the first talk i went to was by DSTA, and the scholarship mostly sponsors engineering courses. the post-graduate bond will be mainly researching and developing new equipment for the military, which sounds cool and is really flexible since each project will only last about a year or so, giving the opportunity to work on many different things throughout your career. the second one was EDB because i've heard quite a lot of good stuff about them. they sponsor a wide variety of courses so you most probably won't feel restricted in that aspect, but your career options during the bond are limited to managerial duties, which i guess is ok if you're into that sort of thing, but for the life of me i could never imagine day in, day out of simply attending meetings and negotiating contracts. the third talk was by A*STAR, which mainly does pioneering research into uncharted territories rather than applying things into new inventions like DSTA. while it is definitely something i want (call me geeky, but "scientist" has always been one of my childhood dream jobs. right after "ninja turtle" and "power ranger"), the A*STAR scholarship road is perhaps the toughest and longest of them all (you need a H3 merit grade to even apply, and it's compulsory to get a PhD in order to be sponsored fully), and i'll also have to give up the DSTA opportunity, which also sounds very appealing. finally, (for nigel's benefit >.> ) i went for the MOH talk, which basically sponsors future doctors and healthcare personnel. the talk was memorable, but for the wrong reasons. they had a guest speaker who was a podiatrist (a foot doctor), and he began describing his (supposedly daily) experiences of cutting away gangrene-rotted flesh, removing in-grown toenails and treating gaping wounds and even missing toes, complete with complementary graphic pictures of it all. i'm not sure how any of that was supposed to convince me to join them, but if you saw all that and your first reaction was "cool now i want to be a podiatrist!", then landing the scholarship should be the least of your worries. below, maybe, getting psychiatric help.
and of course what career fair would be complete without freebies! :D MAS gave the USB multiport again this year, which is fine by me cos i lost the one they gave last year :P but the show-stealer of free gifts had to be the cardboard model SBS bus given away by the LTA booth. it's just so random and impractical and childish that it makes you laugh out loud. it's still epic though. and i saw first-hand today just how thick-skinned and kiasu joy can be when i joked about getting some free NEWater from the PUB booth because i was thirsty.
Joy: *walks right up to the person* "Excuse me, can I have one?" *receives bottle, and points at me* "And can I have another one? Because my friend also wants one."
Me: *drops jaw, covers face*
she visited every single booth and got every single freebie before the third talk O.O
epic moment of the day: i followed lionel to visit the BCA booth, and lionel told the woman that he went for the talk:
Woman: "So what did you think of the animation I used in the presentation? Is it too childish?"
Lionel: "No, I think it was quite useful."
Me (thinking): "You are asking Lionel whether or not your presentation was childish?"all in all, a good learning experience. i think the DSTA and A*STAR scholarships look interesting. maybe the BCA and PUB ones too. but just thinking about the application requirementsmakes everything seem so futile and far away :( i guess it's not enough just to burn bright anymore. if you're gonna burn out, then make sure it's spectacular. it's not enough to be a star or a comet; you need to be a supernova.
and ARG 0-4 GER!!! :D
