A graduate to regular

“I signed on because I don’t know what I want to do in life” - probably 80% of the regular will tell you this and I’m one of them as well. Another reason that lead me to sign on was I didn’t like the shipyard life even though I only interned there for 3 months.

In my 3 jobs in 7 years post, I mentioned that I did not have the chance to choose my vocation was because of what I studied, Marine & Offshore Technology which leads me to an engineer vocation.

ᯓᡣ𐭩

𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭.

I went through the standard route of passage starting with 8 weeks of BMT in Tekong. Looking back, this was the easier phase because everyday you just follow instructions 🤷🏻‍♀️

The toughest part for me was field camp as I’m someone who needs to shower every single day and I was so gross out with myself after that 6th day that I shampooed myself thrice after going back to bunk.

I managed to finish 24km route march which I never thought it’s possible.

ᯓᡣ𐭩

𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞.

I was an engineer onboard thus my area of job is basically the entire ship. From fuelling to maintenance of machines and sewage system to fire fighting to any dirty jobs you can think of, that’s my job scoop.

My first posting was onboard RSS Victory. Being the most junior, ops4 in my department was a blessing because there’s always someone you can ask for help or advice when you are in doubt. I went for my first port of call which was Myanmar.

My second posting was onboard RSS Justice as a pioneer crew #proudmoment . To be honest, I was quite stress initially as I became ops1 even though I was still quite junior. I welcomed my second port of call which was Surabaya and I managed to cross the equator.

ᯓᡣ𐭩

I had quite a few once in a lifetime experience and I have always wanted to serve onboard bigger platform like Frigate or LST (𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘐 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯) which I will never have the chance to.

Being in a male dominated industry wasn’t easy because you need to work extra hard to prove them that you are as good as them or even better and the military is definitely not for everyone.

Yes, I’m a woman but I was also a soldier and sailor.

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#MyLemon8Diary #career #CareerJourney #militarylife #engineer #CanShareMeh #thoughts