I ordered the Ergo Foam Tencel Pillow at night and, to my surprise, there was a timeslot for delivery the following day! I really shouldn't have been so astonished though, given that one of Sigmund's guarantees is free same-day, 1-hour express delivery (terms and conditions apply, of course).

I excitedly unwrapped the pillow. This is what Ergo Foam Tencel Pillow looks like on the bottom. 

And what Ergo Foam Tencel Pillow looks like inside (I don't know what I expected by opening it up).

I took a nap excitedly to test out the Ergo Foam Tencel Pillow. 

The pillow has a medium firmness, exactly as claimed on Sigmund's website. I usually use firm pillows — or as what my boyfriend would describe as pillow as hard as a rock — so it took some time for me to get used to this slightly softer pillow.

Ergo Foam Tencel Pillow was pretty comfortable once I grew accustomed to its firmness. I can't know for sure if it maintains a straight neck for me when I'm asleep since I don't have an X-ray machine at home, but it did alleviate my back and shoulder ache, which is always a good sign considering how much my body hurts from just one bad night of sleep.

Ergo Foam Tencel Pillow is also supposed to contain visco-elastic cells, which allows it to mould perfectly to our neck and shoulders — kinda like the traditional memory foam that we're used to.

Sigmund Ergo Foam Tencel Pillow (Facebook)

Price: S$99.00

Guarantees:

• 120-night sleep trial
• Free same-day, one-hour express delivery
• 15-year warranty

Almost anyone familiar with me knows my undying love for cake — I would purchase a whole cake to savour it for three meals a day even when there are no birthday celebrations. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity when Cake Delivery Singapore reached out to me.

Cake Delivery Singapore is apparently the only cake delivery that offers same-day (as quick as one-hour), midnight and overnight delivery. The best part? Their 24-hour delivery services are free! So you can surprise your loved ones with cake, no matter how last minute. 

I picked the Premium Biscoff Cheesecake, made of Biscoff cookies and cream cheese with hints of cinnamon and brown sugar.

I could smell the Premium Biscoff Cheesecake way before I opened the box!

Another look at Premium Biscoff Cheesecake's glorious base. 

Overall, the cheesecake was everything I needed to satisfy my cravings and I would definitely order from Cake Delivery Singapore if I need last minute cake delivery in Singapore. 

Cake Delivery Singapore 

Website / Facebook / Instagram

Email: hello@cakedelivery.sg

Contact number: 8555 3702

It’s been almost a year since I graduated with a Bachelor of Communication from The University of Newcastle, Australia (UON) — how time flies. One year ago, my ex-classmates and I were busy job-hunting and didn’t have any idea where we’d end up. I thought this anniversary was the opportune time to find out more about their current careers and reflect on how their degree helped them in their current jobs.

1. What do you do at work?

Pimnara Suksomjai, Brand Marketer: I do all marketing-related things — from coming up with advertising ideas to executing it, creating social media content, taking photos and videos. Being in a startup allows me to put on many hats at once, and I sometimes find myself doing other kinds of activities like retail and baking to understand our product better and interact with our customers first-hand.

Chi Chia I, Digital Marketer: As a digital marketer, I handle a spectrum of digital marketing related job scope. Other than managing the company's social media and various e-commerce platforms, I also track and monitor Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) using Google Analytics to obtain insights into a potential customer's preferences and active hours.

Content-wise, I am in charge of newsletters and product shots; designing social media posts using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro; drafting video scripts; and I am the copywriter for all three brands, frequently translating content from Chinese to English.

Reuben Ng, Marketing and Events Executive: I mainly take care of our e-commerce site. This includes anything from tracking sales to answering customer queries. But apart from that, I also have to think of ways to improve our sales. This led me to do digital marketing, mainly in pay-per-click (PPC) ads like Google Ads and Facebook/Instagram ads.

I do a lot of SEO work by optimising keywords/images, and improving the speed of the site. This meant that I had to do a fair bit of tech work like optimising our servers, looking at HTML and CSS codes or even adding/removing plugins to create a better overall user experience (UX). Apart from focusing on online marketing, I also take charge of offline sales in our retail outlets.

Charlene Ho, Real Estate Agent: I sell real estate by assisting and guiding my clients in purchasing, renting or selling properties. Part of my job scope is to also walk them through the different schemes and grants they might be eligible for, advise them about the different market conditions, do marketing for the properties under my care and strategise my clients’ wealth creation through real estate.

2. How long did it take for you to secure a full-time job?

Pimnara: Seven months from graduation, although I didn’t start looking for a full-time job straight away as I was previously freelancing as a graphic designer. I took three-and-a-half months from the time I started sending out resumes to getting my current job.

Chia I: About five to six months after graduation. Prior to my current role, I also did a three-month internship as a marketing assistant at another company.

Reuben: It took me one month of job-hunting before finding a full-time job.

Charlene: I took the Real Estate Salesperson (RES) Course during one of the trimester breaks and passed the exam during the final trimester so I guess you could say I secured my full-time job before graduating.

3. How did your degree at UON help you in your current job?

Pimnara: The Bachelor of Communication taught me to evaluate a company using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and inspired me to bring fresh perspectives that can raise brand awareness of the company. All of these are relevant and important to my job as a brand marketer.

I also learnt ways to effectively communicate with my target audience, as well as the importance of building relationships with other companies through public relations. This is useful as part of my job involves collaborating with brands and giving out sponsorships.

Chia I: Through various modules at UON, I learnt copywriting for different forms of media — newsletter, social media posts and speech. On top of that, I also learnt video editing and graphic design, which allowed me to have an edge over other fresh graduates in securing a full-time job.

Reuben: Learning about communications and understanding audiences allowed me to craft messages and ideate for projects or marketing campaigns that are effective in driving conversions and sales. My Bachelor of Communication was advantageous in helping me realise that communication in a B2C company is essential to understand customer’s needs and to reduce wasting valuable time and resources.

Charlene: Although my current job is not entirely related to my degree, the skill sets that I gained from UON has definitely given me an advantage in my career.

As I majored in Journalism and Public Relations, I was constantly pushed to do things outside of my comfort zone. Rather than just being graded based on tests and essays, many modules required us to do presentations.

Furthermore, we were expected to work with real-life clients. We did everything expected of a media practitioner, from interviewing them and writing an article, to pitching proposals and allowing them to grade us.

These assignments taught me how to pitch my proposals to my clients and present to them confidently. These are skills that you won’t be able to learn just by doing tests and writing essays.

4. What advice do you have for future graduates?

Pimnara: It's okay if you don’t want to or can’t find a job directly related to the field that you’re studying now — the skills you learnt from university can be applied to other aspects as well.

Chia I: On top of school work, self-motivation and self-learning are the keys to success. If you take the initiative to learn beyond what’s taught in the classroom, you will be in a better position to seek and secure a job that is the most suitable for you.

Reuben: Graduation is not the end of learning. You need to pick up new skills or polish your existing ones outside of school in order to succeed.

Charlene: Always start and plan your job search early as you wouldn’t know how long it would take before you land yourself a job. The working world is very competitive these days. Don’t be afraid to seek jobs that are not directly related to your degree.

To conclude the knowledge gleaned from my ex-classmates, the Bachelor of Communication is a versatile degree — even if you don’t end up in the media industry, you can put your communication degree to good use.

Find out more about the degrees offered by UON at PSB Academy here.

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Brought to you by PSB Academy.

University can be daunting. I discovered in my first trimester that there was suddenly a thousandfold of new things for me to learn so I could adapt to the system. One of my worries was how can I juggle working part-time while meeting countless deadlines?

Through a mix of pure grit and working smart, I exceeded my expectations and graduated as the valedictorian of The University of Newcastle, Australia (UON), class of 2019. Let me share some tips and tools I used to maximise my time as a student pursuing Bachelor of Communication so you can learn how to work smart instead of just working hard.

Make use of free academic journals

While UON’s online library has ample resources for your required readings, the university has also given institutional access to external digital libraries. Below are a few external libraries that I use often:

• JSTOR
• Taylor & Francis Online
• Springer

You may refer to the full list of external libraries that UON has granted institutional access to students.

All you need to do is type in the name of the journal you need access to or the topic you’re researching about and you will gain access to an abundance of resources.

Tip: I like to start my essays with a quote related to the topic at hand (and preferably said by an expert in that field), which you can easily find by searching your topic + the word “quote”. An example of a search term I’d use: “semiotics quotes”.

Save time with transcribing apps

If you're a communications student, you'd probably have to conduct interviews regularly and transcribe them afterwards. And transcribing is probably the bane of every communication student’s existence — it takes hours sometimes, especially if the interview is long and audio is unclear.

To save time, I prefer using a transcribing app or website to do the job for me.

Two popular transcribing options are:

• Google Speech-to-Text
• Otter

Note that since both Otter and Google Speech-to-Text were developed overseas, they are not usually adept at transcribing Singlish or our accent, but they are the most accurate ones I’ve found so far.

Tip: Make sure that you’re using a good mic and recording in a place with minimal background noise for the transcription app/website to be effective.

Use a citation/bibliography generator

Citing your sources using a specific citation style can be overwhelming, particularly if you’ve only ever referenced via direct backlinking. For me, it took some time to adapt to the American Psychological Association (APA) style used by UON, when I was previously taught to use the Modern Language Association (MLA) style in polytechnic.

To save time, I labelled the references I used in my essays and, at the end of the assessment, put the information and links into a citation generator which formats my bibliography for me. Two generators I found to be the most accurate and useful are:

• Cite This For Me
• EasyBib

Tip: I usually refer to Purdue Writing Lab to double-check the APA style, and put in any additional details that the generated bibliography might have missed out.

Approach a Teaching & Learning Adviser

To help bridge the gap between your previous educational institution and UON, the university has Teaching & Learning Adviser who will check your work for you and share advice on areas you can improve.

Tip: Finish your work at least two working days before the deadline so you have ample time to ask for help or do a thorough check before submission.

Track your progress with a GPA calculator

Australian universities use a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 7-point grading scale (i.e. your highest grade is 7.0) instead of a 4-point or 5-point that we are used to in Singapore. The UON has a nifty GPA calculator for students to know how well they’re performing.

Source: UON

All you need to do is key in your grades and your total number of units studied, and the calculator will do the rest for you.

Tip: To graduate with distinction at UON, you need a GPA of at least 6.0/7.0.

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Brought to you by PSB Academy. However, everything written above was based on my own experience.

Staycations might as well be Singapore’s national hobby now that we can’t travel. While I never quite saw the appeal of spending money to stay in a hotel in Singapore (I barely even stay in hotels overseas unless it’s sponsored #hostellifeFTW). Since I paid S$100+ for the staycation at YOTEL Orchard, you bet I’ll create content from it to make the most out of my money LOL.

Check in experience

I was utterly confused when I arrived at YOTEL Orchard at 2pm to check in because the entrance was packed like sardines with almost no social distancing. Yikes (⚆_⚆ )

Most of the guests had a a large amount of luggage with them; when I checked with YOTEL Orchard, the staff told me the hotel is not a designated Stay Home Notice (SHN) facility. In her words, “It’s just a big group checking in.”

Their explanation seemed iffy to me considering big groups of middle-aged men don’t quite fit the profile of usual staycation guests (ಠ_ಠ)


With endless large groups checking in, the reception area was chaotic, to say the least.

To the staff’s credit, they were patient and tried their best to speed up the process despite YOTEL Orchard being visibly short-handed.


I scurried to a self-service kiosk technology-embracing Millennial that I am.

YOTEL touts their SmartStay operation as the new norm in the hotel and hospitality industry. Unfortunately, the self-service check-in kiosk didn’t work for me, presumably because I bought my tickets via Trip.com instead of directly from YOTEL’s website.



After the staff took my IC and checked me in manually, I was finally sent to my room.

YOTEL Orchard Premium Queen Room

What greeted me when I opened the door

Magnetic cabinets that clicked open

I pranced around the room, gleefully noting down the nifty space-saving tricks. There was even an umbrella and ironing board!

Complimentary mineral water

Hairdryer and iron

The hand sanitiser and alcohol wipe were nice touches in the time of Covid-19.

View of the bed from the other side

Entering the toilet

Admire the view while you ascend the throne

A large shower area at YOTEL Orchard

Shampoo, conditioner and shower gel

After calling tech support for help twice, we finally paired my phone to the TV... Only to realise that the TV wasn’t mirroring my phone in its video mode. Not only that, even when I switched to music mode, the audio was still playing from my phone.

We fiddled around a bit more but were met with error messages stating that no media was detected in my phone (I have 27,000 photos lollll), before giving up and calling YOTEL’s tech support again.
After an hour consisting of five calls and four tech support visits, their conclusion was that the SmartTV wasn’t compatible with iPhones.

I lost it. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but I was exasperated beyond belief.

“You mean your SmartTV cannot be connected to a smartphone?” I asked incredulously.

“Um, this is not a SmartTV.”

I was befuddled. If I could surf the internet on the TV, if the TV could supposedly connect to a mobile phone, if the pairing app is named "Smart View", how is that not a smart TV?

How were the staff and tech support so confused by the iPhone situation?

Was iPhone problem not brought up before? Aren’t iPhone users common in Singapore? Why would the TV show an option for iOS users if it couldn’t be paired with iPhones?

It was maddeningly frustrating but oh well, there was nothing we could do.

I felt foolish watching my shows on a laptop, propped up by a pillow, with a big screen mocking me from behind. To be fair, YOTEL Orchard offered us an HDMI cable but we still needed an adapter for it to work with Macbooks.

Food

• Mushroom soup OR salad
• Teriyaki chicken rice
• Coffee OR tea

The meal was nothing to shout about and I wouldn’t return on a normal day but there and then, I was just happy that something worked out smoothly for once that weekend.

Will I return to YOTEL Singapore?

I'm kinda on the fence about this. On one hand, you get what you pay for. On the other, YOTEL Changi obviously provided a better stay-in experience albeit sans the bathroom view. It really depends on your priority then.

YOTEL Orchard Singapore

Address

366 Orchard Rd, Singapore 238904

Email

singapore.contact@yotel.com

Phone number

6866 8000

Price

I paid S$159 (including taxes) for one night stay at YOTEL Ochard’s Premium Queen Room with late check out until 3pm, plus set meal for two at KOMYUNITI. The package deal was brought during Trip.com’s flash sales in July.

If there’s one thing I miss about studying, it’s definitely that I felt infinitely smarter when I was in school compared to now. I felt continually challenged to view contemporary issues through evaluative lenses and was constantly learning new concepts while undertaking my Bachelor of Communication. I would love to share some of my favourite modules, which shaped me and helped me develop critical thinking skills, during my time at The University of Newcastle, Australia.

1. Public Affairs & Communication (now: Public Affairs)

In Public Affairs & Communication, we studied various structures of government; relationships and responsibilities between tiers of government and concepts related to ideology and values. I’ve always been an avid reader of the English Tudor period and I loved learning about England’s move from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy! More than that, this module allowed me to understand how certain structures and ideologies shaped a country.

Not only that, our lecturer, Mr Robert Conceicao, gave us complete freedom over choosing the topic of our assessments, and I ended up basing 2 of 3 of our main assessments on socialism in North Korea — a topic which intrigued me profoundly since I was 14. In my essay, I probed the possibility of Kim Jong Un calculated leader who premeditates his every move instead of a dictator who operated on his whims and fancies like the media portrays him to be.

To say it was the most thrilling assessment I’ve worked on would be an understatement, and I think this module embodies what learning should be — exciting and self-motivational. I truly enjoyed going to libraries to research so I could learn more on my own time despite my busy work schedule. If not for Public Affairs & Communication and Mr Robert’s guidance, I would not have been able to explore an entire essay that examines North Korea academically.

Beyond the classroom, this module instilled my interest in politics in Singapore, which is a useful knowledge to have as a journalism graduate, especially if we hope to cover major political events in the future.

2. Communication, Creativity and Cultural Production

Communication, Creativity and Cultural Production is a module in which we learnt about differing creative practices and enhancing creativity in cultural production.

While some might argue that a theoretically heavy module is not relevant to our jobs in the communication industry, I beg to differ. Communication, Creativity and Cultural Production taught me to look critically at the media and cultural production we consume and consider the methods undertaken to enhance creativity. When I’m tasked to create something, I now examine existing works so I may create something unique and inventive that brings value to the media sphere.

‘Mens en Dieren’ by Karel Appel on display in Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

For instance, ‘Mens en Dieren’ was painted by Karel Appel in 1949, during the Cobra Movement in post-war Europe. Using bright, childlike colours, the Cobra movement existed from a common goal of breaking away from existing art movements, which artists saw as sterile and authoritarian. The Cobra movement, though criticised during that period, eventually revolutionised Dutch modern art. This was an essential precept for me to remember and live by; when I felt dejected from facing rejections as a freelance graphic designer then, it was comforting to know that some of the greatest artists I admired have faced similar uphill battles before achieving success.

3. Communication & Discourse (now: Global Trends in Media & Communications)

This module aims to heighten our awareness that communication and discourses are everywhere around us. In this module, we learnt to analyse not only verbal communication, but also non-verbal cues and the context in which communication was set in to examine its conventions, cultural norms, behavioural contexts, and power relationships.

We were encouraged to link our assessments and learning from the module to contemporary media events that are relevant to our studies and work, like analysing communication at press conferences — whether the speakers’ words were aligned to their body language, and if the speakers were likely feeling tense or at ease. All the knowledge gained from this module helps me to reflect on how communication shapes the media we consume daily.

There were many other fascinating modules that I took during my time at The University of Newcastle, Australia. Overall, what I enjoyed was how my lecturers linked the theories we studied to real-world situations for us to better understand how we can apply the theories to our everyday lives.

If you’re interested in learning more about Bachelor of Communication from The University of Newcastle, Australia which I graduated from, PSB Academy will be holding an ANZ Fair online, on 4th July. I’ll be sharing my experiences as well as how I built an industry-ready portfolio too. You can register here.

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Brought to you by PSB Academy. However, all views and statements expressed are solely personal opinions.

Job hunting is probably the scariest yet most exhilarating part about graduation. After more than a decade of formal education, now what? For most students, it’s the first step into adulthood, a first foray into the working world.

Dyed my hair to a conventional colour before I started job hunting LOL

I was eager to step back into the industry full-time, having taken a quasi-break during those two years I was freelancing while studying at The University of Newcastle, Australia. Knowing that my peers, unfortunately also known as my competitors, from local universities started job-hunting as early as one year before their graduation, further fuelled my anxiety. Although I only end school in August and my graduation ceremony was in November, I started sending out resumes in May, three months before I submitted my final assignments.

Start early

I was met with doubts when I first let on that I was job hunting. “Huh, so fast?” “Why don’t you take a break first?” “Still so early, is there any company willing to wait three months for you?”

Whether you’re trawling through endless job listings on job portals like MyCareersFuture, Glints, JobsCentral etc. or looking at your Linkedin connections to help, job hunting is tricky and it takes time.

It’s common for companies to arrange several rounds of interviews for different people to talk to you before offering you a position. That itself can take months, depending on the company’s recruitment process. It is especially pertinent to set aside more time for job hunting in this climate since many companies are having budget cuts and hiring freezes.

Take into account you’ll likely hit some rejections before finding your dream job, this process could take months.

Build a strong portfolio

Don’t be shy to showcase your capabilities and any interest you have. When I applied for my first internship, my portfolio was bare of professional work — instead, I used the space to feature some school assignments that highlight my abilities and interests in writing and graphic design, along with any other relevant work I did in my free time. I even included some birthday cards I designed for my friends! From there, I slowly added more items as the years passed by and built my portfolio.

For the media and communication industry, which most of my batchmates who were pursuing the Bachelor of Communications with me would be in, a portfolio plays a crucial role in determining your capabilities.

Contrary to popular belief, I was almost never asked about what I learnt in school, my GPA, or the school I was from during interviews. From my experience, as long as I have been invited to an interview with the company, chances of me being ostracised because I hold a degree from a private education institution was low.

This could be attributed to the fact that I have a substantial amount of various work — from my previous jobs to school assignments — for the interviewers to talk about. Having a portfolio allowed me to showcase the relevant work I’ve done and also set me aside from my competition, who might only have a resume to show. Therefore, I would say it’s essential for you to build up a strong and relevant portfolio, especially if you’re planning to be in the media and communication industry.

Be picky, but stay realistic

Despite what our elders lecture us about quickly securing a stable job, in today’s world, most of us are looking for more than just a steady stream of monthly income — according to Forbes in 2019, the other factors millennials take into consideration include meaningful work, mentorship, enjoyable environment etc.

There is nothing wrong with being picky as long as you stay realistic. What I did was to rank my priorities before I started my job hunt; I asked myself if I was looking for a known name to add to my resume, a desirable salary or a stable company etc. Once I ranked my priorities, it was easier to eliminate my choices.

Weigh your options and accept a lower salary if you need to. The economy is gloomier this year than last year. There were already rumours of an impending recession when I was job hunting last year but nobody could have predicted an onslaught on the economy caused by a pandemic.

Consult your lecturers

Lastly, speak to your lecturers if you can. Whether you need a reference letter or have them alert you about job openings, don’t be afraid to reach out for help.

My lecturers at The University of Newcastle, Australia were exceedingly patient and nurturing when it came to answering my questions about my job search — be it whether they thought I was suitable for a position, what they thought of a particular company or just general updates about my job search situation.

Your lecturers in all likelihood have many more years of experience in the field that you are aiming to be in and will be able to introduce you to some of their connections as well as share advice tailored to your situation. Don’t be afraid to approach them if the situation arises.

With all that’s being said, we are living in unprecedented times and job hunting is definitely tough during this period, so be well prepared for the interview to leave a good impression. Good luck, y’all!

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Brought to you by PSB Academy.