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Accounting Grad Would Rather Be An OBS Instructor Than Work An Office Job

2019-09-25 , 1:00 am

For many parents of the older generation, their kids having a stable office job or becoming some kind of lawyer or doctor is pretty much the dream.

After all, it’s a relatively safe place with little chance of physical injuries. Mundanity is good cause it’s stable and gives you a paycheck.

But people like me, who refuse to work a boring ass job like that will rebel and go for other less stable career paths! And that’s why I’m writing instead of being in some big corporation doing accounting now!

Editor: Aren’t you just writing at the desk and technically still working an office job?

Shit…you’re right! But…but… I get paid to create memes! Where else can I find that! And…and…

Where is the mouth and the nose? / Image: Pokemon

So anyway.

Office jobs aren’t for everyone. And while this writer is still having an existential crisis, 22-year-old Abigail Hoo, with an Accounting diploma, decided to be an Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) instructor.

She’s also, by the way, one of the youngest OBS instructors out there.

Always Loved The Outdoors

Like most people, Hoo went to an internship during her final poly year, but realised it wasn’t for her.

“I’m okay with sitting in the office, just not every day! I like having a dynamic work environment and office jobs can be a bit mundane… I struggled through my three months of internship. I thought to myself, that should be my one and only office experience.”

But she always loved the outdoors. She’s part of NCC in secondary school, then Adventure Club during poly.

She even went for two OBS courses. The first time in Sec 3, and the second is a more intense 21 day adventure course during poly.

That 21 day was when it seemed to fall into place.

“(During the course), my OBS Instructor talked to me. I told him, ‘I’m lost in life I don’t know what to do after (graduating)’. He found out about my interest in the outdoors and said, ‘Hey why not OBS?’… I had 21 days to reflect on this and realised that what I wanted and what OBS could give (as a career) were aligned. It kind of all fell into place after that.”

I imagine it was quite a “oh ya hor” moment for her.

But of course, just because she wants to doesn’t mean she can become one just like that.

The Challenging Path To OBS Instructor

For obvious reasons, OBS Instructor selection camps need to test whether participants were actually a good fit.

If the OBS course Hoo took was a tutorial stage, the selection camps were where the real game starts.

The selection process is designed to be mentally and physically taxing, to test their resilience and how they would respond under pressure.

And after Hoo was selected, there is still a harsh training period before they start leading courses. It was during this training period that she pushed herself out of her comfort zone. Her scariest being swimming in the open waters.

“The first time I had to swim out in open seas, I actually started crying. It was a fear of drowning in open waters.”

Fear is just an emotion. Or at least that’s what the instructors would have her believe.

She plunged into a 4-star kayaking course to kayak in dangerous waters with waves of at least 0.5m in height.

But punching fear right in the face worked in this case.

“You realise it’s not that scary after all.”

In fact, being scared might have helped her become a better instructor. Because if a scaredy-cat like me joins the course, she knows what I feel and can empathise with my fears.

Life As An OBS Instructor

Each year, she has to lead 20 to 30 courses at the OBS Campus, which are mostly for Sec 3 students, but some are for tertiary students.

During the courses, she would encourage participants to step out of their comfort zone.

One example of this happening was her persuading a participant afraid of heights. After 20 minutes of persuading, she finally convinced him to take a step out to the raised platform during the abseiling activity.

As they say, a small step, but giant leap.

“The fact that he stepped out onto the platform is an achievement in itself.”

If she’s not on course, she’ll be doing course support work like logistics or admin tasks.

Otherwise, she’ll go for competency training for skill upgrades, which will further her ability to lead and inspire, or even lead groups overseas where it is even more challenging.

Hoo intends to get more certifications and become a training consultant who trains other
OBS instructors.

*snaps out of existential crisis*

Me: Alright boss. I’m handing in my resignation letter to become a professor in Meme History. I’ll see you… maybe in the news.

Boss: But, you just handed in the resignation letter to become a Pokemon master last week.

Me: I TOO HAVE DREAMS DAMMIT!

Boss: …See you next week.

Accounting Grad Would Rather Be An OBS Instructor Than Work An Office Job

Always Loved The Outdoors

The Challenging Path To OBS Instructor

Life As An OBS Instructor

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