Job

As part of Singapore’s National Defense Act, every Singaporean male has to serve in the army for two years. The types of job ranges from clerks that complete administrative duties to soldiers who camp in the jungle for weeks at a time. From the time of enlistment, we are grouped into different categories based on our current medical conditions, education levels, and of course fitness levels. However, before we can be posted to our appropriate jobs, everyone would have to go through the basic military training program for three months.

For most Singaporean males, once they have been posted to their respective categories, they would remain there for the rest of the twenty-one months; however, because I was injured during training, the type of job I was given became one that I would consider a “hybrid” job. To understand why I call it a hybrid job, I would have to go through the entire process of how soldiers are categorized.

As said earlier, to determine which category is best suited for each soldier, there are three main factors the country takes into consideration:

1.     Current Medical Condition

2.     Fitness Level

3.     Education level

Current Medical Condition:

When a soldier goes through the physical screening process, he is placed into either a combat program or an administrative program. As I had no known health issues, I was placed into the combat program. 

Fitness Level:

The next consideration, takes a soldier’s fitness level into account to decide whether he is capable of rigorous activities like camping in the jungle for weeks at a time or whether he would be take jobs that require less physical exertion like engineers or technicians.

Education Level:

The next screening process uses the soldier’s education level to determine the type of rank the soldier can attain. If the soldier has attained a post-high school degree or diploma, he would be in the running for the prestigious “Officer Cadet School” where they will be First Lieutenants after completing the course, or “Specialist Cadet School” where they will be Third Sergeants. As I fulfilled the post-high school degree requirement and was an extremely fit soldier, I was enlisted into the Officer Cadet School.

Once I was in Officer Cadet School, I would remain at the rank “Recruit” for nine months till I have completed the course—only then will I be a commissioned officer. Here is when things started to get a little more complicated for me. I got injured halfway through the course so the camp’s doctor had no choice but to kick me out of the officer course. As a result, because I did not complete the course, I did not get the officer rank I wanted, and was now a recruit who had to be transferred to a new job post. An error in the system transferred me to a job that was reserved for commissioned officers that undertook administrative duties. However, as I was a recruit, I did not have the clearance levels that officers would normally have. This put me in a very uncomfortable position because I was given tasks that required me to delegate work to other soldiers. Usually, this would be a very easy task because these soldiers would be of a lower rank than the officer, but because I did not complete the officer course, I was a mere recruit and almost all these soldiers were of a higher rank than I was. I desperately wanted to file a complaint but decided to suck it up because my time in the army was coming to an end.

My job title was a POL officer, which stands for Petrol, Oil and Lubricant officer. This job required me to order the needed POL for the army base, keep track of the accounts, and ensure that everything tallies up at the end of the month. Usually, an officer would be able to delegate the work to his men, and if the job were not up to standard, the officer would be able to punish his men to ensure that no mistakes would occur again. However, since I was a recruit, I could delegate the work, but could not punish my men for poor work. As a result, I ended up completing most of their work because it was more efficient for me to do so instead of pleading with them to do a better job.

As a result, during my time as a POL officer, instead of being a delegator/supervisor, which was supposed to be my primary job, I was mainly a purchaser, a negotiator, and an accountant.

I was a purchaser because I would literally have to purchase all the POL requirements of the army base. The primary job for this posting was simple and straightforward. I was to average out the usage for every month and purchase 10% more for an extra allowance.

Being a negotiator taught me a lot actually. I had to negotiate with my men to give them incentives to complete the job. Also, since I was a much lower rank than most of them, I had to give them the respect that their rank commanded. This involved understanding the office politics and being able to quickly differentiate the nice and responsible people from the mean and irresponsible ones. Of course, the main objective was simple: seek out the nice and responsible people and steer clear of the mean and irresponsible ones as they would usually turn in poor work.

Tallying up the balances of the POL every month taught me to be meticulous. While the job seems like a really mundane one, a lot of focus needs to be given because once a single entry is missed, the entire account will not balance out and I would have to retrace my steps and redo the spreadsheet. Ultimately, while I did not gain any technical skills from this hybrid job, I learned how to quickly sum a person up and categorize him. This was perhaps the most useful skill I gained from the army.