Don’t judge a company by its job ad: a Sugar intern shares his experience

Asyraf Aliman is an intern at Sugar. This article was republished with permission from his Facebook account.

To those who saw the online frenzy about Sugar’s “discriminatory” job ad, I would like to share my views.

This past summer, I applied for a summer internship at Sugar. Yes, that would be the same company that allegedly discriminates against the majority of Singaporeans. The same company that supposedly treats its employees like slaves and forbids any semblance of work-life balance. The same company that some have described as the worst workplace in the world.

I submitted my internship application quite late, and I was not even supposed to be offered a place as all the vacancies had already been filled. However, I managed to hustle a meeting with Benjamin Lee, Sugar’s CEO, and made enough of an impression for him to make an exception.

Ben explained to me that he initially planned to take in only four interns this past summer, not to save costs, but rather because he was concerned that he would not have sufficient time to personally mentor so many people while also managing the day-to-day operations during a very high-intensity growth period for the company. But he made an exception for me, and told me that I could approach him with any questions any time – even if they were not strictly work-related.

Over the next three months, my mind was blown by the way that Sugar was run. Apart from a mandatory team meeting every Monday, we had no fixed reporting hours. We were allowed to work from home without having to ask for approval. We worked hard but smart, and were able to get things done quickly by focusing on”critical paths”. There were plenty of team outings, during which we talked about everything under the sun. Once, the company even sponsored a self-defence / unarmed combat training session which really opened our eyes (especially the girls) to the importance of keeping safe when traveling overseas.

As an intern, I got the opportunity to work with dozens of small business owners – particularly owners of indie cafés, restaurants, and bars. After the first two weeks, I was entrusted to speak to them on my own, without supervision. In addition, I was also involved in a major partnership deal that the company had just clinched, and the senior team members took the trouble to give me coaching and guidance every step of the way.

I was also allowed to fail. Whenever I missed a deadline or an objective, I was not harangued or berated. Instead, I was given encouragement, and was taught to focus on the positives (the learning points) instead of frantically searching for excuses or someone else to blame.

My experience at Sugar taught me that nothing comes for free. We had to fight hard to win over every single account, every single user. There are thousands of free apps available in the market – why should a user have to download ours? The fact that we spent months developing and researching it is insufficient and also irrelevant. No one owes you a living.

When I speak to my friends and schoolmates about our career aspirations, it seems that some believe job-seekers should be given benefits, welfare, high salary and development opportunities for free, before they have proven themselves. This is not how it works in the real world. In the job market, you are the “product”, and you should focus on your own value and competitiveness. You can’t force someone to “buy” you just because you have some technical skills or degree certificates. If you want status, recognition and benefits, you need to prove that you deserve it. Entrepreneurs make huge sacrifices and take massive risks in order to achieve success. It is only natural that they seek those who are like-minded to join their teams.

I am not suggesting that everyone has to be risk-taking, by the way. I have many friends who are conservative and risk-averse, and who desire stability. There is nothing wrong with that. It is a personal choice. I just find it ironic (and a bit hypocritical) that no one says anything when large banks and MNCs openly say that they only want candidates from ‘top-tier universities’ or who have previous experience at ‘top-tier companies’, but when a startup makes a joke about Goldman Sachs, they get flamed.

Indeed, some of my friends chose to do their summer internships at large companies, and they can now put a ‘brand-name’ employer on their CVs. That is all well and good, because that’s what they want, and it has to be respected. On the other hand, I chose to get involved in the daily slog that an early stage startup goes through. I may not have a ‘brand-name’ employer on my CV, but I now have much more self-awareness, courage, personal accountability and confidence. I do not know if I will become an entrepreneur in the future, but at least I now know what I will have to do if I want to be one.

And no, I never had to eat leftover pizza.

See more: How much should you pay an intern in a startup?

Don’t judge a company by its job ad: a Sugar intern shares his experience