YOUNGER MALAYSIAN LOSING TO OLDER GENERATION?

It is no surprise reading this article (below) over the internet. Looking at the quality of younger Malaysian workforce, I have to agree. We are in this business of seeking for the right quality of candidate among the younger group of people and find this commodity, very hard to come by.
Especially when the job order requires, good command of English, good business acumen, good communication skills. In many of our interviews, we find that most candidates think that having a paper qualification is enough to secure for them a job!
What more for MNCs who are seeking candidates to fill up their positions! Are things getting better for these graduates? Are university students now being put through any program to improve their command of English?

Posted on NST Online 15/6/2009:
"KUALA LUMPUR: Younger Malaysians are losing out to the older generation in terms of top jobs that pay RM500,000 or more annually. Older Malaysians top the hit list of international headhunters who want candidates who graduated when educational standards were higher than today."

"The sad fact is that fresh Malaysian graduates are given a pass due to poor communication skills, business acumen and attitude."

"there was a dichotomy in the Malaysian work force with the older generation having a better command of language, being more resilient and having qualifications on par with international standards."

“These qualities are absent in the present generation,”

"headhunters previously specifically targeted Malaysians because they were tri-lingual, this trend was slowly dying off."

IS ENGLISH LANGUAGE STILL HAUNTING THE GRADUATES?

Lack of their ability to speak english, might cause them to loose booking a place in the company. What are we going to do? The teachers, the parents, the government, the friends, the newspapers, the TVs & cable TVs, the kindergarten, the schools, the universities, the colleges, the companies, the candidates ................

I had blogged this topic before, never mind, I still want to highlight this issue. I see many graduates and job seekers lack the ability to speak proper english. Communicating in simple english. Most speak "broken english" that's hard to listen.

Its been really hard for me to always tell these candidates that I cannot send them to our clients because of their inability to speak english well. It has to be well spoken. Understanding what they are saying....maybe most interviewers can understand.

But its the well spoken that most interviewers want!! I won't be giving any advices here, maybe in another topic. I just wanted to let people know that it is vital for them to learn to speak and write good english.

That's the only way for them to be able to have good strong confidence during an interview. the first thing most candidates tell us, is that they their spoken english is "not very good" or " tak berapa pandai cakap bahasa inggeris"

Why english is important, is because english is used at the very start of the interview. yeah, there are interview conducted fully in malay, but the last question would definitely be "can you speak and write english and how well?"

As we know in our country, letters to private companies are written in english and letters to the government are usually written in malay but I have submitted working papers or proposal to the government in english and it was accepted.

So do not take this lightly. Start on early.

BIG MISTAKES MADE DURING AN INTERVIEW

1. Many candidates feel that coming for an interview half-prepared or not well prepared IS OK!! Usually when the interviewer asked them why they didn't prepare themselves, the usual answers will be, they did not have ample time to prepare!.
2. Fresh graduates and new job seekers do not even know the basic kinda of work, required for the job they are applying for.
3. Most fail in the "background of the company" category.
4. Answering back in malay, when the interviewer was asking a question in english!
5. One way communication - usually candidates does not ask any questions.
6. Simply answering "yes" or "no", when the answers require them to explain more so that the interviewer can understand better.
7. They simply think that their qualification from a very good university is enough.
8. Thinking their Score of 3.5 GPA is also good enough.
9. Not prepared for a test or role-plays or typing is rampant for many candidates
10. Not taking opportunity to impress the interviewer as this was their one and only chance to get a job.

WALK-IN INTERVIEWS

Its been 2 weeks now since we did a walk-in interview sessions. The response is just ok, from my point of view. There are available jobs awaiting for these job seekers but where are they? I expected them to be waiting in line at our doorsteps, but.....

Hey guys, I hear that there are many of you out there still lookin for a job? Yeah, I also know that a great number of you guys are SIMPLY NOT INTERESTED.......YET? WHY??

You see, in this business, I have come to realize that many job seekers are not interested in jobs that are simply not the ones they studied for or jobs that are customer service or sales & marketing related. Or even....insurance related jobs.

I have been approached by many of these companies, who wishes to recruit staff for these types of industries. Here in our country, it seemed that jobs are made for a certain group of people only. The sales & marketing are liken by the chinese, the administrative desk bound jobs are liken by the malays. Most probably this kinda of beliefs also practised by the employers.

I had an employer who gave us a job order to find them suitable candidates for the post of an accountant or financial controller or accounts clerk, but they want a chinese candidate!!
Lol! I informed them that I have other candidates of different races, but they still believe that what they want is most appropriate!!

Anyway back to the walk-in interview, well don't get me wrong, we had people interviewed every day from Monday To Friday, but like I said earlier, the candidates were not as I expected.
So I have come to a conclusion that jobs are a plenty everywhere! Am I right?

What's your opinion on this? I welcome comments from your part of the world? Thank you.

TRAIN & PLACE?

There's this excitement with the "Train & Place" concept up in the air. First and foremost, it not a new concept at all! Simply it means "train the people and place them (i.e. find them suitable jobs)".

I heard the "train & place" program has been offered to mostly training companies. Well what I found out was most of these people that have been trained needs to find a place to work in? So training companies are trying to strike a deal or partnership with recruitment companies?

So my guess would be, training companies - train and recruitment companies - place.

Well aren't there any recruitment companies being appointed then? I suppose there are? I do not know of! Wouldn't it be nice if recruitment companies are appointed coz I think most recruitment companies have their training division already.