Aus-Msia forum...
Am planning to apply for this position and while reading up on the company's website just now, I noted a rather daunting statistic:
In 2005,
85000 applicants
34000 interviewed
423 employed.
O_o OMG thats like a 0.005 percent success rate. Just proves how tough the competition is these days.
Been catching up on much-needed sleep over the past coupla days. Fri was interesting as I was at the Aus-Msia forum in the city. One speaker (Mr Ian Buchanan) captivated us with his short 10 minutes talk. Prob'll blog more bout his speech later.. We had a few other speakers but alot of it was "gloss" (my slang meaning "glossing over the issues without offering much comment of substance").
I was annoyed with one Msian speaker who made comments to the effect of "Msian chinese who are dissatisfied are that way because they always want more. They're millionaires but they want to become billionaires.." What in the world was that?! He needs to get out of his shiny office in KL and look at how people out there actually live. He mentioned that chinese makes up a large proportion of Forbes list of Richest Malaysians (recently released, available on Forbes website). So what does that tell you? -- that averages mean very little when the majority of wealth is concentrated on the hands of a few, and not like what he said. He shouldn't be generalising this way.
I know they're trying to present Msia as this "multicultural-conducive for foreign investment-everyone loves everyone" country but it totally misses the realities of how things are. They had relatively more open discussions after the foreign minister left. Mr Buchanan was good enough reason to stay on. Later, I noticed the minister (and his large entourage) had merely left the hall after his keynote address, but not the hotel. They returned only during the reception, I wonder why? It could've been a good opportunity to listen to what questions/concerns were raised by members of the forum. Come all the way to Melbourne to speak but then not bother to listen..?
Was quite entertained at the reception by the combination of a few things - wine :P and a British fella telling me stories about the days when he spent time travelling in Ipoh, Penang etc -- 30 years ago! So refreshing to have good ol' conversations once again, instead of meaningless chatter.
On other things, my involvement with this year's YAA team has got me thinking alot - How my fellow mentors do things, how the team members work with each other, and what I'm learning from them all. Things're quite different from last year, where I feel my mentors gave us more free rein to do things ourselves, but at the same time guided us and gave appropriate advice. We seem to be much more competitive last year, compared to this year's team which has a more laidback attitude towards things.
Instead of making everyone contribute, most of the work falls on shoulders of individuals. Individuals come up with the work and ask the others for feedback (which isn't always responded to). I believe 5 minds are better than 1. If thats the way they choose to work, I can't imagine how it'll be when it comes to manufacturing/selling. Emailed them about my suggestion they setup an online forum but communication seems to be the least of their priorities at the moment. Their current method's using emails, so in a day I might get 4 separate emails regarding 1 issue (& 3 feedback emails) which I have to reconcile separately, trying to figure out who's saying what at the same time. Its confusing, even for me. Ahh they'd better figure something out soon..
In 2005,
85000 applicants
34000 interviewed
423 employed.
O_o OMG thats like a 0.005 percent success rate. Just proves how tough the competition is these days.
Been catching up on much-needed sleep over the past coupla days. Fri was interesting as I was at the Aus-Msia forum in the city. One speaker (Mr Ian Buchanan) captivated us with his short 10 minutes talk. Prob'll blog more bout his speech later.. We had a few other speakers but alot of it was "gloss" (my slang meaning "glossing over the issues without offering much comment of substance").
I was annoyed with one Msian speaker who made comments to the effect of "Msian chinese who are dissatisfied are that way because they always want more. They're millionaires but they want to become billionaires.." What in the world was that?! He needs to get out of his shiny office in KL and look at how people out there actually live. He mentioned that chinese makes up a large proportion of Forbes list of Richest Malaysians (recently released, available on Forbes website). So what does that tell you? -- that averages mean very little when the majority of wealth is concentrated on the hands of a few, and not like what he said. He shouldn't be generalising this way.
I know they're trying to present Msia as this "multicultural-conducive for foreign investment-everyone loves everyone" country but it totally misses the realities of how things are. They had relatively more open discussions after the foreign minister left. Mr Buchanan was good enough reason to stay on. Later, I noticed the minister (and his large entourage) had merely left the hall after his keynote address, but not the hotel. They returned only during the reception, I wonder why? It could've been a good opportunity to listen to what questions/concerns were raised by members of the forum. Come all the way to Melbourne to speak but then not bother to listen..?
Was quite entertained at the reception by the combination of a few things - wine :P and a British fella telling me stories about the days when he spent time travelling in Ipoh, Penang etc -- 30 years ago! So refreshing to have good ol' conversations once again, instead of meaningless chatter.
On other things, my involvement with this year's YAA team has got me thinking alot - How my fellow mentors do things, how the team members work with each other, and what I'm learning from them all. Things're quite different from last year, where I feel my mentors gave us more free rein to do things ourselves, but at the same time guided us and gave appropriate advice. We seem to be much more competitive last year, compared to this year's team which has a more laidback attitude towards things.
Instead of making everyone contribute, most of the work falls on shoulders of individuals. Individuals come up with the work and ask the others for feedback (which isn't always responded to). I believe 5 minds are better than 1. If thats the way they choose to work, I can't imagine how it'll be when it comes to manufacturing/selling. Emailed them about my suggestion they setup an online forum but communication seems to be the least of their priorities at the moment. Their current method's using emails, so in a day I might get 4 separate emails regarding 1 issue (& 3 feedback emails) which I have to reconcile separately, trying to figure out who's saying what at the same time. Its confusing, even for me. Ahh they'd better figure something out soon..
posted by xaverri at 3:15 am
2 Comments:
I wish I was one of those Millionaires. ;-)
I agree with you : politicians should listen more.
tipsy tipsy :P
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