Which REALLY is reality? (Continued)

As mentioned in my earlier Blog entry, I have never really imagined the possibility of being blasted twice in a single day, by two different companies & within such a short span of 6 mere hours!

This is the second part of my second ‘blast’ of the day –

The day before, I received a phone call from this person by the name of Don Chew, from the company called ‘Venture Era Pte Ltd’. Again, this is another classic case that has got to do with unclear (or deceptive) job titles.

I had applied for the position of ‘Management Trainee’ at this company. This job title doesn’t exactly define much at all, except that the person being offered this position would probably be given some time to learn the ropes of various aspects of the company, before finally moving onto a managerial position.

The name & voice of the caller sounded familiar. I guessed that he was one of the temp staff that worked under my girlfriend’s Dad at Cuppage last year. In fact, I ever brought my digital camera to take a photo with him, before he left the job! But of course, to play it safe, I didn’t want to tell him who I guessed that he was & we had actually worked in the same company last year.

He said that this position is for a sales & marketing executive, selling biochemical & pharmaceutical products. In my mind, I was thinking – fine, it’s another sales position. And I never really had a good impression of companies who kept on hiring sales people coz they work to boost company profits. It’s like an inter-dependent concept that focuses on solely on greater financial wealth of both parties. Simple concept - if the company makes money, so do you. Of course it makes sense, but not everything is as seemed for people with a different nature.

But nevertheless, after that horrid phone call by that annoying lady, I decided to change & go for this interview at this company. I have already gone for several interviews only to find that the interviewer finds me unsuitable or I don’t really like the nature of the job.

Let me share something very honestly & it doesn’t get anymore plain to say this –

This is really my personal opinion, but I really don’t find it a pleasant experience to be working at the Central Business District (CBD) area, for example, Shenton Way, Robinson Road, etc.

But for many, it’s a PRIDE to work there & be seen as one of the business executives who comprise this congested urban district of high-rise office buildings. It marks them as exclusive white-collar executives & managers with a prestigious & thriving business. It makes people feel like they are a class higher than those working in other places like industrial estates, flatted factories & neighborhood shops. It distinguishes them as big-earners & high ambitions for their blossoming potential careers. There aren’t many bus stops in this district. It is more often & mostly accessible by Raffles Place MRT station & a road where cars just pass & pass. Perhaps (it’s my guess), that for some, it feels like giving others the impression that they have attained one of the five (or more) ‘C’s, since they own a car!

To much bewilderment to these people, this is my impression of this place –

I don’t like this place because it is a very smoky place. Everywhere I look, I see men & women dressed in formal business attire, smoking & puffing like miniature dragons attempting to blow as much smoke as possible out of their nostrils & mouth.

Personally, I just find it so uncouth to see women dressed up with make-up & classic black & white formal business attire, smoking away next to dust-bins & following the trend of blowing smoke as if it’s really well of a skill to exhibit this. I mean, seriously… after putting on all that make-up & dressing up to look like a thriving business professional… there you are smoking away next to a dust-bin filled with cigarettes! Urgh!

You have to believe me - almost every dust-bin that I notice along Robinson Road is crowded with used cigarette butts! As if this isn’t already a sight to see overflowing dust-bins full of used & extinguished cigarettes, formally dressed business professionals huffing & puffing at cigarettes next to dust-bins, almost every café table outside the café are filled with cigarettes too! Some ash trays are still giving out cigarette smoke, even when there’s no one sitting there!

To top it all up, these business professionals also walk & smoke, while going to their offices, standing at traffic junctions, after a meal or drink, just outside the lobby of the office building, etc. There’s just the smell of smoke almost everywhere! As if the exhaust fumes from the ongoing vehicles are not hazardous enough!

Seriously, to me, this isn’t the central business district… it looks & smells like the central SMOKING district, as if their business & job is really & actually to smoke! Everywhere you look, there is someone smoking. And more often than not, it seems to be a trend that these business professionals crowd together, stand in a circle & smoke their lungs away.

Let me add on by speculating that in that area, cigarettes probably sell as well as perfume for their clothes & mouth refreshing mints…

Picture this news article – ‘Business manager earns his first million dollars… died from lung cancer at age 40’. It isn’t difficult to imagine the possibility of so much money that one can make, yet may not live long enough to spend it all… thanks to such a trendy bad habit.

Apart from the smoky environment, what I see is a mental picture of a whole district of people endlessly chasing after prestige & wealth. Of course, nobody would say that money is not important to survive in a developing or what’s more a developed country. But working hard to earn a living is different compared to working endlessly to crave for an unseen yet continuous ‘black-hole’ of money & power.

I’m definitely not implying that people working here works harder & longer than those outside this district, but this is place forms a mental picture of people slaving away the days of their lives, largely occupied with high ambition & full of self-belief of success.

I find it very strange that some people perceive success as linked to a person’s career. And believe me, the two business professionals talking to me at the interview this afternoon, were just so completely shocked with EYES OPENED WIDE, when I replied that I don’t see it this way. REALLY. They were both looking at me, as if I was some idiot from outer space.

Definitely not the ‘Kingdom mindset’ that the Bible tells us to look & work towards. I didn’t bother to explain, coz it was just apparently clear that their minds are not opened to this spiritual truth that was just briefly hinted to them, as an answer to their question to me.

This company deals with healthcare products such as water filtration & calcium-nized added to energized smaller water molecules. But I shan’t go into the details of the discussion & product presentation to me.

Although I do personally find it a very health benefiting product to market & sell, along with several testing & permission certificates given by Ministry of the Environment, CASE & several other testing labs results from Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, etc… being a salesman isn’t my forte & it’s definitely not the kind of job that I wish to commit to. And being ‘blasted’ by people with regard to sales jobs doesn’t encourage me one bit to go into this line.

It’s just plain simple to me – this is a very good product for the betterment of people’s health, but there is a distinct difference between using it versus selling it. Honestly, after seeing the demonstration & reading the news articles locally & overseas, I would consider buying this product… but let me put it very clearly again – using it & selling it is a very different thing all together.

I must also commend this company’s business plan, as it is indeed very well thought through & very financially & prospects rewarding. This is the selling point of what these two gentlemen tried for hours to convince me. I felt like I was like one of their prospective customers whom they were trying to convince & sell me this excellent product. Again & again, in different ways of saying it, I told them that this is a very good product & the job very financially rewarding, but I’m just not interested.

This is where the probing & questioning began. When facts & paper do not convince, they resorted to interrogating your mind. Typical of any sales scenario & just like what Li Liang shared with us over lunch after church last Sunday – that one of the tactics of sales people is to spend hours trying to convince you, such that you would be tired out & give in to them.

They were very good at it... & normally so was I at rebutting such perceptually dissecting questions. But in this case, today I was ill. I had a short bout of slight fever the night before, accompanied by sore throat & phlegm that lasted for the past 2 – 3 days. I had taken quite bit of medication over these few days, still feeling giddy & I wasn’t exactly in the best of state of mind to listen & talk to them for hours. And they took a total of 3 hours. Well, at least I gave them the respect of my time, before deciding to leave the place.

It was just stunning to them that what appeals to them, doesn’t appeal at all to me! I have never seen people this stunned at me before in my entire life. But I forgive them, for they do not have the mind of Christ, which results in me making & standing by certain principles & decisions that I lay down for my life.

This job gives piles of wealth & planned in such a way that all staff need to work inter-dependently to achieve their goals & that of the company… which means there is much less back-stabbing, coz what is overall earned benefits everyone else, coz each get a commission cut from the overall company profit. Interesting teamwork concept, which I admire… though worked around so as for personal reasons for self-gain.

It is purely commission based, but a very good commission is given, plus other perks as an ambitious sales person climbs up the career ladder. There are great prospects for promotion too, along with the achiever given an above 2-liter car incentive (e.g. Mercedes, Lancer, etc) fully paid for by the company. That’s like an awfully HUGE deal for someone with high ambitions & a craving for great wealth & promotional prospects.

But it’s not me… & doesn’t appeal to me… & they just don’t get it.

One of the questions that they asked me was, “What is my ambition in life?” Since one of them was my ex-temp staff colleague at StarHub, I almost blurted out, “Whatever I do that helps others & makes a difference in their lives.” But of course, I stopped myself… coz they would think I’m crazy if I said that.

Yet, while they are still going on about how much I would benefit from this job & how the market is like locally & overseas… my mind was in a huge turbulence, tossing about whether I could actually help people & make a difference in their lives, given such a general business degree from a foreign university.

Here I am, in the midst of worldly-obsessed unbelievers, trying to think & speak in a way that portrays my testimony of the person God made & chose me to be… & living to be used for greater good for Him… & I can’t even convince myself that this is possible. Negative thoughts were flooding my mind, not to mention the hazy-ness from being ill… How could I get a job in such a job scope, with a business degree? Ministry of Education didn’t even accept me… much less other social work organizations, which are already facing their own troubles & problems dealing with the media.

Yet, all I can do & cling onto… is hope that God knows my heart’s desire… & pray that if this is in congruent to His plan for my life… that He would soon give me a job that fulfills my heart’s conviction that compels me that it is more important to spend my days making a positive difference in people, than to spend my youth chasing after money & prestige.

My heart’s desire is that God would show & give me a job that would allow me to help others & be a strong positive testimony for Him. I want to make sure & work at bringing people to know Christ. This sounds like something awfully & unbelievably holy & self-sacrificial… & most indeed unrealistic in the eyes of Man, especially those who hold a totally opposite viewpoint from me.

Another question that I was asked was, “Do you want to be successful in your career? You know, at this age, you need to think about that, coz you would want to have plans to get married, have kids, pay for your house, looking after your parents, etc. It is our responsibility & more so a responsibility for the man.”

Believe it or not, I replied that success in my career isn’t important to me, at least not in view of what you are referring to. I didn’t elaborate much, coz I didn’t think that would understand anyway… especially when they were plainly more interested in rebutting my answers to their questions, than even pondering to consider the possibility of what I have said.

If I wanted to waste my saliva & sound like a fool to them, I would have said something like, “To me, success in my family is more important than success in my career. And success in the family isn't dependent on money alone. Of course, doing well in something is good & especially so for a career. But one has to discern the cost of doing so. For everything we do has a cause & cost. And that determines what & why we choose to do something, in hope to achieve a certain outcome at the end.”

Sounds philosophical, but it’s true & that’s my stand.

As expected, they went on to question me that money is important when you, your family members or parents fall sick… & earning enough is very important because of the rising standard of living in Singapore & the fact that salary doesn’t increase as fast as inflation, depreciation & cost of living…

Duh! As if I have never thought about these issues for countless times before! Especially so, after going for even more interviews after losing my job! It’s always the same basis which financial advisors, investment consultants & now sales people claim their actions upon.

All these probes made me feel like they are looking down on pure salaried jobs! I mean, what is this? They went on saying that Bill Gates makes so much money because he knows how to make the most money out of the least time… which means, expanding overseas… so that his 24 hours a day, becomes hundreds & thousands of hours in total in a single day, because so many Microsoft staff are working concurrently!

It sounded just as similar as my own Dad who, being sucked into such economic ‘philosophy’, said that times have changed & we need to make our money work harder than us… & when we are working, our money is working too.

Why is there so much mentioned about this word ‘MONEY’?!

I was very upset during the conversation, & even more so while reflecting on all that’s been said after I left the place. It really made me wonder if I’m the naïve one, or they are the misunderstood people. For the next hour or so, I was just so confused about who I am… why do I think like that… am I really being naïve… why are they so different from me… am I just thinking silly… what if they are right… would I really be able to live up to what I have thought & said… what jobs are there really out there for me… when would I really get a job that God intends for me… would I ever get into teaching… how much I stumbled upon the love to do Community Penetration (CP) work, especially with Rebecca being an encouragement & inspiration to me… how much I hoped to earn & save up for a good wedding & honeymoon, but don’t have the heart to do it the ‘sales’ way… what would Rebecca’s parents think of me, if I do such a job… why is everything just so sales related… how can there be so many smokers in the CBD… how terrifying it is to look up at all the tall office buildings coz they remind me of being squashed up in all this madness… how these skyscrapers remind me also about the Tower of Babel in the Bible that people strived to built…

Just endless thoughts… they just kept flooding my mind… & it didn’t make my headache from my flu any better. I was hungry too… coz it’s already past 5pm & I haven’t eaten throughout the day, coz no appetite from the illness…. Etc.

Oh yes, I remembered very strongly this question that one of them asked me, “You say that interest is important in a job. But would you do something of your interest for free? You wouldn’t, right?”

I replied, “It depends.” Just two words… & this was the moment where I shocked them the most, till their eyes all opened wide in pure shock & bewilderment at me. They just looked at me with such unbelief…

Then one of them asked, “Then what for you study a business degree?” He was also a business graduate from SIM, under the RMIT degree program, just like me. In fact, he was my junior… & also one year younger than me. It was just completely obvious that he thought I was crazy! Upon hearing my two words reply, he immediately shifted away from me in such shock, staring at me with big open eyes…

I replied that I couldn’t make it into the local universities, so I took up this degree program at SIM, hoping that at least it could get me a job, as compared to being without a degree. Thinking about it, I realized that it is only AFTER I graduated, that I realized that it is worse to have a degree in the wrong discipline, than not having a degree at all. Believe me, it’s true. How I wished I had used my parents’ money for a better reason or for a more worthwhile degree. Yet, I still hold to my belief that everything happens for a reason. And God knows my future.

Seriously, it can get REALLY scary at what one can think, strive & do, when any consideration about God is totally left out of the picture. Think about it.

And with regards to why I replied “It depends” when asked if I would do something of my interest for free… I mean, seriously… why not? It’s plain simple – it’s my interest! Isn’t it? Duh!

And there are a lot of more meaningful things to do, without having to get paid for it. Believe it or not, it’s when we don’t get something in return that we feel it’s more fulfilling to do so. And if we give of things which money can’t buy, that’s even more precious… coz people with all the money in the world can’t even buy it… & YET we can GIVE IT!

As long as I have a job, earn a decent living, save up to pay my bills & for my future, put some of my future earnings into investment accounts to earn interest (not speculating stocks & shares) & commit all that I do to God, I believe God will provide for me & my family’s needs. “For Man does not live on bread alone, but from every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And the other parables of Jesus just speak it so clearly… that our Heavenly Father knows what we need, even before we ask of Him.

It’s really difficult to even say this, but one of the thoughts that went through my mind during all that mind boggling convincing & psycho-ing from them, was that I would rather die earlier from not being able to pay high medical bills, yet having done many meaningful things in my lifetime… as compared to having not done, or done much less of these meaningful things & end up spending my hard-earned money, in the midst of severe illness, not for better beneficial reasons, except making that doctor rich.

And one thing I have learnt in my life – that when we have more, we would be tempted to want even more. And when we are used to having a lot to splurge, we would have much difficulty adjusting to having little, should the situation emerge.

They remarked in Mandarin, saying, “There’s no such thing as people who would grumble when they are given more money. If you have $50 million dollars & you see a $5 note lying on the floor, you would still pick it up, right?”

Wah, I tell you… I almost wanted to scream into their faces! True, it’s good to have money on your hands. But it’s also important how you got that money… & also how you spend it! For example, if you have a huge sum of money & you decided to buy a car. What happens is that you end up with the loss of that sum of money since you bought the car & end up having to pay more to use & maintain the car! So, unless you are very rich to afford it… mathematically, you actually get poorer because of what you bought!

And if I saw that $5 note lying on the floor, I would seriously just leave it there. Coz I would rather see the greedy rich man who picks it up… or leave it for someone who really needs cash to buy something or go home. That $5 could save someone’s life.

Seriously, if people as obsessed as them would want to speculate, decide & depend on the market factors of the economy, so be it. They can’t even control that, much less the environment that they live in. At most, they can only react to it. But as for me, I would rather trust & depend on the God who made all things.