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SINGAPORE — At 4.30am, when most of his millennial peers are probably sleeping, Mr Liew Rhui Heng, 23, gets out of bed and drives his truck to the Jurong Fishery Port to get the freshest seafood for his customers.
After an hour or so, he heads to the wet market at Jurong West Blk 497 — about a 10-minute drive from the port — where he unloads at least one tonne (1,000kg) of seafood.
By about 7am, he has set up his stall and is ready for the day’s first customers. By 2pm, it is time to clean up the stall and call it a day.
This is a typical day’s work for Mr Liew, one of the youngest fishmongers in an ageing wet market culture, far from what might be expected of an Institute of Technical Education (ITE) electronics, computer networking and communications graduate.
His is a path rarely travelled by millennials, a job many might see, in his own words, as “dirty, smelly and unpleasant”.
“After graduation, I realised that I didn’t have much interest in what I studied in ITE and wanted to try something new,” he said.
PARENTS TOLD HIM TO FURTHER HIS STUDIES
It all started when a relative introduced him to the job while Mr Liew was still in National Service.
His first stint as a fishmonger on weekends was “simply to earn some cash”. After completing NS in 2017, he realised he had developed a passion for the trade and decided to do it full-time.
But when Mr Liew first told his parents about the decision, they were rather reluctant and told him to further his studies instead.
Like most parents, they would have preferred that he went for a “comfortable, high-paying” job.
“They told me to do something else, because they feel that this is a job with no future,” Mr Liew said. “They wanted me to work in an air-conditioned environment, not like the wet market.”
Two years into the job, his parents finally gave him their blessing.
“Because they saw that I am doing something I like, I feel less stressed and have more free time. They even come and buy seafood from me sometimes,” Mr Liew said.
More at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/millennial-turns-his-back-office-job-opts-life-wet-market