkedIn founder read Hoffman says right you treat yourself like a startup your career is like a startup right you take you remove yourself out from your career and then you look back in right and imagine you your career is like a startup that you have to invest and manage and mature and grow right then you ask yourself what products and services is my startup going to do who is my customer how am I going to serve him or her right what what what things do I have to learn or do to make my company relevant and profitable right so you and so your dog startup mindset you're experimenting you expose yourself a new things you are always talking to people right you are always validating some of the assumptions that you make right recently I I I was speaking to a young adult who is working for one of the big four and he want to make a big punch right he wants to go from consulting he's got a he graduated from SMU in in accounting and he wants to make a big jump and to become a youth worker right he he's very passionate about doing missions work and you know go to all the you know poorer countries and help the youth and all that you know so he's one of those want to take big step you know by by I encourage him that you know I mean given a current situation not not so good to make that that jump but more importantly you should you should do what I call what I call a low cost probe right low cost probe right some of you here I'm not sure if you know the term but low cost probe basically just do some probe fast and cheap to figure out whether your assumptions about your next move is going to be correct or not so what I the first thing I just encourage him to do is quite simple what if you want to switch to become a youth worker right the one of the easiest way to just go on LinkedIn and you go and type in youth worker and you look at 10 profiles and I want you to study the history of that person you know of the 10 profiles and how did he or she end up where she is today what was the beginnings and how what the journey that he or she went through and to get to to to being a youth worker that will give you some clue clue of whether you you would like to be in his or her position but that's not good enough you want to go a bit further so you prepare a set of five questions right and go in LinkedIn to that person and send that five questions right make sure it's a standard five questions like what triggered you to become a social worker what are the challenges what are the proudest achievements you have what skills are needed to become a youth worker and lastly if you're at if you're to give a piece of advice to someone who wants to be a youth worker what do you need to do so what would that be so standard five questions go on LinkedIn search for 10 youth workers link into that person send the five questions to them right if you send a 10 people three people respond to or one will give you a good answer right then you find another 10 you ask the same question you get another three response and now you got six after a while you do it you sort of get a pattern you sort of get the idea of what is it right and if you want to go even further which is what my this this guy has done he he linked into that person is a lady he working as a youth worker in one of the organizations locally and then they're going to fix up the time on zoom to go and talk about those five questions right so the cheapest way low cost growth is going to talk to the person who is in their job that you want and find out from that person what it takes to get to to be in their shoes right do I make any sense anyone has a better idea or a different idea could you repeat what those five questions are okay tell you what I'll write I'll write it down right okay I send the five questions feel free to edit and amend and but just along those lines you want to ask more questions up to you but I don't recommend more than eight nine because you're going to the other person will feel very annoyed so if you do this and collect some data that's where you put your data skills in place and figure out there's going to be a pattern to what these people reply you and then you can decide for yourself whether a particular career is something that you should go into or even a company sometimes you want to be in this particular industry right so you will find companies people who work in this type of company who is or whose whose business is in a particular nature right let's say F and B fast food moving goods or something like that then you ask five people sorry five questions are similar to 10 people who are from this industry right and then you get a response right is this a kind of industry that you want to work in it is kind of industry that you enjoy or foresee yourself being it for a while right is there anything else you you would like to ask did I miss out let me ask let me look at the the set of questions again let me click yeah so please feel free to ask like this yeah we are about 10 10 so just probably five more minutes would that be all right if you can eat okay yeah so somebody asked whether I'll just address the the minor the the minor question in the other section right so it's freelancing sustainable freelancing really all depends on what you do like I said it all ties back to your marketable skills right what employers or business owner once from you if you have those skill sets and always staying abreast of things at the forefront of innovation you'll always be in demand no matter no matter no matter what crisis some freelancing is is just a matter of lifestyle choice right currently me and a few other friends of mine we are very happy to be freelancers but not early in our careers right really we really need to work for people right in the past we work for people we just have to cut out to your boss whether they ask you to do ridiculous things or not you just have to do because at the time you are building your career right now we get to now we are the luxury of picking and choosing who you want to work with you know if this project is not work while doing I will turn you down you know I get to do things that I like but again like I said so everyone's background is right unique and different right so if if you are financially strapped then of course you have to go and take on whatever jobs you do someone I remember someone asked about showcasing your portfolio and all that very important for you to showcase your skill sets especially those people who quote one right so so as I found out for some of my other friends who are technical you know you should be earning badges on github as much as possible right so they say that this one way that employers or you know really validate your skills so I don't know so if it requires you to earn badges on github then go earn badges in github right anything to demonstrate that you are competent in what you say right and it's some things I can share with you is that okay so some of you I don't know I don't know whether you have this problem if some of you have this issue or concern you know maybe some of you are not having enough experience working on projects right maybe you have learned a skill but you don't have an opportunity to practice those skills right so first one is very easy just ask around in your community ask some of the tech recruiters or even better ask in fact Singapore is right so like one of the vcs a good friend of mine says that Singapore is actually a highly networked society right you are usually just two or three contacts or phone call away from someone you need to speak to and go and approach some of these people and say you know I just learned this new skill I can build an app I can build a website I can fix your your current website for you can you can you give me the opportunity to solve some of your problems what are the issues that you have right for industries they are suffering right now in in in due to COVID-19 right they also have needs they are trying to stay afloat right and obviously many of them are not digital so where would the opportunity be the opportunity to be helping them to go digital right some some some of them don't even have a website so let me share with you some of what some of my friends have been doing so that it gives you some some some inspiration to do something right if you don't have projects to work on so one of my friends who runs a restaurant a Thai restaurant he got three outlets and he has never gone digital and the restaurant was doing well until COVID-19 came and in February March he contemplated just closing down because this business was down 90% so what we do is that a few mentors and myself we came around and we help him to you know we reframe some of his problems and then you know change some of his strategies and long and short of it we got him to renegotiate his rental close down one of the outlets and then move online move things online right set start to sell things online he doesn't even know how to get online right so so he has to go in and figure out how to onboard himself into some of these platforms right and long story short last three weeks ago I think I got an update from him that his sales actually doubled right so while all the other restaurants are suffering his sales actually doubled right he actually had to stop food panda and deliver rule from from from ordering from him because he's got too much to cook so it's it's kind of unbelievable in COVID-19 this business is is rising from the ashes right all because they make some key changes in their business strategy right from almost closing to now doubling in sales right and why because digital transformation for himself right even for a small company like him and another one of my my my good friend also very passionate about helping entrepreneurs and again it's a restaurant it was a restaurant in little India who got zero sales for for for many for many weeks also contemplated closing down and they didn't want to pay although delivery platforms are high high fees so what she helped them with was it was a it was a very simple problem to fix so what she did was she created I think a simple Google form or something like that to to to hire what they call that people who don't have jobs but they have a car so they can become drivers right and and she said that okay all in instead of giving the 30% to the delivery platforms I give it to you instead so so if I give you at in advance order you you you come and come to my restaurant and pick it up and then you can do the release so she she vet through all the drivers and then she put them on on on the database I think it's a Google database or something like that and the spreadsheet and then she and she decided to be generous and share with everybody all the other restaurants this database so anybody can call any of these drivers if they really help so she's trying to solve two problems create employment for people who are unemployed and then also help to help these restaurants to save delivery costs so so sometimes you really have to look into into the into the business right what are things that impacting them right and then go up to them and say can I help some of help yourself some of the problems some of I remember a few weeks ago somebody asked how come I go to job sites I don't I don't I don't see good jobs or quality jobs actually I don't know what he or she meant by quality jobs right you know yeah there are some shitty jobs really but quality jobs is really different determined by by you right what you bring to the table quality jobs and so I lost my train of thought so so I want to find a job actually I spoke to a lot of my SME friends who are still trying to survive this COVID-19 right actually they got no time at all to put up job job advertisements right because they are busy fight fighting fire every day right so but yet they are hiring they want to hire they want to hire the IT person they want to develop a mobile ad they want to they want to do a lot of things because they have never gone digital before or maybe they are their current situation their current I isn't doing doing good for them so they want to change but they got no time to hire so the best way is to ask them you if you are a job seeker you can go ask them and say look I have I can build this I have built this before would you like me to build something for you right and you can revenue share with me if I built it or something like that if I can increase your revenue. Can I maybe I'll take a take a couple of it from from you right so in in in in tough times like that companies they only do two things right. I'm I'm increasing my revenue and I'm and I'm trying to save as much as possible these are only two things that companies are doing they are not expanding but these are the two things that they are doing. Right, so if you can help them in one of the other two, you know one of the two or even do both. Then you found that you get yourself a job right or you get yourself that internship opportunity that you want or that that practice opportunity that you want. Right. I think I shared enough, I will go just straight to the last two slides so that I can round it up max. Anyone else have a questions. While I go to the last slide please ask me any questions that you have. If I don't know I will say I don't know and how I can help you find out. But I'll just go to the last slide. I run a Facebook group, new one to connect people to jobs, especially the mid career professionals. So it's not not not tech people from all industries and and somehow there's this company that one of the employees is in that group and he told me he's hiring developers right. So the company is called Emporio AI, must be AI company right so if you go to the website they have three roles once a data engineer and once a software engineer. Actually the third row is a CTO right so if you you can go and go to that link and write to this this person. I think for the software engineer he's looking for C sharp and dot net or something like that right I had a quick chat with him. My ex company is called connect one. They still have a number of jobs. In fact, some of them also not advertise because like I said no no time to do to put them up. But their clients ask for it. And also yeah she actually just text me just a half an hour ago saying that she actually has a list of jobs in the in the Google spreadsheet somewhere. So it's not advertised on the website so I try and send it to max and just forward to you guys or something. And then another friend of mine runs startup jobs dot Asia I'm sure some of you could be familiar with that if not they can go check it out. He runs another company called talent this. So he also very passionate about helping the tech community. So he, he has two job boards I think one is a generic job boards listing all kinds of job. And the second link is to me is what I call reverse pitching. That means instead of the job posting and everybody go apply is the other way around. I'm the candidate I this skill sets you want you come and approach me. So, the second link is the one that has got all the profiles, LinkedIn profiles of people from different different background marketing tech and all that. And maybe some of you already would know you want to get some experience you can always go and try freelancer and up work right and check check out. And I'm sure you guys may know some some other tech centric platforms that I don't know about. You can always try and do that. Don't don't underestimate small jobs or easy tasks or something like that. They always need you to something else. Right. And one of my friend who is 63 years old asked me that it was come to worse. He says it was come to worse if you can't do anything at all. If you can't learn a new skill you can't get a job you can't do this you can't do that. And then the best thing you can do is go and help somebody else, right go find somebody else to help. And, and then you, you, you'll see that your opportunity just presents itself. Right, so it was come to us go help somebody else. Right. Okay, my last one is, I don't have time to ask you this but I'll like to do maybe max will help to consolidate. Yeah, that's very generic stuff. If you want a more in depth stuff I do that as well, because there's so many topics I do to explore. So if you want a more in this session or some specific questions, you know you want to know about profiling psychometric test. You want to know how to build your LinkedIn or whatever you know, you know, let me know, I may not be the one teaching by your friends who does all these things. Right. The fourth question I the last question is, is, is I thought will be also useful. I do know some friends who are for VCs or rather high up in the IT space. And they like me, they like to help people, and they have even more cloud to do that, because they're in higher positions and they are very, they are very pro Singaporeans pro tech community. They are the ones who to help the next generation of people and startups and all that blah blah blah. If you like, and also my my my my ex company connect one right. They are doing an awesome job. Finding candidates for for their clients are they are still hiring right so you can go and I can schedule another session like that. She can come in and have a chat with you guys and you can and that's where you can talk about your tech skills and and and all that. Last one is a small little tip you can try. If you just simply go LinkedIn right and in the search instead of typing Job scope or the person's name or whatever the job title you type in we are hiring. Because I did that in my recruitment days and I just type in we are hiring and then you can see a lot of companies put Put that we are hiring in the in the headline and it's mostly the talent acquisition acquisition person or the HR manager that does that so you might chance upon something because they are still companies hiring so you just type in we are hiring you can see it. Okay, that's all for now. Remember to to revamp your LinkedIn profile if you haven't already done because the number one thing that recruiters do and the first place that we go to to hunt for candidates is LinkedIn. Okay, GitHub is GitHub but GitHub cannot search your profile. So if you want to look for your next opportunity make sure you have the right keywords. Populated on your LinkedIn profile right because we use LinkedIn a lot to hunt for people right so if you don't have the keywords. The system will filter you out right so you will not even come up to my dashboard so. And so so please brush up your LinkedIn profile and keep it as current as possible. Can thanks very much Max. Thanks for for overrun and sorry for overrunning this session. Yeah, it's alright. It's alright because I think it's there's a lot of value in imparting from you and as Kenny say he's actually quite modest. It's actually he's quite connected with a lot of PCs in Singapore as well as a lot of people in Singapore. So if you want you can talk to them but yeah if you look at this network is actually quite quite well well connected. Yeah, yeah I tried to stay in contact as much as possible with them. Yeah, yeah. So so if you know what you want and be more specific then I can help you. Okay, so hopefully I've addressed your question. I apologize if I haven't really addressed them. If that is the case, please just direct your questions to Max or Max will link us up and if I know I'll help you if I know someone who can help you with your job. Yeah, just let me know. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much, Kenny for helping and thank you, Michael and everyone for coming here. I know it's overrun a bit. Yeah, I'm quite shocked as there's got a lot of people and Michael do you have anything you want to talk about about this or you are afk. It should be fine. I mean we really appreciate all the stuff that Kenny has shared. I think a lot of us here in the channel have probably learned a lot from this session and a lot of tips that are very practical and usable. I think hope that the tips shared by Kenny will be applicable to people here who will be applying for jobs and you know I'm getting help. Yeah, thanks so much. I mean I learned a lot from these people as well. I've always enjoyed talking to people from different backgrounds. So if you're keen, let me know. I got friends who will do another session like that. They don't charge money. They just like to share and I think they will do a better job with me because they are more tech than I am. And they are more connected in the IT and ICT scene than I am. So they probably can address very specific issues that you may have. For example, what skill sets are, who is hiring at the moment and all that. So they know better than I do. So if you want, just let me know. So people here wants to reach out to you. What's the best way they can do that? Oh yeah, just LinkedIn. LinkedIn user name. It's in the event page actually. So I actually added the LinkedIn. So I'll just add it in. Yeah, it's also on right here. So at the bottom of my profile, you can just snapshot or something like that. If you all connect to me, can you all please identify yourself? Because I cannot remember all your names. So just say that I was in your Friday session or something like that. Don't just think into me because if I see an unfamiliar face or a funny picture, I'm just going to delete. So remember to identify yourself when you LinkedIn to me. Thanks so much. No problem. Okay. Thanks so much. Everybody have a good night. Have a great weekend. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for joining us. Thank you, Kenny. Thank you so much. See you soon. Bye. Thank you, Kenny. Bye.