This month's Employability Skills Workshop was held on the 28th of July and was the 2nd series for this year for our students from various faculties. Our invited speaker Mr Anil Nair, who currently holds the position as Assistant Vice President at Talent Attraction & Acquisition, POS Malaysia Berhad shared his work experience in HR and talents recruitment from the companies that he used to work with before i.e. KPMG, Ernst and Young (EY) and Schlumberger.
Applying for a job, Mr Anil advises students to have a list of employers that they want to reach out to. But this would be an obstacle to young graduates therefore it is important to always communicate and have conversation with alumni who are already in an employment as they will be able to share what is needed for the prospective job, duration of probation period would take, and what is expected to do during the probation period.
During the interview, employers will be asking Behaviour Interview Questions to look into how the talent (applicant / interviewee) reacts to certain situations. Employers would want to see how adaptable the interviewee is to different work situations, work pressure, and capability to prioritize work based on urgency and importance. They would also ask what the interviewee sees themselves in the future as they would want to see how the interviewee would grow if he/she was taken on board. Each company has a different culture and employers are expecting the new talent / fresh grad to be able to fit into the company’s culture and be able to create a good culture in the working environment. Leadership is an important skill set, as employers want to see how the fresh grad could make change for the company’s benefits and will then benefit themselves in the future. He also emphasizes that, companies these days work in teams and no longer in silos, therefore communication skills, leadership and adaptability skills are crucial to get a certain project done.
Mr Anil also emphasizes the importance of Personal Branding. One needs to be genuine (honest) in what they do and dishonesty can be easily caught during the interview session. Employers would want to have a talent that is able to create a positive impact and this needs to be developed during the study years. Students ought to participate in societies and clubs, participate in organising events or join activities organised by any organisation / company and this would develop networking for students. By participating and organising events, other people will start to know and appreciate the talents a person has, and from there people will talk about the capability of the person. In Personal Branding, one needs to have and follow a successful example who can be a mentor / idol where one could learn from him/her success. Mentors can be found on LinkedIn.
Resume tips shared by Mr Anil that the job application needs to be aligned with the job posted by the employers and that it is important to highlight working experience and promotion (if any). It is important to do a research on the company that is being pursued or want to join by learning what the company did. Next is, make a list of the companies that have been applied because it would leave a bad impression if the company caught one forget about she/he used to apply for a job at the company. Certain jobs require a specific skills set hence it is important to highlight what skills one has that fit for the job. Resume for a fresh graduate, start with the education level with the recent on the top, only include what programme taken up and the academic pointer (CGPA). CGPA is important to be put in as it would articulate interest to the future employers. Nevertheless, employers would also look into other components such as leadership, and working experience. Following the academic qualification / education level, to include participation in co-curriculum and highlights which activities or clubs that one’s having leadership in. This then is followed by any internship or practical that applicant has taken up during study or part-time work. Employers would love to see experiences in the working field. The skills set of being able to use any software and hardware and soft skill set e.g. adaptability, leadership, communication skill to be at the bottom, after the working experience. If one has LinkedIn, then place the link at the bottom of the resume.
He also emphasized that at the end-of-interview session, employers usually will be asking for “any question you want to ask”. NEVER say NO. As interviewee, to at least ask to whom will be reporting to; or when will be getting feedback from the interview; this will actually “tells” the employers that the interviewee is interested to join the company. The next trick is to add in the interview panels as networking to your Linkedin and say “thank you” for interviewing you.
For more tips, look out for our next workshop.