For starters, blogging wise, this year, i.e. 2009 has been less than productive. In my mind, there are a lot of things I want to say & write in all the blogs that I’ve set-up, yet it never materialized the way I pictured it. Call it laziness or just lack of time, those are just excuses and justification that I make to myself.

Yet, in retrospect, I would have placed 2009 as one of the best learning & personal growth experience that I had in my life, and here, I will try my best to share this with everyone on this simple blog entry.

How do I do this? By answering these 5 elementary questions;

1. What was your biggest triumph in 2009?
This question is a tough one as I have quite a few. So, let me just list them down here as the biggest in no particular order;

• I moved to my own house in D’Rimba with my small family in March! Finally, a place to call my (our) own!
• I celebrated my 30th year of existence in this world with my loved ones
• I closed big sales account with BFM through mainly my own effort and contacts
• I am a Money & You and Creating Wealth Graduate! (see q2)
• I only job-hopped once in 2009! Hehe!!

2. What was the smartest decision you made in 2009?
To invest in myself and join the top 2% of the world population by joining the many Money & You graduates of the world. I sincerely believe that it was one of the best decision that I made ever to grow myself and I have experienced such great love, and got tremendous clarity & distinctions towards what I want to achieve with my life. The transformational journey has only just begun and I commit myself to applying all the principles of Money & You and Creating Wealth everyday! It was definitely PRECESSION at work. In fact, just by being in Money & You, my friends list on Facebook has grown to the 1000s!!

3. What one word best sums up and describes your 2009 experience?
TRANSFORMATIONAL!

4. What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2009?
To be truly successful in life, I need to take FULL RESPONSIBILITY.
FULL STOP. No more blaming, no more excuses, no more justification.

5. What was the most loving service you performed in 2009?
This is another tough one. Got a few as well. For my small family, Nia & Nadyne, I’m sponsoring 2 return tickets to the UK for them and we will all embark on a 9 days Easter family trip to the UK in April next year. WooooHoooo! Can’t wait! And my wish to be able to celebrate Nadyne’s 1st birthday at our own home was fulfilled in April this year too!

For the beloved pjfamily, I’ve shared whatever that I learned and got from Money & You and I’m proud to have both my elder sister (Kaklong) & brother (Acat) has joined the M&Y family! We had a fun family day outing just recently and it was a BLAST!

For the community, I’ve committed my time & effort as best as possible to participate fully and contribute my ideas and actions into the betterment of D’Rimba and grow within the M&Y circle.

For my work, I’ve sincerely act with integrity and believe have contributed to the growth of BFM89.9 and now will embark on another start-up journey with Leaderonomics and bring it to greater heights!

So, there you go!

Here’s wishing everyone a great end to 2009 and GREATER START to 2010!!

Between Feb 2007 and March 2008, Sean Aiken completed an epic journey around North America, working 52 jobs in 52 weeks. Sean Aiken graduated from college and didn’t know what he wanted to do for a career (or what he wanted to do with his life).

Instead of take the first job that came along, he found a unique way of figuring it out: the One Week Job project.

How it worked: Anyone, anywhere, could offer Sean a job for one week. Any money he earned for the work, he asked the employer to donate towards the ONE / Make Poverty History campaign.

On his inspirational quest, Sean tried everything: Bungee Instructor, Dairy Farmer, Advertising Executive, Baker, Stock Trader, Firefighter, and more. Wherever he could find work, he’d go there, find a couch to crash on and immerse himself in whatever profession was at hand. And then he’d move on.

Well, the excerpt above is actually taken directly from the oneweekjob.com’s ‘about the project’ website.
You can check it out and see all the 52 jobs he undertook during those times and what he has achieved.

Soon, his experiences will be shared with the whole world with a published book too!
You can also check out all the 52 episodes of his job hopping experiences here.

This guy is my HERO and is pure inspiration to me. I wished I could have done the same thing straight after graduation, finding my true passion and never settle for less. Well, at the moment, I’m already embarking on that journey and I believe one day, I will be able to also do what I love and enjoy and still creating personal wealth. If job-hopping 4 times a year like what I did seems extreme to you, then think again!

What really inspires me about Sean is his conviction and promise in the beginning as outlined on his site:

Shortly after graduating from college, I made a promise to myself:

I will not settle for a career that I am not truly passionate about, I will not allow yearning for weekends and the illustrious two week vacation a year to define my life, I will be in a positive work place situation and I will love what I am doing.

Well, right now, I’m making the same promise too and I hope you will also do the same!
Maybe I will emulate what Sean did in the US back here in Malaysia and find a good cause to support..

Hhhhmmmm.. that sounds like a wild idea, isn’t it? My wife and daughter might starve a year then!
Anyone care to support my journey?

Actually, work has taken it’s toll on my blogging life and eventhough I’ve taken a well deserved break to Bali, there are still more dramas happening in my career life. Maybe it’s time to leap again?

So, while still giving my all to what I’m doing now, I’m always on the search of better opportunities or even contemplating of starting my own business.

One of those opportunities that I’ve stumbled upon is this service called:

What is it? Well, from their FAQ page;

PitchYourTalent provides the easiest way for you to stand out to all
potential employers, especially in today’s crowded employment market.
We believe that this will be the most productive way for talented
people to get their next job – just go through a few simple steps to
setup your profile and it will be accessible to ALL potential employers
(who has internet access) in your region.

They’ve also got this cool YouTube TVC.

Looking at it, they seems to partner with JobStreet, Malaysia’s no 1 Jobsite.
So far, the service is still FREE of Charge, hence I’ve already signed-up.

Yet, so far, nobody has yet to discover me.
So, it’s still debatable how effective this headhunting/pitching/jobsite is.
Why not try it for yourself and find out if you can be discovered?

There are so much more I want to share here, especially with the JobStreet review that I did before which never got into any of the JobStreet newsletters as  I believe, the contest never materialised. Well, what can you do? It’s one of those things that you can’t really control.

Maybe their next career fair, they will honour their marketing campaign?

Till next time. Keep picthing your talent!!

Cheers.
Ed

this blog post will be quite long & dedicated specially to

From Jobstreet’s Malaysia 8th Career and Training Fair 2009

in a cunning attempt to be featured on JobStreet Digest newsletter for February 2009 issue

TheJobHopper i.e. yours truly went to the MCTF’09 on the first day and as the early disclaimer above refers, I had to circle around for almost an hour inside MidValley shopping mall to find for a decent, legal parking. Just as I feel like giving up and exiting the premise, I found an empty parking space just before the exit. Thank GOD!

So, up I went to the Midvalley Exhibition Centre on Level 3 to check out the event, with my netbook and business namecards all in hand. One thing great about Jobstreet is their innovation in technology and communication. So this time around, they really took advantage of the mobile and SMS world.

Basically, since I pre-registered for the MCTF’09 before hand and already an active Jobstreet.com member, I got an Express Entry Code through SMS and all I had to do was show my code number (02018) at the entrance.

Hence, I avoided needing to ‘q’ to sign up or register for the fair. I saw a lot of young graduates or non-members of Jobstreet still had to fill in forms at the entrance. Wastage of paper I must say!

In the future, I hope that everything will be paperless & wireless. That’d be neat!

Once I showed my code, I got a visitor’s sticker that looks like below. I did though request for a media pass/press kit since I am after all from the media at the counter, but unfortunately they’ve run out. I guess I was a bit late (but, it was only the 1st day!)

The crowd wasn’t as big as I thought it’d be. 2 reasons for this might be:

1. I came on a working day – Friday. I’m sure the weekends will be fulled with jobseekers (+ even worst parking condition!)
2. I arrived around 5ish…

So, the first thing that I checked out was of course the Jobstreet.com booths. There were a lot of PC terminals there and promoters/Jobstreet’s staff around to assist jobseekers to register for membership as well as do some basic search.

What was new (at least to my knowledge) is this huge blue board below:

Well, it’s actually job postings in different segments such as Sales & Marketing, Engineering etc, but what’s unqiue is that you can apply for this job directly via SMS. All you had to do was type in
JSA <space> Apply <space> thejob code displayed and send to 39665.

Of course, you have to be a member of Jobstreet first. So, I did test the system and voila it works like a charm! The SMS charge was 30c per application/sms sent. From there, your resume stored on your Jobstreet online account will be sent directly to the respective employers. It’s quite clever and saves jobseekers time from actually submitting their printed CVs by hand.

However, looking at some of the job postings advertised on the SMS board, I’m guessing Jobstreet offer this service to those job agencies or employers who can’t afford their own booth or would rather spend their weekends doing something else rather than manning a public booth!

Then, at the end of the first middle stretch walk-away, Jobstreet sets up their Free Resume & Career Clinic services. This is quite popular among fresh graduates or even seasoned job-seekers who needs some help on improving their CV presentation. I believe this was one of the most helpful clinic judging by the response that they had.

But I think the private interview room were not being fully utilised as I didn’t see any interviews going on inside.

Being in the media line (radio in particular), I was interested to check out some of the media employers that showed up. Well, this time around, Radio24 from Bernama got the nod as their official radio/media partner. So, I went to check out their booth.

To be honest, there were nothing special and I did tuned into Radio24 prior to the event just to have a feel of what kind of promotion or interviews that they provide to highlight the fair. I didn’t hear a thing. Maybe it was my timing. But, it’s curious that Jobstreet would engage Radio24, a Malay-language based radio to tie up with when they use English as their main medium. Of course Radio24 does have their English belts nowadays, but still, I’m curious. I guess maybe for the free airtime that they’re getting!

Hopefully next year, they’ll tie up with BFM 89.9 which will be a better fit overall.. (for obvious reasons!)

(correction, it’s Suresh Thiru, not Sujesh. Sorry for the typo above!
Someone should fire our tech podcaster! hehe..)

Well, over the years, I’ve attended quite a number of career fairs both in Malaysia, and especially during my student years in the UK. What I love most or find it interesting is how employers  present their booths in many creative ways to get more traffic in, as well as giving away freebies and souvenirs for the visitors to bring back home.

Unfortunately this time around, at MCTF 09′ there were’t much to shout about. Point of sales materials and goodie bags were lacking, and some booths are even empty! I’m inclined to assume that this is due to the budget cuts on advertising and promotion or because of the economic crisis that is affecting just about everybody now.

But, there are still some employers who went all out to showcase their company profile to attract the best talents, and lo and behold for me, here are the TOP 3 booths for this year’s MCTF 09′, not just in terms of creative presentation, but also of the traffic coming in, the enthusiastic staff/promoters + the goodies that they offer (experience and product wise)

1. TNT – orange display of products and a BIG plane banner!

2. P&G – 3 sports ambassadors for Gillette brand and excellent displays of product offerings

3.T-Systems - an F1 simulation game, who wouldn’t want to try that!

Well, the organisations above have big budgets of course, but special mention have to go to 95% The Advertising Academy. Despite a small booth, they manage to entice people with clever messaging on their displays and why wouldn’t they? They are after all the ’so-called’ experts in advertising and branding!

Oh yes, towards the end, you can also check out the Malaysian A1 GP Team and also test out their simulator, which is pretty neat for the race driver enthusiasts out there.

(curiously, nobody was willing do be on the hot seat when I took this picture!)

Jobstreet combines both higher education & learning on their MCTF, which why it’s called career & training fair, so before exiting, you will have to go through all the education booths featuring: higher learning and private institutions, offering various courses locally and overseas.

As expected, this section does not attract as much visitors as the employers section, nevertheless, it gives visitors an alternative to the jobseeking process, i.e. invest in learning and education, then you’ll be more marketable to prospective employers.

What is lacking though are actual training centres or training vendors highlighting their products and services. Companies send their employees to specialised functional trainings and these kind of soft-skills training are also available via public programmes, hence I find it a bit weird that they’re not invited to attend the fair or showcasing their services.

Well, this is quite a long entry already. Anyway, to sum it up, I just want to share and highlight some key learnings from attending MCTF ‘09 or room for improvement to Jobstreet.com for their next upcoming event:
(in no particular order)

• Career fairs are a good start-up point, especially to fresh graduates to have a feel of what company they fancy working for and also improve their communication skills by approaching employers directly and present (sell) themselves to prospective bosses!

• Employers, especially the hiring managers and HR personnel need to be present on fair days because they are the one who will be the ultimate decider on placing the best candidate for the jobs advertised. Don’t just hire promoters or lower level event people to represent your company. Be there, share your experiences, schedule interviews via pre-registeration and show what it means to work for your organisation.

• Job seekers need to really make full use of these fair beforehand. Research the companies that you’re interested and vacancies available via Jobstreet.com. Then dig some more, improve your CV or try to get the hiring managers contacts and schedule an interview appointment on the event day. That would be the strategy to maximise the time you spend on the event day. Focus on quality, rather than quantity, i.e. pick who you want to speak to and customise your application towards that employer!

• Jobstreet.com need to find new or more proactive media partners, hence this is where BFM 89.9 can/should come in. Talk to me or hire me as your marketing consultant. Hehe.. (well, my boss was a pionner at Jobstreet and he found me through Jobstreet too, so I’m sure we can work something out!)
  

Anyway, all in all, I believe the recently concluded Jobstreet’s 8th MCTF was still a huge success. Hopefully, employers manage to get quality CVs through and hire some good people, especially during this tough times.

Well, good thing is, Jobstreet will always be there to lend a helping hand..

See you at the next career fair!

Cheers.
Ed