So feeling lucky – actually I felt sorry for the student who showed up at my door, he had this air of being used to rejection – I agreed to the interview and spent 45 minutes with him, trying to answer his questions as best as I could.

I say “as best as I could” because I found the questions really hard. The first was “what do you do?”

I struggled with that. I don’t really know how to describe what I do to strangers, let alone someone who is filling in a form where space I am guessing is limited.

Then came “How many hours do you work?” I don’t clock time anymore. Do you? Is answering emails on the Blackberry in a moving vehicle counted as work time? Or a Skype call late at night? Checking your company’s Facebook page?

“Are you stressed?” Yes, by this interview. I got him into a philosophical discussion about stress. What is stress? Is it stress if you love what you do? What do you love to do? What do you WANT to do? He was quite sweet really – a management student doing this as a part-time thing because he rather likes going out to meet and talk to people.

“Unfortunately not many people want to talk to me because they all say they have no time for researchers,” he said.

The survey, I am guessing, is to discern the kind of skills we use in our job and what new skills are needed. What kind of training have you done? What kind of training do you need? What kind of equipment do you use? There were also questions related to job satisfaction – are you satisfied with your job?

The survey left me thinking about how work has changed since the day I started my first job. In the old days, I showed up for work at a particular time, did a particular job and clocked out. Today I work anytime, do whatever it takes and sometimes it seems I never clock out – yes, feel sorry for me, people.

My job as a journalist – that’s what I said I am – has changed beyond recognition. The job I trained for no longer exists – it no longer pays my bills. I’ve had to find other ways to stay relevant.

And that’s the truth of work today. Nothing is static. An entrepreneur recognizes an opportunity in the market but as soon as he gets there, that opportunity has changed because the market has changed. A student eyes a job on graduation and once he gets it, realizes it is not what he thought it would be. One IT student working as an intern told me, “I am trying to learn what they didn’t teach me at school.”

One recent graduate working at a start-up said she went into the company thinking those more senior than her would know more so she could follow their lead but not really – because the company was relatively new, everyone was still learning. “So you’ve got to keep adapting,” she said.

This was part of the conversation at lunch today hosted by John Mims of Marina Bay Sands (centre) for his mentorees from the WITNext Summercamp Win-A-Mentor programme.

It was the first gathering of the group – the aim is to have monthly meetings – and it was interesting listening to everyone’s experiences. (I rather like this idea of Mentoring Circles, very effective and personal – must try and do more. You can’t ever over-estimate the influence of mentors in your life.)

And the more I listened, the more my mind went back to the survey. I can guess what the results will say – x% of Singaporeans are satisfied with their job; x% of Singaporeans say they need new skills and more training.

But the real question is, what skills are most likely to help you in this journey called life? Now I wonder if there’s a school for that or, at the very least, is there a grant?

For those at the lunch today though, they got a head-start – I believe this Mentoring Circle of John Mims will have a major impact on their lives, if they allow it to.