BFM :: Careers Unusual

Hacking. We’ve seen it a thousand times on popular television series and movies. It’s been ingrained in our minds - the hooded figure hunched over a computer in a dark room or a spectacled geek sitting in a hidden van typing away on a laptop. Stacey is a white hat hacker (also known as an ethical hacker) whose job is to test security systems for big corporations and protect them from criminal hackers. She sheds light on the myths of hacking and how different it is from what we see on the big screens.

From our early years, colour becomes part of our lives. It has practical bearing on our personal relationships, it influences the home environment, offices, hospitals and everything we eat, drink and touch. But do colours heal? We speak to Evelyn Leong, who uses colour therapy to treat physical, mental or emotional problems by balancing energy.

This week, Careers Unusual takes a twist. We went out for a street interview to find out what Malaysians secretly wish are their full time jobs. And perhaps, a little pause and ponder upon the unusual in our ordinary routine.

Action! Drama! Betrayal! Elimination! These might be some of the words you think of when it comes to reality television. Ever wondered what it’s like behind the scenes of these reality shows? Iskander and Feisal Azizuddin are the names behind Feisk Productions. Literally. They created an online reality series, Kampung Quest that took off in 2014. Three years later, they have produced four seasons of Kampung Quest and launched their own platform, OhSnapTV. We speak to them on their experience of running a reality show and the challenges they face to put all that hustle and emotion onto the screens.

It’s a yearly affair for anime and manga comics fans to gather at various cosplay conventions around Malaysia, celebrating their favourite characters in Japanese pop culture. Cosplay is the art of bringing fictional characters to life through costumery and pageantry. Venus Lim, owner of Costurera Haberdashery helps make that happen. Venus is an avid lover of period costumes and is a veteran cosplayer who started her business to create costumes. We find out what it means to be a costumer as well as what the cosplay culture is like in Malaysia.   Do you have or know someone with a unique and unusual profession? Write in to us! Drop us an email at enterprise@bfm.my and you just may be featured in the next Careers Unusual episode!

Colonel Chris Hadfield spent decades in astronaut training and has logged nearly 4,000 hours in space. Hadfield flown two space shuttle missions, served as commander of the International Space Station and made history as the first Canadian to float in space. Chris is a space oddity for becoming the most social media savvy astronaut ever, faithfully documenting life while he sails overhead. He also became a youtube sensation for singing in space! Put your belt on, the adventure of Careers Unusual today is rocketing to a space odyssey.

It’s a great big jungle out there. Are you ever curious about life beyond civilization? Perhaps you’ve seen the colourful streaks on the majestic gila monster or maybe heard the hiss of a rattlesnake on television. Join us as we take you behind the scenes on what it’s like to be a wildlife show host. We speak to Coyote Peterson to hear about his adventures on his show, Brave Wilderness and step into his shoes as we walk the trails with his tales on wildlife.

Light is the brush, darkness is the canvas. Hannu Huhtamo is a visual artist and a photographer that is not afraid of the dark, but finds a potential magic in it. In fact, he creates a world in the low light with just a little torch, some skills and imagination. Hannu join us in Careers Unusual to share the experience on being a light graffiti artist.

Beating the morning jam and clocking out at the end of each day can get repetitive and mundane. What if you could climb mountains, see the sun rise and set beyond the horizon or even ski down a snowcap while still keeping your job? Remote Year is a program where digital nomads all around the world come together to experience travel and working. We speak to Rosa Langhammer from CoderDojo, a digital nomad who travels while setting up coding initiatives in schools all around the world.

Jimmy Diresta makes stuff for a living. He owns a Youtube channel dedicated to DIY construction, where audience takes a ticket to his workshop, and catch Jimmy’s captivating and creative works. A graduate of The School of Visual Arts in New York, Jimmy hosted 3 different shows revolving around his skill and passion for construction. On his channel, Jimmy has made many interesting things such as a dagger made from an old file, and his most popular video, a guitar made from an AK 47, along with providing tips and tricks for people doing DIY at home.

Ever stopped to take sight of the great big world in front of you? What about the great empire that lies beneath the ground you walk on? Mikey Bustos is an ant keeper and ant enthusiast who runs his company and YouTube channel, AntsCanada to help ant-keepers alike around the world in the art of keeping ants. He speaks with us today on how he helps promote the hobby of ant keeping and even on how he contributes to habitat conservation through his love for ants.

Anything is possible within the limits of gravity and physics, this is especially true to cake artist Mimi Liew of PassioNate Cakes. Specializing in making gravity defying 3D cakes, Mimi is recognized within the industry as a leader at her craft, developing new and creative techniques in the work of cake art and sculpture. Whether it's a simple round cake, an exquisitely subtle or grandeur wedding cake, or even a corporate event to serve thousands, Mimi can take your cake fantasy and turn it into a tangible reality. At present, she often travels across Asia to conduct private classes and group workshops to share her technique and skills in this edible art form.

When you think of hobbies, naturally the conventional list comes to mind: everything from painting and drawing to even baking and cooking perhaps? That’s not the case for Jessie Lee, who walks down the unbeaten path of past times by choosing the art of Chinese Metaphysics as her main creative outlet and career specialization. To commemorate the auspicious beginning of the Year of the Rooster, we speak with Jessie Lee, a Destiny Consultant and founder of Soleil Trinity Resource, to share some insights of what we can expect this 2017. So how will you fare in the Year of the Rooster?  

Andy Cavatorta is a sculptor working with sound and robotics. A graduate of MIT’s Media Lab, his work integrates emerging technologies with traditional crafts to discover new ways to create meaning with sound. And we’re not talking about those conventional electronic mixers, controllers or decks. The list of materials for robotic instrument builder Andy Cavatorta’s project includes, but is not limited to, wine glasses, wheels, vacuum tubes and even Mongolian horsehair and dried wasps nests. Here, we spoke to Andy himself about his work as a sculptor of robots and a sonic virtuoso, as well as his thoughts on the current state of technological innovation and how it affects our lives.

Some even find it difficult take a shower during cold days but imagine taking a swim in the middle of Antarctica. On this episode of Careers Unusual, Jermaine Bee speaks to someone who is attracted to extreme challenges, someone who isn’t afraid to battle frozen death, someone who has a passion for ice swimming. Let’s hear it from the man himself, ice swimmer, Ram Barkai.

In this episode of Careers Unusual, we speak to the world’s most famous Snow Artist, Simon Beck, who has created over 200 snow murals on a freezing cold mountaintop at an elevation of over 8,000 feet. His paintbrush? His feet! He shares with us on what inspired him to become a Snow Artist despite the subzero cold as well as what goes behind creating his phenomenal work of art.

2016 was a fleeting year of highs and lows. This year, we covered the many facets of jobs unseen and unknown to the masses; from a Hot Air Balloonist, Flirtologist, Swordsmith and Soundscape Ecologist, all the way up to an Embalmer, Cockroach Scientist and even SIRI herself. In today’s Careers Unusual Flashback Friday, we conclude the year by presenting the very best of careers in 2016.

On this episode, we speak with someone who holds the whole world in his hands - like literally: a Globemaker. Peter Bellerby is a Globemaker who runs Bellerby & Co. Globamakers in a studio based in London. Along with his team, he creates modern handcrafted world globes of their own design. Since it’s the holiday season, we hear from Peter, who brings us around the world through his unique career.

Xander Bianchi is an ice farmer at the Ouray Ice Park in Colorado, one of the largest ice climbing parks in the world. With nearly 200 different climbing routes covering 17,000 vertical feet of terrain, listen to how Xander creates these beautiful walls of ice in freezing cold conditions everyday, farming and moulding water droplets to build this ice climber’s playground.

Martin Riese is the only certified water sommelier based in the United States. He has curated a list featuring 20 of the world's finest waters, which he sells for up to $20 a bottle at his Los Angeles restaurant. Riese began his renowned career in his native Germany. Today, he is a Water Tasting Educator, acclaimed author, Water Sommelier at Patina Restaurant Group in Los Angeles, and the world’s foremost expert on water. So what is a water sommelier? What is it like to be a professional in water-tasting? And can you really tell the different tastes of water? Audrey Raj finds out.