Traits That Will Enhance Your Chances of Getting Hired

By Stuart Parkin

Published: February 01, 2010

Stuart Parkin

We live in a rapidly changing business world, and the agency business is likely to continue to face huge shifts in 2010. Still, there are certain core tenets that can act as guidelines to help make you more employable. Here’s what will get you hired this year.

1. EQ. Emotional intelligence is so important for so many reasons, none more important than the fact that advertising and marketing is about people. Fundamentally this skill is about the ability to empathize and to read people, but it’s also about the ability to act on this understanding in a meaningful way, a critical skill for the agency business.

2. Organizational Skills. Effective presentation is about content and style. The right look and the right words in concert are key, whether at an interview or pitching a piece of business. Project-management roles are becoming more in demand as business becomes increasingly project-focused.

3. AQ. IQ and EQ are certainly critical to success today, but even more important is adaptability quotient. Practically this refers to a mindset that embraces change. Individuals who have a high AQ will often pick fast-paced, rapidly changing environments. They can use skills they have developed in one job in a totally different context. Adaptability plays out in many forms: vocational, mental, geographic, linguistic, financial, hours worked. The more of these any individual can embrace, the better his or her employment chances. Simply said, doing things that others don’t want to do or are incapable of doing is key to enhancing opportunities and going beyond existing roles. More significant AQ points to a mindset that strives for results, whatever the variables are.

4. Ideas-Driven Mentality. Top business strategists have an almost childlike interest in seeing things in new ways. They are hungry for knowledge and perhaps travel and read much and are interested in new fashion, be it apparel or electronic. An employee who can make a difference is one who has a healthy interest not just in the status quo but in making things better. Those who search for new perspectives will be welcomed by agencies and clients alike.

5. Entrepreneurial Mindset. Seeing things in different contexts is valuable, and new ideas are always welcome, but what’s critical is making meaning of ideas in a commercial context.

6. Personality. I have interviewed hundreds of people, some for jobs for which you might assume personality is not so important. The reality is that whether you’re creative, financial or strategic — and not just account people — those with personality get the best out of people with whom they interact, both inside and outside the agency.

7. Communication Skills. Written and verbal skills are important in a business that is all about messages, ultimately communicated via image or word. Articulating a perspective, arguing a viewpoint, selling an idea — they all depend on language skills. Language skills for new media are important, but more critical are social skills and face-to-face communication, which, to some extent, are threatened by e-mail, SMS and other modes of communication.

8. Persistence. A single-mindedness, a determination, an ability to endure not only sets one apart but is often the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t. If for no other reason, persistence equals opportunity to be in the right place at the right time.

9. A Sense of Mission. A clear sense of mission and a stake in that mission binds individuals, teams and companies together. Even the least passionate person, a less-than-stellar communicator, a person who easily gives up, can become a passionate, communicating trooper if he has a sense of mission.

10. Passion. If you enjoy something enough, that passion touches other people. Enthusiasm can absolutely differentiate you from an equally qualified but slightly morose soul. If you enjoy something, you have a greater chance at excelling at it and therefore being in demand to do it, whatever it is.

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Hey S’porean, would you do these jobs?

Foreigners are willing to do what locals won’t even with more pay, say some employers. -TNP

Tue, Jan 26, 2010
The New Paper

He wrote that some of the foreigners had master’s degrees and were willing to work for less than $2,000 a month, compared to local fresh graduates who asked for at least $2,500.

In Mr Khoo’s blog post, he wrote: “They (foreigners) know that if they can come in and learn and work hard, they will eventually climb up and earn a lot more.

“They are willing to invest in themselves, pay the price for future rewards. Sometimes I wonder how some of the locals are going to compete with this.”

The blog post, written on 16 Dec last year, spurred at least 20 netizens to post angry comments on his blog.

One netizen wrote: “Adam, you’re a local who hires cheap FTs (foreign talent) and then keeps the savings for yourself.”

Mr Khoo’s blog post was also copied and flamed on forums like hardwarezone.com.sg andsgforums.com.

But Mr Khoo explained, in an interview with The New Paper on Sunday, that his words were taken out of context.

The father of two young girls said that he felt foreigners were less picky than locals, and he was worried about how his daughters and other young Singaporeans would be able to compete with them in future.

He added that it didn’t mean he preferred hiring foreigners.

Mr Khoo said that his office here has about 90 staff and only three are foreigners.

He said: “I’d still pay a local more than a foreigner if the local is able to generate more value for my company.”

Mr Khoo said that when Law Minister K Shanmugam said at a dialogue with Yew Tee residents last Sunday that foreign workers were not stealing jobs from Singaporeans, but were really doing jobs shunned by Singaporeans, it struck a chord with him.

He said: “I understand this (foreign workers here) is a sensitive issue so some people are upset. It’s no point getting angry because nothing will come out of it.”

While Mr Khoo has no difficulty hiring Singaporeans, employers in other sectors lament the reluctance of Singaporeans to take up certain jobs.

Restaurateur Eldwin Chua feels bad about hiring foreigners as chefs and waiting staff.

But the owner of the Paradise Group of restaurants claims he has no choice – his attempts to hire and retain Singaporean staff have mostly failed.

The Paradise Group pays local waiting staff $1,500 to $1,600 a month, compared to $1,200 to $1,600 for foreigners, depending on their experience.

Mr Chua said: “I offer higher salary to locals because I’m encouraging them to take up the jobs.

“Singaporeans complain so much about Chinese nationals working as waiters and waitresses.

“But do they know that when locals take up the jobs, many of them turn up for just two days before quitting, because they can’t take the long hours of standing?”

The Paradise Group has 200 waiters and waitresses in its eight restaurants, and 90 per cent are either permanent residents or foreigners from China and Malaysia.

Last Monday, SBS Transit announced it would increase salaries of new bus captains to $1,375 a month, up from the current $1,196, in an attempt to recruit more Singaporeans.

Together with other allowances, they can earn more than $1,900 a month in their first year of employment.

SBS Transit has 5,500 bus captains, of which only 38 per cent are Singaporeans.

Its executive director, Mr Gan Juay Kiat said: “Over the years, we’ve seen fewer and fewer Singaporeans join us as bus captains.”

Many Singaporeans also do not wish to work as cleaners, seeing it as a “dirty” job, said Mr Steven Kunasegaran, owner of L & J Maintenance.

How much to wash toilets?

Mr Kunasegaran, who has been in business for 16 years, said: “I advertise for cleaners in the papers but when Singaporean applicants call up, they ask about the salary and whether they need to wash the toilets.

“Of course toilets have to be cleaned. And when I say so, they never contact me again.”

The Employment & Employability Institute (e2i), the National Trades Union Congress’ one-stop job-matching and training centre, echoed the employers’ sentiments.

Its spokesman said jobs that have few Singaporean takers are cleaners, low-end manufacturing production operators, low-end retail assistants and food & beverage service staff.

She said: “Based on today’s labour market situation, any job which pays $800 to $900 a month, requires workers to perform shift and weekend duties, and travel to far corners of Singapore will have a low take-up, if at all.

“This is simply because they no longer reflect the market and workers have better alternatives.”

crystalc@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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Job losses minimised in 2009, thanks to govt action

But with Jobs Credit scheme expiring in June, will bosses let go of redundant staff? -BT

Mon, Jan 04, 2010
The Business Times

THE list of casualties wasn’t as long as you might have expected from the worst global downturn since the 1929 Great Depression. By the time 2009 ended, about 20,000 workers had been laid off here, according to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).

And that’s less than the numbers in the previous two crashes – 29,080 during the 1998 Asian financial crisis and 25,840 during the 2001 Sars outbreak.

The jobless rate climbed to 3.4 per cent in September 2009 – still ‘full employment’ by most standards, and only half the 6.2 per cent peak in September 2003.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong summed it up best. ‘The year 2009 has turned out better than feared,’ he told Bloomberg News.

Mr Lee was referring to the global economy – but you can say the same thing about the job market in Singapore.

While the world economy in 2009 sank to the depths reached in 1929, it didn’t stay down for long.

Recovery this time around was quick – thanks to governments worldwide acting as one to pump out massive sums of money to prop up tottering financial systems.

The worst was over by June 2009 – barely nine months after Lehman Brothers’ crash that sent the global economy over the edge.

The Singapore economy turned around in the second quarter, posting its first growth after four straight quarters of decline.

The recovery in employment, as usual, lagged economic recovery in general. But signs of a pick-up in hiring started to surface in June.

Recruitment firm Hudson and the Singapore National Employers’ Federation reported in the same month that employers planned to boost headcount.

Figures from the Ministry of Manpower show that in the July-September quarter, more than enough jobs were created to wipe out the job losses of the first two quarters.

It was a far cry from just six months earlier, when ministers, union chiefs and economists were warning of massive job losses ahead.

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong spoke of lay-offs and redundancies shooting up to the record levels of the previous two downturns – but that did not happen. And workers, who were primed to expect the worst, should be relieved.

Now, with things looking up, they are dancing to a more upbeat tune – and even looking at higher pay and bonuses in an anticipated state of high employment.

The changed mood is reflected in the labour movement, which recently declared victory in staving off record lay-offs and unemployment.

From saving jobs last year, NTUC is shifting gear this year to shoot for ‘full’ employment – and bring the jobless rate down to below 3 per cent.

There is plenty of cause for celebration for the labour movement, which has played a key role in cutting business costs and saving jobs. But it would be wise for NTUC leaders to temper expectations, lest workers feel let down at the end of the day.

While 2009 did not turn out to be as bad as feared, 2010 may not pan out as good as expected.

The economy did not collapse in 2009 – and job losses were minimised – mainly because of government action at home and abroad.

Many countries acted quickly and in concert, rolling out massive stimulus packages to revive the global economy, which softened the blow for small and open economies such as Singapore.

For its part, the Singapore government unveiled an unprecedented $20.5 billion package, with $4.5 billion devoted to a Jobs Credit scheme.

Jobs Credit helped employers keep excess workers. But with the scheme now downsized and due to expire in June, will bosses let go of redundant staff?

Jobs Credit was supposed to buy time – until the economy recovered. It has done that. But growth in 2010 is likely to be a modest 3-5 per cent – not enough to generate the record number of jobs seen before the latest recession.

Slowing the inflow of foreign workers, as the government has hinted it will do, may offer locals more jobs as the economy gets back on its feet. But many employers have held on to excess workers in the past year. And they may tap on these workers rather than hire new ones.

NTUC points out that the Singapore economy has become better at saving jobs in a downturn, thanks to a more flexible wage system.

But a flexi-wage model is good at just that – saving jobs. It is not meant to create them.

Job creation depends more on a thriving world economy. And unfortunately, the global economic outlook – despite recovery – is not all that rosy for 2010.

This article was first published in The Business Times.

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Jan 4, 2010

HR changes in the past decade

Benefits, revised notions of work are among the concepts that have evolved quietly

REVISIONS to the notion of work and the evolution of benefits are two workplace concepts that have quietly changed during the past 10 years.

Human Resource Executive Online (HREOnline) magazine, in a report on Wednesday, went digging for these and other key working life trends that slid into the picture without that burst of recognition accompanying them.

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DESPITE signs of a turnaround in the job market, university graduates are no better off.

In fact, more of them are without jobs and taking longer to land a job, according to revised official figures released yesterday.

Part of the reason is that they often tend to seek jobs that pay close to what they used to earn, said MP Josephine Teo, who is also assistant secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.

However, economists interviewed foresee their lot improving in the new year, when growth is expected to hit 5.5 per cent, according to a recent poll of 20 private-sector economists by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Meanwhile, the labour market in the third quarter, following Singapore’s exit from recession, shows ‘encouraging signs of a turnaround’, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The revised figures show more jobs were added, fewer people were laid off and there were more vacancies between June and September.

In all, employment grew by 14,000, offsetting the 13,900 jobs lost in the first half of this year. Still, the resident unemployment rate among Singaporeans and permanent residents hit 5 per cent, a five-year high.

Also, more residents, regardless of their education level, are taking beyond six months to get a job.

Known technically as the long-term unemployed, their numbers have doubled, from 9,600 in the third quarter last year to 18,400 in September this year.

Worst off are university graduates. Their numbers have swelled from 1,600 to 4,700, which works out to one in four of these unemployeds.

It is the same story in other areas.

Degree-holders form more than one-third of workers made redundant, either retrenched or released prematurely from their contracts. They form 36 per cent of the 2,470 workers made redundant, although they make up only 27 per cent of Singapore’s workforce of two million.

It is a similar situation with the re-hiring of laid-off residents. Though this re-employment rate rose for workers at all educational levels, the rate for graduates remains the lowest, at 44.4 per cent.

It was the same case in the second quarter, when it was 39.3 per cent.

MP Josephine Teo said graduates tend to hold jobs, such as supervisors, which are the first to be chopped in a downturn.

She also said retrenched graduates typically take longer to find jobs because they have savings to fall back on and look for work that pays almost as much as their previous job.

Graduate Chris Lim seems to fit the mould. The 31-year-old has been jobless since she quit her marketing job in a bank in June last year. She had wanted a similar job in the service industry but the economic crisis has made it tough.

Said the business administration graduate: ‘I’ve had a few job offers but I rejected them because they weren’t suitable. I’m not super desperate because I have some savings.’

She is working part-time as a receptionist and is hopeful because headhunters are calling her more often now.

MOM, in its statement, said organisations and jobseekers should not be discouraged by the slight rise in the unemployment rate to 3.4 per cent, from 3.3 per cent in the first two quarters. It also pointed out the 5 per cent resident unemployment rate is below the record 6.2 per cent in 2003 during the Sars outbreak.

Economists say the peculiar situation of jobs growth coupled with high unemployment is a result of more residents entering the job market as the economy improves.

Singapore, which came out of recession at the end of June, grew by 14.2 per cent in the third quarter,

Also, the rise in the unemployment rate could be due to a mismatch between skills and jobs.

Economist Tan Khee Giap expects the resident jobless rate to fall by next June.

But there is a need to shorten the time the jobless take to find work, he added.

Ms Heather Chua of hiring firm Kelly Services noted that 50 per cent of residents retrenched in the second quarter found work in the third quarter.

‘This is a strong indication more companies are positioning themselves to prepare for the nascent recovery,’ she said.

However, MOM’s Minister of State Lee Yi Shyan, noted that the unemployment rate is likely to stay up for some time as employers remain cautious about the pace and sustainability of recovery.

He said: ‘The Government remains focused on job creation and training, while those who are unemployed are encouraged to retrain and re-skill so that they can find a job as quickly as possible.’

kianbeng@sph.com.sg

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JOB AVAILABLE? – How to Recruit the Right Person for the Job

Put about 100 bricks in no particular order in a closed room with an open window.
Then send 2 or 3 candidates in the room and close the door.
Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours and then analyse the situation.
If they are counting the bricks.
Put them in the accounts department.
If they are recounting them
Put them in auditing.
If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks.
Put them in engineering.
If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order.
Put them in planning.
If they are throwing the bricks at each other.
Put them in operations.
If they are sleeping
Put them in reception
If they have broken the bricks into pieces.
Put them in information technology.
If they are sitting idle.
Put them in human resources
If they say they have tried different combinations, yet not a brick has been moved.
Put them in sales.
If they have already left for the day.
Put them in marketing.
If they are staring out of the window.
Put them in strategic planning.
And then last but not least
If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been moved.
Congratulate them and put them in top management.

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Mr Sun has been named by Time magazine as one of its Heroes of the Environment. The Australian had his first taste of entrepreneurship at 18, earning $13,000 on his first day selling vegetarian burgers and noodles at a rock concert. — ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI

From selling burgers to saving rainforests
Self-made millionaire brokers carbon credit deals between farmers and big corporationsi

By Tan Dawn We

When Australian Dorjee Sun was just 18, he had his first taste of entrepreneurship when he discovered a niche he could plug at rock concerts.

There was never any vegetarian food available, and vegetarians are rock fans too, like his friends.

So he borrowed kitchen equipment from his parents, who ran a catering business, hired five of his prettiest friends to man a stall, and dished out vegetarian burgers and noodles.

On his first day, he made A$10,000 (S$13,000) – a far better deal than the A$11 an hour he was making as a waiter at DKNY in his hometown of Sydney.

Today, the 33-year-old is plugging a different kind of niche, although still vegetable-related in a way: He is the chief executive officer of Carbon Conservation, a company that brokers multimillion-dollar rainforest carbon credit deals between big-time corporations and small-town farmers.

It is a business – one that he incorporated in Singapore just a year ago – but Mr Sun sees a larger purpose to it than just raking in the big bucks.

After all, he is already a self-made millionaire from starting an Internet business for corporate recruitment, a remote-tutoring company and a creative agency doing animation and viral marketing.

His mission now is something money cannot buy: to save one rainforest at a time.

‘What I tell my investors is, we want to be the amazon.com of the Amazon,’ the charming and infectiously spirited man, who is of

Tibetan-Chinese extraction, said with a cheeky wink.

What makes his start-up interesting is that, while carbon trading is fairly well established globally, having reached US$126 billion (S$176 billion) last year, Mr Sun is selling carbon from rainforests, a relatively new ‘currency’.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, 37 industrialised countries have committed to reducing the greenhouse gases they emit.

A market mechanism that has emerged to deal with the practical aspects of this mandatory reduction has been emissions trading, which allows for companies that pollute to buy credits from others with surpluses, so they meet the cap set by the authorities.

‘Scientifically and morally, everyone knows the rainforest is this big factory that produces oxygen and absorbs carbon dioxide, but no one has ever put a financial value on it,’ said the enthusiastic environmental entrepreneur.

‘Our job is to put financial value, or carbon credits, on protecting rainforests. Right now, you get a value only when you turn it into paper or chopsticks. But it should have an inherent value because we now value climate change.’

And how does he determine what goes on the price tag of these green acres? By painstakingly measuring the size of the trees, the number of trunks, the amount of soil and translating that into carbon credits.

‘One credit represents one ton of carbon dioxide that would have been released if the forest were razed or chopped down,’ he explained.

Shocked by an article he read on how 5,000 orang utans were being burnt alive each year in man-made forest fires in Indonesia, the animal lover decided to put his business skills to good use.

He bought over The Carbon Pool, a company that sold carbon credits in Australia, then ventured into the forests of Aceh, Papua and West Papua to sweet-talk their governors into giving him the exclusive right to broker carbon credits internationally based on their land.

His business model is simple: Corporations that either need to, or want to, fulfil their greenhouse gas emission reduction promise should pay farmers to stop lighting the fires. The second-largest source of carbon emission in the world is from forest fires, and Indonesia has the ignominy of being the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, thanks to its logging and burning. The United States and China are the world’s biggest culprits.

With the blessings of the governors, he set off for the US and Britain, knocking on the doors of banks, corporations and investment funds to sell his carbon credits.

Getting them to understand this seemingly complex concept is one thing. The Kyoto Protocol does not include carbon trading from forestry as a legally permissible credit.

He got roundly rejected 206 times, ‘more rejections than I get at Clarke Quay on a Saturday night’, said the bachelor in jest.

His unstinting efforts were captured in an award-winning documentary narrated by Hugh Jackson, The Burning Season.

It was not until 11/2 years later that Merrill Lynch was persuaded into sinking US$9 million to save 770,000ha of tropical forests in Aceh – a world’s first – with the promise that it could resell these credits for a profit.

‘I cried. I wept tears of joy, in a masculine way,’ recalled Mr Sun, named by Time magazine as one of its Heroes of the Environment this year.

His journey to Singapore

A good thing then that he did not heed his parents’ wishes to become a dentist or a lawyer after graduating with double degrees in business and law from the University of New South Wales.

The son of illegal immigrants from Darjeeling, India, Mr Sun picked up enough Mandarin from having spent two years in Beijing on a scholarship to converse with his grandparents.

None of his siblings became a dentist either: His younger sister has a boutique creative, design and coding company while his younger brother is a professional stand-up comedian.

Being a corporate suit was just not his style – something he found out quickly after stints as an intern in a law firm and as a management consultant at business consultancy Bain International.

In 2000, he started a Web-based recruitment platform which was later sold to Reuters Thomson for an amount he cannot reveal, due to a confidentiality agreement he inked.

‘Businesses are just about people. If you can’t manage and find the best people, then you won’t be able to build the business,’ he said.

That is one of the reasons he chose Singapore as his base, besides the fact that he had always loved his holidays here as a child, and still has vivid memories of Haw Par Villa’s gory displays and the old Hotel Equatorial’s banana split.

‘The quality of people in Singapore is great. People here are Western enough, well travelled and well educated, hard-working; we can do some really cool stuff here.’

He already has four Singaporean law graduates on his payroll and plans to hire more.

More than that, he feels Singapore can be an important centre for carbon transactions.

‘Everyone feels comfortable with Singapore: British-based law, real clarity of governance, global hub for arbitration.’

Since receiving his employment pass in April this year, he has wasted no time in getting himself settled in, including meeting representatives of government agencies like the Economic Development Board and speaking at the Nanyang Technological University.

But what he wants more than anything else is the opportunity to meet Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, whom he hopes to get on his haze initiative which he is launching on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum with the Asian Development Bank.

Next month, he is also moving his company into a 5,000 sq ft space at Orchard Boulevard which will house 10 staff members.

Besides putting in his own money, he has three Singapore-based investors, and has been doing additional investor rounds. For that reason, he declined to say how much has been pumped in.

The self-professed serial entrepreneur, who clocks 18-hour days, makes no apologies about his capitalistic approach to saving the environment.

Of the world’s 100 biggest economic entities, 51 are corporations while the rest are countries, he pointed out.

‘If you don’t involve a trillion dollars of capital market, you’re joking if you think you’re going to change the world.’

dawntan@sph.com.sg

This is the second in a series on foreign-born entrepreneurs who have created successful businesses in Singapore.

Save the trees

‘What I tell my investors is, we want to be the amazon.com of the Amazon.’

MR SUN, on making a impact

Men do cry

‘I cried. I wept tears of joy, in a masculine way.’

On getting a breakthrough deal

It’s all about people

‘Businesses are just about people. If you can’t manage and find the best people, then you won’t be able to build the business.’

On building a good business

Great quality

‘The quality of people in Singapore is great. People here are Western enough, well travelled and well educated, hard-working; we can do some really cool stuff here.’

On choosing Singapore as his base

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By Huang Lijie

Mr Richard Ang and his wife, Janelle Kam, invested about $30,000 of their savings to set up the six-seat Taste Matters ice cream dessert shop in Bukit Timah. –ST PHOTOS: SHAHRIYA YAHAYA

Anyone who has eaten ice cream on a hot day will tell you that when it comes to enjoying the sweet treat, quick licks are everything.

Speed is the name of the home-grown frozen dessert game too as the artisan ice cream scene heats up. More newcomers have joined the fray while established players are opening more outlets.

No fewer than five new frozen dessert shops have launched in the last year, with three of them opening in neighbourhoods such as Sunset Way in Clementi and Bukit Timah. These places are already home to well-known ice cream shops including The Daily Scoop and Island Creamery.

Taste Matters, which opened last month at Cluny Court, is one floor above Da Paolo Gastronomia’s gelato counter and around the corner from Island Creamery’s Serene Centre outlet.

Its co-owner, Ms Janelle Kam, 36, however, does not feel that the store’s proximity to other ice cream sellers is a disadvantage.

She says: ‘We chose the location because we wanted a cosy place away from the usual shopping malls. We also do not see ourselves as being in competition with the other dessert shops because we are doing our own thing.’

Its focus is on ice cream desserts such as lavender ice cream with French tuile (a type of cookie), instead of ice cream sold by the scoop, although ice cream is available at the shop.

Indeed, most of these new joints sell a wider range of ice cream desserts, beyond the usual scoop ice cream.

At Buttercake n Cream, which opened last month in Sunset Way, ice cream sundaes are the highlight.

These concoctions comprise scoops of its homemade ice cream topped with cake and crumble fillings. They are the best-selling item at the dessert cafe, which also offers ice cream by the scoop, cakes and cup desserts such as tiramisu.

Similarly, at ice cream parlour Once Upon A Milkshake in Maxwell Road, which opened last month, its homemade ice cream may be enjoyed as a milkshake.

Explaining the move away from a traditional ice cream shop selling just scoops, its owner, Mr Alvin Ng, 26, says: ‘Ice cream, though popular, is widely available, but milkshakes are less common, so I decidedto offer both.’

As for the recent rash of openings, most of the owners, who were former professionals in non-food and beverage (F&B) industries, cite their passion for making ice cream as the motivation behind their business rather than bargain rents in the economic downturn or a lower start-up cost relative to opening an eatery.

Yet they do not deny that the small- scale operation of an ice cream shop makes it more manageable for F&B novices like themselves to take the plunge.

Mr Ng, a former civil servant, says: ‘I have always wanted to open an F&B business but I wanted to start small because I am new to it. A dessert shop is more manageable than a restaurant in terms of set-up cost and space required.’

Many of the newcomers invest between a five- and six-figure sum to start up their shop, with equipment cost taking up a large part of the investment.

Commercial ice cream-making equipment ranges from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

The fact that the time required to acquire ice cream-making skills is not as long as it takes to become a professional chef has also helped newcomers enter the frozen dessert business quickly.

Many artisan ice cream-makers here spend a few months perfecting their skill, which they pick up from various channels.

Madam Rose Quek, 55, co-owner of Gelato Art in Sunset Way, spent more than $1,000 to attend a three-day gelato-making course taught by an Italian gelato specialist here. The course was organised by a gelato-making equipment supplier.

Others learn via trial and error in their home kitchens, armed with a domestic ice cream-making machine, available from less than $100 at department stores here, as well as cookbooks and Internet research.

None of the new players interviewed, however, are jumping on the bandwagon because they view the homemade ice cream business as a get-rich-quick-scheme with high profit margins.

Home-grown ice cream retailers whom LifeStyle interviewed say their profit margins are in line with other F&B businesses but because of the product’s low selling price – about $3 a scoop – a high volume of sales is required to sustain business.

With no fewer than 20 home-grown ice cream stores around, however, is the ice cream market overheated?

Established players such as The Daily Scoop and Udders, which are expanding, do not think so.

Ms Melissa Phey, 33, owner of The Daily Scoop, which started in 2004 and had opened a second store in Chip Bee Gardens this month, says: ‘We have seen our business grow by about 15 per cent each year. Customers were over-spilling our premises in Sunset Way so we decided to expand.’

Unusual flavours galore

Similarly, Mr David Yim, 39, coowner of Udders, which started in 2007, is so confident of his business prospect, he inked the deal for a fourth store opening in Serangoon Gardens next year.

That the new frozen dessert shops have not affected the business of existing shops also indicate that Singaporeans are still screaming for ice cream.

Mr Stanley Kwok, 54, owner of Island Creamery, one of the earlier home- grown ice cream parlours whose business has not been affected, says: ‘We are fortunate because we started and established a good following early on. Also, the flavours we offer are relatively unique.’

Unusual flavours do indeed rejuvenate the artisan ice cream business, which is estimated to be worth between $5 million and $10 million, say the ice cream retailers.

To entice guests to return to the store, a new flavour is introduced every month at Tom’s Palette in Beach Road, including a collagen-flavoured ice cream in the past.

Truly, for ice cream lovers, the addition of new home-grown ice cream shops grows rather than dulls Singaporeans’ appetite for the frozen dessert.

Housewife Jessica Wong, 42, who is a fan of The Daily Scoop’s durian ice cream, has found herself stopping by the newly opened Ice-Cream Kingdom in Holland Grove for a scoop when she runs errands in the area.

She says: ‘The Daily Scoop and Ice-Cream Kingdom each has its variety of flavours, which appeals to me. When I’m in Holland Grove, I eat ice cream at Ice-Cream Kingdom. When I am in Clementi, I go to The Daily Scoop.’

lijie@sph.com.sg

Cold calling

Husband-and-wife team Richard Ang, 37, an engineer-turned-cook, and former copywriter Janelle Kam, 36, opened their ice cream dessert shop, Taste Matters, in Bukit Timah Road in August.

They spent many nights awake, thinking of all the possible ways their ice cream business could fail before they mustered the courage to open the shop.

Mr Ang, who holds an advanced culinary diploma from Singapore’s At-Sunrice Global Chef Academy and had worked as a chef de partie in a hotel restaurant in Macau, says: ‘From all angles, it didn’t make economic sense for us to start our business during a downturn. But from the point of doing what we like, it did because time does not wait for you.’

They had been toying with the idea of starting a food and beverage business for a while, including a French cafe.

But they settled on an ice cream shop because they were inspired by MsKam’s encounter with an incredible- tasting ice cream at a bread and breakfast inn in Somerset in the United Kingdom last year, where she was attending a cello masterclass.

She says: ‘The owner of the inn asked if I wanted ice cream and I said yes, so she plucked some lavender from her garden, went to the dairy farm next door for cream and made the best ice cream I had ever tasted.’

The couple, who do not have children, ploughed about $30,000 of their savings into setting up the cosy six-seat ice cream shop.

They revise the menu about every 10 days. It takes them between one and two weeks to come up with ideas for new frozen desserts.

Mr Ang says: ‘In two months, we have had repeat customers so it means that we have been doing something right with our ice cream desserts.’

Palette pleaser

Husband-and-wife team Chronos Chan, 34, a former mechanical engineer, and Eunice Soon, 32, a former multimedia designer, opened their ice cream shop in Beach Road in 2005.

He named his shop, Tom’s Palette, after a friend who did not think that his ice cream business would succeed.

Mr Chan says: ‘Tom did not think we would succeed because there are so many people selling ice cream. The shop’s name is a reminder to myself that I need to prove him wrong.’

That the shop is still around four years on, with last year’s sales 20 per cent more than the year before, is a comfort to him.

Indeed, the journey has not been easy.

Initially, Mr Chan had wanted to open a shop selling cold slab ice cream – ice cream that is mixed with other toppings on a cold table surface.

Unwilling to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy the equipment though, he decided to make his own prototype.

He tried and succeeded, after spending about $5,000 and a year working on it during his leisure time. But because of Singapore’s humidity, ice formed on the plate too quickly, affecting the texture of the ice cream. So he gave up the idea and went with conventional ice cream.

His wife learnt the basics of ice cream- making from a pastry chef friend working in a hotel before they fine-tuned it further.

He recalls that when they first opened, they would make about $30 a day in sales. He says: ‘It was very demoralising. We did not know how long we would last.’

But word of mouth saved them: Now, they make on average $500 a day in sales.

Kingdom of heaven

Owner Stella Ng, 28, who used to work as a senior human resource executive, opened her scoop ice cream shop, Ice-Cream Kingdom, in July.

The daughter of a father who works as a chauffeur and a mother who works as a senior secretary, her parents were worried about her opening an ice cream shop.

She says: ‘They asked me, ‘How much ice cream do you have to sell to pay off your rental?’

‘I told them that even if the business does not work, I would not crawl back and cry, asking for their help. I want to do this because it is my passion.’

An avid ice cream lover who can polish off 3 pints of ice cream a week, she became hooked on ice cream-making after she bought a Kenwood ice cream-making machine for about $90 at a department store while shopping in April.

She says: ‘I enjoyed creating my own flavours of ice cream that were not sold outside. Also, when certain flavours did not turn out right, I would search the Internet and books for answers.’

Friends who tried her ice cream also said it tasted good.

So she decided to turn her love for ice cream-making into a business. She set aside $80,000 of her savings for the venture.

Her parents, however, have been moved by her determination and have been quietly supportive, spreading the word among their friends about her ice cream shop.

She adds that business has been increasing every month and she is projecting to break even in a year.

Still, she says: ‘I am hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.’

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The hiring gates re-open

05:55 AM Oct 23, 2009
by Lin Yanqin yanqin@mediacorp.com.sg

THE layoffs of the past nine to 12 months are starting to catch up with employers.

As the Singapore economy turns the corner and with potential growth ahead, more employers here plan to hire staff in this final quarter – more than at any other period this year – according to the latest report on manpower outlook by Hudson.

Some employers are already starting to restore pay cuts or shortened work hours, said the recruitment consultancy.

Compared to Q3, when 24 per cent of employers planned to grow headcount, 36 per cent of the 600 employers surveyed this time replied in the affirmative. The findings, collected in August, indicate significant confidence from employers, given that job losses were lower than expected despite the extent of the recession, said HSBC economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde.

About 14,000 jobs were shed in the first six months on the back of a 6.5-per-cent economic contraction. And the 7,700 lost in the second quarter was far lower than the 12,400 that had been anticipated.

“So the fact that employers are looking to hire more shows they’re expecting positive growth, or are already seeing growth,” said Mr Prior-Wandesforde.

Other recruiters felt the pick-up in hiring outlook is due, in part, to the retrenchments earlier in the year.

“There wasn’t much visibility on how things were going to be, so many businesses were reducing costs and ,” said Mr Mark Ellwood, managing director of Robert Walters Asia (excluding Japan). “Now they’re finding that they need to hire again with economy picking up.”

Whatever the reasons, the extension of Jobs Credit should boost employers’ optimism further, considering they would not have been expecting it when surveyed on their hiring expectations for the report, said Mr Prior-Wandesforde.

But expect some “re-adjustment” when stimulus support from governments worldwide come to an end in the first half of next year, and companies would need to operate in conditions without such initiatives, cautioned industry analysts.

“Going forward, signs such as demand and growth will continue to decide their hiring outlook,” said Mr Prior-Wandesforde.

IT employers most open

For now, the good news for job seekers is that 50 percent of Singapore employers are open to hiring those who have been out of work for an extended period of time – a higher figure compared to bosses in China and Hong Kong.

It suggests that employers here are prepared to be flexible about candidates who choose to spend time away from work, said Ms Gina McLellan, Hudson country manager for Singapore.

“Singaporean employers also seem to be sympathetic to people who have been affected by the economic downturn and lost their jobs through downsizing, cost cutting and restructuring exercises over the past nine to 12 months,” she added.

Information technology employers, who cited relevant experience and skill sets as well as credible references as the most important hiring criteria, were the most open to taking in someone with prolonged unemployment,

These employers were worried about losing potential sources of new hires.

The media/public relations/advertising industry, however, preferred candidates with more recent experience, as the needed skills have been changing rapidly to keep pace with the growing digital media business.

Lack of locals

The Hudson report also found that the more senior the positions, the harder it was to fill vacancies with local talent, especially in the banking, finance and media sectors.

Filling senior positions is a perennial problem, as the talent pool of people with the necessary skills is small, and it is not surprising for employers to look beyond Singapore, said Mr Ellwood. “But at present, finding local talent has not been a problem with our clients (in finance, logistics and IT),” he said.

Citi Singapore human resources director Lee Yan Hong agreed. The company started grooming local graduates from the start of their careers.

For OCBC Bank, current growth areas for the bank are in consumer and corporate banking, and the bank has stepped up recruitment there accordingly.

“We have in place a comprehensive staff development programme,” said the bank’s head of group human resources Cynthia Tan. “When positions become available, we endeavour to fill these positions internally before recruiting from external sources.”
URL http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC091023-0000066/The-hiring-gates-re-open

Copyright 2009 MediaCorp Pte Ltd | All Rights Reserved

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Crossing 50: Worries of a working heartlander

I REACHED 50 years of age recently. Crossing the half-century hurdle creates fresh hurdles.

At this age, heartlanders like me are neither in the younger worker age group nor in the senior worker group – neither here nor there.

I worry about holding on to my job, raising and educating my children and keeping my home secure until all mortgages are paid off. Unremitting price hikes for virtually all basic necessities like food, transport and utilities, as well as the goods and services tax hike, also worry me.

I appreciate the Government’s effort in working with various organisations, like the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Workforce Development Agency (WDA), to keep older workers like me employed. It comforts me that there are avenues to get help and enable older workers to stay employed.

One frustrating concern is the cut in employers’ Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution rate that is triggered once one turns 50.

The cut is steep – from 14.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent – and affects older Singaporeans like me drastically.

Not only must I still pay off my debt to the Housing Board for my mortgaged flat on diminished income, but the price hikes are also eating into the rest of my salary.

The Government should reconsider the cut in employers’ CPF contribution rates for workers over 50. This, together with the labour movement’s call to end the practice of pay cuts once a worker reaches 60 years of age, will help older workers like me and encourage the culture of working longer.

Kumar Pillay Thangavalu

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Maximising your career options

05:55 AM Oct 19, 2009
by Sattar Bawany succeed@mediacorp.com.sg

Gone are the days of lifetime employment; job tenure is shrinking.

On a global basis as well as in Singapore, average job tenure has reduced from seven to six years, according to DBM, a human resource consulting firm that surveys professionals in transition each year.

Statistics now show employees will find themselves in the midst of a job change at least eight times in their lifetime.

What will make this inevitable event a success depends on the depth and breadth of your personal network.

Despite the growth in print and online job advertising, networking is by far the most effective way to land a new position.

Every year for the last five years in Singapore, DBM research has consistently shown networking is the source of 60 per cent of all new jobs.

It is always the right time to build networks, whether you are looking for a job or gainfully employed.

In the hurried pace of life in Singapore, it can be easy to neglect or avoid networking but it is vital to your long-term career success.

Tips for successful networking:

Networking is not a process of asking for a job or passing around your resume. It is about relationship building, information sharing and making long-term career connections.

Do your homework and get to know your network contacts, their companies and their industries. Try to maintain a 90:10 ratio of research to actual contact time. That is, for every 10 minutes spent with a contact, try to support that with up to 90 minutes of research on the contact and his or her company and industry. It will help you take charge and be a value-added contributor to the conversation.

Consider your personal network. Think of all the people you come into contact with on a regular basis, from your family to your doctor. These relationships are invaluable door openers to expanding your industry network.

Join professional associations and become an active member. Membership and active involvement in an association’s activities can open the door to new job opportunities.

Join the chambers of commerce such as the BritCham or AmCham, and professional organisations such as the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (for certified public accountants) or Singapore Human Resources Institute (for HR professionals). They offer many opportunities to network and meet people in various industries through monthly meetings, informal dinners and business seminars.

Keep on learning. Consider taking management and executive development courses to enhance your career development and network.

Promote and publicise your achievement within the company. As Singapore is host to many multinational companies with regional and global operations, it gives employees the opportunity to excel and be model employees to their overseas counterparts. By promoting your achievement in high-profile and successful projects in Singapore, you will open up opportunities for possible overseas postings or lateral movement within the company or even a promotion.

Update your address book regularly. In this age of constant job churn, it pays to make a social call or to send a short email, every now and then, to a select number of people who may be able to give you referrals or job leads.

Use direct marketing to your advantage. This need not be limited to large companies bombarding consumers with flyers and product brochures. With some creativity and thorough research, you can put direct marketing to good use by targeting companies or industries you want to get into. Depending on the nature of your target company, explore different ways of catching their attention and do not limit yourself to the traditional letter of application.

Whether you are looking for a job, considering self-employment or just keeping your options open, networking is a lifelong skill that will help you at any stage of your career development. No matter which outlets you choose to tap, the key to success in networking is to stay active and keep your networks working for you.

The author is head of transition coaching practice at DBM Asia Pacific, a global human capital management firm providing career transition, coaching and talent management solutions.

URL http://www.todayonline.com/Business/Succeed/EDC091019-0000021/Maximising-your-career-options

Copyright 2009 MediaCorp Pte Ltd | All Rights Reserved

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Teachers and trainers are happiest: Poll
Job portal also finds civil servants are happier than workers in private sector

By Gabriel Chen

IF YOU want to be happy at work, become a teacher or work in the service sector.

That is the key message that emerges from an online poll of 5,460 working adults conducted by JobsCentral. The job network portal asked respondents across Singapore how satisfied they were with

various aspects of their jobs to produce an overall ‘happiness’ score, with 100 signifying ‘very happy’ and 50 ‘neutral’.

Employees in education and training emerged the happiest of all, with a score of 59.8, followed closely by those in public relations who scored 58.8.

Individuals who work to ensure companies comply with regulations seem to be the least happy with their jobs, with an average score of only 52.9.

The survey found that employees working for the Government are happier than those in the private sector.

From an industry perspective, employees in services – arts, entertainment, recreation and other services – are the most pleased with their jobs with a score of 69, while industries with low scores include the manufacturing sector.

JobsCentral chief executive Lim Der Shing said people who work in the arts and entertainment industry, as well as teachers, have passion for their work.

‘On the other hand, layoffs in certain manufacturing industries and poor company performance this year could be a reason for manufacturing’s lower scores,’ he said.

Ms Annie Yap, founder of human resource consultancy AYP Associates, agreed: ‘In the educational and training sector, very often, they teach for passion, a strong interest to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.’

Mr Renny Yeo, president of the Singapore Manufacturers’ Federation (SMa), admitted the manufacturing sector had been the hardest hit by the recent economic downturn, and that this could have been a key factor in employees feeling less optimistic and secure about their jobs.

However, he remained confident that most SMa employers fostered active staff engagement through various team-building activities. ‘This encourages better teamwork and productivity, as well as the establishment of a conducive and satisfying work environment,’ he said.

Individuals contacted by The Straits Times seemed to support the poll’s findings.

Mr Pierre Fong, 34, who left the engineering profession three years ago to become a full-time teacher, does not regret his career change. He recounts his experiences with children at Geylang Methodist School (Primary) with a sparkle in his eyes.

‘I remember that I had this particular child in class who was very sloppy and lazy in his work,’ said the English and science teacher, who admits he is unlikely to return to engineering. ‘After a year, you see the gradual change. He is now so much more interested in doing his work and, as cliched as it sounds, it’s really heart warming to know that you had a part to play in making that happen.’

Mr Tan Soo Jin, a director at executive search firm Amrop Hever Group and a former internal auditor, suggested that internal auditors who derived satisfaction from the job sometimes felt ‘guilty’ uncovering wrongdoers because they were usually sacked.

‘Compliance is like policing. It can be tedious and time-consuming, so I wouldn’t say many people would rate this important role to be an enjoyable one,’ Mr Tan said.

gabrielc@sph.com.sg

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SM Goh speaking to some of the booth operators at the Paya Lebar Methodist Church job fair yesterday. About 1,500 jobs were on offer from 20 employers from sectors such as health care, security and property. — ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Former car mechanic Don Anil Rhuperth Kumanayake made his first-ever visit to a church yesterday – not to attend a service, but for a job fair.

The 53-year-old, who lost his job in June, was hoping to find a similar position or to sign up for a skills upgrading course to enter a new industry.

Said the Buddhist, who is married, with three children aged 14 to 24: ‘It’s my first time in a church, but it is okay. In Singapore, religion should not be an issue.’

Like him, there were many non-Christians among the 2,000 job-seekers at the Paya Lebar Methodist Church eyeing jobs offered by 20 employers from sectors such as health care, security and property.

Organised by the Trinity Annual Conference (Trac) of the Methodist Church to help Singaporeans cope amid the recession, this open and inclusive approach won praise from Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Speaking at the opening of the fair, he said he was happy to see the Methodist Church – like other religious groups – helping all Singaporeans, regardless of race or religion.

The approach they adopted in their social welfare programmes ‘underpins the unity and harmony of our multi-racial and multi-religious society’, said Mr Goh, an MP for Marine Parade GRC where the church is located.

There were some 1,500 openings on offer – almost double the number at a similar fair held in August – as well as talks and workshops on financial planning, counselling and job searches.

Needy families could also apply for financial assistance at the event – billed as the Helping Our People or HOPE Fair.

In his speech, Mr Goh acknowledged the work of religious groups in reaching out to help all Singaporeans, whether through their own programmes or events they jointly organised with others.

They included the Al-Iman Mosque Welfare Committee, which has worked with the North West Community Development Council and Bukit Panjang Citizens’ Consultative Committee since 2006 to run the Community Kitchen project.

The initiative trains the long-term unemployed to prepare pastries and encourages them to be self-reliant.

Another example is the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, which will be sponsoring the cost of building and running the National Kidney Foundation’s 25th dialysis centre in the western part of Singapore.

‘It is good that our religious bodies deliver such services beyond their followers and without imposing their religious beliefs on the beneficiaries,’ Mr Goh said.

‘This way, they help to strengthen the sinews and spirit of our multi-racial and multi-religious society.’

He also used the occasion to wish Hindus at the fair a happy Deepavali.

Trac president Wee Boon Hup said its fairs were open to everyone regardless of race or religion because ‘we realise that everybody was affected by the crisis’.

‘This is a social need that we want to respond to, and not only the religious aspect of our work.’

kianbeng@sph.com.sg

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Older Workers/Job-Seekers:
Use Your Age to Your Advantage

by Joe Turner

While it’s true that not all employers will be gung-ho about hiring, or even retaining, older workers in the coming years, the overall statistics might well be on your side, if you’re 50+ years. As has been reported often enough, the limited numbers of workers in the Gen-Y age group will not match the rising need for workers over the next 10 years.

This discrepancy means that employers will be faced with more vacancies that force them to look at alternate labor sources. Sure, they can outsource, further automate, or contract their staffing ranks, but these approaches will not suffice in all cases.

The plain fact is that you hold many advantages over your younger colleagues, but you will need to play your age to your advantage. If you have a few years under your belt, here are four tips on how to use age as an advantage in your job hunt:

Go on the Offensive

Too often, older workers feel they have to apologize for their years of actually working. Remind yourself that you’re experienced, not old. You’re seasoned, not over-the-hill. You’re here-and-now, not history. It’s all about spin and reframing, so drop the apologies.

You may be an older worker, but you’re not stupid, and you’re not dead. Use your savvy to sell against youth and inexperience. The benefits to being older, like having wisdom and common sense, and a long work record of accomplishments, can translate into benefits to the employer. In other words, sell your track record. During the interview, take advantage of your successful work history and draw from those successes to meet the employer’s needs.

Sell Results, Not Years

Realize that hiring managers today are looking for results, not years. Talk the language that an employer understands and appreciates, which is Return-on-Investment. Instead of citing 20-years of experience, identify your benefits to the employer and put them into monetary terms as much as possible. Back up your accomplishments with benefit-based facts. Sell them from the perspective of the result of your work and how it positively impacted your present and previous employers.

Money talks, and it talks loudly. Here’s some good news: Money can trump age. As an employee, you either make money or save money for your employer. If the hiring manager doesn’t see your value in one of these two categories, then you don’t want to work for this company. In a recession, if the company isn’t concerned about its bottom line, then it may not be around for long, and isn’t a viable option for you anyway. Get as close to money as you possibly can through the language of your accomplishments, and list them on your resume.

Wear Just One Hat

While you may have accumulated experience in a number of areas, don’t confuse the reader with all the varied roles and jobs you performed over the years. Focus only on the job title for which you’re applying. Tell the hiring decision-maker what he or she wants to know, and nothing more. Most likely you’ve worn many different hats during your career. If you had experiences thast don’t directly address the job title’s requirements, don’t emphasize them. In fact, remove them from your resume entirely, if possible, as they will only give employers another reason to screen you out, and you don’t want that. This is your story. Tell it your way. Magnify only the aspects of your background that are relevant to your target objective. You want to focus your resume to reflect yourself in the most positive, powerful ways possible.

Modify Your Resume

Take another look at your resume. Ask, “would I hire myself for this position?” Spin your story in your favor by reworking your resume to emphasize your strengths. Make sure everything on it relates in some way to your desired job objective. Drop older job titles. You generally shouldn’t need to show more than 10 years’ work history. Any prior work is most likely irrelevant now and will take the reader off track. Remove college degree dates and other older professional training dates that may go back more than a few years.

Final Thoughts

If you’re an older, experienced worker, you don’t have to take a one-down position in the hiring process. While there will be age discrimination with some employers, you can still stack the deck in your favor. Focus on the employer’s needs and draw from successes in your past to provide solid return-on-investment answers to their questions. Remember, it’s about being honest, but also about emphasizing your strengths rather than magnifying your vulnerabilities. If you do so, you can find a great job regardless of the economy.

Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker’s Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

As a recruiter, Joe Turner has spent the past 15 years finding and placing top candidates in some of the best jobs of their careers. Author of Job Search Secrets Unlocked and Paycheck 911, Joe has interviewed on radio talk shows and offers free insider job search secrets.

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