Work - Back to basic

My cousin is doing extremely well in his career in Singapore. He graduated in 2004 and barely worked for 5 years. But he is now earning big time in the energy sector. His pay is almost doubled compared to his peers' on average in the engineering field. He obtained many valuable certs of his industry within a short time and became a very sought-after engineer. People usually get those certs when they reach their 40s. At the age of 30, he already has a wife, a baby girl, a house and a car. He told me the next goal is to obtain a few more important certs, join a giant energy company to get better pay and bonus and buy a condo. What an amazing guy!


Talking to my cousin leads me to reconsider the meaning of work. I think work means using our skills to do something to meet a certain demand. Let's go back to the basic of work. In ancient time, most of the people worked the land to produce food for their living and survival. Food is a demand in that time. Of course, skills are required to carry out the work. The skills determine the productivity and result which will be translated into some form of return. We call the return wages in modern economy.


I remember the current generation would say things like, "I am not interested in my work". I wonder whether this is a valid statement. When we talk about interest, there are a lot of feelings involved. Our interest may change over time as well. Further, our interest may be not relevant to the demand of the economy. Imagine, a person is very interested and reasonably good at singing but in his village people would not pay him a cent to sing. In order to make a living, wouldn't he get a day time job and treat singing as his leisure activity? A person who truly works would think about whether their skills and abilities meet the job requirement or the demand of the economy. In this argument, interest became a secondary issue. Very few people use their interest as work to make a living. However, many people tend to be too concerned about their interest and ignore what is the demand of the economy.

Recently Singapore government introduced SPUR (Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience) to encourage employers to send their workers for training during this downturn period. The good thing is that people get a chance to upgrade their skills and hopefully they come back equiped with better skills to improve their work productivity. The government has to address the two challenges to make SPUR successful and the money well spent. The first is make sure the workers sign up the right course and come back with targeted improvement. The second challenge is ensure the training provided is relevant to the future Singapore economy.