Teacher or Engineer???

Yesterday, I took half day leave and went to Ministry of Education for teaching interview. Upon reaching MOE, I called and met up my god sister who took up PSC scholarship more than 10 yrs ago, and is now posted to HQ MOE for planning work after 2 yrs of teaching at TJC. A colleague of hers who was also a PSC scholar accompanied her to meet me. Together, they shared with me tips on the interview.

I was feeling rather paiseh as the 2 of them accompanied me throughout my wait outside the interview room. They kept telling me what to and what NOT to say, and I hope this did not demoralise the other nearby interviewees, who looked extremely nervously and tensed up. Probably this was their first interview.

As I feel the passion of teaching in me, I did not have much difficulty preparing myself for the interview. Its more of a dilemma whether I shld plunge into teaching so early, or give myself more time in the engineering field. But ultimately, I know it will be teaching/faciliating job that will give me a sense of fufilment and meaning in life. Its from my personal experience and reflections that my most meaningful and happy moments of life were those time when I got the chance to guide, facilitate and teach ppl. However, thats provided I must possess the knowledge or skills. But I feel I am pretty much an empty shell now.

I was contemplating whether I shld 'lie' and hard-sell myself that I will be a good teacher, or tell them the truth on how I feel and my passion. Afterall, we can lie to ourselves and others for once but not for life. However, the second option may just jeopardise my chance of getting the job.

To my disappointment, the interview turned out to be super simple and easy. They only asked very basic, standard and straight forward questions, in which I provided them with very standard and cliche answers too. There was no chance to impress them nor the need to lie and hard sell myself. It was more like the typical MOE system of asking the students what they ought or expected to know, rather than testing on their integrity, real interest and passion. They asked me " what are the qualities u think a teacher shld have, and what are those you have?" "what do you hope to see yourself as in 5-8 yrs' time?" The interview style is totally different from those you can find from the engineering firm, which really dig deep into your personal interest, passion and analytical skills.

Nevertheless, the interviwers at MOE were very nice and friendly. However, the admin lady was kinda rude as she reprimanded me for not bringing my original birth cert. I told her that birthcert is too important a document to bring around and I refused to bring it out. She could do nothing to me except giving me a black face, haha...and who cares?

Anyway, today my boss told me that he would be sending me for a series of courses, to be trained up as an ITE teacher. This is because my company does conduct regular NTC1/2/3 and ITE courses for students (mostly the company's junior workers). My boss hopes that I can be one of the teachers/trainers and this will not only improve my technical skills, but also allow me to earn extra income. The pay rate is $32/hr, 3hrs/week. Wooohooooo!!! Morever after the course, I would be a qualified ITE teacher.

So what more can I ask? Its like having the best of both worlds, that I can teach at the same time keep my job. I think I am really very lucky, provided my boss keeps his words.