Best job ever: Lego builder
IF you’re talking about dream jobs, Stefan Bentivoglio’s gig at Legoland Malaysia has to be way up there among the best.
Bentivoglio, 34, is a Lego master model builder. Already sounds awesome, right?
At Legoland Malaysia, you’ll find an attraction called Miniland, where there are 1:20 scale models of iconic Asian structures like India’s Taj Mahal, China’s Forbidden City, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and, of course, Malaysia’s Petronas Twin Towers (which is actually a 1:50 model).
Guess what? Bentivoglio built all of that, using the same Lego bricks you and I have at home. Basically, this guy gets paid to play around with toy bricks all day.
Born in the small town of Ulm in Germany, Bentivoglio was himself a fan of Lego.
“Whenever I got Christmas presents, I would shake the box. And if I could hear the Lego bricks clinking inside, I would be overjoyed,” he said.
“I did dream of being a Lego builder, but like so many people, I grew up and got a regular job.” That job was as a telecommunications technician.
One day, while he was chilling out at home after another ordinary day at work, he saw a TV advertise- ment about a Lego builder job.
Without any experience even remotely relevant to building Lego models, Bentivoglio applied for the three part interview anyway.
The first was your regular job interview, getting to know you and stuff. The second was a bit more complicated – he had to build a cat out of Lego in 45 minutes. The last part was even worse – he had an hour to build a sphere, at least ten centimeters in diameter.
“It wasn’t exactly a perfect sphere, but it was good enough to beat all the others,” he said with a wry smile. He had beaten over 300 applicants to the job.
Today, Bentivoglio holds several Lego world records. His Twin Towers model is the tallest Lego model in the world. The KLIA model is the largest (complete with a fleet of Lego airplanes), and the cruise ship at the Port Tanjung Pelepas model is the biggest Lego ship ever.
The level of detail that goes into his work is simply astounding. His model of the iconic Kuala Lumpur railway station, for instance, has the same intricate spires on the roof, all made from Lego.
He starts work every day at 8am, spending two hours inspecting and repairing his work.
“What saddens me most is seeing my models damaged. We put a lot of effort and dedication into them,” he said.
“Also, a lot of people like to take ‘souvenirs’ with them. They don’t realise that even a small car takes us hours to build. It’s not something that comes out of a box.”
From an ordinary technician in a small town in Germany to a record-breaking Lego builder in Malaysia, Bentivoglio has sure come a long way.
His secret to success, however, is pretty simple: “Always keep a small part of yourself as a kid. You have to see the world as a child.”
The BRATs young journalist programme is organised by R.AGE and supported by ExxonMobil. For more information about BRATs, or to apply for the next workshop in June, log on to facebook.com/starbrats.