Some days, my daughter love school so much she looked forward to going to her lessons even on weekends. Other days, she cried so much and clung on to us before her teachers dragged her away. The teachers also take it personally that she does not like to go to school on those days and asked me why.

I am worried about many of my friends. Most are new mothers and are looking for flexible work so that they can spend more time with their children. They are lured by their friends who promise flexible work and easy-to-earn cash.

There will never be cash that is easy to earn. If there is, it is most definitely a scam. If money is easy to be made, people will not have to look for you, many will flock to it.

Some friends see me as 'unemployed'. Others see me as taking a break from corporate world, and they kept on asking when I am going back for interviews and trying to recommend available jobs to me. A few think I am resting at home, possibly slacking and shaking my legs.

I will start off 2018 with an in-depth post.

Many of you know that I quit my regional sales job to start my own business at SnackFirst. What I have not mentioned is why I feel that it is the right move, instead of accepting another job offer or go for more interviews. Yes, it was mainly due to my boss who asked me to shut up but I could have found another similar job. It was hard for me to explain my decisions clearly at that time but in retrospect, it was mainly due to these reasons:

Will I fall?

Free use of the airport lounge all the time.
Able to board the flight first before everyone else.
Showing off the business class ticket on social media.
Getting your luggage first thanks to the priority tag.
Being welcomed by someone holding your name and chauffeured around.
Sitting in a luxurious car with wifi, drinks and snacks.
Staying in the best hotels in the world with the best food.

It's all just transitory.

After the personal attack in my performance review, I realised I can no longer work with my boss. There are no other roles available in my company and I started to question why I am working so hard and travelling so much.

For what? Really.

I am deeply humbled and honoured by the outpouring of concern over my job and my future. I would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of you for being so nice and thoughtful towards me. I am happy I got to know some new friends who wrote to me to provide me with job opportunities and other helpful advice.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

Flowers for all of you!

The early morning quiet yet bustling activities at the airport.
The wait to board the plane.
The idleness on the plane and hoping for time to speed up.
The waiting for luggage and careful sighting of your own.
The arriving to a new country and hoping on a taxi to an unexplored place.

I enjoy it all.

It's 2+ years since I got my ideal job as a regional sales manager. What prompted me to leave is not for higher pay or promotion but a big thank you to my boss. He gave me such a disastrous performance appraisal that seriously eroded my confidence for a few days.

I was just talking to my company's Global Operations Director on his career.

He started out as a top graduate, landing the role to design the mechanical intricacies and piping of a production plant. Slowly, he worked his way up, moving to China to build a plant from scratch and was in charge of the whole production team of thousands. I was impressed but more curious how he managed to stay in the same job for the last 20 years.

I used to work in SMEs and I can understand why the bosses like to micro manage people. They know that their employees are bound to quit sooner or later so they would want to know whatever you do so that they can follow up when time comes. They also want you to do according to their methods because they know that you will never put in as much effort as them.Thus, it leads to micromanagement.

Even bosses in MNC might be prone to micro management. They might feel that they can do better than you so they keep instructing you on what to do even though you have been in this job for more than a few years.

You so good, you do everything la!

For most sales person, a car is a necessity. I remember how it was compulsory to have a car for me to get my first job. No car, no job.

How nice if I could own a red car

I had a chat with colleagues and we brainstormed a few ideas on how to remain relevant and enhance employability. Let me share with you:

We won't know when an explosion in our career may occur

Just for a short stint even if it will not be your life long career. Be it part time sales promotion or insurance or even MLM. The skills that you picked up will be the most applicable in life. Let me go on further as to what the advantages of doing sales are.

Still can't believe I managed to churn out articles for one year. I was thinking I would run out of juice in 6 months but luckily, I did stay on long enough to mark my blog's first year birthday! Thank you to my readers for the support and I am also lucky to get some extra bucks from Google Adsense.



Some thoughts:
1) On Coftea
The most popular post is not written by me... sigh. Haha but I am grateful for Coftea on writing this excellent piece - 'Can HDB owners own a private condo', This topic has indeed troubled many Singaporeans which promoted a lot of searches and went viral in facebook with daily hits hitting more than 10000 a day! I also like his appreciation to being a Singaporean and 10 lessons in Warren Buffett's letter. Thank you Coftea for your great contributions and please write more :)

I also welcome all guest writers who feel the urge to write once in a blue moon...

2) On travel posts
I did not expect my travel posts to be popular as there are so many free and easy blogs out there. It was a pleasant surprise to see 4 of them in my top 10 namely for Hokkaido, Seoul, Tokyo and Bangkok. These posts don't generate any good views in the beginning but after some time, the search results will push them to regular daily hits. I am also glad that my travel stories are able to amuse some of you, especially on my lesbian friend's story and my encounters with taxi drivers. This made me motivated to continue writing on my travels...

3) On OCBC and UOB
I will continue to update their changes regarding their accounts and credit cards as I am using the OCBC 360 and 365. I have stopped using Frank after they stopped the rebates and am considering UOB One account as I have applied for UOB One card. Hope to keep sharing my thoughts and how I milk my cash fully so as to benefit you too.

4) On being a finance blog
I have failed terribly at this as you can see from what I bought for my first stock. I am not good enough to dole out finance advice and sometimes, I can only advise people to save more and make it a habit or be conscious of their spending. This Sheng Siong and Riverstone post is one of my newbie attempts though it's easier for me to write about not losing $10,000 a year to expenses. My writing flows easily on little tips in life like what you should get for your girlfriends and wives but...

There is always the problem where those who should be heeding my advice are not my viewers. The big question is still on how to disseminate the information to non-savers/investors and I am not sure my other posts are able to do that.

5) On Simply Sales Talk series
I started this as I wanted people to know that every job has their difficulties and discriminations and many toxic people to bring you down. Although I was terrible in my job initially, with passion and perseverance, I could still get to my current ideal job as a regional sales manager!  Hard work is definitely necessary in order to prove yourself and there is no easy way out. My job satisfied my need to travel yet be paid to do so and appear to others as leading a high life.

Work is not our everything but it takes up one third of our life and seeking fulfilment in that significant amount of time is essential.  For me, I would want to see how much I can contribute back to the society. The payroll will sponsor my travels and also my continued contribution to my investments.

Happy birthday, SimplyJesMe! Hope I will get to my second birthday :)

I finally got to be a Manager.

I have lots of queries about my job and what I do. It's only logical as it's really uncommon in the workplace. Not all industries have them and only some companies have regional sales manager. If your company only have an office in one of the SEA countries, then high chance that they will have a regional sales manager.

A regional sales manager do sales regionally instead of just locally.

It's really a huge region with lots of growth potential.

Singaporeans have a distinct advantage in that we are highly educated, can speak English better and our passports does not require VISA in SEA except Myanmar. Compare that to my Indian boss who needs a VISA for all the SEA countries, he can't really travel in short notice and sometimes, the VISA does not reach him on time.

My company only have an office in Singapore so from here it serves as its HQ. For Singapore customers, they are easy, I can visit them anytime. For the other countries that require us to do sales, I cannot deal with them on my own. I will not be able to attend to the overseas customer frequently and build a relationship with them. Most times, their English is really not so good and they are more comfortable speaking in their native language.

Here comes the position of a distributor, also known as a trader, a middle man. A distributor distributes our products and they are mostly exclusive resellers. They serve to bridge the gap between the overseas manufacturers and local end users. They will help to book our accommodation, settle the logistics to bring us to our customer's place, liase with the drivers and plan the schedule. They will entertain their customers, push our products and attend to complaints immediately. Even in Singapore, we do have a distributor as they help us to keep stocks in their warehouse, collect and push for payments and give credit accordingly.

Majority of the time spent sleeping in transport..

So I can just slack right? NO! My job is to give them my support. I track their sales progress and push them to do more. I find out why we have lost business and grill them on how to get it back. I give them price support if needed and technical support when they bring me to visit their customers. I give them clear directions on which products to promote and educate them on the benefits of the products so that they are equipped to compete. Their sales numbers are my KPI so I will have to work closely with them.

Besides that, weekly and monthly reports are common and of course a summary is required after every customer visit. It's not just fun when I go overseas, the reports are a dreary chore but it's good that I consolidate the information gathered and reflect on the sales direction.

Am I boring you?

I hope this sound interesting because it's a job with excellent exposure in terms of different cultures but also in terms of managing the distributors. I got lucky in my current job because it's a niche product that I have previous background in and I have the upper hand on that. Now the tricky part is to work with the distributors and not by getting sales based on my own effort. I am quite happy with this job and I hope to do well.

I have finally become the small fish in the big pond but let's see if it's worth it.

The turnover in the sales industry is like 2 to 3 years so it's normal to go to many interviews and get to know the different jobs available in the market. To climb up to be a manager from an assistant manager, I had to go to more than 10 interviews to see which jobs interest me more.

The interviewers always seem scary... (Source: Wikipedia)

Recently, I met up with a young GM who also has some shares in a local company. He is in the production line and his job is not glamourous at all. People normally mistake him as just a worker as he is dressed in a worker's uniform. He is also the sexist guy from my last post but we have become very good friends and able to talk about everything.

Oh, it is quite cheap... just more expensive than a HDB (Source: Wikipedia)

You cannot guess that he is the owner of a top range BMW, a Porsche for some kicks, a Merc as a backup and also a few Rolexes. Salary is $30k a month excluding the annual director's payout of more than S$100k. Money is not an issue and his goal in life is to set up his own bar business after a few more years of managing the company. But life has not been so smooth sailing to reach this position.

He started working after high school (secondary school) and got into production work in factories. He did everything from scratch and did not mind doing menial jobs that others shunned. He did not mind working 12 hours to learn more and once there is nothing much to learn, he changed his job and started the process again. For the initial 20 years, his pay was below the minimum S$2k but he did not mind. He felt that the low pay is justified for the learning experience so he treated it as if he was paying for the lessons.

He was always envious of the rich people. He had never thought of how they got the money or if it is through a inheritance, but how hard they worked to get there. He continued to put in his utmost effort in learning new things and gaining new knowledge and experience.

After learning so much through the hands-on approach, he finally got somewhere that he became one of the well known experts in the field. Money followed automatically even though he did not ask for it. People went to him for his advice even though he did not have any academic qualifications. After 20 years, finally he has gained people's respect.

Nowadays, no one is so patient to wait that long.

As hardworking and patient as ants? (Source: Wikipedia)

He is currently grooming a successor to take over his role as a GM, but he has not been successful so far. There were so many Singaporeans who tried the job and most of them left within 2 years. Mind you, the job gives above average pay and he informed all the candidates that within 5 years, the company can provide a Mercedes for you to drive and more than enough cash to live comfortably.

The big question is, why did no one stay for these monetary perks?

If money was the only criteria, then people would be queuing for this opportunity. But he stated matter-of-factly that all of them cannot take hardships. It's not that you have to hit target numbers or work under the sun, it's just that there is a lot of learning to do and it's a long, arduous journey.

Few are willing to work hard.

His view is that undergraduates nowadays want to live comfortably, go home on time yet get high pay. They do not want to struggle so hard for a job so they put in the bare minimum to learn and took long time to do so. Hard work is over rated, in their words.

I don't think we should be working 12 hours a day but half hearted effort will not get us anywhere. If we want to do something, we have to go all out and do it well, striving to exceed expectations. If we want something we should be prepared to work hard for it, especially when one is just starting out. Even if it doesn't pays off in that company, some other companies will be willing to pay for your knowledge. Hard work does pays off, albeit in the long run.

Alas, not everyone has this mentality. It's perfectly fine if you just want to cruise along during work and not want to get promoted.

But if you want to get promoted and earn more money, get ready to work harder. Otherwise, quit whining.  

I like to be a know-it-all, where people come to consult me on issues and when I have the capacity to help. Luckily for me, my first job as a distributor background  made me exposed to a wide variety of products so I can learn more.

Normally a distributor will have more than 10 different suppliers and they comprised of different raw materials to a finished product. I get to learn from all of the suppliers and their whole product range. Although I would never have the in depth knowledge, I know enough about each raw material to advise my customer on how to solve their problems. This is crucial as they will consult me each time they encounter an issue and I can promote my products to solve their headaches. They will appreciate your help and buy from you and you can maintain the good relationship with them.

One of the more well known distributor who sells Apple products (Source: globalblue.com)

That itself is what I like about the job. It's really fun but learning doesn't stop. There will be new things and luckily, I have the passion to learn about it.

With a good sales record for 3 years, things started to look too easy and boring, I was still Senior Sales Engineer but I had wider job scope and higher pay of course. It's always the same old things happening and same old issues taking place.

Yawns indeed (Source: Scott at flickr)

When you feel that the job does not challenge you anymore, it's time to look around.

I tried to look for a job with my suppliers also known as the manufacturers of the raw materials, as I have heard that the pay is much higher, benefits are good and I will get to travel more often. However, most of them require at least 5 years of experience in the market (I only have 4 years) and that led me to several failed interviews, which I will talk about it next time.

I needed the regional exposure in order to get into a manufacturer's position so through my customers, they recommended me to another distributor which is bigger and has presence in the whole SEA region. That is the key thing to take away from all these: That getting worthy connections are more important than working hard. Networking should be the priority in sales jobs as employers hire you for these connections.

Just like one of my colleagues who after which moved on to insurance industry, the connections still ensure that he could sell his products easily.

Jump hops are bound to happen in sales lines after 2 to 3 years in your first job. You can get higher title and pay in a shorter time compared to staying around waiting for the promotion. Now I get why people like to job hop so much and so frequently. I also encourage everyone to do so since you will lose out by not doing it.

(Source: Wikipedia)

That is also how I got promoted to a managerial position as Assistant Sales Manager. 

Different countries have different systems to entertain customers.

All shapes and sizes! (Source: wikipedia)