Few days ago, a job recruiter called me up for a chat. She was the person who helped me get my current job. So, the call was to ask how am I doing in this new job. Here’s part of our conversation.

………

Recruiter :  Hey, so you’re traveling to Sydney this coming weekend?

Me :  Yeap.

Recruiter :  Whoa, good opportunity for you to work with people from other countries.

Me :  Hmm, nothing special. I was based in UK for 7 months before this. So I’ve worked with people from various countries.

Recruiter :  Oh…but…how come your English is like this?

Me :  Erm, what do you mean by this?

Recruiter :  You know…accent. Your English seems very Malaysian to me, and there’s no accent.

Me :  Honestly, I don’t see a need to learn other people’s accents. As long as I can speak clearly, I don’t see any harm.

Recruiter :  But it’s actually better to speak in their accent so that you can impress people during interview.

Me :  Well, it also depends on who am I talking to, no?

………

Ok, the last line probably pissed her off a little.

The thing is, people should not assume that everyone thinks alike. To them, accent can be used to impress people but to us, it can mean nothing. What we want to do is just to use our English to deliver our messages CLEARLY and EFFECTIVELY. Simple right? Surprisingly, a lot of people failed to see this and end up using accent….which they really shouldn’t. You know…those people who talk in alien language that nobody can understand them at all? I bet some of them are trying to speak with accent.

I know this post does sound a bit like a ranting post, but really, my advice to everyone out there – stop assuming that people will do what you think they will do. Or, stop thinking that people will do whatever you think YOU would do. For this case, the recruiter thinks English should be used with accent in order to impress people, and she thinks other people should do the same too. But the truth is, most people prefer to use English without any accent, as long as the messages can be delivered properly.

So, stop assuming.

p/s…. by the way, I wanted to ask her which accent does she think is appropriate. British? Scottish? Aussies? American? But I was quite pissed that I ended up answering 1 word reply to her – yes/no/okay

p/s…. and yes, I must admit I can’t really speak with accent and I don’t have any intention of learning it.

Recently, my parents sold our old house in Johor since they hardly stay there anymore. They spend most of their time with my sister and I in our PJ condo. Furthermore, maintaining a 20-30 years old house is not cheap at all especially if there’s nobody taking care of it. Thus, we’ve decided to sell it off even though it’s quite a difficult decision to make.

While moving and packing our things, my sister and I talked about the past….the incidents experienced by us in that house. After all, we’ve been staying there for over 20 years. Surely, there are some feelings left for the house. The quarrels, the pets, the playing sessions (yea, i used to play masak-masak aka cooking game with my sister. I know it’s sissy but well, she has nobody else to play with), etc. We miss all of them. And at one point during those conversations, my sister cried because she was sad that we have to sell the house …and we might not be able to go back ever again.

I’m sad too (i’m not heartless). But I told my sister that we HAVE to sell the house. Due to our hectic work schedule, it’s pretty hard for us to go back to Johor so often and thus, our parents have to help us to go back and clean up the house (and sometimes fixing it since old house tends to be quite problematic). And they’re no longer as young and energetic as they were many years ago. Furthermore, it’s very expensive to maintain that old house and we wouldn’t want to burden our parents in terms of financial too.

Thus, it is necessary for us to sell the house off no matter how much we hate to sell it.

It’s for the sake of our parents – which is good enough a reason to sell the house.

Those reasons actually helped to prevent my sister from crying again (she’s very emotional and sentimental).

That is my story. I’m sure most of you have encountered something similar before – something which causes an extreme emotion. Maybe it’s due to your loved one leaving you for work purposes, or your kids going to another country to further their studies, etc. Whatever it is, I feel that it can be overcome if we managed to find strong reasons to convince ourselves that “it is going to be fine”.

This does apply to other things as well such as when you want to buy that ultra expensive bag. All you need to do is to try and find some good reasons NOT to buy. Just like when we’re selling the house. It’s easy to find reasons not to sell the house but for our case, we want to find reasons why we should sell the house so that we will not feel that sad. Remember that finding a positive reason is always more encouraging than finding a negative one which can be quite damaging.

So the next time you face such a situation, maybe you can spend some time to find some good reasons to overcome such an extreme emotion. Hope it helps.

Have you ever been in a situation where you voiced out your opinions to your seniors, only to be regarded as lies or bullshit? The worse thing is, when someone who has is more experienced than you came along with exactly the same opinion, your seniors would believe him!

What kind of nonsense is this? This is called the “don’t talk to me unless you are more qualified than me” syndrome which, sadly, is suffered by many people on Earth.

To be honest, I don’t really blame people who have this kind of syndrome or mentality because there are just too many news, facts, “facts” flying around in our life every single day. If people were to believe in everything, time will never be enough and …well…I think they will go crazy due to excessive information.

I think this boy is not qualified enough to tell people about birdwatching

This kind of syndrome will be even more obvious on someone if that someone is paying for this particular “fact”. Nobody wants to pay for something which is not right or not trustworthy. That’s why businesses are willing to spend thousands and millions of dollars on qualified consultants and experts. Why? Not because they’re smarter or have higher IQs or are more experienced, but because they are regarded to be more “qualified”.

So the next time you want to talk or convince somebody, look at your own situation. Are you qualified enough to talk to the person? Will the person actually listen to you or will he just treat you as an idiot? Think about it and decide whether you really want to talk to the person.

There’s no harm trying but when there are a lot of potential people you can talk to…..you really need to filter and pick only those who will listen to you. You can’t spend too much time on idiots who think you’re more idiotic than them.

p/s…. there are also some people who can be very convincing without the proper qualifications. Those people rely on their reputation. Maybe you can be like them too?

I will be starting on a series of “What customers want?” articles from now onwards. These articles are actually written based on my personal observations and opinions (and rants). Hopefully it’ll help people understand more about what customers really want.

Or more like, what does Alvin Lim really want? LOL

Anyway, the topic here is Security. Everyone wants security especially during economy crisis like this. People want cheap and lasting stuff so that they won’t have to spend money to buy a replacement. In other words, they want to get something which is gives good value for money, or good return of “investment”. Why? Simply because buying a replacement can be very expensive. Imagine buying a new 32 inch LCD TV to replace the 2-year-old 32-inch LCD TV. With the combined price (which is very expensive), you can easily get a 42-inch Full HD LCD TV (I think…but well, it’s just an estimation).

I wonder if there's any company giving this kind of warranty coverage?

I know that few years ago, when people are still spending a lot, some of the cheaper stuff do not come with warranty period because it’s just too expensive for the businesses to offer that. Still, people will buy because if it doesn’t work, they can just buy another one. But now, situation has changed. More and more people are starting to feel the heat from the economy downturn and they are not willing to risk their hard-earned money on something which is not “secured” or without a warranty……unless it’s dirt cheap…like 80% off the original price.

Funny thing is, most businesses do not realize this and they still think customers are willing to risk their money to get something which can break down anytime.

This happened to me today (start of rant). I went to IKEA to look for an office chair and I found a RM 350 chair which is the type that I’m looking for. But it was over my budget. So I went to the furniture shop near LDP (Kelana area) and found an office chair which is pretty similar but RM 290. After some “discussion” with the sales guy (kudos to my mum who is very ruthless when bargaining for cheaper price), I managed to get the price of RM 260. Here’s our conversation after the “discussion”:

Alvin : So if I want this chair, do you think my car can fit in the box?

Sales guy : What box? This is cash & carry. This is the unit you’ll get.

Alvin : Oh.. display unit eh? Then is there any warranty period?

Sales guy : Aiyah, won’t break down one. It’s brand new.

Alvin : How would I know? Maybe you’ve put here for many months. So, is there a warranty period?

Sales guy : Nope. We don’t give warranty period for something this small.

Alvin : Ok, then I’ll get from IKEA.

Seriously, I rather fork out the extra RM 100 to get something brand new and also to buy the “security”. I don’t think I want to spend another few hundred buying yet another chair if the RM 260 breaks. It’s just too risky and certainly not a good investment.

That’s why if you’re trying to sell something to your customers, you must remember that most customers want security or some kind of assurance that the item will not break. If it does, at least, they want to know that they can replace the item with zero fee. Either that, or give them an extremely cheap price which will allow them to buy another new item if the existing one breaks.

As for me, I will still prefer to pay that extra money to get that “security” or warranty. No security, no deal. No assurance, no deal.

P/S….not sure if it is Assurance, or Insurance, or.. ? Ah well, I know “if” statement more than English now.

It seems like most people have no problem talking more, especially with the people they know. The problem they have is not to talk more, but to listen more. Most people find it hard to stop talking and listen to others. True, there are those those don’t talk much, but the amount of people who cannot listen much far outnumbers them.

Fact is, you can meet this kind of people (the type who don’t listen much) everywhere – in meeting, discussion, dinner, presentation, phone calls, etc. They are the type of people who will keep talking, sometimes interrupting people during the conversation. You might think that is a very rude and impolite thing to do – to interrupt others when others are talking, but it is very common and you should not be surprised if you are actually one of those people who don’t listen to others. Try asking yourself, can you pay 100% attention when others are talking? Can you refrain yourself from interrupting others? I know I can’t do that all the time and I’m trying to improve on that. What about you?

I can still remember one incident where my team leader and senior developer started arguing with each other during a technical discussion. It happened last year. The team leader started by voicing out his ideas, and the senior developer interrupted before the team lead finished. And the team leader got frustrated because the senior interrupted few times, not just once. In the end, both of them kept insisting the other to “Listen to me first!” or “Let me finish”. I sat there, stunned and finally said with a soft voice “Can we please continue with this discussion?”

That’s why listening to others is a very important skill. You need it during your conversation with others – customers, bosses, friends, family members, etc. If you cannot even give 100% attention when listening to others, then you can expect others to do the same to you.

Remember, learn to talk less, think more and LISTEN MORE. Give others the chance to finish their sentences before interrupting.

Hope it helps.