Job Seeker Forum

There was confusion as reports came in of a ban on Indian workers in Malaysia. Those reports were promptly denied by Kuala Lumpur, but for years now ethnic Indians in Malaysia have complained of discrimination by the government.
Every year Malaysia gets around 2.5 lakh Indian tourists. But questions are being asked; in a country where Indian tourists are so welcome, why is there hostility towards Indian job seekers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfcM2ymUq2c

You've sent off your CV and now you've been called in for an interview -- great! This video podcast covers all manner of career advice topics to help you prepare for your job interview. From confidence boosting tips, body language, and clothes to wear you'll learn the best career advice
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Elvis Presley - The Wonder Of You
The wonder of you Elvis Presley king rock roll
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Malaysia's brain drain appears to be picking up speed. According to a recent parliamentary report, 140,000 left the country, probably for good, in 2007. Between March 2008 and August 2009, that figure more than doubled to 305,000 as talented people pulled up stakes, apparently disillusioned by rising crime, a tainted judiciary, human rights abuses, an outmoded education system and other concerns.

The general assumption is that Chinese and Indians form the majority of those abandoning the country of their birth because ethnic Malays consider them pendatang – aliens in a Malay land, regardless of how long they have been in the country. However, increasing numbers of Malays have already emigrated as well, or are seriously thinking it, dismayed by corrupt practices as well as the rigid confines of Islam and the rise of fundamentalism embodied in the revelation on Wednesday by Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein that three women had been caned in Kajang Prison in Selangor on Feb. 9 for having had illicit sex under shariah law.

In 2000, according to figures compiled in 2007, 40 percent of Malaysian emigrants headed for Singapore – at the same time Singaporeans are headed somewhere else. By one estimate, (Singaporeans Seek Asylum Elsewhere, Asia Sentinel, Jan. 7) the number who put the Lion City behind them is as high as 15 percent of annual births. In 2006, the Transport Minister, Raymond Lim, expressed concern that 53 percent of Singaporean teens would consider emigration. One website survey put Singapore's average outflow at 26.11 migrants per 1,000 citizens, the second highest in the world - next only to East Timor (51.07).

Of the other émigrés, 30 percent go to OECD countries (Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Britain) 20 percent to Asian countries (Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia) and the rest of the world (10 percent). Malaysian Employers Federation executive director, Shamsuddin Bardan, said in an interview that 785,000 Malaysians are working overseas. Unofficially, the figure is well over 1 million.

Nor are people all that is leaving. Asia Sentinel reported on Jan.11 (Malaysia's Disastrous Capital Flight) that there has been an exodus of money from Malaysia on a scale which surpasses that which occurred during the Asian crisis. The decline is also reflected in a sudden decline in base money supply – even while, thanks to Bank Negara, broader M2 has continued to grow modestly.

A major problem is the flight of graduates. As early as 2004, former Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was becoming concerned, pointing out that as many as many as 30,000 thought to be working in foreign countries, many of whom had held scholarships in top universities from the Malaysian government but chose to stay overseas at the end of their studies. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad demanded that other countries pay Malaysia for having seduced them to stay, " since, by right, the graduates' training and knowledge should be called intellectual property."

The typical reasons are well-documented: improved employment and business prospects, higher salaries, better working environments, greater chances of promotion and a relatively superior quality of life.

Three Malay women put a personal face on statistics in conversation with Asia Sentinel, sharing their decisions to emigrate. Two are graduates of overseas universities, the third is from a local school. Their decisions to leave were made, they say, after a lot of soul searching. But for these women, money and economic incentives were not the end-all. Their names have been changed to protect them.

Anita claims to have left because of her sexuality. She graduated from a university in the United Kingdom but continued with a post-graduate degree course. At the end of her studies, she worked in a multinational corporation in London and is now a department head. She was recently married, in a civil ceremony, in the UK. A Malay, Anita is naturally Muslim. Her partner is another woman, Nadia, an Iraqi Jew. They met as undergraduates.

For a decade, the two made the annual pilgrimage to Malaysia to visit Anita's ageing parents, Anita says. When in Kuala Lumpur, they are regular patrons of lesbian joints in Bangsar. After the Malaysian National Fatwa Council issued an edict banning lesbianism in 2008, Anita travelled alone. Nadia dislikes the risk of being 'caught,' The clues to their sexuality are their short cropped hair, Doc Marten shoes, preponderance of masculine clothes and, on closer inspection, their identical wedding rings with each other's names inscribed. Anita is in self-imposed exile because her partner will not be allowed to reside in Malaysia.

Although male homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and sodomy incurs a punishment of 20 years jail, Malaysia's civil code does not ban lesbianism. Malaysian men are just so big-headed that they cannot imagine any woman not wanting to sleep with a man.

"It is unacceptable to see women who love the male lifestyle including dressing in the clothes men wear," said Abdul Shukor Husin, the Fatwa Council chairman. Harussani Idris Zakaria, the mufti of Perak, says that the council's ruling was not legally binding as it had not been passed into law. He wants tomboys to be banned because their actions are immoral. "It doesn't matter if it's a law or not," he says,

In 2000, Malaysia had around 80,000 official expatriates. By 2008, this figure had shrunk to 38,000 as the collapsing global economy cut into trade and thus trade and Malaysian exports. When Bibi worked in an electronics factory in north Perak, little did she foresee marrying her expatriate quality control engineer. After his conversion to Islam and their subsequent marriage, he attempted unsuccessfully to gain permanent residence. He claims to have spent a small fortune on lawyers, on 'proof' and photographs for the application process, and several trips to the immigration offices to be 'verified'. He claims that one low ranking government official even offered him a birth certificate for RM60,000, as a pre-cursor to a 'red' identity card, which would help facilitate the PR status.

When Bibi's husband's work permit expired, he attempted to form a trading company. He travelled to the border every few months to renew his immigration-social visit pass, while he explored this avenue. He was ineligible for a sole proprietorship and although he could form a limited company with 51 percent bumiputra ownership, he found that for one reason or another, it was not viable. Local partners wanted maximum profits for little or no work. A Caucasian, he was seen as a cash cow, he says.

In addition, the Perak town they lived in was very provincial. Had he lived in Kuala Lumpur or Penang, he could be anonymous, like the expatriates married to Malay women in these cities. As an expat convert in his local town, the Malays expected him to uphold Malay values and scrutinized his every move, right down to his religious obligations. He was disillusioned with living in a goldfish bowl and both he and Bibi left for Europe.

According to one local daily, the number of Malaysian researchers, scientists and engineers working overseas exceeds 20,000 with 40 percent of them in the United States and 10 percent in Australia. When Ida graduated from Australia with a chemical engineering degree, she worked in a chemical plant in Selangor. Her friendship with a chemist blossomed into love, with talk of marriage. There was one problem - Anthony was a Catholic. He dutifully presented himself at the mosque for agama lessons in preparation for his conversion. The imam never appeared for their pre-arranged appointments. Frustrated with being let down repeatedly, he stopped going. His lucky break came when he was offered a job in a neighboring country. Ida joined him. She was free from parental and family pressures, he from the religious zealots. They married. He retained his faith, she remained a Muslim. They started a family and have since emigrated to New Zealand. Recently, she embraced Catholicism.

Malaysian emigration has critical policy implications. There are questions over what will happen when overseas students receive employment offers in the country where they are studying, when skilled people leave Malaysia, when pensioners retire abroad (the silver economy) and the nation registers an increase in unskilled foreign workers but a decrease in skilled expatriates.

The challenge for policymakers is to harness the economic and political potential of this largely ignored diaspora. There is no point pretending Malaysia does not have a serious problem. The incentives to reverse the brain drain and attract those who are abroad must be reviewed, as they are currently ineffective. For many like Anita, Bibi and Ida, it is not just politics and racial discrimination but also religious and social pressures that drive them away.

Office Clerks, General Job Description
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The Winner was Kingkong’s Job Interview
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John Denver, Calypso
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Unfortunately, this is a story not of spiritual enlightenment, but the plight of migrant workers—and their families—in Singapore as they bear the brunt of the 2009 economic downturn.

“Sometimes we go to the mall,” said the 37-year-old Filipino mechanical engineer, who was retrenched four months ago from his job as a pressure-valve designer in a marine company. “But we spend weekends in church to help cut down on expenses. We do not have an expensive lifestyle.”

Armed with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Mapua Institute of Technology in the Philippines, an institution that is recognized here, Luacan moved to Singapore nine years ago with his wife. They now have two children, the youngest only eight months old.

“I was the youngest in the department, the last one to be hired. And during the retrenchment exercise, I was the first one to be kicked out, not because of the skill but because that’s the rule—last in, first out,” he lamented. “Until now, I’m still looking for a job. It’s been four months, and I’ve only had two interviews in this time. I think companies here give importance to the locals, but it’s the same in my country, so I can understand that.”

Local employment here last year grew by 43,000 in spite of the economic recession. Foreign employment, however, fell by 4,200 in the same period. Some 1.05 million foreigners are employed in Singapore, making up more than 35 percent of the working population.

On top of fighting for limited employment opportunities with Singaporeans, skilled labor like Luacan also face intense competition from other migrant workers, some of whom are willing to settle for less than the market value.

“The market is spoilt,” he explained. Some foreigners, from Burma, for example, are asking for a salary of S$2,000 [$1,400]—or some 50 percent less than the salary Rod expects for his qualifications, skills and years of experience. “Maybe that’s another problem why I still cannot get a job until now. But I’m still hopeful because Singapore is a very systematic country,” Luacan continued.

He belongs to a class known in Singapore as foreign talents—foreigners with professional qualifications and degrees working in the higher spectrum of the economy. Others, classified as foreign workers—the semiskilled or unskilled workers who work mainly in the manufacturing, construction and domestic services sectors—face even greater challenges.

Thai Chanarong Jaidee, who works in a shipyard in Singapore, has seen his income halved since the global recession torpedoed the shipping industry last year. Due to a shortage of ship-repair jobs, the company Chanarong works for has had to employ a rotation system for manpower resources in order to cut costs and reduce labor inefficiency.

“Last time, I work almost every day. But I only work three to four days a week now. But there is no choice. The boss is very good, instead of asking us to go home, he tries to let us continue working sometimes and earn some money,” he said.

Now earning less than S$800 ($565) a month, Chanarong struggles to continue to remit the same amount of money to his wife and three children living in Thailand, against the backdrop of the high cost of living in Singapore.

“We were saving for a new house, but that must wait now, until things become better again. My wife is also thinking of going back to work as a seamstress to help with the money. But it is very tiring, very tough for her, also to look after the children at the same time,” Chanarong explained.

With the recession affecting the primary breadwinners in the family, their spouses are stepping up to augment their income.



In the Luacan household, Rod’s wife now works as a part-time caregiver to support the family until he finds a job. “She is a registered nurse, but she is doing part-time work now. She cannot get a permanent job, so that there is no CPF [provident fund] deduction. At the moment, cash is more important than savings,” Luacan explained.

Foreigners who assume permanent resident status in Singapore are required by law to contribute part of their wages, between 5 percent and 20 percent, to the Central Provident Fund (CPF), the country’s social-security savings scheme. And amid growing dissent among citizens over the influx of foreigners, permanent residents and migrant workers face tougher times ahead.

Permanent residents with children will be worse off from next year, because the Ministry of Education announced in January that it would slash subsidies for noncitizens studying in mainstream schools here.

Fees for permanent residents and international students will be increased in two stages over the next two years. School fees that are currently between S$174 and S$348 ($123 and $246) a year for residents will reach between S$612 and S$1,224 ($433 and $866) by 2012, depending on the level of education.

In January, too, the Ministry of Health announced that it would be shaving off health subsidies to permanent residents by 10 percentage points to increase the distinction between citizens and foreigners residing here.

The city-state will also seek to cap the proportion of foreigners in the work force at current levels.

“We cannot increase the number of foreign workers as liberally as we did over the last decade, or else we will run up against real physical and social limits,” said Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, chairing the economic strategies committee formed in May 2009 at the height of Singapore’s recession, in a report released early this month.

Already, the problems are mounting for migrant workers here. Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS), an organization which provides counseling and helps debtors work out repayment plans, said new citizens and permanent residents are an emerging group struggling with credit-card debt.

Many of those who have racked up large credit-card debts, said the CCS, are professionals from various countries, including Malaysia, the Philippines and India, who earn S$4,000 to S$5,000 a month. They run into debt because they have to support large families back home while having to pay rent and other expenses in Singapore.

Wendy confesses her secret crush.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpas4T7KYbA&feature=related

David from the UK picked his AIESEC work abroad experience at MindValley - and got to work as a professional blogger while enjoying the beaches and rainforest of Malaysia. Hear his story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU1g1f7oKJQ