Somehow, I've managed to put a lot of what I know to some professional use, whether it's my ability to write, edit, speak, teach, take good photos, or, most unexpected of all, my love for gemstones.
I suppose honing skills that can be used in multiple domains is never a waste, even if you don't consciously think that you are developing those skills.
And perhaps that's the secret - to unconsciously improve them, not necessarily as part of your professional life.
My First Experience in a Part-Time Job Wasn't Great, But it Helped Me Discover What I Wanted and Didn't Want
Having always been a bit different (some say VERY), I naturally gravitated towards the self-employed/freelance/entrepreneur world.
Once I found it, of course.
My first foray into the working world was as a part-time admin assistant in the F&B department of a local country club. It was a holiday job, just before I started studying in Temasek Polytechnic (Biotechnology!)
The job came through an introduction, so I got it pretty easily. And because there were 6 months between getting my O level results and the start of my polytechnic course, I had plenty of time.
I found soon that I likely wasn't entirely needed, because most of the tasks were straightforward and I finished them in short order, thus ending up with a lot of downtime.
One of the tasks was supposed to take over a week, but I got it done in 2 days.
Unfortunately, being in an office environment at a low ranking job, and partly because I was introduced into it, I couldn't look like I had nothing to do even though I really had nothing to do.
This was extraordinarily hard.
I couldn't sit around reading, and there were no modern mobile phones with ready Internet access. The computers here weren't exactly very fast and there just wasn't that much on the Internet in those days anyway.
Within a couple weeks, I was completely bored. I didn't have the autonomy to spend downtime the way I wanted to, and I didn't have anything challenging or interesting to do.
I left after 2 months to preserve my sanity.
I am thankful to the person who got me the job, because I did learn a number of things, and it gave me a number of stories to tell since then.
It also taught me that I needed to find work that I could pour myself into and that I really couldn't stand tedium.
Also, I'm thankful to the person because I earned enough to go LAN gaming every day for the next 4 months (If you remember when this was a huge thing, you're likely of a similar age to me. :p ) before my poly course started.
Yes, I was a gamer. And through gaming, I learned a lot of very useful principles for designing learning programmes (again, a post for another time).
If I could go back in time, I don't think I would have changed this bit of my past, boring though it was. I feel that it had great formative value.
Making Mistakes Isn't a Death Sentence. Learn From Them. Help Others Learn From Theirs.
I make tonnes of mistakes.
Not every second of every day of my life, but while at work, I may spell something incorrectly, mess up a presentation slide, or mispronounce something when I'm teaching.
In my interactions with people, I may speak too quickly, say the wrong thing, or commit some social faux pas that I wasn't aware of.
Even while doing something as innocuous as ordering food, I may get a meat dish that's sweet (I know a lot of locals in SG love sweet sauces on meat dishes, but I hate them with a passion) or forget to tell the lady boss at the soy curd / drink stall to make mine with less sugar.
Each mistake I make gives me an opportunity to learn so I don't repeat it (until or unless it happens to slip my mind before I've formed a habit or I "get it").
I figured at some point that I should extend this opportunity to my students.
If they answer incorrectly, miss a step in their experiment that causes it to fail, or do the wrong thing at the wrong time, I get them to try again when they're ready.
Not all of them always take me up on my offer, but enough of them do that I've noticed it's not a trivial thing to them.
Perhaps they have always been harshly penalised for making mistakes, and this is a relief to them. I'm not sure.
Whatever the case, I want to keep giving them opportunities to learn and better themselves.
Because that's my job as an educator, isn't it?
Being Opinionated Is Not a Bad Thing. IF You Know How To Be.
It's okay to be opinionated.
IF you have good research and listening skills, know how to express your arguments tactfully, succinctly, and elegantly, and know when to keep your peace.
Having research skills, and putting them to use, reinforces your opinions with (at least some) facts.
Listening skills helps you to make sense of what other people are saying and not saying.
Being able to express your arguments well not only keeps you from turning your argument into an unnecessarily long rant, it also helps others keep track of what you're saying.
You may even convince a few.
Finally, knowing when to yield ground, when not to belabour dead ends, and when to just let things slide, keeps you from becoming too uptight, and keeps your relationships intact.
Please don't become that contrary, obnoxious person who butts into everyone's conversations and doesn't know when to shut up or concede.
Sometimes, keeping it light is the smarter way to go.
But hey, that's just my opinion.