Last monday, the father of a friend of mine in Leeds has passed away. The sad part is, he couldn't manage to reach Malaysia on time before his father departed. Hopefully, his father will be among the believers and he will face this challenge smoothly. Amin.
When this such situation happens, I would always remember this one story of a father and a son. At that time, the son was in his last year in school and he will undergo an end-year exams in which this exam will more or less determine what and where he will be doing in the future.
One day, the father and his son were in a car and on the way to a supermarket. Since there were only two of them in the car, so the father took the opportunity to talk to his son. First of all, he talked about his other sons and daughters and their education. Then, he talked about expenses; daily expenses, education expenses etc. The son listened and understood the situation.
Next, the father asked his son, "what if I'm no longer here? What if I pass away tomorrow? What will happen to you, your mom and your other siblings?". These few sentences have made the son silent and made the son ponder and think. He was really affected by those questions. At that time, he even imagined what will it be like if it really does happen tomorrow.
Since then, the son was really determined and do what ever it takes to do his best in the exam. For that, he will be well prepared for what will (and certainly will) happen in the future.
Early today morning I happened to attend an employability talk session (to be honest, this is the second time I attended such event; it was made compulsory for all -.- ). The talk was entitled "CV, Cover Letter, Applications & Social Media". I made effort to attend because I think it might be useful for me as an undergrad student. Indeed, it was quite useful because I managed to jot some points on the lecture.
Employers' Perspective
The first thing the speaker talked on was the top 3 areas (or reasons) where an application fails, which are:
Not tailoring their answers to specific company and job role.
Lack of accuracy - in terms of spelling and etc.
Failure to demonstrate passion for that role or industry - usually happen among those who blindly apply for the role.
So, to solve the above problems, applicants are advised to keep in mind these two things when applying:
Analyse the job description.
Analyse your skills and experiences - these two elements are usually traced from students' extra activities in college/university
Criteria
Since the talk was mainly for Electronic and Electrical Engineering students, therefore the speaker talked about some criteria expected by employers to select their future employees. However, the criteria can be of attention of students of other engineering fields. The criteria include commercial awareness, oral & written communication skills, enthusiasm for the subject, planning & organizational skills and ability to work in a multidisciplinary team.
The above skills are usually demonstrated by experiences gained from college or university. The skills and experiences a person has are important to be displayed in a CV, in fact it can be considered the key part employers look at apart from academic qualifications. To 'channel' the skills and experiences properly in a CV, the speaker then introduced to us the STAR statement - Situation, Task, Action, Result. For example, in a CV, one can say that "I lead a group of X community for an expedition and take care of them". But this statement doesn't really show what you really did. It is best to say, for example,
"I went for an expedition to hike Y Hill with the Hiking Club. During the expedition, one of our expedition member was reluctant to continue the trip (Situation). As the team leader, I must find a way of persuading that friend of mine to continue (Task). I talked to the person, saying that everyone wants her to continue the expedition and we are all here to support her (Action). She agreed to continue and we finished the expedition excellently (Result)."
That's just an example of situation. It might not be the best situation, but hopefully it can give a clear picture on what STAR is.
Types of CV
The speaker also talked about the 3 type CVs, namely, academic, skill based and chronological. Academic type usually involves inserting a long description of research ideas, for example, and usually for the purpose of applying academic-based posts, like academicians or university researchers. On the other hand, skill-based and chronological are for non-academic-based posts. The definition of skill-based and chronological:
Skill-based -- Good if a person have limited relevant experience. In this case, applicants will draw attention towards other experiences and the employer will focus on the skills acquired from those other experiences.
Chronological -- Good if the person have lots of relevant experiences. The person can easily list out all pass employments accordingly.
Some tips on the CV and cover letter; both CV and cover letter are usually required if the employer ask 'apply in writing'. However, in some cases in which the employer provides application forms, therefore no cover letter is needed, just the CV. Besides that, it also recommended not to use old CV.
Application forms
Some employers prefer to give out application form apart from requesting CVs. An application form is usually provide questions, besides personal details. The usual mistake made by applicants is not taking the questions seriously. The type of questions are:
Pagi tadi aku mendapat berita yang salah seorang kawan aku terpilih utk mendapat biasiswa mrepc. Setelah beberapa stage yang dilaluinya, akhirnya dapat jua. Alhamdulillah. Semoga ini menjadi dorongan buatnya utk terus sukses dalam pelajaran dan hidup. Amin.
Tak kurang juga, dalam meniti beberapa hari ni, sikap malas itu sering melanda diri ini. Meskipun, aku tau bahawa banyak kerja yang tak siap lagi tapi susah jugak nak kawal. Mungkin faktor keseorangan dalam kursus ini menjadi penyebab? Kerna berbeza dengan masa kat BMI dulu, yang mana terdapat kawan-kawan lain yang menjadi pemangkin. Tapi, ada juga orang kat tempat lain yang belajar sorang2. Maka, tak boleh dijadikan alasan juga.
Alhamdulillah, Ada kawan yang terus mengingatkan. Jika kita ditimpa sesuatu seperti ini, kita fikirkan insan-insan lain yang tak berpeluang belajar dan fikirkan mengenai belia-belia lain yang berjuang untuk agama dan hidup, seperti di Gaza sebagai contoh. Kenapa kita perlu rasa malas untuk melakukan sesuatu yang baik dan bermanfaat untuk diri sedangkan kita disuapkan dengan pelbagai kesenangan, manakala mereka yang berjuang itu hendak tidur pun susah? Sepatutnya, yang mempunyai kelebihan dari sudut kesenangan ini lebih proaktif dalam berjuang kerna segala keperluan sudah ada di depan mata. Sesungguhnya, menuntut itu juga satu perjuangan.
*Terima kasih sekali lagi, kawan*
Sebagai penutup, aku tertarik dengan klip video ini. Enjoy !
Beberapa jam lepas, aku ada terbaca satu blog post seorang kawan ni (boleh tengok kat sini). Apa yang dikatakannya sangatlah benar (Y).
Aku teringat satu ayat ni, "cara kita ingin kenal diri sebenar seseorang kawan kita tu, kita disarankan untuk mengembara atau bermusafir dengan kawan kita itu". Pernah dengar ?
Sebenarnya, ayat tersebut ada kaitan dengan kisah seorang sahabat, yakni Saidina Umar al-Khattab. Sedikit pencerahan di sini.
Ayat tersebut menyebabkan aku teringat akan perjalanan 3 hari 2 malam aku ke Melaka bersama-sama seorang kawan aku, merangkap batch mate OATHS, OP Chep. Sepanjang perjalanan ini, aku diberi peluang oleh Allah Taala untuk lebih mengenali kawan aku ni, sebabnya kebanyakan masa aku lepak dengan dia. (Actually, dia nak pergi majlis nikah dia.haha)
Dalam masa ini juga, aku berkesempatan mengenali tempat-tempat di selatan semenanjung Malaysia (okay, takde kaitan sangat.)
Ok. Tidak dapat dinafikan, mendirikan rumah tangga merupakan satu tanggunjawab/peralihan hidup/perubahan yang sangat besar dalam hidup seseorang. Daripada satu menjadi dua. Daripada haram menjadi halal. Daripada suka jadi gembira (?). Daripada beberapa tanggungjawab menjadi beberapa tanggungjawab tambah satu; dan lain-lain lagi. Oleh sebab itu, seseorang itu, tak kira lelaki mahupun perempuan perlu bersedia; dari segi rohani, mental, fizikal dan intelektual.
Dalam konteks Chep ni pula, setelah mengharungi 3 hari 2 malam bersama-sama dia (dan tambahan 2 tahun kat maktab dulu), insyaAllah aku percaya dan yakin bahawa Chep ini dah siap sedia untuk meniti hari sebagai seorang suami. Kadang tu, aku rasa diri aku sendiri belum bersedia lagi dalam segenap aspek. Namun, Chep telah membuktikan (walaupun bukan niat dia nak buktikan kat aku, tapi ini atas penilaian diri aku sendiri).
Apa yang aku boleh simpulkan, sejauh mana kita kenal seseorang rakan kita itu, namun kita tidak sebenar-benar mengenal orang itu selagi kita tidak mengembara atau bermusafir dengan rakan kita itu. Ini adalah kerana dalam bermusafir ini, kita akan diuji dengan dari pelbagai sudut; keselesaan, rehat, makan minum, emosi dan berbagai lagi. Selain itu, bermusafir itu juga bermaksud kita sedang melepaskan zon selesa kita seperti mengubah rutin harian kita ketika berada di rumah.
"Perjalanan musafir adalah satu cebisan daripada azab". (HR Bukhari dan Muslim)
