Do not put off till tomorrow what you can accomplish today. This is sound advice, but unfortunately, many of us succumb to procrastination nevertheless. But you can take proactive steps to prevent such delays.

By Angeline Teo

The work is sheer boredom. The pay is relatively low. And you are trapped in a maze, with little prospect of advancement. What more could you want in your job?

How about being out of a job, for a change?

You can wake up as late as you want and turn over and go to sleep. But other than being idle, there are few activities you can do. You can’t shop and buy anything you fancy. You can’t book a cruise to Phuket when you want a change of scenery. You can’t gorge yourself at a buffet spread in a 5-star hotel.

If you haven’t discovered yet – the nice, enjoyable things in life cost money, money that you can only get from working in a job.

If you’re out of National Service and into your first job, motivate yourself by thinking of older folks who are jobless and dying to get a job, any job.

Workers who feel depressed most of the work days, brighten up during pay day. It’s motivating, they will tell you, when you queue at the ATM to wait your turn to draw out a few sheets of crisp, blue $50 notes.

The question is: how do you avoid being depressed and stressed at your workplace before the next pay day? Employers don’t like depressed and bored workers – they’re bad for morale and they infect others so that productivity goes down and the company’s revenue suffers.

Career counsellors agree that stress goes together with depression. Reduce the stress level and you will feel lighter, brighter and more cheerful about work.

Many consider an arts education to be mere enrichment. For a few, however, their childhood arts lessons became the foundation for a lifelong career.

By Charlene Tan

Wearing pink ballet tights for the first time, four-year-old Veronica Shen tottered onto the wondrous world of dance. Unbeknownst to her then, her passion would continue unabated throughout her years of schooling.

“When I was in Poly, my friends and tutors would often catch me doodling ballet shoes on my worksheets and books,” she muses.

Today, the 22-year-old is a dedicated ballet teacher determined to pass on the love of dance to younger generations. She teaches most evenings a week, coaching both kids and adults in ballet and jazz dance, and without a doubt, cherishes every moment she spends on the job.

“There is so much satisfaction and it’s the little things that add up. At the end of class, the kids would sometimes come up to me with a hug, and the enthusiastic response I get from them during class shows they enjoy class. When the kids do well in exams, it’s an assurance that I’ve done a good job,” she says with a smile.

In today's high pressure, dynamic job market, results alone aren't enough-you have to get them noticed. No matter what field you're in, self-promotion is a key factor in making sure that your talents will become well known and widely appreciated. Here are some ways to blow your own horn to create music for your ears!

By Joshua Rayan

With fewer corporate ladders to climb and a more dynamic workplace, it’s easy for hard-working employees to be overlooked for advancement and promotions. If this is happening to you, well you’re not alone. Many others are fed up of not getting the credit and limelight they deserve. The trick is to realise that when the attention doesn’t come to you, it’s time to seek it out and bring it to your cubicle!

Top notched professional knowledge acquired in the classroom is as critical as skills gained through field experience – and that is the School D’Hospitality’s winning formula to preparing its students for a rewarding and exciting career in the flourishing hospitality and casino industry.

With the forthcoming debut of the two integrated resorts (IRs), the tourism and hospitality in Singapore is set for an exciting transformation.

SD’H field trip to The Venetian @ Macau, June 2009

The two IRs are already aggressively hiring particularly for the positions of casino croupiers. Marina Bay Sands will be hiring 4500 people, a large portion of which for the positions of pit supervisors and dealers, while Resorts World has over 800 vacancies to be filled, half of that for croupiers.

It’s no surprise that the excellent and exciting prospects enjoyed as a croupier has drawn overwhelming response from applicants, making it a much sought-after position. However, as Singapore lacks a ready available experienced local talent pool to tap into, the need to train professional croupiers is a pressing one.

Singapore's 1st school to offer widest range of Casino Management programs
This is where School D’Hospitality (SD’H), Singapore’s pioneering tourism and hospitality school to offer the widest range of casino management programs from certificate to diploma, degree to MBA - bridges this gap perfectly. The courses, which promise no-holds barred, will equip all interested job seekers with the breadth of hand skills required in the casino industry. Armed with these skill-sets, applicants will stand a much higher chance of scoring the well-paying job of croupier or pit supervisor. The successes of SD’H programmes have seen many of their graduates being offered casino job openings by both the IRs in recent months.

“Majority of Singaporeans have no prior experience with croupier skills training. The casino management course allows students to gain not only technical, skill competencies and field experience in casino management, but also academic qualifications in a shorter period of time, giving them the opportunity to apply what they learn,” Mr. Yeh Choy Yan, Executive Director of SD’H said.

Why do we dredge out the same dull cliches every day when there are one million words in the English language to choose from? Anna Murphy takes a look at the state of language in today's world and offers some practical advice to aspiring wordsmiths hoping to make inroads into the business of language and writing.

By Anna Murphy

We all use them—they bounce off the keyboard so conveniently and God forbid that we should write anything original—it’s just not done anymore, is it? Clichés have become our time savers and so we end up reading and hearing the same words all day long from different sources.

Anyone in the storytelling industry, whether in print, broadcasting or the arts, should pay more attention to the currency of the language they use. It’s less about how qualified or experienced you are and more about the number of people who buy into your message, and enjoy the manner in which it was communicated to them. They don’t want the same old chestnut.

Create the right first impression, establish rapport with the interviewer, and the rest may be straightforward.

You have all the qualifications and work experiences that the new job asks for. You are more enthusiastic, responsible and capable than charity fundraisers. You don’t smoke or swear or cheat on your girlfriend and past employers. What more can a job interviewer want?

Yet after the first interview session, there’s complete silence from the company until you finally call and they tell you the job has already been filled.

What went wrong for you?

By Steve Farber

A while back, I received a distressed email from Ken, a young manager at a high-tech company.

Ken and I had never met, but he had read my first two books and had done his best to apply the ideas and practices of Extreme Leadership to the way he’d led his team. To their culture, their work ethic, their camaraderie. When necessary, Ken told me, they would band together and work hard—10 to 20 hours a day at times—to solve a problem or meet a pressing need. Ken’s wife would cook food for everyone and bring it to the office. They felt like a family, he said, committed to doing great work and devoted to one another’s success. No one ever complained, least of all Ken. At one point, he’d even forgone his bonus so his employees could collect theirs.

And then something happened. A downturn, a re-org, a shift in the management structure—we all know the drill. Ken still had a job, but his position was eliminated. New management full of old ideas came in to oversee the department’s function and the emotional fibers that connected Ken’s team to each other and to their work unraveled.

With the National Infocomm Scholarship, Lin Zhihao’s ‘accidental success’ in the field of infocomm is given a boost.

By Cheak Hong Ian

Candidate description
Lin Zhihao
National Infocomm Scholar
Studied: Computer Engineering, NUS

Lin Zhihao has found his niche in the multi-billion dollar local infocomm industry, thanks to the National Infocomm Scholarship (NIS).

“It will definitely be an exciting experience to be able to join this growing and thriving industry. I suppose the best thing about this field is that because of its sheer size, almost anyone can find his niche in it,” gushes the 25-year-old.


The National Infocomm Scholarship
This scholarship programme is offered by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), a statutory board under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts which was formed to promote Singapore’s interests with the increasing mergence of Telephony and Information Technology.

For many professionals, education is perceived as the gateway to career advancement. But how do you survive becoming a student all over again?

By Nazirah Akhtar

Before you go on to pursue further studies, take a few minutes to think about what you’re in for.

In the hope of getting further accreditation, working individuals often find themselves embarking on a frantic journey of sorts as they try to adjust to their new environment.

If you’re taking up part-time courses, be prepared to find that you no longer have time for social activities during evenings. You’re likely to be bogged down with — you’ve guessed it — assignments and examinations.

Tough adjustments

Then there are those like Siok Hwee, who quit her full-time job to concentrate on her studies. She accepted a position in a government agency soon after graduating from university. She had originally planned to work and study simultaneously. But in the end she found it too difficult to excel in her studies while juggling work at the same time.

“It was a culture shock for me to face lecturers and tutors all over again,” says Siok Hwee. “I had to ‘psyche’ myself back into studying mode and start cramming for exams.

Most of us, faced with higher bills and rising costs, would love to have an increase in salary even though it is not time for the company’s annual review. So we fantasize about how to approach the boss and make the request for a raise.

Most of us would think that a good reason for such a request is that we need more money to pay our bills, our children’s rising tution fees, and so on. However, your personal financial needs are not your company's problem.

HR experts advise that it is best not to talk about your financial needs. Instead, your request should be based on your added skills, productivity, tasks accomplished, your contribution to the company, and the market rate for the job position you are holding.

1. Draw up your job description. You should have two kinds of job description: a formal one given by the HR department, and an informal one you produce that includes all the actual tasks you do that are not mentioned in the formal description.

A business plan is a document that summarizes an entrepreneur's thoughts and experiences-on his current investors, clients, suppliers and employees-into a formal scheme.

By Moh Fei Yuen

Why write a business plan?
A business plan serves as a tool to facilitate communication between an entrepreneur and his potential investors. It is a platform for the entrepreneur to manifest his ideas for business expansion to potential investors, and also serves as a visual guide to help the entrepreneur better understand where he is, where he wants to be and how he plans to get there.

Business plan format
There is no fixed format; there are only recommended ones. Business plans require different formats to communicate different objectives to different readers. You will need to use a format that most effectively communicates:

(a) the company’s current status amid a bigger industry and market
(b) the product, and its marketing and sales strategies and finally
(c) a realistically projected revenue. Below is a recommended format:

The recent reports that Singapore organisations are providing ‘less than sparkling service’ (Straits Times 20, 21 and 22 April 2009) must be a source of some concern to a country that prides itself on its service standards. It must be of even greater concern to the Government which has poured vast amounts of money into service provision over the past few years. Yet Singapore is home to many world-class organisations delivering excellent service. Four of these include, for example, Singapore Airlines (SIA), the National Library Board (NLB), Singapore Zoo and even the Singapore Police Force (SPF).

Data from my ongoing international service reputation study, which began in 2000 sponsored by the Institute of Customer Service in the UK, shows that SIA, year on year, is the top rated international organisation for excellent service. The NLB has a world-leading reputation for its innovative approaches to service design and world-beating service provision. Singapore Zoo is a leading world zoo renowned for its top-rated Night Safari, its approach to animal display and conservation and public education.

News about companies undergoing restructuring and retrenchment appears just about every day. However, here’s one word we need to see more of – “outplacement”, a human resource strategy which leads to win-win outcomes for an organisation and its employees (or ex-employees).

By Cheryl Lim

What is outplacement? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “the process of easing unwanted or unneeded executives out of a company by providing company-paid assistance in finding them new jobs”.

However, a conversation with Mr William Ayers of The Ayers Group, a renowned career transition management firm based in the United States, will prove that this talent management strategy takes care of more than a job-hunt per se.