I have a friend sharing this on facebook.
Gen Y who? Friday, November 19, 2010
I bump into this SUPER INTERESTING article today. In general it talks about how "Gen Y" is such a pain in the ass now days. And I found that half of the time I am reading, I am shook my head (Gen Y is truly awesome! he-he). Sometimes it is good to see yourself from another person eyes, because your own might just deceive you. So enjoy!
***
By Pauline Wong
Have you ever insulted the company you were applying for? No? Another fresh graduate did - when he told the interviewer he would like to be CEO of the company as the company is 'nobody' in the market.
Have you ever turned down a well-paying job because you have no transport to get there? No? Well, 82 out of 100 of graduates who were offered jobs by a prominent local company did.
From the lackadaisical attitude of graduates to wanting luxury, comfort and the 'easy life', fresh graduates these days are spoilt for choice in the job market, but are too spoilt to take the job.
Despite the endless number of articles, tips and advice found online or in books on how to have the perfect interview, graduates crash-and-burn in a fiery mess during interviews, or even before the interview.
From being fussy, or to talking about money too soon, employers have seen and heard it all - and they are not too happy with what they've seen.
Fresh Graduates: Unemployed, or Unemployable?
In 2008, a survey showed that as many as 60,000 graduates are currently still unemployed. As of 2009, various news articles put the estimate of unemployed graduates at anywhere between 80,000 and 100,000.
Sarah F. is an employee training consultant and has helped train and place fresh graduates with some of the biggest local companies and multinational companies in Malaysia. Having interviewed thousands of candidates, she is not surprised at the high unemployment rates.
"There is a lot of difference between the Gen Y employees now than employees before," she said. "In the past, the older generation grew up being told that they need to get a job and work their way up, even if they have to take two buses just to get to work every day."
It is now the employees market, she said. "Employers are desperate. It's the truth. Employees can pick and choose the jobs they want."
But now, said Sarah, the Gen Y employee is demanding.
"They want money, they want lots of time to themselves, comfort, and they feel that they have a right to say what they feel and think. They want the easy life, they don't want to work their way up and they are not willing to make sacrifices. I'll explain why I say this: The first: I've had graduates come in and the first thing they ask me is the location of the workplace. They will then ask me if there is transport there (either public or company) and if I say no, then they will not even consider taking the job."
She cites one example of a mass-hire by a very well-known company: This company wanted to hire over 100 fresh graduates, but of the 100 they offered, only 18 accepted the job offer. The rest had turned it down mostly due to transport issues.
"But this company is located in the heart of KL, and they were willing to pay more than RM2,300 for a fresh graduate. I was at a loss for words!"
After we cross the 'hurdle' of transport, she said, the next they ask is whether they will have to stay back after working hours.
"They ask me: Is it 9 to 5? They will tell me that they do not want to stay back and work overtime, and they do not want to work weekends. A large majority of graduates are like that and it worries me. I want to tell them the realities of life, and that nothing ever comes easy."
She has also seen too many fresh graduates who are too laidback, with no sense of urgency.
"In another similar mass-hire, two grads came up to me and asked if they could use the printer in the administration office. The reason? They had not printed out their resumes for an interview that was to take place in about an hour. I was shocked by their lackadaisical attitude - shouldn't you have printed them last night, I asked. They told me that they were too tired, and didn't have time to print it out the day before."
When she asked them to go to the shop nearby, they blankly told her that a 'friend' had said the shop was closed. It turned out that the shop wasn't closed - they just didn't bother to check and was hoping for an easy way out.
"Don't they want a job? Don't they care? What are they still doing sitting around when there is an interview going on?"
The No-Show
In the worst case scenarios, some simply don't show up.
"I once arranged for an interview for a candidate who was very eager for a better job. But on the day of the interview, he simply didn't show up. When I called the next day, he told me he had lost his way to the interview location and decided to just go home."
I was baffled, she said. "I asked him why he didn't just call to say he had lost his way, and he said he was 'scared'. I had no idea what he was scared of."
Similarly, some just don't show up entirely and tell her that their parents had said 'very far away, better work closer to home.'
Worse than not showing up, however, is turning up to the interview like it were an exam.
"A reputable company was looking for fresh graduates, and they interviewed one candidate who kept looking down as she answered the questions. It turned out she had prepared notes and answers to the questions and was looking down at her notepad. This didn't happen to one candidate - it happened with a string of them!"
"Come on, it is not an examination. Just show up, dress appropriately, talk naturally and tell the interviewer your strengths, weaknesses and what you're good at."
Cringe-worthy Interviews
But even with the numerous tips and do's and don'ts one can find on the internet, some candidates do such cringe-worthy things they defy belief.
"A friend of mine, who is in HR, told me that one candidate asked for a higher pay, around RM2,500. She said fine, okay, perhaps you can explain why you need more money?"
One would expect an answer of family financial commitments and such, but this candidate had other excuses.
"He said: "I need a higher pay because I need to go to Starbucks, man! A cup of coffee costs RM12, and I need to go there to hang out with my friends. If I don't get a higher pay I won't be able to go there anymore. I mean, I need to go there at least three times a week." It didn't help that he had actually slouched all through the interview."
Another candidate had impressed his interviewers right up to the moment he insulted them.
"When asked where he saw himself in three years, he confidently said: CEO. The interviewers were taken aback, but well, ambition is good. Until of course, he answered that he wanted to be CEO of their company because their company was 'no good, and is nobody in the market'."
The company in question, said Sarah, is number one in its industry. Luckily for the candidate, the interviewer was gracious enough to tell him never to repeat that again, and that he needed to get his facts straight before saying something like that. Clearly, he did not get the job.
And yet another story: A candidate Sarah interviewed for her own company actually said: "Yes I can work in a team, but if another member of my team is leader instead of me, I will work with him but make sure I pull him down so I may go up."
Communication Breakdown
Another huge, huge problem that needs to be looked into immediately is the command of language, especially English.
"The fact is: Almost all companies want candidates who can speak English well, or at least well enough. Things in our education system should have improved but they seemed to have gotten worse to the point where I wondered how they graduated in the first place."
"Some candidates can barely understand a word of English. Some of them just don't think about the importance of a good command of English until they come out to the working world and see the reality."
This is not reflective of all graduates, of course, stressed Sarah. Many candidates make an effort to improve their English but sometimes it's just too little too late, and she feels sorry for them.
"Resume writing is another hurdle that comes from a poor command of English. I still encounter resumes written in short-forms and leet-speak, like 'u', 'r' and 'ur'. If you think it's just one or two, no, eight out of 10 resumes I get are like that."
That is what's out there in the market now.
"If you ask me, between unemployed or unemployable, I would say that a lot of our graduates are unemployable. And that is the truth."
Rohayah Ahmad, Manager and Hiring Consultant at Jobstreet.com also shared that biggest barrier that graduates falter over is the most basic of all: Communication skills.
"Communicative skills are the main issue, from what we notice of candidates who are not hired. As fresh graduates with no experience, the ability to communicate well and having a good command of English is the determining factor to getting hired," she said. "We do our level best to screen our candidates before short-listing them for interviews (with our clients) but the fact remains that being able to speak and write well in English is only half the battle."
The other half is won by showing up and doing well in the interview.
Making an Impression
Similar to what was shared by Sarah, Rohayah also cites the attitude of candidates as a problem.
"They are demanding, especially about pay, and about work hours. They are fussy about the kind of job scope they will be getting." Many graduates do not carry themselves well. "They sit slouched, they dress badly, they pick up phone calls during an interview and worst of all, some of them even have bad breath!"
Some candidates do not print out hard copies of their resumes, and these things all go to creating an impression to the interviewer. "The way you dress and speak tell the interviewer about you and your personality."
Even something as simple as being asked to sit goes towards giving off the right or wrong impression.
"If your interviewer does not ask you to sit down, don't. Don't just come in and sit down without being invited to. Or ask if you can, if the interviewer forgets. And give a firm handshake. The handshake is more important than you think."
A limp handshake and a slouched demeanour screams sloppy, unorganised or worse, disrespectful.
The Conclusion
It isn't that there are no opportunites out there. It is whether the candidates want to seize them and get the job. So many websites like Jobstreet.com, JobsDB.com or Yahoo! Jobs give useful tips on how to behave during an interview or how to write the correct resume.
And there are positives to the Gen Y employee that all employers are coming around to accept: They are more outspoken, braver, and not afraid to tell you what they want.
So don't let this be the good advice that you didn't take, and learn from the mistakes in this story to snag that job you want.
i am concerned... Thursday, November 11, 2010
this is something i wrote back then about work-life balance. i post it in a forum and it managed to catch some attention. here it goes.
***
i've been in this forum for a while and i can see that threads about 'long working hours' is increasing. be it accenture, the big 4, advertising, engineers, lawyers.
i notice that every time someone raise this issue in this forum, people will start bombarding them with this:
1. young generation now days is always complaining
2. that's life. live with it
3. if want to be successful, that's the only way
i am concerned...
i believe in the beginning of civilization. we 'work' to live. people hunt to eat. people fish to eat. however now days, its vice versa. people live to work. people work 12 hours a day. people work on weekends. people sacrifice public holidays. all of their hours in life is spend at work.
and yet... people say: "that's life. live with it"
i am concerned...
the present companies are smart. they officially announced that "we don't force you to work in late/weekend", but yet they giving out workload at 6 pm on friday evening with a "please complete this by monday. this is important!" note attached to it.
and yet... people say: "if want to be successful, that's the only way"
i am concerned...
executives have no over time but we are force to work like hell. in the contract it is stated "the working hours is from 8:30 am - 5:30 pm, however SOMETIMES your may be required to work extra hours" which is eventually EVERYTIME. if our boss invite a meeting at 9 pm, we can't complain. although "hey, it's way past normal working hours!"
because we if we do... people say "young generation now days is always complaining"
i am concerned...
when we were young 'they' say "we want well rounded graduates". which are excellent at academics, actively playing sports, have a heart for musics, excellent leadership skill, never ending extra-curricular activities. but when we work, we dont have time to do other stuff besides work. we were raised to be balance. but when we grow up. balance is a crime. "generation Y" is known for their work-life balance preference.why? because we were raised that way.
ambitious yet balance.
hard-working yet balance.
work hard, play hard culture remember? you taught us that.
hey and yet... we can't complain.
i am concerned...
heavy workload, lack of resources, un-skilled work force, tight dateline are the common cause for this long hours. all of them are clearly a bad management mistakes/issues. but yet, amazingly we were brainwash.
work 12 hours a day? that's life...
and people DO believe in that!
why do you think in contract it's says 9 am-5 pm? why didn't say 9 am - 12 am? to be fair they should right? because...that's life!
companies now days are totally profit driven. especially in this globalize world. competition are tight. our cost of living is rising. inflation is high. so they thought about "let's use the desperate for jobs people out there!"
today, there are no longer hard-work slave labor. but there is the modern 'intellectual' slave labor. yes... same thing, different name.
i can't stop by laugh by myself. what a life :D
i am concerned...
programmers are like... Thursday, January 7, 2010
programmers are like....prostitutes.
1. we work weird (night) shift...
just like prostitutes.
2. they pay you to make the client happy...
just like a prostitute.
3. the client pays a lot of money, but your employer keeps almost every penny...
just like a prostitute.
4. you are rewarded for fulfilling the client's dreams...
just like a prostitute.
5. your friends fall apart and you end up hanging out with people in the same profession as you...
just like a prostitute.
6. when you have to meet the client you always have to be perfectly groomed...
just like a prostitute.
7. but when you go back home it seems like you are coming back from hell...
just like a prostitute.
8. the client always wants to pay less but expects incredible things from you...
just like a prostitute.
9. when people ask you about your job, you have difficulties to explain it...
just like a prostitute.
10. every day when you wake up, you say: "I'm not going to spent the rest of my life doing this."
just like a prostitute ........
:):):):):)
365 days (looking back) Monday, January 4, 2010
5/1/2010 its my 1st anniversary as a working adult. weee! :)
remembering back on my 1st day of my 1st job at KPMG,
back then i really dont know what to expect.
of work, of life, of work-life.ha-ha. of anything actually.
its been 365 days since then. what happen along the way was just life.
i've walk the path i've choosen, and this is a look back
date: 5/1/2010
the title is EXECUTIVE.
at IT advisory dept - KMPG business advisory
my 1st project was with PETRONAS
doing IT audit. the 1st 3 months i was shadowing a senior.
check on system integrity, back up, disaster recovery etc
not much responsibility. the work in nature also quite relaxing.
then i was assigned to MICROSOFT team. doing a licensing compliance.
go to companies. check entitlement vs deployment
got the chance to travel a lot. go to lots of companies. interesting!
sometimes do require stay back but in really rare cases
i started playing tennis
and i played almost everyday after work (wah life so good this time)
actively playing futsal. we have KPMG groups who usually play once, twice a week
able to watch news at 8pm! ha-ha
oh, i also bought a new Blackberry phone for myself woo!
but i didnt like my work :(
13/07/2009
programmer at ACCENTURE
assigned to TM project - SIEBEL team
my 1st task was to do a DB import
which i know nothing about
i couldn't sleep for a week because of the task
its haunting me!
keep bugging the seniors on the how, what, do and donts
then i was assigned to BIP reports
the challenge was they is no BIP specialist in my team
no one to ask
really need to dig a lot of stuff from GOOGLE
i was responsible for BIP reports and the Subject-Matter-Expert
so it went from, development phase - testing phase - production phase
now its LIVE woohoo! (ofcourse i laugh, cried and scolded along the way ha-ha)
i like my work (atleast for now. he-he)
i like the challenge. i like the responsibility.
but i dont like the work-life balance
work late everyday. work on weekends/public holidays
i miss playing tennis, futsal, sleep, hang outs, holidays, friends, doing nothing
shit, i miss life! ha-ha
i trade passion for work with life. i dont know if its a fair trade.
life unfair. but life unfair to everyone. thats make life fair.
ofcouse there always a day when i look back and say
"i should've stay with KPMG" or
"i should've join ORACLE instead" or
"i should've join IBM"
but i believe in that its not about making the right decision but,
its about making the decision right
its the time to look forward instead :)
HAPPY START-WORK ANNIVERSARY TO ME!
my new year wish 2010 Friday, January 1, 2010
1.go to states
2.go to states
3.go to states
4.go to states
5.go to states
6.go to states
7.go to states
8.go to states
9.go to states
10.make a snowman
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