Queenstown - Thanks Steve & Our "Jobs"

People tend to get bored nowadays in their jobs place. Jobs has become part and parcel of our live. No jobs, no money, no honey and no travel. We all should be blessed that we get to travel to other countries as such a young age. I look at all the generations before me that the furthest they may go when they were my age was just Singapore. And that’s too by bus and not by plane.

Air ticket was so expensive that day that we can afford to fly once in every 3-4 years. Now, we made it a vow to travel to overseas at least once a year. Tourism in my opinion has taken a big change here. My parents won’t go to overseas without engaging guided tour. To them, wandering around at other’s people land is seen as a risky act to follow. Furthermore, with limited information on that area, people tend not to take a risk of missing a turn on the road or being late to their destination and worst still, their flight home.

Even though technology has change the way we work, sometimes we still need to go the manual way. That’s why experience and in-depth knowledge is very important. I’ve been to one course recently where the speaker spoke about his teaching in accountancy where he emphasized on the importance of doing accounting calculation manually instead of relying on software. At least, we know where to trace the errors should there been any in the middle of the calculation. To this, my colleague who was attending the course with me added,

“Now there’s the difference between knowing and understanding”, he said in an agreed tone with the speaker.

I studied in an era where technology comes into play of our research and daily assignment. We have to embrace technology to stay competitive in our work place. I’ve seen person who is good at his work just by doing number crunching (expert in the use of software) but during theory exam, it was the other way round. I give you a scenario. Put yourself as an employer. There are two workers under you, A and B. The task given to them is to design one double storey building.

“A” works diligently on manual calculation. He knows and understands all the theory and formulas. He draws all the beam, slab, column and pile using just ruler and pencil. He calls the supplier and asks for the material that can be used on his building and also wait for the supplier’s pricing. He needs 1 month to come up with the final output.

“B” focuses on technology. He knows where to get the theory and formula but does not understand any single of it. He uses design software to come up the model. Using the software to calculate everything for him by just choosing which codes it is to design for. Beam, slab, column and pile are all drawn up for him by the software with altogether the title block and heading. He surfs the Internet to look for supplier and also browses through their catalogue and other projects experience to gauge their performance. A few clicks of email and a call in to follow up for the pricing. He finishes his work in 1 week times.

Now you as the employer. Who would you choose?

Thanks to technology, the world map is as though on our feet and finger. We might not be someone who lives in New Zealand in order to drive or survive in New Zealand. Thanks to Bill Gates and Steve Job. I learned of these two words which were used to describe Steve Job when he passed away recently after the launching IPhone 4S (which I was told the “S” stands for Steve). “Humanizing technology” is the words. It was such a perfect depiction on such an outstanding person. And because of him, it has “technologised humanity”.

All my bookings in New Zealand were done through the Internet without me lifting up even the phone. My hotels and my rooms are pre-booked before I even set foot on the ground. With diligent planning, we took our car in Christchurch and returned it on our final destination at Queenstown before getting on board back to Auckland. When we reached Queenstown, we were a bit afraid initially as this is the first time I drive into a city. All these while, I’ve been just driving the country road. On country road, I just have to beware of possum. In the city, I have to beware of other drivers as well. Just that I’m luckier that they don’t have Mat Rempit here.

Except for the Milford Sound tour that we had to book on the ground as there are many packages available. After looking around in a rather cold weather there, we decided to go for Southern Discoveries. The price offered initially was way cheaper than the others with free food, bus plus the cruise. After I paid for the ticket, Han Ching noted that the package is offered to international students. Worried that we might be denied access which we thought the bus driver will want us to show our student cards, we quickly approached the lady on the counter.

“Ma’am, I think we can’t have this ticket as we are not international student”, I politely admitted.

The lady looked rather taken aback and reassured us,

“Don’t worry, they won’t check”, she replied while giving a hint.

After we went out for the second time, only did we realize that they purposely branded the promotion for international student as a gimmick. All are applicable to this discounted rate. It does not matter if you are a 70 years old uncle, they will still think you are an international undergraduate you see. Now this is something that we will never encounter if we were to book through Internet as we would have thought that this deal is only for students and we wouldn’t have even clicked on the "student ticket" if we were to get our ticket online you see? Now, that’s the technological disadvantage. Sometimes we need that personal touch too.