The guardian angels in one’s life: 07 (The insider)

 

(From googling)

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An insider, in various contexts, generally refers to someone who has privileged knowledge or access within an organization, group, or situation.  This could mean access to secret information, special influence, or a deeper understanding of how things work behind the scenes.

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Back in 1974, I was working as a legal secretary (at Boey, Ng and Wan in Asia Insurance Building), but wanted to work my way around the world.

    The idea of travelling around the world as a tourist didn’t (still doesn’t) appeal to me.  Staying in a hotel and eating out all the time is too superficial an experience of a culture for me.  I prefer to be a member of the local community for a stretch: working for a local business, living the life of a local (catching the bus every day, buying food at the local market to cook at home), speaking their language, knowing the local people as friends and colleagues.

    One day, I got a telephone call from my eldest sister, who was the secretary to the Chief Geologist in Conoco Singapore, telling me that Conoco was in the process of setting up a new office in Taiwan, to drill for oil off the south-western coast.  She suggested I apply for a post there.

    I said I was only a secretary, not an engineer or a geologist — why would they import a mere secretary?

    She said, “What have you got to lose by applying?  At the most, you don’t get selected.  Aren’t you trying to go abroad?”  I was persuaded.

    I strongly believe in fate, especially as I get older (with more years behind me) and have experienced episodes in my life that cannot be explained in any other way.  This is one of them.

    Bill Woodrum, the Conoco Singapore administrative manager, had been out in Taipei setting up the office, including interviewing staff for the various posts.  He’d found them not as good in English as the Singapore staff, with the secretaries not being able to do shorthand, so when he got back to his office and found my letter of application sitting on his desk, he snapped me up.  

    The first thing he said when I walked into his office for the interview was:  “How much do you want?”  He didn’t even need to go through my CV.  I’d done a three-month stint with Conoco Singapore as their telex operator almost a year back, while waiting for my London Chamber of Commerce secretarial qualifications to come through, so he knew what I was like as a worker.  

    (As soon as my Private Secretary’s Certificate came through, I got a proper secretarial job [which Conoco Singapore couldn’t offer me at the time, or I would’ve stayed with them] — as a legal secretary.  See blog https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2022/02/swans-feet-singapore.html for my interview for this post.)

    This is yet another example of fate playing a role:  the fact that I had a sister working there; the fact that the timing was just spot on (I wanted to go abroad, the admin manager had been disappointed by the calibre of the local staff over at the other end).  All these came together to propel me onto the path of going abroad to work, not as a tourist.  

    It was all very exciting for a 20-year-old (young by Oriental standards at the time).

(Singapore, 1974)

Swan’s feet (Singapore)

During my undergraduate days at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), an English chap in the Japanese Section introduced me to the expression “swan’s feet”: to the observer, the swan is gliding smoothly and calmly on the water but under the surface the feet are paddling madly.  (I can’t find it under google, so he must’ve invented it.*)

I remember going to a job interview for the post of legal secretary at a lawyers’ firm (Boey, Ng and Wan, in Asia Insurance Building) in 1974. 

It was my first secretarial post after graduating from secretarial school, my previous job being as a telex operator at Conoco Western Pacific in Singapore (an American oil company, now ConocoPhillips).

I’d driven there after my morning telex shift, got stuck in the traffic, arrived late, sweaty and stressed out and anxious and nervous and flustered. 

Sat there opposite the three partners, wringing my hands under the table as they fired questions at me.  

There was also a test, of course:  dictation, shorthand, and typing out the dictated document in triplicate.

Anyway, I got the job. 

All three partners told me later how impressed they’d been with me — sitting there so calm and confident during the interview!! 

Classic swan’s feet, though I didn’t know the term at the time.

(Singapore, 1974)

*Thanks to Valerio for unearthing this:  

https://www.horebinternational.com/the-swan-metaphor/#:~:text=We%20don't%20see%20the,They%20are%20like%20white%20swans