Employment Status

I am one of those who was chosen to participate in the Poly Graduates' Employment Survey. There was a question which went something like:


Are you

• currently studying full-time
• currently working full-time
• currently studying but has a part-time job
• currently working but is studying part-time
• not working but looking for a job
• not working and not looking for a job

or something like that. I was thinking, I'm not a salaried artiste, meaning I don't draw a monthly pay, so I'm contracted but not exactly employed under Wawa. I earn some income from acting, from performing at gigs and events, and from blogging, which in total sums up my monthly income. And I actually love all these things that I do, so I don't really consider myself as working full-time (I don't anyway..it's very OTOT - own time own target). So...? The very first question - tio stunned. I was really tempted to click on the last option, because I am not looking for a job, and technically speaking, I'm not working either.... *shrugs*

To make things easier for everyone, I clicked on the 2nd option. Then comes another question later on...

Are you

• An employee?
• Self-Employed?

I think I am self-employed. I market myself as an artiste, and my blog acts as an extension of myself, yeah? So I'm self-employed.

Name of Organization:_________________

Guess what I answered?
 

Name of Organization:__Silver Ang__


Lol!!! There is no company name what, unless you consider my blog name valid. Then again, my blog doesn't represent everything I do for a living. This has got to be the trickiest survey I've ever done.

Designation:_Artiste/Blogger____

Not sure if they will understand my answer. Especially if the ones collating the results are conservative traditional old-fashioned people who thinks a job means an occupation which is part of primary school vocabulary-learning - police, clerk, doctor, nurse, teacher, principal, and the like, plus terms like "manager" and "CEO". Artiste? What is that? Like a painter? 艺术家？ (Ok la, 我也算是搞艺术的吧~） Blogger??? Is that a new word? (er...actually, yes, heard of Xiaxue? I'm super newbie la, so I'm no Xiaxue, but yah, blogger as in..like that. And yes, it is a profession, if you know how.)

Last drawn salary: Erm...have I ever mentioned that my sources of income are never fixed? Sometimes I've got gigs, some months don't have, some months got more filming dates than others, from blogging also not fixed.... -.-"

Then there are of course questions easier to answer like job satisfaction as compared to previous job (need you ask??? I'm lovin' it~ badup bap bap ba~~~)

Then yesterday I was at the Pasar Malam outside Yew Tee MRT, and you know la, a lot of these Standard Chartered, Singtel, Citibank, HSBC, or whatever road show guys will be camping around outside MRT stations, assessing your whole look to see if you are a viable candidate whom they can pounce on. This lady, probably unsure, came up to me.

Her: 小姐，你是学生吗？
Me: 不是
Her: 你有做工吗？
Me: Er...没有
Her: 那你做什么？
Me: Er.....*stares at her face blankly*
Then I gave her an awkward look and shook my head. I also don't know why I shook my head la. I just had no idea how to answer her. She then walked away and caught her next prey.

Interesting eh? I've never thought of my current status before these 2 incidents, and I'm not complaining. I'm sure any freelance artiste who's also sidelining as an insurance or property agent as well as dabbling in some investments have had the same encounter. All the rich people - eg. Adam Khoo and Robert. T Kiyosaki, advocates having multiple streams of income, and more people are adopting it, so how accurate are these employment statistics? High unemployment in the States? For all you know they are all earning money from Forex or property trading....

Oh well...

Artiste/Blogger,
Silver Ang