People always say that attitude is everything. A skilled person with a bad attitude is worthless for the company but anyone with a good attitude is a valuable asset.

Why?

Just compare these 2 individuals. Which one do you think you will want to be in your company, if you happen to be the boss?

• Person A – always want to contribute. When free, he’ll try to learn new things by doing self-studying. When he has completed his tasks, he will ask if you need any help. Or when there’s really nothing much to do, he will just go online and read some useful articles to boost his level of knowledge.
• Person B – always pretends to be busy. When free, he will open a small window (or big one for some people) to watch Youtube, play Facebook or even play games. All these activities are during office hours. When he has completed his tasks, he prefers to keep quiet and take a break…..like playing his games.

Now, tell me, if you are the boss, which kind of employee do you prefer to hire? Surely, it has to be the first person since he’s a proactive person who is always looking to improve himself.

If I were the boss, I would worry more about his SOCSO claim

But the funny thing is, the number of people in Category B far outweighs the number of people in Category A. Just look around your office, how many people actually belong to the first group, the proactive group? I believe not many.

Does that mean you should join the rest?

You shouldn’t actually. You should be proactive and don’t sit there playing game. Why?

• Your bosses will not be happy if they know, and they will know if they actually check.
• If others are not proactive, by being proactive, you will be regarded as a better performer.
• Improving yourselves by learning more stuff is way way way better than playing mindless Facebook games or watching useless Youtube videos. You can’t carve out a career out of those 2 (er..actually you can, but that’s another topic altogether).
• Those activities can be considered as misconduct since you are using company properties to do things which are illegal. You can face quite harsh punishment from there. So better be careful.

Last but not least, try to put yourselves in the shoes of your bosses. If you’re in their position, will you be happy if your employees are those not proactive people who need to be ordered around ALL THE TIME, or you would prefer to have someone who is willing to help out with stuff?

I believe the answer is pretty obvious.

A job interview is a session where you meet your potential employer and have a good chat with each other. The role of the interviewer is to judge whether you are suitable for the position and for the company. Your role, on the other hand, is to be honest to yourselves and to the interviewer so that you will be able to decide whether the job suits you.

I do understand that in certain conditions, you might be quite desperate for a job. And when you are desperate, you tend to come out with lies and become dishonest. You will start saying that you know this and that, but in actual fact, you know none of them.

By doing this, you might be able to get your desired job. But at what cost? What if the interviewer realized that you are not who you said you are? Believe me, if you try to cheat your way into a job……you will end up suffering because the job might not be what you want, and you might struggle to do things that you do not know.

So it’s important for you to be honest in the job interview and also for the interviewer to be honest with you. Set the expectations right. The key elements here are your honesty, your experience and also your attitude.

Remember, there’s no point to cheat your way into a job that you are not suitable, only to change job again few months later. It’s not good for both yourselves and for the company.

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p/s…. I went for a job interview on Monday. I passed the technical test but it didn’t work out because the interviewer was looking for a potential technical architect and I’m not. On the other hand, I’m looking for a job with more client interaction, which they don’t have. So our expectations were pretty different. Some people said I should’ve lied and get the offer first but I chose not to do that. I prefer to be honest upfront since I don’t want people to waste their time.

As some of you know, my salary will be reduced by 30% 2 weeks from now – beginning from 23rd of March….which means it’s a pretty big birthday present for me. :T

To be honest, I’ve been expecting this salary cut but I never expect it to be so much and in such a short notice.

But well, let’s face the fact. No matter how much I rant and complain here, nothing will change.

I think I'm much better than this guy

One thing do change is my mindset and my thinking thanks to 2 important lessons which I’ve learnt.

• Never sell your soul to your company.
• Don’t depend too much on your company.

I’ve realized that no matter how hard you work for your company or your employer, it’s useless when the time is bad and the company itself is trying to survive. Who cares if you are hardworking and who cares about the efforts you’ve put in? What the company cares about is the amount of money you are bringing in. If the amount is the least among the employees, then sorry to say that if there’s a need to find a victim to cut cost, you will be the one.

And when that happens, nobody will come and save you except maybe your family and few close friends. The best person that you can depend will still be yourselves. Make sure you have enough money to survive and to pay off your debts. Also, always have enough backup plans before the ‘disaster’ happens. Think about what other things you can do to earn extra income or what other things you don’t need and should sell them off.

As long as you have made sufficient backup plans, you can stop depending too much on the job and the company, and also be prepared for any major changes to your job.

As for me, I’m just glad that I didn’t sell my soul to the company. And I didn’t rely too much on the company too. I’ve made some preparations months before…but might not be sufficient now since the ‘reduction’ is too big. Still, it’s better than relying 100% on the company.

Just hope that all of you will have a better luck than me.

p/s…. I don’t blame the company or the management team because if I’m in their shoes, I’ll most probably do the same thing as well (but maybe also help them to find jobs outside).

I’ve heard of many cases where the person who is paid to do the work, somehow ends up seeking help from the customers. One example is what happened to my sister. She’s an accountant in a MNC and there was this fresh graduate auditor who kept pestering her and the other accountants……not for information or documents, but for help. The fresh graduate did not know how to do her job! To make things worse, my sister actually gave her some documents to study but she didn’t study. She preferred to be spoon-fed.

Spoon-fed by a customer…? Hmmm.

Actually, this kind of incident happens a lot. These people have no idea that they are dealing with the customers, and they are supposed to be the one providing solution, not the other way round. If you can’t give me solution and expect me to teach you how to do it, then what’s the point of paying you? Isn’t it better to just hire a maid?

If you seriously don’t know how to fix it, then just seek assistance from your seniors or something and don’t let the customers know that you can’t fix it. Always know your role and where you are. It won’t benefit you or your employer if you allow the customers to know that you can’t fix the problem (and pestering to teach you to fix it will certainly make things a lot worse).

As for the guy allocating resources, always know who are your main customers and the skillset of your people. No point sending a lazy rookie to the front line of a warzone. You’ll just lose more people and give the impression that your squad (company) is weak. Try to allocate them under some helpful seniors and put them elsewhere.

Remember that if I’m paying you to fix the problem for me, and you can’t do it…then the least you can do is to spend some time figuring out how to do it (and not asking me for help!). If you still can’t do it, I’ll just find someone else.

I’ve been working pretty hard for the past few weeks due to a never-ending project – weekdays, weekends, day and night. A friend of mine knows about this and messaged me in Yahoo Messenger.

Friend : Hey Alvin, working so hard?

Is working hard = spoiling the market?

Alvin : Yeah. Project deadline is coming and still got tonnes to do.

Friend : But today is Saturday leh.

Alvin : Sundays also need to work, not just Saturdays.

Friend : Wah, you shouldn’t do that you know. If you do that, the bosses will think the other people are lazy since they are not working on weekends.

Alvin : Hmm, I just feel its my responsibility to deliver this project on time.

Friend : Aiyo, spoil market lah you.

A year go, when employers are trying to find people desperately, one can always tell his/her friends not to spoil the market by working too hard. But that was a year ago when the global economy was at its peak. Things are pretty different now.

To be honest, what my friend said that day kinda surprised me a little. I thought the news on job cuts have been quite wide-spread to most people. But it seems that there are still some people who realize about the situation….but are unwilling to let down their ego. To them, they are not being paid to work hard and if you want them to work hard….then please, pay them more (OT, claims, etc).

Well, the thing I want to say here is that…….time has changed. The demand for job is higher than before, but the supply is becoming lower each passing day. If you think that you are not being paid to work hard, then by all means, do as you wish. Remember that if you don’t want to do it, someone else will do your job for you HAPPILY.

Sadly but true. We, the employees, no longer have a strong bargaining power. It’s either we do it and become an asset to the company, or we don’t and become a liability.

And when economy is bad, the first thing people will remove is — liability.

Perhaps it’s time to change your mindset that working hard = survival + being responsibile, not spoiling the market.