NUS Double Major Grad With First-Class Honours Turned Down Job Offers To Do Aircon Servicing With His Dad

Study hard, get into university, graduate and land a nice corporate job. That's the Singaporean dream for most, right?

Well, one Gen Z in Singapore took a slightly different route.

Jianhao, a 27-year-old NUS graduate, who studied chemical engineering and business, made the Dean's List and graduated with first-class honours, chose to join his dad in his aircon servicing business.

This, despite having several job offers before he even graduated.

Now, here's where his career gets even more interesting. Aircon servicing isn't actually Jiahao's only job.

He also works as a life insurance adviser, leaning into the unusual combination, calling himself the "Blue-Collar Insurance Guy".

But despite having the qualifications and opportunities to pursue a more conventional corporate career, he still chose to get his hands dirty helping his dad.

And the reason goes back to the Covid pandemic.

In Mediacorp's Gen Z Crash Course, Jiahao shared that his dad was running an aircon business when his workers had to return home during the pandemic, leaving him to struggle on his own.

"I saw my dad lose all his workers because they all had to go back. Then he was all alone," recalled Jiahao.

Some of the work Dad was doing wasn't exactly the kind you'd want your parent tackling solo either.

Jiahao recalled watching his father work on aircon compressors outside high-rise buildings, secured by a harness.

"Very dangerous. He's out there with just a harness. Then it's like 10 storeys, 20 storeys high," he said.

"I feel a bit useless as a son," he admitted, before adding, "Like, I studied so hard, right? I got all these Dean's List and all these first-class honours, but I can't help the people around me. I cannot help the people beside me."

Oof.

Watching his dad come home exhausted eventually helped Jiahao decide whose legacy he wanted to help build.

"I feel that if I were to help someone build their legacy, then I'm just..." he said, trailing off.

"Every day I come back, I see how tired my dad is. Why not I help my dad build his legacy?" Jiahao added.

One of his contributions has been something Dad presumably didn't have during his earlier years in the trade: Social media. Specifically, TikTok.

According to Jiahao, the business previously relied heavily on word of mouth and his father's existing customers.

Then increasingly cheap aircon-servicing offers started appearing in the market.

"There are a lot of people putting out S$10 aircon servicing and stuff," he said.

Their existing customers started asking an obvious question.

"Why is your servicing this price, but other people can do S$10?" Jiahao shared.

That was what prompted him to start making TikTok videos via @wishyouhaolife.

Interestingly, Jiahao says the initial aim wasn't even to attract more customers.

"It wasn't a way to get clients, just to raise awareness of what good aircon servicing is, like legit, good aircon servicing," he explained.

The videos ended up changing their customer base significantly anyway.

Jiahao also has thoughts about what Singaporeans are spending on their aircons.

One common misconception, he says, is that everyone needs a chemical wash or to have their gas pressure checked every time their aircon is serviced.

"Actually, what you all need is just proper basic aircon servicing," he said.

In the episode, Jiahao is seen removing the blower from an aircon unit and laying out the components so the customer can see what's being cleaned.

Of course, there are some tricks of the trade he isn't giving away.

"How we clean the coil, right, is actually a trade secret," he said.

Servicing aircons, growing Dad's business on TikTok and working as a life insurance adviser, guess "Blue-Collar Insurance Guy" really is the most accurate job title for him after all.