My IA

IA, or Industrial Attachment, is a compulsory module for NTU engineering students throughout the four years of undergraduate studies. Most of the students will participate this programme for almost half a year, or 22-weeks in their third year of study. I did IA in first half '08 @ Sony Precision Engineering Center (SPEC), Tuas. It is indeed an truly memorable experience for me as I learnt a lot of skills and used lotz of equipments which I haven't been used before. If you want to have ur IA with lotz of hands-on, lotz of learnings, then you should come to SPEC, just with some tradeoff of having OTs (No advertising, just suggesting, haah). Learn more for your future working life, good what, right?

How's my daily routine of IA life?

07:18hrs: Wake up (as compared to 6.30am initially, a bit late hor?)
07:30 - 07:35hrs: Uniform & Badge ready, Ready to walk to Canteen A bus stop to catch bus 179.

Often meet some friends along the way to work...


As normal working day, sure will meet these kind of situations often...

Ya, traffic jam on the road & people jam at bus stops. Transfer to bus 193 in front of Jurong West Sports Complex, which will fetch me to Tuas. But sometimes (a few times only, else I'll broke), being a boy who likes his bed a lot, wake up late, then I have no choice but to take this... (right below)... become more poorer, aiseh.

Fortunately my company is at Tuas, or else...

08:15 - 08:40hrs: Reach SPEC, depends on the traffic flow. Swipe my working pass. Can't late at or after 08:40hrs to prevent a reduction on salary, haha.


08:30 - 11:50hrs: Morning briefing, Working
11:50hrs: Lunch, either at company canteen or food court nearby, which has more choices




12:30 - 12:40hrs: Get back to work
15:00 - 15:10hrs: Tea time
17:30hrs: Go home, or when there is a need to rush projects, then just take a break, have dinner & continue work...

Get to know many new friends during this 6-months attachment period, they are...

my boss, Yeo-san; his assistant Xiao-Xiao and my god-like IA partner, Trung. Looks like a family hor, isn't it?


My IA friends who are working at the same site, taking photos with leng lui HR staffs. ~Shy shy leh~




My colleagues, who came from different parts of the world - Singapore, Malaysia, China, India, etc. See the person who is playing tennis? He's the AGM & my division's head, Steven-san. Thanks a lot for all the colleagues (Yeo-san, XiaoXiao, Xiao Xu, Lao Kang, Ben-san, Zuh, Kamarul, Peh, Hilmi, Leong, Patrick, Seva, Logan, Jamal, Jason, Cindy, Foo, etc...) who have been helping and teaching us throughout the 6-months internship. Thank you ありがとう!

Also, I have found some new 'friends' inside the company too! They are:

Vendor machine, where I used to press for Milo as my b'fast n tea time; Electronic component racks, where I get all the resistors, capacitors, trimmers, etc. from; Soldering machine, and; his opposition, the powerful de-soldering machine. When I firstly using the desoldering kit, it was like "wah, de-soldering also got a? Powerful leh!"

Not forgetting the uncle who drive his Kia to the main gate to sell curry puffs, nasi lemak, home-made ice lemon tea and so-on, after office hours. Many will queue up as their OT dinner or as snacks on their way back home. Cheap curry and sardin puffs @ 70cents each with ice lemon tea...yummylicious!


I have a wonderful experience in SPEC. :)