The New Paper
Tuesday, Oct 23, 2012
She made the Dean's List while studying at the National University of Singapore - an accolade reserved for top students.
Before even graduating from her course in project and facilities management, she had two offers from quantity surveying firms.
NUS grad chooses to serve burgers instead of climbing corporate ladder
But instead of slipping on high heels and conquering the corporate world, Ms Christina Ong has chosen to serve burgers and sundaes at McDonald's.
She is a manager at the fast food giant.
While the 27-year-old beams with pride when talking about her job, many people think otherwise, she says candidly.
"It's not something that people always think graduates should do.
"Some think it's a job people do in their spare time as a short stint in their teens, and do not see it as a viable career option," she adds.
Her career choice is an unconventional path among her peers, she muses.
Most of her friends work in offices, not fast food joints.
Her decision to join McDonald's full-time in March last year also raised eyebrows at home.
Her NTUC cashier mother and coffee-shop assistant father felt that she could get better pay elsewhere. The fact that she had to work shifts was also a sore point.
Fresh graduates like Ms Ong earn between $2,000 and $2,500 a month, says a McDonald's spokesman.
Some of her relatives also asked her point-blank why she would want to work at a fast food joint, doing such menial tasks as mopping up greasy floors and taking orders.
But she waves away the dismissive talk, showing perhaps the determined streak that allowed her to graduate as the top student of her cohort at Singapore Polytechnic.
"At McDonald's, we lead by example, so I do everything from the basic to the advanced, like scheduling the work timetables of the crew and interviewing new hires."
And it's clear that Ms Ong has great affection for her job and the company, which she started working for as a part-timer at 16.
Every weekend, she assembled Happy Meals and dished out chilli packets for eight hours a day from 7am to 3pm, before going out with her friends.
Through her schooling days at the Institute of Technical Education (where she won the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship), polytechnic and university, she worked two days a week at McDonald's.
During the school holidays, she worked full-time.
"I really enjoy the family-like environment and people there. It's a young, vibrant environment and it doesn't feel like I'm working at all.
"I even worked on my birthday," she says with a big grin.
That she bumps into friends who visit the outlet does not make her feel embarrassed or awkward, Ms Ong insists.
Asked if their opinions bother her, she replies without skipping a beat: "If they don't buy it (my decision to work at McDonald's), I don't try too hard to convince them. I enjoy it.
"If you're always so concerned about what people think, your life will be very difficult."
Ms Ong's parents are gradually coming round to her career choice.
The job has taken her overseas - to the US city of Orlando for an international convention organised by the company, and to the Philippines for a restaurant leadership programme.
Just two weeks ago, she bagged the Super Star Award - the highest service honour - at the Excellent Service Awards for the food and beverage industry.
That certainly helped, she says with a smile.
Although there are sacrifices she has to make for the job, she makes it clear that she finds them minor inconveniences.
"I really don't like night shifts, which start at 10.30pm and end at 7.30am, or run from 5.30pm to 2.30am," Ms Ong says.
Working over weekends is also something she does on a regular basis.
She and her husband, a property agent, have learnt to work around it.
"We try to have dinners together on weekday nights," she says.
The bubbly and spirited individual adds that she sees herself working at McDonald's at least for the next five years.
"One day, I may want to open a business of my own, a cafe perhaps?" she says.
