Post-Graduation Travels
I graduated on 30th April 2011, from the EGL program with a BSE/MSE in IOE. I spent 2 weeks travelling the USA with my family (Niagara Falls + San Francisco + Yosemite National Park), and then spent an extra week in Seattle exploring Washington & the city of Seattle, before heading back to Ann Arbor for 3 days. Then, it was back home to Singapore, on May 22nd.
10 days later, I was on my way alone to Turkey to meet up with 2 fellow IOE students from UM. We then did a 9day stint on a tour group travelling across Turkey and taking in the unique culture of the Turks. It was indeed an eye opener because Turkey was so different from what I had expected, and it is such a beautiful country. On a side note, Turkey has very very good wines, which are rarely exported out of the country. ;) Following Turkey, we headed to Vienna for 2 days, and also did a 1 day trip to Budapest, before I headed back to Singapore.
5 days later, I was on a plane for an 8 day visit to Melbourne, where a good friend of mine is studying.
If you're confused, this was my travel plan:
Ann Arbor (Graduation) -- Niagara Falls -- San Francisco -- Yosemite -- Seattle/Washington -- Ann Arbor -- Singapore -- Turkey -- Vienna -- Budapest -- Singapore -- Melbourne -- Singapore
June 30th - touch down back in Singapore, the end of my travels.
Back to Reality - Starting my full time job
July 4th - I started work (Independence Day, the irony) at Singapore Technologies Kinetics, a company that specialises in land systems & solutions for both defence and commercial customers. This article talks about one of our recent achievements. Currently, I am involved in a lot of process improvement initiatives, where my training in & exposure to Industrial & Operations Engineering (IOE), the EGL Program & the Tauber Institute, has proven to be invaluable.
I am extremely thankful to the staff, managers & students of the Tauber Institute, for putting together and maintaining such a top notch program. From the start, the Institute pays careful attention to selecting only the best and most suitable students, and then puts students through a thorough training program that imparts strong managerial & communication skills, along with a an extensive exposure to operations knowledge. I can't put into words what my experience at the Tauber Institute & EGL program has done for me, except to say that they have shaped me into a competent worker, leader, manager and individual; and I know that this operations-focused, broad based training that I have had will help to propel me towards the higher ranks of the company. After all, processes make up the building blocks of any company, whether banking, manufacturing, or retail; and someone who possesses a strong grasp of these operations and how to make them perform better, will undoubtedly find him/herself move up the ranks of the company to a position where he/she can make a difference.
Wrapping Up
2 months into my job, I have been tasked with several key initiatives that will help drive our company's processes to a higher level of competency. There are days when I feel like I am working on 5 Tauber projects at once (OK, maybe 3....), yet I find myself enjoying every single minute of it.
Congratulations to all the Tauber Students who've just completed their projects! I'm sure you guys all did an awesome job! Safe travels (I know for sure you guys are now all over the world) & best of luck for Spotlight! That itself, is an experience! ;) (Be sure to make good use of your communications coaches!)
Cheers to all from Singapore!
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