New Chapter In My Life

21 September 2006
This day marks a new chapter in my life. I have finally tendered my letter of resignation to my immediate superior, something which I've been thinking about for the past 1 year. Never thought that it would take me this long to make the move. What I'm going to write is my past 2 year's experiences in Amex. It's gonna be very very long post. So just bear with it.

The Interview
I entered Amex in Apr 2004, 1 month after I ORD. I can still remember clearly that day when I went for interview. My friend asked me to accompany him to a job agency for a pre- interview. When we reached there, the staffing consultant asked both of us to fill in the application forms. The consultant must have thought I wanted to apply for the post too. Feeling puzzled, I just did as I was told. I was called into the interview room together with my friend and the consultant started asking both of us lots of questions. After the "questioning session", she sent us for a second interview the same afternoon. I had not wanted to go as it was not my intention to apply for this post, but my friend insisted that I accompany him. And so I went along. When we reached the address given, we realised that the company is actually American Express! OMG, first time I step into such a big company! My first thought when I went into the office was: "Amex have a very nice pantry". Shortly, I began to realise that I was actually too casually dressed. The other interviewees all wore shirt & pants but I just wore a plain white t-shirt and jeans. I then understood why everyone was looking at me. My friend got interviewed first, followed by me. There were 2 interviewers, 1 was my immediate superior. They only asked me some simple questions on my past job experiences, and whether I'm willing to work lots of OT etc. The most difficult question they asked me was: " How do you think you can handle talking to people of different nationalities?". That time I didn't know how to answer so I just cooked up something which I couldn't remember what I actually said. After that we were told to wait for further news. I was thinking that I will definately not get the job, because I had no idea what was the position I was "applying" for, and my answers sucked. Just after 2 hours that very same day, the job agency called me and asked me if I can start work the next day. I was too shocked after I heard that, and so I just said ok to everything the consultant told me. My friend was grumbling that I had got the job when I was only supposed to accompany him for an interview. Hehe, till now I still feel abit sorry for him.

Getting Geared Up
As I just completed NS, I did not enough money to buy nice office wear. My friends had to accompany me around to search for the cheapest office wear in S'pore. Plus I only have less than half a day to search! Nevertheless, we still managed to find a shop in Queensway Shopping Center which sells long sleve shirt at only $12 per piece. Next we found a shop at Clementi Central which sells office shoes at also $8 per pair. As for pants, I had only 2 pairs to last for the week. Can't find anyne who sells cheap pants. With all these, I'm all geared up for work!

On The Job Training
First day of work, I was attached to a malay lady who was temperory taking over the position. From her, I managed to find out what my job scope is, and what my department is called, Facilities Management. Being a FM assistant, basically my duty was to attend to requests and compliants made by internal customers. The requests were mostly general stuff like help to set up meeting rooms, lights not working, air-con not cold, cabinet can't open etc... I also had to supervise maintenance works carried out by contractors which were mostly after office hours.
After 6 months, my appointment changed to Facilities Management Coordinator. An assistant was also hired to help out with the increasing workload. I started learning coordination for office restack projects and passed down the general duties to my partner. It was also through doing projects I got to interact with various contractors and the higher management people.

Harsh Reality
When I just started out, I knew nothing about the job and wanted to learn as much as I could within the shortest time. I did everything that was tasked to me without even thinking whether that was supposed to be part of my jobscope. As time goes, I realised I was actually doing a lot of things out of my scope. That was when I began to dislike my dept. To make things worse, my superior were not firm with their stand in rejecting unreasonable requests. They took the easy way out and avoided offending the internal customers by agreeing to all their requests, even though some were not within the dept's scope, and then simply passed the tasks to me. Just 3 months ago, my partner left the dept, and the management decided not to hire a replacement.
Naturally, all my partner's workload fell onto me. Despite highlighting to my superior several times that my workload was too heavy, and I proposed passing some of my jobscope to my immediate superior, the management chose to turn a deaf ear. No one in the dept had bothered to look into my situation. Therefore, I've made a decision to leave the company, and same time to study for diploma course.

Right Timing
Just the right time, my friend called me up and told me of a vacancy in her company, a call center for merchant support. So I decided to give it a try. 2 days after the interview, I was informed that I got the job. After I heard the news, mixed feelings started gushing into my heart. "Time waits for no man." I've truely understood its meaning now. Just a blink of an eye, I've been with Amex for 2 1/2 years. Althought not really a long period, but its long enough for me to know a bunch of great colleagues cum friends.


My Friends
This section is specially for my wonderful friends in Amex: Cat,Grace,Liang Mey, Serene, Mark, Edwyn and a new member Esther. I've left out one person's name because we all felt that this person does not belong to the group. I knew Cat first, and she introduced me to the group of Mark, Grace and Serene. Edwyn joined my dept sometime back and was automatically introduced to the group. Most of the them I've written a testimonial in friendster, so I shall not describe them again.

Liang Mey is a very direct person. She will not hesitate to speak her mind if she sees something not right. A woman of principle, she refuses to entertain anyone whom she dislikes. I respect her for that, cos that is something I cannot achieve. Very quick witted and vocal, I can never outtalk her. There's something very interesting about her. She can't stay out late. When she hangs out with us and starts to rest her head on her hand and keeps very quite, we all know that she's tired and wants to go home and rest.

Mark Koh... This guy has an "Ah-Beng" aura surrounding him. Haha, no offends man. We understood each other's ah-beng language. Fun talking to him. He's one trustworthy man in our group. When we hang out late, he will make sure the girls reach home safely. Doesn't mind going the extra mile to see them home first. Can't believe he's still single. Hope that he finds a gf soon!

Esther is a very friendly girl, guess is because of living in Melbourne for 4 years bah. A very pretty girl who has lots of suitors, but till now she's still single. Looks like prince charming's not here yet. She's active in charity activities and has her own set of philosophy at a young age. I believe is due to what she has gone through in life. She's a friend whom I can really talk to. Makes a good listener, and good adviser. Although she's only 1 year older than me, but I've learnt alot about life from her.


The bunch of us started out as lunch kakis. As time goes, we became much closer friends and often meet up for dinner and activities after work and sometimes on weekends. I still remembered once we planned to go Sentosa but ended up at Suntec watching movie because of the rain. On another occasion when we agreed to meet for Sentosa trip on a Sunday morning but the girls last minute could not turn up, and it ended up as an all guys trip! Beside's being activitiy partners, we were also each others' listening ears cum consultants. When either of us faced with problems, be it r/s or work, we would share with the group and ask for advise. Having them as friends made my life here in Amex really wonderful. Without them, my lunch would be very boring. Without them.......... my this post would not have been so long! It's already 2 pm and I've not had lunch yet. Now I'm so hungry. Hungry man is angry man! So now i'm going to end here and go for my lunch.

Hope that we can still keep in touch!