In every good CV, there will be a section reserved for referees, their positions and their contact details. This is a very important section and is often overlooked by the job candidates.

Why is it important? Because job interviewers will most likely call the referees for a reference check if you managed to pass the interview process. And this is where your past behavior will either help you in your job application….or ruin your chance.

And it wouldn’t help if you are only putting your friends or relatives as referees. You can put at most 1 close friend but most of the referees should be those individuals who have worked with you before. They should be the people who know how you work, and what is the attitude that you bring to a workplace. They should either be your supervisor, former supervisor or senior colleagues.

Also, by putting your supervisors/colleagues as your referees, it is very obvious that you have nothing to hide and you are willing to let the interviewer knows about your past records. If you can’t find anyone from the company or your ex-company, then finding someone (from within the same industry) who knows you well will help too. It’ll even be better if that someone holds a senior position in a reputable company.

However, one thing that you must always make sure is that these referees will say good things about you and not the other way round. You wouldn’t want to get a referee who would back stab you. Also, always remember to ask permission from the person before you actually put their contact details inside your CV.

Last but not least, be honest in your job interview. The referees are important but they are only there to prove whatever you said during the interview is correct. They are more like the supporting casts. The main cast is you.

As for me, I’m very fortunate that I have good supervisors (former and current) who are willing to help me out by becoming my referees.

p/s…… if you don’t have any good referee…maybe it’s time to perform better in your job so that you can get good testimoninals from your bosses or even ask one of them to be your referee.

Start saving money when you don’t need them. Start selling your products when you’re not fighting for survival. Start hunting for jobs when you don’t need one.

Start doing something when you’re not desperate for it.

I think things are getting very desperate for this kid

Those are the tips given by various career, motivational and marketing gurus. And I couldn’t have agreed more.

I’m currently at a stage where I’m pretty desperate for a good paying job – which is pretty rare this year. I’ve yet to mass email my CVs out but I’m planning to do that soon. The thing is, with my current mindset, it’ll be very risky to go for any job interview.

Because desperation will not help anyone in the job interview. Eagerness, yes but not desperation. If you’re desperate, you will become very nervous and might not be able to answer some of the important questions thrown at you during the interview. You are not the actual YOU and if faced with a difficult interviewer, you will be forced to the corner. And that is not a situation you want to be in.

Maybe that is why the experts always tell others to apply for a job or a better opportunity, when you are not desperate for it. Because you still have the power to say NO. If you’re desperate, you will lose that power and everything might backfire.

Remember, do that something when you are not desperate in order to get the best out of it (I think I’ve been telling people to attend a job interview with a nothing-to-lose mindset).

As for me, I believe I can change my mindset quite easily. After all, I’m not that desperate yet. I’m still better than lots of people out there who are without a job.

p/s…. this applies to other things too. Businesses should not be selling stuff ONLY when they’re on the brink of closing down. People should not start saving up for the emergency ONLY when they’re jobless and have no money to survive. And programmers should not try and finish a project ONLY when the deadline is 24 hours away.

Last year, before the recession hits the States, I met up with some friends and we started talking about small company vs large company. Most of them say that large companies will be better since they’re more stable, consistent and productive. The small ones, to them, are too risky since these companies might suffer from cashflow problem, headcount problem, etc.

The small guy will be able to outrun the big guy and make him tired

I told them, that mentality is true and applicable for 2008 but not in the future. Why? Because there will be more and more changes ahead, more so that the large companies might not be able to handle them. Most of us know that large companies are very process-oriented and they have a certain set of procedures you need to follow for every action. I used to work for a Fortune 500 company, and at 1 point, I requested to upgrade my laptop memory to 2GB. The whole process took 3 weeks since it needs the approval from some IT managers in the States. 3 weeks…for something worth RM 200-300.

Anyway, as I’ve predicted, many so-called large companies are falling and falling fast. Retrenchments are not being made by small companies only….but also big companies (some are formerly known for being the best employers in their respective industry). In fact, most of my friends from large companies are suffering job losses or pay cuts but those in smaller companies are only suffering from pay cuts (they only lose their jobs if the company get closed down ).

The thing here is that large companies tend to spend too much time handling their processes and procedures, while the small companies (the good ones) are spending their time changing and adapting to the new environment. In this ever-changing world, whoever can adapt the fastest will win. This is something important and everyone should remember…..but sadly…not many believe in it.

So if you’re still thinking that large companies are better than smaller companies…….think again. In my opinion, it’s better to keep it small or medium for now since changes will be inevitable in 2009 onwards. You wouldn’t want to be the last in the queue to make the changes.

Meetings and discussions are very common activities in the office and they are meant to discuss some important things and come out with best possible solutions for the problems faced. But throughout my 5 years of working experience, I couldn’t help but noticed that a lot of these meetings and discussions are actually useless and meaningless.

Why is that so? Here are some of the factors which I can think of for now.

• Agendas and things to be discussed in the meeting or discussion are not set. People do not know what to talk about and most probably end up talking nonsense.
• Most people are just there in the meeting room for the sake of being there, without actually wanting to solve the problem. Their bodies will be there, not their souls.
• The person chairing the meeting and discussion is not experienced enough or he himself tends to talk something unrelated to the objectives. Or worse, the person does not know what he wants from the meeting and just want to get it over as quickly as possible.

In my opinion, if you don’t have the willingness to achieve the objectives of the meeting (which, most of the time, is to solve problems), then don’t conduct a meeting or discussion in the first place because any meeting which fails to achieve the objectives is regarded as meaningless and a waste of time.

I think this kind of meeting is pretty popular

And if you conduct a meeting for the sake of coming out with ANY solution….then please…..don’t start the meeting at all. No solution is better than a very bad solution which might make things worse.

I started this topic after my sister told me that a customer service officer of a company called her up and changed her (the officer’s) statement from “Our company products’ warranty period is only 3 days”  to “After confirming with our senior managers, we have to inform you that our company does not provide warranty coverage to the toys AT ALL“. See the difference?

Call this irresponsible, or whatever. To me, it’s lousy management and leadership. If you can only come out with such lousy solution (it’s actually a worse answer than the first one), then at least, don’t tell me “After confirming with our senior managers”. You are giving me the impression that your whole company, including the senior managers, consists of a bunch of idiots.

Most people are busybody curious, particularly Malaysians. They like to know things which are not related to them. And they like to argue, and flame each other for reasons unknown to me. Perhaps they want to become popular? Or maybe achieve that sense of satisfaction for flaming someone? Or perhaps they think that they are the only people who are right in this world….yeah right, maybe when nobody is left in this world.

And there are also people who love to stop when there’s an accident across the street. They are willing to spend that extra seconds, just to fulfill their curiosity. Problem is, they don’t realize the people queuing behind them are not going to wait for just a few seconds extra… it’s going to be a very bad jam!

Maybe people should stop wasting time on such things. You gain nothing by stopping in the middle of the road to look at an accident…… you might, however, get a broken car boot if the car behind you don’t pay attention. You also gain nothing by flaming other users online, or shooting down other people in a meeting. The only thing you gain is a bad reputation, a lot of enemies, and a lot of precious time gone.

So why bother? Stop all those time wasting nonsense and move on with the things which are really important.

There is really nothing to see there, just move on with your life. (I changed HERE to THERE just in case people think my blog has nothing to see)

The idea of this articles comes from – Rubbernecking.

P/S… i only slept 3 hours in the last 36 hours. Rushing project and won’t be able to post up long articles this week. Sorry for that.