Prodigy

The Promuda Mouthpiece

Issue 1, July 2002

ARTICLE 

What do Young Professionals in Malaysia Strive For? 

The Naked Truth by: Remi A.

When I graduated in 1993, the only thing I wanted to do was to hang out for the next 6 – 12 months and do nothing.  "Why?", some people who can’t understand this simple concept might ask.  The reason is that throughout my life, I was denied the pleasure of “doing nothing”. Past A-Levels, I had this great plan to take a year out (leap year).  This was common practice for most boarding school kids in the UK. This simple dream, however, did not materialise.

Most young graduates face the dilemma of deciding whether to start work immediately or “lepak” for a while, before entering the hustle and bustle of being a professional.  I see no reason that you shouldn’t take time out, before joining the “work force”. After running the gauntlet of being a  professional (all 8 years of it), I have come with some very personal, and revealing conclusions.

I have determined (purely on a personal basis) that young Malaysian professionals do not really know what they want in life!  

Goals are brought to mind only in connection to football matches. I know that some of you out there would totally disagree with me on this. Well you Promuda folks do not constitute the majority of young professionals.

The whole concept of “doing nothing” is a great thing, as it has nothing to do with wasting time.  

This is the time of reflection, and before any of you snigger with cynicism, and throw phrases like “Yeah Right!!!!”, people do contemplate about things, when they are unoccupied (regardless of gender). I get my most brilliant ideas and philosophies of life when I do nothing.  Things like a twist to the popular saying…. “There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel” would get a new attachment …..“but the light at the end of the tunnel, might be the train coming from the opposite direction!”

Of other pursuits for you brave and kindred souls…….

The purest ideal would be to change the world, and make it a better place to live and work. “Money is not of primary concern” was my motto in the early days.  Experience is the most valuable commodity. However after experiencing life “up-close and personal” there are other things which are more important, which leads me to my next conclusion.

Money……………… this is an undeniably important item on the agenda for young professionals.  I'd estimate that nearly 60% if not more young professional are in it for the money.  (By the way, just to clarify, “it” means work/ profession/ career). Questions like “How much does the job pay?” comes up during job interviews. YES, I will be the first one to admit that money is important, but it is not the over-riding reason. (for me, at least)

The other 30% probably want some form of recognition that they are God’s gift to the corporate world.  Well wake up, and smell the daffodils.  Unless you perform, nobody is going to give you any recognition based on your potential.  Just because you graduated from a top-notch university does not mean you know how perform in the corporate world. Performance counts more than qualification in the professional world (This is totally dependent on whether you get a job in the first place)

Then there is the incorrigible 10% who aim for the pure ideals mentioned above, about gaining experience, changing the world et cetera.  The danger of this 10% is not that they are not able to achieve this, but that they convince others (who are not as capable, and to a certain extent are not interested) that they can change the world too.  Now imagine if everybody though that they are all CEOs and started behaving as if they are.  Where am I going to get my nasi lemak from?  Enough said on that.

Young professionals want to live life, and they should.  This may sound very simple, if you look at it in the purely superficial facet.  However, the question that beckons to be asked is, “How do you enjoy life?”  Enjoying life does not mean that you have to dismiss your responsibilities as a member of society. In my company at the moment the “hot” catch phrase bandied around by management is “Work-Life Balance”

This basically means, “work hard-play hard”.  We should work thinking that we will live forever, and live life like there is no tomorrow.  The reality is that young professionals do not know how to achieve the balance for this, and as such we get in general young professionals that work till the wee hours of the night during the week, and party like crazy over the weekend.  I’ve had my fair bite (quite a large chunk really) of this life.

The balance is when you know where your priorities are, and I don’t mean, let’s leave work at 3pm and go party.  There will come a time, when your company will try to “trick” you in working after hours, with this barely believable promise of a promotion.  Don’t be fooled.  They’re just looking for some cheap labour.  They probably don’t want to employ an additional headcount, and thought to themselves, who would be the most gullible person we can find to do this extra job, and who will not ask for anything except for a remote possibility of a promotion? In a nutshell, you must ascertain when to say no, and put your life and even health as priorities.

Reaching nearly to the end, this would be a nice juncture to summarise.  

Money is important, as this is what we need to assist us in the turbulent path in achieving our goals.  Recognition comes next, where this will help our confidence, and reassure us that we are doing something worthwhile, and at the same time boost our ego.  By having pure ideals, we channel our energy to formulate our future, our goals, our ambition, our LIFE!!!!!!

I don’t know about you guys, but after spending close to 17 years in an educational institution in one form or another, and another 8 years of being a “career professional”, I think it is about time, that I get to do “Nothing” for the next few years.

My parting salvo………………Money Helps……….

Remi A. is a pseudonym for a Promuda member.

Back to Table of Contents