Wishing every Malaysian Happy Merdeka Day and long live The Agong!!
Thursday 30 August 2007
Monday 20 August 2007
Busy Schedule next month
Next month will be the final month of my stay in Germany. It might sound strange, but I have yet to travel outside Germany. In fact I have yet to travel even outside the state of Baden-Württemberg (apart from Frankfurt). My travels so far are withing the State (since u can get a 24 hour day ticket to travel the whole state for a reasonable price). But next month I have a busy traveling schedule ahead (well not so busy, just busier than usual). It will start with a Go-Kart session at the go cart track nearby with my TIM Consult colleages on Merdeka day. I have alway wanted to race in a go-kart since i dont know when. Now i have the chance to follow the foot steps of Michael Schumacher.
The arrival of Evgeny (Trainee from Russia) opened more travel opportunities for traveling. due to the fact that he has an international driving license. This means we can share costs to rent a car and go traveling. By the way Evgeny is 21 years old and honestly he looks older than me!! no kidding! Anyways, Our plan for next month is to drive to Luxembourg and Brussels. On the left is a pic of the Grand Ducal Palace in Luxembourg. It's the residence of the Duke of Luxembourg. By the way, Luxembourg is a constitutional monarchy ruled by the Grand Duke and has the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the world. Or in layman's term, Luxemberg is crawling with rich people. So i expect to see many people driving Ferrari's
and Lambo's when i go there. We wont spend the night at Luxembourg since its a rich mans place, no place for a humble trainee like me, so we will drive directly to Brussels in Belgium, the only country in the world that has lamp post along all of its roads. But I will verify that when i go there.
Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the city where the European Parliament is located (pic on the right). Would love to see that. It's
also said to be a beautiful city and I expect to see scenes like the picture on the left. We will stay for 1 night at Brussels and after traveling around the city we will drive back to Mannheim. Although i don't have an international driving license, I will be the emergency driver. In case Evgeny gets too tired to drive i will be his replacement and drive illegally. hehe...Kindda dangerous since i haven't been driving for 5 months and this time i will be driving on the wrong side of the road.
Next... On the 22nd of September I will be going to the Prestigious Frankfurt Auto Show. This is one of the biggest Automobile exhibition in the world where prototypes and new cars that have not gone on sale yet are displayed. I have been reading about this exhibition on the car magazines since i was in high school, i cant believe i will actually be going there. Henrik, our reception manager has been there last year and he said 1 day is not enough to finish the exhibition. its like, 9/10 halls of exhibits and you have to plan in advance where you want to go, which booth do u want to visit beforehand. That is always the case for German exhibitions and museums. It is always worth the money you pay. Unlike some museums in a certain country in Asean... Like when i wen to the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart not too long ago, the entrance was 8 euros, but the quantity of exhibits there was far more than you could imagine. I found myself in a hurry to finish studying the exhibits before the museum closed. It was truly a great experience.
And on the same day, at night, i will be flying to London. My brother has a friend there that is generous and let me stay at his place for a week. At that time will be the fasting month, so i can save a lot on food. After i came back from UK when i was 6 years old, i have always wanted to go back to my birthplace, Cardiff....lets hope that the travel expenses are not too expensive there. I still have to do a lot of planning in terms of budget and travel plans so that my stay will be meaningful to the last penny...After London, i will come back to frankfurt and the next day ill be flying back to Malaysia...For Raya!!!
Ill keep you guys updated...
Tchuss
The arrival of Evgeny (Trainee from Russia) opened more travel opportunities for traveling. due to the fact that he has an international driving license. This means we can share costs to rent a car and go traveling. By the way Evgeny is 21 years old and honestly he looks older than me!! no kidding! Anyways, Our plan for next month is to drive to Luxembourg and Brussels. On the left is a pic of the Grand Ducal Palace in Luxembourg. It's the residence of the Duke of Luxembourg. By the way, Luxembourg is a constitutional monarchy ruled by the Grand Duke and has the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the world. Or in layman's term, Luxemberg is crawling with rich people. So i expect to see many people driving Ferrari's
and Lambo's when i go there. We wont spend the night at Luxembourg since its a rich mans place, no place for a humble trainee like me, so we will drive directly to Brussels in Belgium, the only country in the world that has lamp post along all of its roads. But I will verify that when i go there.Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the city where the European Parliament is located (pic on the right). Would love to see that. It's
also said to be a beautiful city and I expect to see scenes like the picture on the left. We will stay for 1 night at Brussels and after traveling around the city we will drive back to Mannheim. Although i don't have an international driving license, I will be the emergency driver. In case Evgeny gets too tired to drive i will be his replacement and drive illegally. hehe...Kindda dangerous since i haven't been driving for 5 months and this time i will be driving on the wrong side of the road.Next... On the 22nd of September I will be going to the Prestigious Frankfurt Auto Show. This is one of the biggest Automobile exhibition in the world where prototypes and new cars that have not gone on sale yet are displayed. I have been reading about this exhibition on the car magazines since i was in high school, i cant believe i will actually be going there. Henrik, our reception manager has been there last year and he said 1 day is not enough to finish the exhibition. its like, 9/10 halls of exhibits and you have to plan in advance where you want to go, which booth do u want to visit beforehand. That is always the case for German exhibitions and museums. It is always worth the money you pay. Unlike some museums in a certain country in Asean... Like when i wen to the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart not too long ago, the entrance was 8 euros, but the quantity of exhibits there was far more than you could imagine. I found myself in a hurry to finish studying the exhibits before the museum closed. It was truly a great experience.
And on the same day, at night, i will be flying to London. My brother has a friend there that is generous and let me stay at his place for a week. At that time will be the fasting month, so i can save a lot on food. After i came back from UK when i was 6 years old, i have always wanted to go back to my birthplace, Cardiff....lets hope that the travel expenses are not too expensive there. I still have to do a lot of planning in terms of budget and travel plans so that my stay will be meaningful to the last penny...After London, i will come back to frankfurt and the next day ill be flying back to Malaysia...For Raya!!!
Ill keep you guys updated...
Tchuss
From Hot Brazilian girl to Sweet Vietnamese twins
The summer holidays witnessed the mass exodus of the female hostel residents for their summer holidays. This includes the so called "Hot Brazilian girl" aka "Hot Ballet dancer". I'm not quite sure if they will be coming back or will there be new residence once the university term starts. But the absence of female residence is somewhat noticeable.
The starting date of the summer holidays and the starting of the new term of each University in Germany are not all the same. Some start as early as the beginning of September, some start in October. For some students, summer holidays provides the opportunity to work part time, in restaurants or factories depending on their skills and qualifications. For some students, it is compulsory to so their industrial training. Just like in Malaysia, the student will do about 3 months of industrial training and then write a thesis when they get back to University. This was the case for the Vietnamese twin sisters that just moved in a couple of weeks ago, the Nguyen sisters.
These sweet and petite girls are inseparable. They study the same course (economics) in the same University, in the same class and doing their industrial training in the same company (but different departments). Like every other friend in my floor, i met one of the sisters for the first time in the kitchen. Her name is Mee...something (i don't remember...paiseh). Previously i did notice them moving in but this was the 1st time we actually met. That was also when i knew she didn't know how to cook. Well, it was the same case with the other sister actually. So we talked and exchanged YM addresses. She had a problem with her internet untill now, but she gave my YM to her sister and later we had a short introduction.
It was not until last Saturday that we decided go out together with my fellow trainees, Liu Shu (PRC) and Evgeny (Russia). There was this free movie screening in an indoor swimming pool which they fixed a screen and a few rows of seats (not many, at least not enough for us). The movie was a musical from the 1940's about swimming girl, people playing music and cha-cha dancing. The movie was accompanied by a real life synchronized water dance. I guess thats why they screened it in the indoor swimming pool. It was an American movie but dubbed into German, which made in not understandable to us. About 10 minutes into the movie we decided not to waste time watching that movie and we went to drink and have a chit-chat.
Now, when we mention twins people will always think of Siamese twins. These sisters were not Siamese twins due to the fact that they were Vietnamese and they look similar, but not the same. Most obvious was the shape of their faces are different. Now, I didn't study biology when i was in high school but my mom is a biology teacher and I used to "ambil upah" typing my mothers schools biology exam papers (with answers). That's when i learned about the concept of twins and how they come to be. Seems like the Nguyen sisters came from 2 different eggs fertilized by 2 different sperms. Thats why there is a difference in how they look. In fact if you look carefully, if not for the same hair style and physical size, they look just like normal sisters rather than twin sisters. But i know which one looks cuter though...hehe
Before i go further, it is probobly a good thing to inform my readers and friends that both sisters have informed me earlier in our acquaintance that they already have boyfriends. This is typical for girls who want to define their boundaries to other men. Well i think its a good thing to do to avoid misunderstandings. However, they are very sweet and friendly. In fact Mee....something (i don't remember her name...paiseh) was the one that initiated the conversation when i first met here in the kitchen. Not that i didn't want to start the conversation, but she started it before i could say "you must be the new vietnamese girl, arent you". But since she still hasn't had her internet fixed, i have been chatting with her sister, Kim Hee for the past week. She's the cutest between them..hehe.
Well, i think this is as far as i can tell you guys about the Vietnamese twins. Besides i only have known them for over a week. But, i don't have a picture of them but , pretty soon i will. For now i just have the lousy picture taken at the movie screening with just Mee...something(i don't remember her name...paiseh) and us trainees in it.....
The starting date of the summer holidays and the starting of the new term of each University in Germany are not all the same. Some start as early as the beginning of September, some start in October. For some students, summer holidays provides the opportunity to work part time, in restaurants or factories depending on their skills and qualifications. For some students, it is compulsory to so their industrial training. Just like in Malaysia, the student will do about 3 months of industrial training and then write a thesis when they get back to University. This was the case for the Vietnamese twin sisters that just moved in a couple of weeks ago, the Nguyen sisters.
These sweet and petite girls are inseparable. They study the same course (economics) in the same University, in the same class and doing their industrial training in the same company (but different departments). Like every other friend in my floor, i met one of the sisters for the first time in the kitchen. Her name is Mee...something (i don't remember...paiseh). Previously i did notice them moving in but this was the 1st time we actually met. That was also when i knew she didn't know how to cook. Well, it was the same case with the other sister actually. So we talked and exchanged YM addresses. She had a problem with her internet untill now, but she gave my YM to her sister and later we had a short introduction.
It was not until last Saturday that we decided go out together with my fellow trainees, Liu Shu (PRC) and Evgeny (Russia). There was this free movie screening in an indoor swimming pool which they fixed a screen and a few rows of seats (not many, at least not enough for us). The movie was a musical from the 1940's about swimming girl, people playing music and cha-cha dancing. The movie was accompanied by a real life synchronized water dance. I guess thats why they screened it in the indoor swimming pool. It was an American movie but dubbed into German, which made in not understandable to us. About 10 minutes into the movie we decided not to waste time watching that movie and we went to drink and have a chit-chat.
Now, when we mention twins people will always think of Siamese twins. These sisters were not Siamese twins due to the fact that they were Vietnamese and they look similar, but not the same. Most obvious was the shape of their faces are different. Now, I didn't study biology when i was in high school but my mom is a biology teacher and I used to "ambil upah" typing my mothers schools biology exam papers (with answers). That's when i learned about the concept of twins and how they come to be. Seems like the Nguyen sisters came from 2 different eggs fertilized by 2 different sperms. Thats why there is a difference in how they look. In fact if you look carefully, if not for the same hair style and physical size, they look just like normal sisters rather than twin sisters. But i know which one looks cuter though...hehe
Before i go further, it is probobly a good thing to inform my readers and friends that both sisters have informed me earlier in our acquaintance that they already have boyfriends. This is typical for girls who want to define their boundaries to other men. Well i think its a good thing to do to avoid misunderstandings. However, they are very sweet and friendly. In fact Mee....something (i don't remember her name...paiseh) was the one that initiated the conversation when i first met here in the kitchen. Not that i didn't want to start the conversation, but she started it before i could say "you must be the new vietnamese girl, arent you". But since she still hasn't had her internet fixed, i have been chatting with her sister, Kim Hee for the past week. She's the cutest between them..hehe.
Well, i think this is as far as i can tell you guys about the Vietnamese twins. Besides i only have known them for over a week. But, i don't have a picture of them but , pretty soon i will. For now i just have the lousy picture taken at the movie screening with just Mee...something(i don't remember her name...paiseh) and us trainees in it.....
Friday 17 August 2007
The Matrix : Revelations
Those who have watched the first movie in the Matrix Trilogy should remember the part where Neo is given the choice between the blue pill and the red pill. If he takes the blue pill, he will wake up at home living as normal, believing what he wants to believe. If he takes the red pill, he will be on a one way ticket journey to reality outside the Matrix. It's kindda like the situation I'm in now, well rather the situation that i WAS in.The reason I came here to Germany on this internship was to discover the truth whether, given a better working/learning environment in software development, would I come to like the field better? Would the question "do i want to work in the field for the rest of my life?" be answered or not and what would be the answer? Yes or no? Basically coming here is analogical to taking the red pill.......and like the Matrix movie, there is no turning back.
Yes, how painful reality is especially when it doesn't go your way. To begin with, I didn't really have much experience in software development in real life let alone software development in a team. That was one thing i was curious about. I haven't done any software development in a team and i was pretty blank about it. How do we work in a team when it comes to software development. How is this guy supposed to know what the other guy is doing? Surely there will be a conflict of data structure, variable types, class names etc. The list of what could go wrong goes on and on. To make things worse my basics of programming, specifically object oriented programming was not strong and i have forgotten a lot of things. I remember in the lectures, i was wondering what is the relevance of learning all this theory stuff such as classes, functions, subroutines, friend, public, private, arrays etc. I wasn't a programming geek back in Uni, and it seems that the other trainees im working with were somewhat "geekier" than me. But the German team leader is a cool geek, i mean at first glimpse he doesn't look like a geek because he's quite stylish. But when i started working with him, the complexity of his knowledge was show through the way he talked. I couldn't even understand what he, and my colleagues were talking about. This was attributed to my week basics. And the lack of good English among our team members was not helping. So we had to change the communication language to Visual Basic and ASP.Net....pseudo code is also acceptable and understandable. Diagrams are highly recommended too.
But i kindda got away with it since i was quite a fast learner and the basics were not so hard to learn. Just act like u know everything and quietly n quickly learn from the internet. Learning from other peoples mistakes is also a good way to learn. Haha. But when i comes to a high level of programming, ill get pretty much blur. Thats when i start to think "what the heck have i got myself into this time?". This is when i really feel bad for getting into trouble in a field that i don't fancy much. Actually, i feel bad looking at my other team mates working with full interest because this is what they enjoy doing, and compared to them, i look really uninterested and starting to become a liability. The others are expecting me to have the same if not higher level of interest in the field because, why else would i go half way across the world for this traineeship? complaining about it wouldn't make anything better would it? Well, like it or not i have to go through it. If not for myself, for my fellow team mates. I don't want to let them down. I always like to get myself into trouble, but i always manage to get myself out of it...I just have to hang on for 1 more month. Hopefully all goes well...
However I don't regret taking the red pill. I think if i took the blue pill i would be forever in a condition of perpetual { if...elseif...} missing the {end if } statement. Or in layman terms i will always be wondering what if i took the red pill, would my life be better or worse? I also don't regret studying computer science and it think it will be extremely useful in what ever plans i will undertake in the future. But the fact remains once you know what you want and what you don't want, life wont be the same, trust me on this one.
My advice to those still studying especially in UTM, please, please equip yourself with extra skills other than what your studying. Degree ++ is a good way to get value added skills. For example, I took the "Environmental Journalism" Degree++ course that was conducted by Karam Singh Walia from TV3. Actually it was there and then I found out i had a big interest in Journalism. i am really glad that i joined that degree++ course. If i had known about the degree++ program earlier, i would take a lot more of their courses to equip myself with value added skills. Who ever came up with the Degree++ program is a genius! I'm sure it was an academician that came up with this idea because no Malaysian politician would come up with an idea this brilliant....and that guy really knows the value of "added value". It is important that one acquires these extra skills because its these skills that will give one more options on where one wants to work in the future. Some of my friends told me that after a few years in the IT field, they start to hate working in that field, but because it was their only skill, they had to do it whether they like it or not. I guess freedom of choice is not free. It costs knowledge and skills... also determination as a service charge.
So, there u have it. My Matrix story... Now, what is your Matrix story?
Thursday 16 August 2007
Tunak tunak tun (with english subtitles)
Are you familiar with the hindi song "Tunak tunak tun"? Well i came across the video clip with "english subtitles". I recommend you guys watch it because its damn funny. I was ROTFL when I first watched this.
Tuesday 14 August 2007
We have all been riped off
Not too long ago, the world was in a frenzy when the 7th Harry Potter book made it too the shelves of bookstores. Within days millions and millions of copies were sold to Harry Potter junkies all over the world.However I recall in Malaysia there was a major issue of "inappropriate" pricing by some retailers that cause quite a stir among the fans of this four eyed young wizard all over the nation. If im not mistaken, the recommended retail price in Malaysia for the 7th book was around RM120 something. The issue was when some book stores sold the book for about RM60-RM70.
Well guess what? The true market price is the latter!!! Here in Germany the price of the book is about 15 euros which is around RM 70. So the retailers are recommended to rip off RM50 from these innocent Harry Potter loyal supporters. So much for "Recommended retail prices". Maybe there is an extra tax for "tahyul" (superstitious) books that want to be marketed in Malaysia? or are there cronies of high level government officials that are trying to take a larger bite from the consumers by means of recommending an unreasonable price to be endorsed by the government? I don't know. Harry Potter books are not a necessity item and i think its up to the retailers to set the price.
Its funny though, usually when an item is sold at a high price, it makes lots of noise, but on the other hand, this time when an item is sold below the recommended price, suddenly there's noise pollution instead of sounds of happy consumers. That a bit....strange.
Anyways, im not a Harry Potter fan so i couldn't care less about the pricing but I just wanted to inform others about this bizzare incident . If u are asking me to buy one for you here, forget it. Das buch ist auf Deutsch. So if you don't understand the previous sentence, chances are you wont understand the Harry Potter books bought here.
tchuss
Friday 3 August 2007
(not so) Good news!!!?
I don't know how to describe my feelings now, im presented with a big choice in my life now. A choice that determines the course of my life and im really overwhelmed by the magnitude of the choices presented to me, though it might seem easy for some. Read on to know more..
I seldom see my CEO in the office as he is always away on client meetings and marketing trips. His name is Björn Klippel. He's a well spoken man, very friendly and always address us with "gentlemen" every time we meet. Well, i had a (not so) short chat with him last evening after working hours, and, boy was i glad that we had the conversation. I can say it was the most significant conversation of my trainee ship since i started 4 months ago. In our conversation, Mr Klippel shared with us his vision of the company and his strategy towards that goal. As a quick recap, our company, TIM Consult is a consulting company that specializes in logistics and transportation. We consult our customers in how their logistics should be managed and also about the transportation of products from factory to warehouse to regional distribution centres and so on and so fourth. Our company has a big customer base all over the world and lately they have been busy expanding their market in Asia especially in China. However, from the feedback from the customers in china, they think it would be better if they were to support them in a more long term period. This will eventually mean opening a regional office in China. But, being a very internationally experienced businessman, Mr. Klippel knows that without the support of a local person that knows the local market very well, its almost impossible to open a regional office in a country. Getting good workforce is very hard. Blindly hiring local people would not do much good either as they wouldn't know how things work in a German company, particularly TIM Consult. So the best strategy was to hire Trainees from other countries train them in Germany for a year or two on the working culture of the company and, with a senior consultant, migrate to the foreign country and try to setup a regional office that could benefit the customers as well as the company. From this situation we can see how much a (soon to be) multinational company knows the value of their employees.They know, its the employees that make their world go round. Unlike a 'certain' GLC in Malaysia I mentioned about in my blog some time ago, where they treat their operational staff as if they were 'kuli's.
Anyway, that is why my company has a close relationship with AIESEC, because AIESECs potential to offer international trainees from all over the world. Potential -> thats what a company need to be able to see in employees or to be employees before it can get anywhere. So regarding the topic of our conversation, Mr Klippel made a passive job offer to us trainees to fill the post of that "international" relations officer (if i may) cum trainee consult. What i mean by passive is, it was not a job straight forward job offer, but more to telling us that there is an opportunity that we can work out together, if we were interested. Mr Klippel wanted to give us an option at the same time giving us the opportunity to explore our potential.
But before anyone gets excited and start to speculate what my reaction is, i have tell you guys my part of the story first. So keep my story above in mind while i tell you my side of the story. To start off, i must rewind back to before my traineeship here. Why did i go for this traineeship? what was my goal and expectations settings? My goal and expectation settings were mostly influenced by the confusion of the last few years of my Uni life, which was partly caused by joining AIESEC itself. Don't get me wrong, this is a good type of confusion, the type that is life changing.
For those who don't know me, I studied Computer science when i was in UTM. It was a typical case of just taking whatever course i got from UPU application. It wasn't my first choice but i thought its better than nothing. The first few years were OK, i could handle most of the Computer science subjects due to my analytical mind. I didn't really think of what i really like so much, i thought studying is just something we all have to go through even though we don't like it. To make a long story short, the internationalism that i was exposed to in AIESEC presented me with many types of people, people that do what they do because of passion and sheer interest.Thats when i began to question myself and what i wanted to do in life. Life must be more than studying (the course that can make money), get a job, get married and live a kindda mundane life. Life should have a more meaningful meaning rather than just living for livings sake. You know what I mean? Even animals have purposes in life, cattle to provide food and milk for people, we get eggs and meat from chickens, and so on and so forth. What is my purpose in life. As i come from a quite religious family, there is a verse in the Quran that says God created man and jin so that they worship and perform "ibadah" to him. Here ibadah does not just mean praying only. For me the meaning of "Ibadah" is anything good that has a good result and done in a good way with good intentions. So having understood that, it was just a matter of what i can do to contribute to the advancement and welfare of the society. In which area do i want to contribute my efforts. To cut the story even shorter, i soon found out that my field of interest is Journalism. And the interest is very deep. Coming from a family of educators i like to share my thoughts experience with people so that they can learn from them and hopefully teach others too. I think starting my AIESEC XP at a time that the words "Agents of Change" and "Paying it Forward" were the theme of AIESEC (or at least @inUTM) really influenced my thinking and choices. I think Journalist are in a position to educate the masses about issues that affect them.
However, i didnt think i gave a fair judgment on my whole Scinece com education and experience. Most of my experience in the course was quite bad after taking a majoring that not many of my 1st year friends took. Mostly i was studying on my own initiative and during practical i was basically coming up with all the projects myself and implementing it by myself because i was the only one in that organization the was knowledgeable in programming. But no matter how bad those times were i am quite thankful now because i know why those things were happening to me. Those experiences really trained me to have an independent mind and view of things. also it trained me not to wait for help to come, but more to make the initiative to do things, qualities that are very useful in journalism. So everything DOES happen for a reason... Anyway, I have already set my expectations for this traineeship to practice IT in a better and conducive environment and come up with my final decision whether i want to continue with IT or move on to Journalism, or any other field for that matter. In a nutshell, the environment here is very good to learn and practice IT, but despite that i still don have interest to continue in this field. However im happy that i went through the whole experience and got to learn IT because im feeling that i will be very very useful in the future.
So coming back to the big story, having known that i don't want to be in the IT field, i was presented with a tough choice. On one hand, my CEO was offering an opportunity that has a big potential to manifest into a very stable career with a good pay and lotsa traveling, On the other hand is an "alternative" career that does not promise a good pay or even success, but its what i really want to do and im sure i can't live in peace without having a shot at it. Or to put it simple :
TIM Consult -> Stable, possibility of good income, get good experience, may get all the chicks, and i think its QUITE (but not so) interesting. but i have no passion for it.
Journalism -> The road least traveled, no promise of high income, Have a lot of passion for it, but If i am good at it, there are more possibilities to travel around and write articles or make documentaries etc. IF im become good enough. But most important get the fulfillment of doing what I always wanted.
Well, being a crazy person that i am, im more likely to choose Journalism. After all we should live our dreams rather than live dreaming, no?
But Im opened to suggestions and comments. What do you think? is it a wise choice or not? Please give some suggestions:-).....and please don't give politically correct comments,just speak your heart out:-) Your comments are appreciated to the highest level.....
Tchuss
P/S : i haven't told my story even to my parents...the must think im crazy and irrational...So i rather prove to them first...talk later...hehe :-)
I seldom see my CEO in the office as he is always away on client meetings and marketing trips. His name is Björn Klippel. He's a well spoken man, very friendly and always address us with "gentlemen" every time we meet. Well, i had a (not so) short chat with him last evening after working hours, and, boy was i glad that we had the conversation. I can say it was the most significant conversation of my trainee ship since i started 4 months ago. In our conversation, Mr Klippel shared with us his vision of the company and his strategy towards that goal. As a quick recap, our company, TIM Consult is a consulting company that specializes in logistics and transportation. We consult our customers in how their logistics should be managed and also about the transportation of products from factory to warehouse to regional distribution centres and so on and so fourth. Our company has a big customer base all over the world and lately they have been busy expanding their market in Asia especially in China. However, from the feedback from the customers in china, they think it would be better if they were to support them in a more long term period. This will eventually mean opening a regional office in China. But, being a very internationally experienced businessman, Mr. Klippel knows that without the support of a local person that knows the local market very well, its almost impossible to open a regional office in a country. Getting good workforce is very hard. Blindly hiring local people would not do much good either as they wouldn't know how things work in a German company, particularly TIM Consult. So the best strategy was to hire Trainees from other countries train them in Germany for a year or two on the working culture of the company and, with a senior consultant, migrate to the foreign country and try to setup a regional office that could benefit the customers as well as the company. From this situation we can see how much a (soon to be) multinational company knows the value of their employees.They know, its the employees that make their world go round. Unlike a 'certain' GLC in Malaysia I mentioned about in my blog some time ago, where they treat their operational staff as if they were 'kuli's.
Anyway, that is why my company has a close relationship with AIESEC, because AIESECs potential to offer international trainees from all over the world. Potential -> thats what a company need to be able to see in employees or to be employees before it can get anywhere. So regarding the topic of our conversation, Mr Klippel made a passive job offer to us trainees to fill the post of that "international" relations officer (if i may) cum trainee consult. What i mean by passive is, it was not a job straight forward job offer, but more to telling us that there is an opportunity that we can work out together, if we were interested. Mr Klippel wanted to give us an option at the same time giving us the opportunity to explore our potential.
But before anyone gets excited and start to speculate what my reaction is, i have tell you guys my part of the story first. So keep my story above in mind while i tell you my side of the story. To start off, i must rewind back to before my traineeship here. Why did i go for this traineeship? what was my goal and expectations settings? My goal and expectation settings were mostly influenced by the confusion of the last few years of my Uni life, which was partly caused by joining AIESEC itself. Don't get me wrong, this is a good type of confusion, the type that is life changing.
For those who don't know me, I studied Computer science when i was in UTM. It was a typical case of just taking whatever course i got from UPU application. It wasn't my first choice but i thought its better than nothing. The first few years were OK, i could handle most of the Computer science subjects due to my analytical mind. I didn't really think of what i really like so much, i thought studying is just something we all have to go through even though we don't like it. To make a long story short, the internationalism that i was exposed to in AIESEC presented me with many types of people, people that do what they do because of passion and sheer interest.Thats when i began to question myself and what i wanted to do in life. Life must be more than studying (the course that can make money), get a job, get married and live a kindda mundane life. Life should have a more meaningful meaning rather than just living for livings sake. You know what I mean? Even animals have purposes in life, cattle to provide food and milk for people, we get eggs and meat from chickens, and so on and so forth. What is my purpose in life. As i come from a quite religious family, there is a verse in the Quran that says God created man and jin so that they worship and perform "ibadah" to him. Here ibadah does not just mean praying only. For me the meaning of "Ibadah" is anything good that has a good result and done in a good way with good intentions. So having understood that, it was just a matter of what i can do to contribute to the advancement and welfare of the society. In which area do i want to contribute my efforts. To cut the story even shorter, i soon found out that my field of interest is Journalism. And the interest is very deep. Coming from a family of educators i like to share my thoughts experience with people so that they can learn from them and hopefully teach others too. I think starting my AIESEC XP at a time that the words "Agents of Change" and "Paying it Forward" were the theme of AIESEC (or at least @inUTM) really influenced my thinking and choices. I think Journalist are in a position to educate the masses about issues that affect them.
However, i didnt think i gave a fair judgment on my whole Scinece com education and experience. Most of my experience in the course was quite bad after taking a majoring that not many of my 1st year friends took. Mostly i was studying on my own initiative and during practical i was basically coming up with all the projects myself and implementing it by myself because i was the only one in that organization the was knowledgeable in programming. But no matter how bad those times were i am quite thankful now because i know why those things were happening to me. Those experiences really trained me to have an independent mind and view of things. also it trained me not to wait for help to come, but more to make the initiative to do things, qualities that are very useful in journalism. So everything DOES happen for a reason... Anyway, I have already set my expectations for this traineeship to practice IT in a better and conducive environment and come up with my final decision whether i want to continue with IT or move on to Journalism, or any other field for that matter. In a nutshell, the environment here is very good to learn and practice IT, but despite that i still don have interest to continue in this field. However im happy that i went through the whole experience and got to learn IT because im feeling that i will be very very useful in the future.
So coming back to the big story, having known that i don't want to be in the IT field, i was presented with a tough choice. On one hand, my CEO was offering an opportunity that has a big potential to manifest into a very stable career with a good pay and lotsa traveling, On the other hand is an "alternative" career that does not promise a good pay or even success, but its what i really want to do and im sure i can't live in peace without having a shot at it. Or to put it simple :
TIM Consult -> Stable, possibility of good income, get good experience, may get all the chicks, and i think its QUITE (but not so) interesting. but i have no passion for it.
Journalism -> The road least traveled, no promise of high income, Have a lot of passion for it, but If i am good at it, there are more possibilities to travel around and write articles or make documentaries etc. IF im become good enough. But most important get the fulfillment of doing what I always wanted.
Well, being a crazy person that i am, im more likely to choose Journalism. After all we should live our dreams rather than live dreaming, no?
But Im opened to suggestions and comments. What do you think? is it a wise choice or not? Please give some suggestions:-).....and please don't give politically correct comments,just speak your heart out:-) Your comments are appreciated to the highest level.....
Tchuss
P/S : i haven't told my story even to my parents...the must think im crazy and irrational...So i rather prove to them first...talk later...hehe :-)
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