When I was in college, and wondering what to do with myself once I completed my pre-U course, I told my parents that I wanted to do Zoology. Anything to do with Biology was interesting to me, but none was more fascinating than learning about animals and their various adaptations to living in the wild. And I found it quite sad that a lot of fascinating creatures are endangered and going extinct for various reasons... but mainly due to the activities of a certain species called homo sapiens. So conservation was something I really wanted to go into.
Being typical Chinese folks though, my folks shot down my dream by telling me zoologists don't make money in Malaysia, there's no demand for this kind of work, working with animals is extremely dangerous, I should get a more 'respectable' job, naggedy naggedy nag nag. So I kind of figured that I ought to just give up on the crazy notion of working with wildlife. I was still very interested in anything Biology, and then found out that Monash offers a course in Biotechnology. At the time, there was all this hype about Biotech being the next big thing after IT... so I put the course down as my course of interest while I was still in college. Monash also offered Environmental Management, which naturally sounded more interesting to me, but was also something my folks deemed an area with 'no future', therefore no big bucks (my folks come from poor families, so I can't really blame them for being so money-minded all the time... but it does get rather annoying at times)... so I fell back to Biotech. Later on, I was fortunate enough to be offered a full scholarship from Monash, which meant I could actually afford take a second degree. Thus I ended up doing a double degree in both Biotech and Env. Mgt.
After completing my degrees, I was interested to get a job in Singapore, and *still* hadn't quite given up my hopes to work with wildlife. Singapore is more developed and environmentally aware, so I was thinking they would pay more than if I did the same job here... so my folks can't complain. Thus I applied to work at a marine institute in Singapore. Didn't get the job. I also applied for a research position at Singapore Zoo. Heck, I even took the time to arrange a meeting with the person in charge of the research centre when I visited Singapore. She was kind enough to meet me... but I still didn't get the job. Eventually I gave up *again* on trying to do get into wildlife related work, applied to other places, and after a while landed myself in Mad Science. Working with kids is probably the next best thing to wildlife. You never know what to expect with those little people. Hyuk hyuk.
Now fast forwarding to the present, and I've found myself in a job where I can 'sort of' do what I wanted to do. I get to be outdoors, and I get to be involved in a few conservation projects, the main ones being the conservation of habitats for orangutans and hornbill, and also coral reef conservation. But of course, my main work involves the ensuring Sime Darby's plantations achieve certification for sustainability... which in a nutshell means making sure our company does not over-proliferate or over-pollute our natural resources for profit at the expense of future generations. The certification we are trying to get will meet with international standards, known as the RSPO Principles & Criteria. If we don't achieve sustainability, other more advanced countries will refuse to buy our palm oil products... which is of course, not good for business. So my work mainly involves going to our estates and palm oil mills and making sure they comply with the standards before auditors come to check if the area is ready to be certified. Naturally, I see more oil palm trees than animals... the work is interesting. But still not exactly what I've always wanted to do.
On Thursday in office, after a long month of going outstation nonstop, my team did practically little else but have meetings... three meetings in total, to be precise. One meeting was to discuss the status of an audit conducted at one of our plantations. The other was a general one to discuss admin details and general duties of everyone. My team consists of 7 other people, and our team head informed all of us that we assigned to specific projects for the unit. I was assigned to take on an Environmental and Social Project. The environmental part would be to monitor all usage of resources at all our estates and oil palm mills, while the social aspect would be about ensuring the needs of estate workers are met, that they aren't treated unfairly, that there is no discrimination, and so on. Of course, seeing how I have an Environmental Management background, it does make sense that I would be asked to handle this project... though the social aspect kind of threw me a bit as I'm not very interested in dealing with social issues. Somehow, dealing with the plight of people doesn't interest me half as much dealing with the plight of animals.
The third meeting was an unexpected meeting, but was the most interesting one of all. Our unit head (who is a bigger boss than my team head) called all of us into his room for a long-winded pep talk. I think we spent a good 2 and a half hour listening to him go on about making sure each one of us know what projects are going on and that each of us understands our role.
At one point, he started talking about how he wants each one of us to become specialists in a certain field, so that whenever anyone needed to ask anything about that area, they could look to that ONE person. Some areas that he wanted us to specialize in were trees (*yawn*), social issues (*double yawn*) and large mammals such as elephants, rhinos, deer, and so on. As you might expect, that last one certainly got me sitting up. The big boss went on to say that he preferred a male to take on this role and it would be quite rough and tough, but he didn't designate anyone at that point.
Then the big boss asked my whole team of 7 people, one by one, what kind of project they had been assigned to, and from there, he decided what kind of specialist he wants them to become. The first girl was in charge of the Hornbill project, so he designated her the Bird Specialist. The second girl, who has a Biodiversity degree, was to be the Biodiversity Specialist. Another girl (most of my team are young ladies such as myself... some even younger :)) who has scuba diving experience, became the Reef Specialist. And it went like that with everyone else... but no one argued with the big boss's decisions or made any comment that they would prefer to specialize in something else.
I was the last person in the line, so I had plenty of time to think about what to say when he asked me what project I'm in.... I knew that being assigned to the Environmental and Social Project means that he would tell me to become the specialist in one or the other.... but both are not the areas I'm really all that interested in. So when it came to my turn, he asked me what project I'm in, I told him, and his next line was "I want you to ignore the Environmental part and concentrate on the Social aspect..."
But before he could get to tell me that I was now the Social Issues Specialist, I interjected and said flat out, "BUT I'm interested in animals."
The big boss looked at me for a while, before asking "Are you really interested in animals?". I nodded. "It's a very tough area to be in, you know". And then he went on to explain that if I wanted to study animals, I would have to go into the jungle a lot and learn basic jungle survival skills. And he gave me a little 'pop quiz', asking me if I knew what is the most important thing I need to bring into the jungle to survive. I answered water... but turns out the most important thing is a good knife coz' it can be used to hunt, get water and do lots of other things. Water supply was the 2nd most important thing... so mine wasn't that bad a guess. :P He also said stuff like I can't wear fragrances in the jungle coz' it would attract all sorts of killer bugs. Hmm... not a problem for me, coz' I can't be bothered with perfume anyway. I think he has some preconception that because I dress well in office, I'm too 'ladylike' to be able to handle life out in the jungle. He even asked me if I've ever BEEN to the jungle before. Only like over a dozen times. Though, to be honest, most of the time it was only to go trekking, on a nicely made out path. On whether I've had to hack my way through a jungle, I'll have to admit that would be a no... but seeing how I'm crazy enough to swim after sharks while snorkelling and go into a forest by myself, I'm up for the challenge.
Eventually the big boss said ok, he won't be gender-biased and he doesn't mind letting me have a shot in this field... but he wants to test me by sending me out into the field, as in go into the jungle or working in an orangutan sanctuary for a while. He also mentioned that orangutans are not to be messed with, as they are strong enough to rip apart coconuts, and they could rip off a person's arm if they wanted to. Can't argue with that... I've seen orangutans rip apart coconuts quite easily. Wouldn't want to see them rip off someone's arm... especially not my own. But still I'm so TOTALLY up for going to work in an orangutan sanctuary! That would be SO awesome!! In fact, the only major thing I was worried about is how on earth will I tell my mum about it. I've already heard her worry about whether I'll fall down a cliff, get bitten by snakes or eaten by a tiger every time I go trekking, or into the estates. And the first thing she says each time I come back from a trip in the past month is that I've gotten darker, from being out in the sun. I can't imagine she'll be too happy knowing that I'm going to be the up-and-coming Wildlife Specialist on my team.... Oooh, that title just gives me the willies! ^_^
But this is what I've always wanted to go into and I'm pretty psyched that I get a chance to specialize in this area... of course I know my primary role is still working to achieve certification for the estates, and most of my work will be focused on that. But being able to do this as a secondary part of my work is... well... much better than what I expected going into this job. And to think, if I had just sat there quietly in the meeting like everyone else and didn't voice out my interest in wildlife, I would've been slapped with some boring specialization in Social Issues. Bleh. I'm so glad I had the guts to speak up and tell the big boss exactly what I wanted to do. And I'm glad he's a cool enough boss that he would give me this chance, even though I'm a girl. Though we still need a Social Specialist... and fortunately Swee Yin (the girl who introduced me to the job) said she's more interested in doing that than being the Reef Specialist. And she'd probably do a much better job in that role than me coz' she's much more caring about people issues than I am. I'd be more than happy to take on the role of Reef Specialist too... except that I can't scuba dive and I probably shouldn't take on too many things at once. Much as I would like to be an expert on all living creatures (land animals, marine animals, birds, insects, oh the list goes on and on!), I think land animals is enough to keep me busy for... a long time.
Hmm... I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of funny nicknames now, but I'm just starting out now, so please, no calling me the Terri Irwin of Malaysia just yet. Maybe in a few years when I've learned a bit more about jungle survival and dealing with snake bites and avoiding rampaging elephants and stuff like that. :P Weeee!!!
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