First Three Weeks of Internship in OCBC

After tomorrow, I would have completed three weeks of internship in OCBC and to be honest, my internship seems to get better by the day. I can’t express enough thanks to my supervisor and colleagues who allocated value-adding work to me and not just admin or repetitive work. To date, I have done 2 in-depth analysis of trends and am currently involved with developing a forecasting model. Of course, there is also the routine work that comes into play, such as packing red packets and what not. However, I think that a majority of my time is spent on Excel and this really helps to build my proficiency with Excel to the next level.

In fact, I believe that my proficiency with MS Excel is top in my office. I also noticed that sometimes Singaporeans are so used to routine work that it seems that no one bothers to improve processes. In my army days, I vividly remembered my upperstudy manually copying and pasting from excel into dreamweaver. While our ms office version is only 1997, it was still possible to copy excel into word and then export as html.

Using a CMS, it’s a common practice to extract data by the day and it seems logical for everyday work. However, when I needed to collect data from 2006 to 2008, I was taught to extract monthly data from the system also, which means I had to run 36 times, copying and pasting manually. I refused to believe that the CMS is that stupid, so I searched around for 2 minutes and got a function that helped me to generate a daily history instead. This saved me tons of time and also allowed me to churn more advanced analysis, instead of just a monthly chart that does not add much value.

I find it a very important habit to try and find new ways of doing things, not just because it helps to save time, but also because curiosity is a desirable trait. Kids are always so happy because they are always interested to learn more about the world around them and seek to discover. As adults, we should do the same and experience the sense of satisfaction from innovating processes, which is still as fulfilling even after many times. Of course, some work requires human judgement and there is no way easy way to automate the task, so I just jump straight in and finish the work. Over time though, adopting a habit of innovating has helped me become more experienced at identifying what can be innovated.

I can’t say enough about how simple innovation helps daily life and I would just give an example of my fond memories of innovation, which anyone can do. I remember when I was cold in my office back in NS. I used a simple pulley system from paper and strings to make an adjustable flap that can block away the air from air con if I’m cold and allow it to blow if I need some air. Simple mechanism that everyone learns in science, but can you believe that no one had done it for years and years, while almost everyone had complained about being too hot or cold some time in the office?

Anyway, I am much happier with my internship now than I thought I would be two weeks before. It’s especially great when I have work piled up, since I feel extremely bored and sleepy if I don’t have any work. The only thing that still bothers me is the three rush hours. Morning rush, evening rush and Lunch-time, with the crowds and long queues, so I would always prefer buying food back to office, unless my friends want to eat out. It’s quite miraculous today though, I got a seat on the train for the first time in three weeks about two stops after I boarded, so I was able to sleep on the train. The flip side is oversleeping again and I overshot my stop.

Well… it happens on me all the time.