Job hunting

Peace be upon you who receive the guidance

Towards the end my final semester, I had started to compose my resume and photocopied several sets of my educational certificates i.e. my transcript, scholastic achievement such as dean's list certificate, high school diploma (SPM and SRP) and many others. It was customary in Malaysia (at that point of time circa 1980's) to attach resume and copies of certificates with an application letter. Indeed this was required by the job advertiser which had now been replaced with on-line application via web portal. I had received some assistance in vetting my resume and providing me pointers in handling interviews from my Human Resources lecturer Puan Maimunah Aminudin (now a full Professor, photo on the right was taken in 1989, my final semester, she is on the right and I'm on the left).

As I had shared earlier, during the 1980's early 1990's, Malaysia was experiencing an economic recession and job was scarce. Newspapers would run at most 4 pages of job advertisements per day (whereas nowadays we have a separate recruitment section of 20 pages or more). I would hardly able to find a fit between what I could offer and what the job required. As far as I could still remember I had only managed to apply to a couple of jobs (without job experience required) and notably the ones that I could still remember were for a Management Trainee job with KFC in Singapore and a Production Planning job with Matsusihita Electrics in Johor Baharu,

KFC Singapore wrote back to me saying that they were looking for Singaporeans who were in Malaysia. I had then attended two interviews with Matsushita Electrics in Johor Baharu. The first interview went well and I was shortlisted for a second interview two weeks later. During the second interview I was pitted against experienced applicants. This I knew while interacting with the interview candidates in the waiting room. As a strategy, I stated my expected salary to be around RM1,000 which would be lower than the other experienced applicants. However I still did not get the job as probably they prefered a more experienced candidate.

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Puduraya Bus Station where I took my bus to Johor Baharu for my 2 interviews/Hentian Puduraya tempat saya mengambil bas ke Johor Baharu untuk menghadiri 2 temuduga saya http://www.udaholdings.com.my/

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Selamat sejahtera ke atas anda yang menerima penunjuk

Di penghujung semester akhir saya, saya telah mula menyiapkan resume saya dan membuat salinan foto beberapa set sijil pelajaran saya i.e. transkrip keputusan peperiksaan di UiTM, sijil anugerah cemerlang sijil dekan, sijil sekolah menengah (SPM dan SRP) dan lain-lain lagi. Adalah menjadi kebiasaan di Malaysia (ketika itu sekitar tahun 1980an) untuk mengepilkan resume dan salinan sijil-sijil dengan surat permohonan perkerjaan. Malahan ini dikehendaki oleh pengiklan-pengiklan perkerjaan yang mana telah diganti sekarang dengan permohonan melalui talian terus portal jejaring. Saya menggunakan jasa baik pensyarah Sumber Manusia saya Puan Maimunah Aminudin (sekarang Professor) memeriksa resume saya dan memberikan tunjuk ajar bagaimana cara menghadapi temuduga

Seperti yang telah saya nyatakan dahulu, semasa lewat 1980an dan awal 1990an, Malaysia mengalami kemelesetan ekonomi dan peluang perkerjaan adalah tipis. Suratkhabar akan hanya menyiarkan sekitar 4 mukasurat kekosongan jawatan setiap hari (berbanding sekarang kita mempunyai bahagian pengambilan yang berasingan dengan 20 atau lebih mukasurat). Amat sukar bagi saya untuk mencari perkerjaan yang sesuai dengan kelulusan saya. Seingat saya, saya hanya berjaya memohon beberapa jawatan (tanpa syarat pengalaman berkerja) dan dua permohonan jawatan yang masih saya ingat iaitu jawatan Pelatih Pengurusan dengan KFC Singapura dan jawatan Perancang Pengeluaran dengan Matsushita Elektrik di Johor Baharu.

KFC Singapura membalas surat saya dengan mengatakan mereka hanya berminat dengan rakyat Singapura yang berkerja di Malaysia. Selain itu, saya telah dipanggil untuk dua temuduga dengan Matsushita Elektrik di Johor Baharu. Temuduga pertama berlangsung dengan jayanya dan saya berjaya untuk di temuduga kali kedua 2 minggu berikutnya. Semasa temuduga yang kedua, saya telah disaingkan dengan calon-calon yang mempunyai pengalaman. Saya ketahui semasa berbual-bual dengan calon-calon lain di kamar menunggu. Sebagai suatu strategi, saya catitkan gaji permulaan yang saya minta hanya sekadar RM1,000, di mana saya percaya adalah yang terendah berbanding calon yang berpengalaman. Malangnya saya tidak berjaya di dalam temuduga kedua kerana saya rasa mereka masih mementingkan calon yang lebih berpengalaman.

Graduation dinner, photo with the then ITM Director/Makan Malam Graduan, gambar bersama Pengarah ITM semasa itu.