………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Every year in August, it is declared as a historical month in Malaysia. Previously on the 31-August, we have celebrated our 52nd anniversary of independence.

Malaysia has been independent for 52 years from the British regime. For the past 52 years, we have evolved from an agriculture and mineral producing country to a developing country focusing on many economy sectors. As a result Malaysian and also foreigners enjoy many opportunities of employment in this beloved country. To a certain extend, many foreigners willing to migrate to Malaysia legally and also many illegally to take advantage of these fertile opportunities.

Ironically, even though there are many job opportunities in Malaysia, the projected 2009 unemployment rate among Malaysian is above 4%. That is an increase of 1% from an average of 3% recorded from previous years. From my personal observation, there are several contributing external & internal factors which I will briefly share in this E-Newsletter.

“Ironically, even though there are many job opportunities in Malaysia, the 2009 projected unemployment rate among Malaysian is above 4%.”

Obviously the external contributing factor is due to the world economy  meltdown. Malaysia as a developing country rely heavily on foreign direct investment (FDI) especially from countries such as Singapore, Americas, Europe, Japan and etc. Most of these FDI are into the manufacturing sector. Many major multinational companies (MNC) in Malaysia have announced layoff plans including factory and office shutdowns to mitigate the impact of the economic slowdown. Since the presence of manufacturing MNC in Malaysia are significant, the layoff plans contributed to the increase of the unemployment rate.

Internally, there are several factors that contributed to the increase of the unemployment rate such as job competition & matching.

Malaysia is a heaven for job seekers who is not so particular on what job is available. As long there is a job, they will just take it. This is very true for foreigners especially from less developed countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and many more. Their presence have created a competitive job market in Malaysia especially among the blue collar jobs where most of employers prefer to hire these foreigners rather than Malaysian because of relatively cheaper labour cost and easier to manage.

“Malaysia is a heaven for job seekers who is not so particular on what job is available. As long there is a job, they will just take it.”

Another contributing factor of higher unemployment rate in Malaysia is due to job matching. Even though there will be about 200-300 thousands university/college graduates will be entering the job market in 2009, the competency of these graduates is still a concern where their qualification can’t directly match the needs of the employers. This is a known fact that the government is putting more attention financially to provide platforms for graduates to be train & place in suitable job market. To make it more effective, these graduates themselves has to realize that they need to adapt to the needs and wants of their future employer. Bottom line, they need to market their career smartly for their own & their future employer success.

Last week I’ve attended a motivational talk by a friend who is also the L&D (Learning & Development) Manager in conjunction with Engineering Week in Agilent, Penang. The title of the talk was “Tough Time Never Last but Tough People Do”. Overall, the talk is about the challenges many of us are facing with the current economic meltdown. The good news is this challenging time will not last forever but if you can’t survive during this bad time, once the good time comes; you will not be able to enjoy it.

During the talk, I’m attracted to Stephen Covey’s 90/10 Principal which simplifies the concept of destiny and also the ability to make a change. The principal clearly stated that 10% of whatever happens in your life has been set as your destiny; you can’t change it but for the remaining 90%, you still have the ability to make the change as long if you want it. It all depends on how you react to it.

With that in mind, leveraging this 90/10 Principal into your career marketing process does make sense. Obviously you can’t make sure that whenever you are applying for a job, you will get it, but on the other hand you still have the control to make yourself marketable to win in the job market.

“10% of whatever happens in your life has been set as your destiny; you can’t change it but for the remaining 90%, you still have the ability to make the change as long if you want it. It all depends on how you react to it”

Regardless in what situation you are currently in; lost your job, not satisfied with your current job, bad relationship with your boss or colleagues & etc, you are able to recover from your misery just by knowing that you have the control to make the change.

How to do that?

Well, in the following 5 steps I’ll be sharing what I personally used and also shared with all my clients.

“1st step: Identify what is actually making you miserable; 2nd step: Identify & list down the things that you can change to improve your satisfaction level; 3rd step: Strategize a plan you will need to take in making the change; 4th step: Take action; 5th step: Enjoy if successful, repeat if fail.”

1st step:

Identify what is actually making you miserable (it can be anything). Ask yourself if it falls into the 10% (I can’t change it) or 90% (I can change it). If it falls into the 10% (e.g. world wide economy recession, natural disaster, H1N1, war, death etc); there is nothing much you can do. If it falls into the 90%, then you can proceed to step 2.

2nd step:

Identify the things that you can change to improve your satisfaction level. List it down on paper. Then move to step 3

3rd step:

Based on what you have listed down, strategize or think of a plan you will need to take in making the change. Talk to friends or family members that are able to give you positive feedback.

4th step:

With the plan, take action and finally….

5th step:

Congratulation if your action brings success. But bear in mind that whatever happens after you have taken the action, you must remain positive and if still fail to get what you want, then you have the choice to repeat the above steps and improve the plan or just continue to be sad and miserable.

Give it a try and I’m sure if you practice these steps diligently, I’m sure your misery will not last long…

In this month’s E-Newsletter, under HOT Jobs, there are opportunity for Process Engineer & Quality Manager. Under the  CMS article, I’ll introduce the importance of continuous self development in CMS. I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce another service that we are providing which is Career Marketing System (CMS) Resume & Cover Letter Writing & Consultation services.

I really hope the information available in this and the future E-Newsletter will be beneficial for your career marketing. If you think this E-Newsletter will be beneficial to your friends or family members, please feel free to share it with them. Sharing is caring.

Nevertheless, I know that I am not able to fulfill all your needs that is why I highly encourage for your feedback and comments on how to improve our future E-Newsletters to exceed your needs.

Please e-mail to: career_advisor@resumeweassist.com,

Till next month E-Newsletter, take care.

“If you think this E-Newsletter will be beneficial to your friends or family members, please feel free to share this E-Newsletter with them. Sharing is caring”

You can find the previous edition of E-Newsletter HERE

As what I have written in my last month’s E-Newsletter adapted from Winston Churchill “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”. Yes, I have done some changes to my blog but now I have to be more aggressive to make it “perfect”.

But when I mentioned about change to perfection, I’m actually talking about rational change. I must be very careful not to make any drastic changes that will make it more difficult to manage the blog and worst not meeting your needs.

Similarly to our career, making a change is supposed to be managed wisely even though it is so tempting to make the career jump. But remember there is a Malay saying “You have escaped from the dragon’s mouth but end up jumping into the crocodile’s mouth”.

But remember, there is a Malay saying “You have escaped from the dragon’s mouth but end up jumping into the crocodile’s mouth”

Ironically, career change management is one of those challenges that many of us still fail to succeed. I’ve seen many people including some clients who are so excited with their new job offer and blindly jump into it without even realizing they are making a severe mistake in their career. Well, for some who are lucky, they are able to come back to their old job but many still have to suffer until today.

In the CMS cycle, one of the crucial process at the end of the cycle is accepting or rejecting a job offer. Regardless if you are a fresh graduate or an experience professional, making the decision to accept or to reject a job offer will determine the future of your career.

That is why in this month’s E-Newsletter under CMS article, I’ll introduce about  making the decision to accept or reject the job offer. I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce another service that we are providing which is Career Marketing System (CMS) Career Coaching Program.

I really hope the information available in this and the future E-Newsletter will be beneficial for your career marketing. If you think this E-Newsletter will be beneficial to your friends or family members, please feel free to share it with them. Sharing is caring.

If you think this newsletter will be beneficial to your friends or family members, please feel free to share this E-Newsletter with them. Sharing is caring.

Nevertheless, I know that I am not able to fulfill all your needs that is why I highly encourage for your feedback and comments on how to improve our future E-Newsletters to exceed your needs. Please e-mail us at career_advisor@resumeweassist.com or leave your comments.

Thank you.

Take care.

……………………………………………………..

You can download your E-Newsletter HERE

Lately where ever I went, most of the people whom I’ve met will ask me this question “How is it going in the factory?” My spontaneous response is the business is slow. Well that is the truth if relatively compared to last year’s business results. But to be honest, things are not so bad after all.

I’m sure many of you will be wondering why I’m I saying things are not so bad. Logically, when business is slow, companies especially with factories will resort to expense control which will eventually leads to headcount reduction, i.e. layoff. This is true looking at the current situation many are or will be facing sooner or later.

It is a fact that individually we can’t change the economic situation. Whatever is happening now is something that is already been expected to happen and we can’t avoid it. We can either choose to ride the economic Tsunami or drown into it. For me I would prefer to ride the waves as long there is still a wave for me to ride on ?. It is totally useless to prolong the sadness and frustration and not doing anything about it. I personally believed with this saying “There is always a blessing in disguise”.

“There is always a blessing in disguise”

Going back to my work that I fortunately still have, with the slow down in business, my work load should also slow down. But unexpectedly, I still have loads of things to do on my plate,(lucky me) just because there are opportunities popping out for improvement & development. Now I have more time to spend looking into ways to improve the processes being used in my daily work and also into my team’s work. Things that were previously impossible to look into due to time constraint now I can make them possible. Obviously with the slow down in business, indices measuring our productivity and quality standards are magnified and that will force my team and me to improve them.

Well for those who became casualties of the economic Tsunami will be asking where is the blessing? Is the blessing still in disguise until they can’t even see it yet? Those are valid questions and I empathy with them. But the answers to these questions can only be discovered if they are ready to make THE CHANGE. It is a normal human behaviour to resist change just because we are way too deep into our comfort zone. Coming out of the comfort zone is already difficult and on top of that it makes matter worst by loosing their job.

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often,” Winston Churchill believed. And Charles Darwin wrote, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

The bottom line, whatever is happening to you now regardless if it is a good thing or not, you will need to bear in mind that to survive and continue to strive future success; you will need to be flexible enough to ride the Tsunami.

If you would like to share your experience riding the ecomonic Tsunami, please feel free to leave your comments below.

Many will not realized that for the past 2 months, we as Malaysian have celebrated 3 New Year occasions. Previously on 28-Dec’08, Muslims have celebrated the Hijrah New Year (1430). Obviously, on the 1-Jan’09, we have celebrated the 2009 New Year and just recently our Chinese community just celebrated their year of the Ox, Chinese New Year. 

It is great to be living in a multi religion country such as in Malaysia where we are able to celebrate multiple festivals throughout the year in peace & harmony. Personally, I would say that Malaysians have the most public holidays in the world ?

However, all these happiness have been taken away from some of us who are struggling to cope with the worst economy meltdown since World War II. For those who have just lost their job, it is not the end of the world. Believe me, there are opportunities out there just waiting for you to tap on. If you need any career advice, please drop me an e-mail at career_advisor@resumeweassist.com and let me know how I can help you attain your career goals.

Also not to forget the people of Gaza who are suffering from a 3 weeks inhumane onslaught by the unrecognized Israel regime. May Allah bless them all.

In this month’s E-Newsletter, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself especially on my effort to help you attain your career goals.

In this month CMS article, I will introduce Interview as a Crucial Conversation, where my focus will be on how to leverage some tools I’ve learnt by using Crucial Conversation skills in my daily life at work & at home.

I really hope the information available in this and the future E-Newsletter will be beneficial for your career marketing and growth. If you think this newsletter will be beneficial to your friends or family members, please feel free to share this E-Newsletter with them. Sharing is caring  Nevertheless, I know that I am not able to fulfill all your needs that is why I highly encourage for your feedback and comments on how to improve our future E-Newsletters to exceed your needs.

Please e-mail us at career_advisor@resumeweassist.com, exclusive vouchers will be given for your valuable feedbacks.

Till next month, take care.

Regards

Yusoff

We at ResumeWeAssist Enterprise would like to take this opportunity to wish all our clients a joyous happy new year.

It is a norm among us to have a New Year resolution at the beginning of

January of each year. I’m sure many of us will have some sort of new or modified resolution with regards to our personal life, family and also in our career. Regardless of whatever resolution that we have put forward for 2009, it does make sense to recap what we have done, achieved and fail to do in 2008. From there, we will be able to have a more improved & balance resolution to meet our objective in 2009.

Moving forward in 2009, we will be launching more products and services to meet and exceed your needs to market your career effectively. Hence in this month E-Newsletter edition, we will be sharing all these great products & services that will be available for you to grab and leverage for your career success.

In this month CMS article, I will be focusing on Resume 101, a brief introduction but yet sufficient for you to understand the importance of a resume to effectively market your career.

Click HERE to download the pdf format of this month’s E-Newsletter edition.

I really hope the information available in this and the future E-Newsletter will be beneficial for your career marketing. If you think this newsletter will be beneficial to your friends or family members, please feel free to share this E-Newsletter with them. Sharing is caring

Nevertheless, we know that we are not able to fulfill all your needs that is why we highly encourage for your feedback and comments on how to improve our future E-Newsletters to exceed your needs.

Please e-mail us at career_advisor@resumeweassist.com or drop your comments at below , exclusive vouchers will be given for your valuable feedbacks.

Thank you.

First of all thank you for your continuous support and I really hope the information available in the previous and the future coming E-Newsletter will be beneficial for your career marketing. If you think this newsletter will be beneficial to your friends or family, please feel free to share this E-Newsletter with them. Sharing is caring .

In this month’s E-Newsletter, we will be sharing about starting a job search which is the most fundamental step in Career Marketing System (CMS). On top of that, we will also share a list of open hot jobs waiting for your application. Not to forget, our company profile for you to know us better.

If you have not and would like to subscribe to our E-Newsletter, please submit your e-mail address on the top right hand side of this blog.

Nevertheless, we know that we are not able to fulfill all your needs that is why we highly encourage for your feedback and comments on how to improve our future E-Newsletter to exceed your needs.

Please e-mail us at career_advisor@resumeweassist.com or leave your comments below, exclusive vouchers will be given for your valuable feedbacks.

Thank you.

We can help you attain your career goals.

Thank you for your continues support and as a token of appreciation, we are presenting you our monthly E-Newsletter straight to your e-mail. Currently there are about 100++ subscribers and if you are interested to get a copy, please drop us a blank e-mail at career_advisor@resumeweassist.com with subject “E-Newsletter Request”. You can also download the pdf copy of the newsletter thru this link. In our monthly E-Newsletter, we will provide tips, latest hot jobs listing, special promotions and articles on Career Marketing System (CMS).

We at ResumeWeAssist.com are committed to be the premier career marketing consultant and service provider to every jobseeker to start their career including career progression & enhancement opportunity. We hope with this E-Newsletter, you will be kept updated on the latest job market updates in Malaysia and learn effective tips on how to market your career effectively.

For our clients who have received our E-Newsletter, we know that we will not able to fulfil all your needs that is why we highly encourage for your feedback and comments on how to improve our E-Newsletter to exceed your needs. Please drop your valuable comments & feedback at below. Exclusive vouchers will be give for all your valuable feedbacks & comments.

Thank you.

Till then, take care…

Regards

Yusoff