My Very First Working Experience

I believe that I need to record my first working experience so that I don't forget my very first working experience in Singapore and I think it also means sharing the working experience by doing so.
The name of the first company that I joined in Singapore is ROTARY IMC which is situated in Jurong Island, one of the islands of Singapore. ROTARY IMC is a one of the subsidiaries of ROTARY ENGINEERING LTD which is doing construction of Oil Tankage. My designation at that company was Project Engineer. During early days in ROTARY, I felt boring because my boss, Alex Ong, wanted me to read a lot of Standard and Specification (Spec) books. At that time, I thought that it was no point of reading these all standard books and would be known in due course. Later, I realised that these standards are very useful for dealing with clients or main contractors (Main Con) or sub-contractors (Sub Con). But it was too late when I realised that because there was no time to read again when I executed the project.
As a project engineer, I had to coordinate the whole project to be accomplished smoothly by making money. Roughly, phases of a project could be categorized as follow:
1) Design and Drawing Phase
2) Procurement
3) Fabrication
4) Erection and
5) Commissioning and Hand Over to Client.

1) Design and Drawing Phase

Before design and drawings of a project came out, we had to discuss with the client and main con so that we can set specific API standard (API 620 Or API 650) according to the client requirements because clients or main con got confuse even after the tender package had been issued. Only after the API standard had been set, the Engineering Department issued the drawings and design calculations. Once I received drawings and designs, I had to review quickly and had to submit on the same day. Among submitted drawings, some were approved on first submission and some were approved with comments. From those drawings which had been approved, I had to take off the quantity to start procurement. For those drawings which were approved with comments, I had to send back to Engineering Department for their rectification. Once I received revised drawing or design calculation, I had to review whether their amendments were according to client's comments or not. At the same time, I had to start the procurement for those items from the approved drawings.