Lessons From A Micro Job Taster: Inside The Automotive Industry
Alexa Uy, Content Writer Intern
When Ariana signed up for one of Bold’s micro job tasters at Cycle & Carriage (C&C), she wasn’t expecting to go for a ride in an electric vehicle (EV)! Yet, that’s exactly what she and 24 other Year 1 ITE College West students got the chance to do.
If they were expecting to sit inside a room going through a deck of PowerPoint slides, they were set to be surprised.
Because a micro job taster isn’t your average lecture-style career talk or job fair. Its objective is to immerse you in the real thing. For one day, students took on the roles of a C&C customer service representative or product specialist.
Expect the unexpected: inside the customer service role
For a start, participants gathered in the car park, where they examined the insides of car bonnets. Listening intently to the professionals as they shared, they took notes on the upholstery, the grip of the steering wheel and so on.
Many huddled together to compare notes. Their faces were focused, their voices hushed. This was serious, for our “customer service representatives” for the day were getting geared up to help “customers” in servicing their cars. And they’d gotten fair warning, “some were going to be especially difficult”.
Aishwini and Xavier, both studying Travel & Tourism Services, encountered just one such customer.
Aishwini and Xavier (middle) in action
“She asked so many questions! It wasn’t ‘question one, question two’... It was more like ‘question one, part A, part B, part C, and question two, part D,’” Aishwini recalled with a laugh. “We had to think on the spot.”
Unlike in school, it was like a test you could not cram for. It taught Xavier to be “quick on his feet and expect the unexpected”, activating a more spontaneous part of him.
Through the experience, Aishwini discovered that she finds customer service a rewarding line of work. “It’s that satisfaction you get when you provide your customer what they want, and you get that feeling that, ‘oh, I accomplished something!’”
Sales, stats, and specs: the world of a product specialist
From the car park, I moved on to a cushy room where our “product specialists” for the day were lounging around on couches. Far from relaxing, they were hard at work, studying a deck of PowerPoint slides to absorb all the information they would need to sell an EV to a prospective “buyer”.
Demo sales pitch with an (invisible) car
For Adrian, a Power & Control student, it was interesting to go into so much detail on EV statistics and specifications, more so than he ever got to do in his electrical technology course.
His favourite part of the taster? Coming together in groups to brainstorm their very own sales pitch. “It’s really hard,” he said. “You have to remember how far the car can go, what maintenance is needed, and most importantly how to get their interest, because every customer is different.”
To Ariana, who studies Electrical Lighting and Sound, it felt like an on-the-spot TED talk! “I had to overcome my nerves and show my excitement, or customers can easily walk away,” she shared.
More than service, it’s solutions: Driving change at C&C
But how about the people who are actually working in these jobs, not just trying them out for a day? I spoke with Ms Jeslin Lim, who offered perspectives from the human resource angle.
“The automotive industry is very much a service and solutions industry,” she told me. “Customers are looking for solutions and excellent services. And here we are, a solution provider delivering exceptional services and journeys for our customers.”
And the industry itself is always changing and evolving. The next wave is “the green economy” amid younger generations’ eco-conscious attitudes, Ms Lim shared. One can look forward to opportunities, including the piloting of electric battery swapping stations for greener commutes.
Takeaways — What’s next for our participants?
All in all, when the day was over, how had the perspectives of our participants changed?
Aishwini and Xavier used to think they wanted to be flight attendants… and they still do. Even then, the taster offered a new perspective on the depths of customer service.
“At first, it seems it’s just about satisfying customers’ needs. But they’ve shown us that it’s much more than that,” Aishwini said. “It’s also dealing with how customers actually behave. Some can be sarcastic, straightforward, or ask you for lots of details.” For them, the day spent at the taster brought them one step closer to knowing what their dream job is actually like.
As Aishwini put it, “It gave us a vision of what can happen; it’s an experience of work that not many have had at this age. What the taster does is, it broadens your knowledge.”
Be it the participants themselves or the industry, there is always the thrill of pushing for learning and innovation; and at the same time, there are the constants that ground us because it is what we care about. In the case of the humans of the automotive industry, it is about finding the best way to meet the customer needs that brings satisfaction.
Looking to experience a glimpse of the working world too? Try your hand at our micro job tasters with industry professionals, and keep up-to-date on our latest programmes at @boldsg! Find the career that calls to you, with the right taster for you.