Jamus Lim’s mum once wanted him to ‘get a real job’

SINGAPORE: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim shared some tidbits of his life on the Coach Jason Ho Podcast, including that his mother once had her brother counsel him to ‘get a real job’ when his schooling went on and on.

Ironically, she had earlier actually hoped he would stay in school “past the O level.”

Assoc Prof Lim, a Member of Parliament for Sengkang GRC under The Workers’ Party, traced his journey from reluctant student to professor of economics on the podcast, published on Jan 12 (Friday).

After doing manual data entry at a very young age, Assoc Prof Lim wanted to leave school after his O level to become a stockbroker, but his mother put her food down.

“Mum would have none of that,” he said.

Read also: Jamus Lim Reveals Childhood Mischief and Discusses Singapore’s Education System on Podcast

However, his early interest led him to study economics, although he did so with a business degree.

He then took a deep dive into the discipline, learning it was about so much more than finance.

What fascinated him about economics was human behaviour, not the financial aspect.

Another factor that influenced his journey was the Asian financial crisis from 1997 to 1998; telling Mr Ho that it had been a “life-shaping event” because he wanted to understand why Asian nations went through a crisis.

These interests eventually led to a longer and longer time of studying for him.

“It became clear that if I wanted to become serious about being an economist, I couldn’t just stop at undergraduate studies.”

Assoc Prof Lim then acquired a master’s degree, after which “it became clear” that he couldn’t stop at that point either.

He could not stop after his PhD, as he began to realise that he could also pursue post-doctoral studies.

“Of course, my mom who had hoped that I would stay in school past the O-level came to now wonder why don’t I stop. She sent her brother to counsel me and say, ‘Why don’t you get a real job instead of staying in school?'”

Nevertheless, the economics professor says he counts himself lucky that he gets to pursue questions in economics as part of his daily life.

“That’s what I do. That’s my job. I fell in love with the subject and never looked back,” although he “thankfully” joked that he “didn’t go down the route of 18th-century Romantic poetry where the potential market is just a little bit smaller.”

Catch the full episode of the podcast with Assoc Prof Lim’s interview here:

/TISG