I am 57 this year and my last full-time job ended in Oct 2017 when I left a UK bank after less than a year there. For the last 6 years, I have pivoted to project-based consultancy roles as well as become a full-time student in various new lifelong learning interests I had discovered along the way.
When one door closes, many doors may open in front of you. That is always my mantra. One should look ahead and forget the past. Get rid of the negativity in one’s life and embrace the positivity wholeheartedly. Life is too full of surprises to live in regret. As Yoda said: “Do or not do, there is no try.” Plan proactively ahead and set my annual KPIs. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
I had been fortunate to have stumbled into a consultancy role journey, thanks to various contacts from friends and ex-colleagues. The part-time project-based work spans a duration of a few months to one that has an annual renewable over 4 years. They enriched my experience of meeting new people. One resulted in regular visits to a new country (Myanmar) and another was to experience the excitement of a Fintech environment – the application of a digital banking license (Grab).
Meanwhile, with the free time given to me thanks to the part-time work, I had the opportunity since mid-2017 to become a student again. I was in a sweet spot as the authorities had just started the Skillsfuture initiative to help mid-career citizens pivot to another career in many up-and-rising sectors with massive fee subsidies. Technology-related topics have always been my favorite subject so I started to deep dive into this area. The more I learned, the greater my interest in knowing more. Hence, this started my lifelong learning journey as well.
I did a 12-month Specialist Diploma in Business Analytics (part-time evening classes – 2017/18), a 6-month IBM SGUnited program in Artificial Intelligence (full time – 2021), and a 4-month NUSS Fintech course (full time – early 2022). Along the way, I discovered that I like preparing for exams and doing project work LOL… In between, there were also overseas study trips to Hangzhou for the Alibaba CEO Ebiz study trip (2018) and another to Seoul for a Blockchain training session (2019).
There was also an assortment of courses that piqued my interest – “How to Start a Business”, Mastering Excel Analytics, Data Analytics, Analyzing Financial Statements, Data Storytelling via Tableau, etc. I also challenged myself with a number of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that were easy to sign up for.
There were fun ones too, like the 2-month Wine course I took with a few good friends in 2017. I learned about Aquaponics and started my Hydroponics garden adventure in 2018. For this year, I went to 2 separate full-day classes on Whisky and Sake 😉 All courtesy of the Skillsfuture fund that had no cap on the 90% subsidy for citizens above 40 years old. The balance of 10% could be paid for using the S$1.5k Skillsfuture given to each citizen or via cash. I estimate that I have enjoyed almost 60K of fee subsidies which is equivalent to taking back some of the taxpayers’ dollars I had paid during my career 🙂
I thought that I would remain in this semi-retired mode and have periodic part-time consultancy work for the rest of my life. With Ageism, it is tough for uncles to be considered for a role as younger people are cheaper, and the thinking by supervisors is that they are faster and hungrier.
Then along came an opportunity late last year. It seems that the stars have aligned themselves. The opportunity to work in a promising space where I can leverage my past 6 years of new lifelong learning skills was a bonus. An ex-colleague was working as the CEO of a new company that was aiming to participate in the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) sector.
With Global Warming and Climate Change, bringing everyone to net zero carbon emissions is a medium to long-term goal. Participating in sustainable and clean energy production is seen as a way to balance off the negative effects. There is an urgency for companies to show shareholders that they have an active ESG plan in place.
The gist of the overall company strategy is to have a win-win end game for fund investors and building owners. Investors via an SPV participate in solar projects to earn a reasonable yield (>10% p.a.). The funds invest in PPA (Power Purchase Agreements) that provide CAPEX that assist commercial building owners in buying cheap electricity that is being generated by clean solar energy panels installed on their rooftops. There will also be additional REC (Renewable Energy Credits) created by this project that can be monetized by selling these credits to willing buyers. This will further enhance the investor returns. We are also currently studying the opportunity of Biomass with a similar objective to generate carbon credits. Blockchain will also be explored as a tool to help track the carbon credits for greater transparency and avoid greenwashing frauds.
My journey with this new company started in Oct 2022. I signed up as a consultant to prepare for the application for a fund management license to operate in S’pore. We submitted the application in Dec and there have been multiple rounds of to and fro for more information and clarifications since then.
Finally, they came back to us in late August with an in-principal approval. That was the signal to me that I had to convert to a full-time role as part of the regulatory requirement. As such, I will begin to work in the office from next Monday.
It has been almost 6 years since I left my last full-time job in Oct 2017. There is bound to be an uneasy apprehension after such a long time. But this role is exciting as we could really do something big if we are successful. It is also likely that it would be my last shot at doing something before reaching my career finishing line. To make it big or to go home LOL. All signs point to a developing sector that is prime for growth with the help of technology. Even governments are getting into the act to push and kickstart ESG initiatives, predicting that Carbon prices will surely go up into 2030 as companies need to buy them to offset their carbon footprints.
All companies, through moral suasion by activist shareholders, are being encouraged to embrace ESG action plans in order to show corporate responsibility. The stars have indeed lined up for us to try to pull this strategy off. We just need to execute and hopefully make it a success. I am pumped up to start work again and feeling energized again. Wish me luck!
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