Tips

• 02 Mar, 2022
• 5 comments

It has been a while since I last wrote on LinkedIn. As stated in my profile status, I recently left my former employer, Micron Singapore, with my thankfulness and my team members’ heart-warming wishes. I left Micron, a good workplace to me though, as I have accumulated sufficient resources to re-embark on my journey to my passion. As I was updating my LinkedIn, I realised I have not been introducing the whole story of my pursuits. It is time to introduce my background and my true passion since there is where I am heading to after resignation. Though some statements below may portray someone who is less mature than you have previously perceived, I hope my honesty does not cause any disappointment and discomfort.

Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn for the right contact details should you wish to recommend any job opportunities or to chat with me about school or work.

Upbringing, Objective, and Pain Point

I grew up being inferior to my younger sibling, from a family holding just enough wealth for living necessities and quality education. What is your childhood fear? Mine is failure to be self-sufficient after I grow up, thus causing my parents to overspend after their retirement. This fear did not come from nightmares but from the adults’ words in my childhood environments. I was sarcastically deemed “fortunate”, to have an intelligent younger sibling to rely on in future, someone adored by everybody’s parents - good at everything and “easy to make big money”. My only goal then was to score well in school, so that in future, I can get scholarships and live with a stable income. My pain points were to deprive my younger sibling of resources and opportunities due to my weaknesses (that almost happened in my first uni semester) and to end up as a jobless adult (that happened during the start of Covid-19). I already had such thinking even before finishing primary school studies.

Although my priority now is still self-sufficiency over passion, I have gotten enough saving and resources to stay self-sufficient for quite a while as I slowly and calmly venture in a less explored (by me) territory.

From Knowing What I Enjoy Doing to Knowing I Can Do It Well:

Assembly Announcer – Student Emcee – ASTRO School News Editorial Board – Multi-lingual Emcee

At the age of 12, I was given a chance to choose between being an assembly announcer, or to compete in public speaking contests. I chose the former; I was willing and even pleased to speak in public on a daily basis, but I hated being put into a competition which my younger sibling would also be forced to join, so that adults around us had a chance again to comment on our competitions. See, at that age, I already knew I love to pursue voice talent, but then, little did not know that could make me enough money.

After primary education, I was aspired to join the broadcasting club in the independent Chinese high school I attended. Having been failing, for two years, (Mandarin-speaking) auditions to become an in-house emcee, I attempted in an audition for annual English Month assembly announcer, despite being not fluent at all in English back then. I imitated the tones of CNA/BBC news anchors while reading out the assembly scripts, and eventually made it to the focus training group for student emcees. Thereafter, I continued to beef up my English oral skills to excel as a multilingual emcee. Waking up earlier at wee hours to practise English is well paid off - I have been self-sufficient since the age of 21, making money from mainly English-Mandarin bilingual voice talent opportunities that Singapore granted me with.  

As I already identified my dream industry, I wished to study abroad in Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), somewhere known for its communication and film studies. I started practising Cantonese at my 16, simply by reading out Chinese novels in Cantonese, also in my treasured wee hours. Although I failed to stand my ground while applying for uni, the only Cantonese-English-Mandarin trilingual emcee job I ever encountered auspiciously opened the door to subsequent emcee opportunities.

Back in my memorable age of 17, I took part in a student camp by ASTRO Ben Di Quan (本地圈, BDQ) News Editorial Board. Till then, I only knew I enjoy working for broadcasting club, without knowing that I could excel in this industry and make enough money for living. Thanks to the nationally beloved home-grown talent, Director Chiu Keng Guan (better known as "Chiu Dao"), I finally knew I am ready for this. I still remembered when he tested us on how to portray a Malaysian dawn without showing the any flag and time, he complimented me on my answer – making a cup of Milo. Gratefully, I was selected to join the Astro School News Editorial Board as a director to conduct shooting of school events. Since then, I have worked even harder, against my family’s will, to swim into the rivers of broadcasting and film-making.

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