Pre CNY Dinner 05022018

Hmm... 

What's the feel

When lunch mates also

Come out for dinner?

Here we are

All lunch mates together

To have pre CNY dinner

And the one absent, Vincent

His photo being cropped inside!

Chai How's Wedding 27012018

He's my ex-room mate!

He's my ex-colleague!

Yes, is him!

He's Tan Chai How!

It's his wedding.

Congratulations to him!

A special dinner organised for us,

the ex-colleague in Amkor.

Wish you happy till the end of life!

Journey to Master Study

Master? Hmm… so many friends around are studying Master. From university course mates to colleagues, many of them are Master graduates now. Eventually, some of them especially university course mates are PhD holder and become lecturers in local university!

          Studying Master? Yeah, maybe. MBA or continue engineering? Seeing my friends around, uni course mates are going for engineering (one psychology exceptional), colleagues are going for MBA. Thinking of current workload, engineering Master definitely is not a choice. Probably I’ll drown if I continue with that. Moreover, most probably I’ll enter the management world in not a very long time. Hence, MBA is the choice I think.

         

          Why never continue to study Master straight away after graduating from Degree? Well, I need to work immediately. I need income at the time. Even though I was doing well in my FYP, I could cooperate well with my lecturer, Dr. Manimaran at the time. Even though, I was offered to be research assistant with Dr. Manimaran at the time. But, the reality was in front of me. I have to continue working. Yes, I need that. Therefore, the offer was rejected. And, I continue to work until now. 7.5 years.

          Why suddenly thinking of further study after work for so many years? Hmm… Not sudden actually, was thinking of that in recent years. After my life started to settle down. I need to do something for self-improvement. Thinking one of my colleagues, Mr. Anbalagan, my technical expert in repairing PCB boards. Seeing his appearance, white hair and white bear, wearing smart like a knowledgeable person. Seeing his office, it’s like an office of a professor, full of books and machine manuals. Mr. Anba has helped the company to save millions of dollars by repairing spoilt boards from all processes. If not because of his expertise, all boards would be going to makers/vendors to repair, which the cost is not cheap at all. With his contribution to the company, he should be awarded high position, if not high salary. However, my position was higher than him when I have first entered the company as a fresh graduate. I’m higher than him just because I’m a Degree holder, while he is not! What a realistic world! I believe it’s the same elsewhere out there. People are first looking at your qualification, not your experience or contribution anyhow.

Once upon a time, Diploma holders were everywhere, only a few Degree holders in the market. Hence, those Degree holders are the managers now, while those Diploma holders are still down there as technicians, or some promoted as Technical Experts, which is still a level lower than a fresh engineer, if lucky enough. Seeing the situation right now, Degree holders are everywhere. Some already started to further Master, and not less than 20% of my colleagues are Master holder now. Seeing my lunch mates alone, out of seven of us (including one already resigned recently), 3 are Master holders! So, the history is repeating now. Those Master holders are the managers in the future, degree holders are remaining as engineers or senior engineers. I believe. So? Shall I still continue my life as normal without having new things being injected into my life? Shall I still remain as Degree holder only? Shall I stay in comfort zone till forever? The answer is definitely not!

The search continues. Courses in UPM, UTHM, Uni Razak etc, the cost, the sponsorship from government and so on. However, the search never goes deep. Worry on my current work situation, where OT is very common for me. Working until 9pm or 10pm, is nothing special for me. With such working environment, I would unable to cope with the part-time study. Another reason is, the courses are not cheap. They are easily hit 17kRM to 20kRM, which I think is a huge number for me. Therefore, the search was never being serious, due to the commitment right now.

On 15 Dec 2017, there was a sudden email from HR. Saying that there’s a talk from USAINS Holding Berhad on 20 Dec, to provide information on a master course that they want to provide. Oh my god! Why so sudden on that? And most important is, I’m on leave on that day! So how could I get info on the master study? I have no choice but to ask my colleague, Conie to get info for me.

The answer is finally known, where USAINS is cooperating with UTAR to provide a master course named as Advanced Electronics Design - Post Grad MSc (UTAR named it as Master of Engineering -  Electronic Systems), and the course is fully sponsored by government’s Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF). The condition to apply this course is, the applicant must be a graduate in Electronic Engineering, and his CGPA must be more than 3.00 in his engineering course. The applicant must also work in the related electronic field, as the purpose of this course is to enhance engineer’s knowledge in the electronic field and apply it in Malaysia. The condition to graduate is, the student must achieve a final CGPA of 3.00 and above within the term of the program, else he will need to bear the full amount of this study, which is 18.5 kRM! The good thing about this course is, there is no bond with the current working company, and the graduates must work in Malaysia in electronic field for at least one year. Special thanks to Conie, for helping me to get the information above.

Hmm… The most attractive part of this course is, it is absolutely free! My CGPA is above 3.00 also, and I have no plan to work overseas as well. However, my Degree is not electronic engineering, and my current work is more towards project management, not in the electronic field also. Obviously, I do not qualify for the course! However, I requested Conie to submit the application form on behalf of me also, and see if I could get selected for the course or not. This is what we call try luck!

I was one of the six applicants in my company, and I was so lucky to be one of three candidates selected to be submitted for USAINS. Seeing all six applicants, I was the oldest one with 7.5 years of working experience! The second oldest was Crystal with 2.5 years of working experience! Another 1 applicant with 2 years’ experience, while the remaining were less than a year in the company. Oh my god again, am I considered old to further study right now? Why there’s such a big gap there? Something to indicate that I’ve already “old”, but still have wish to further study at this age. Obviously, working experience was the selection criteria, as three of us who have most experiences were selected.

Everything was going smooth, application forms submitted batch by batch, and both me and Crystal were shortlisted by USAINS for the study! I was happy and worry at the same time. I was happy because this is going to be a new page of my life! But I have more worry than happy, as part-time study is going to be a big burden of me. Moreover, the course is related to electronic engineering, which is not my background. And it against my initial will to further study MBA, rather than in engineering field. Fine! It’s just a one-year course! Let’s just suffer for a year and I’ll be the Master graduate a year later! That’s what I told myself, to persuade myself to overcome the great challenge of my life.

Just 2 weeks before class opening on 29 Jan, I received a call from Dr. Shee, the program coordinator from UTAR. Dr. Shee mentioned that I was not supposed to qualify for this course, as I’m not from the electronic background. He missed out the point during selection, and he’ll need to check with UTAR side if I really qualify for the program. What a thunderstorm for me! I was already shortlisted, and suddenly you said that I’m not supposed to be shortlisted? Well, I'm not qualified anyhow in the beginning. Hence, I decided to withdraw from the course. What a bad joke for me, I wish to further study all this while, and I got a great chance to proceed with that. I was shortlisted and finally, I was told that I’m not qualified. Why can’t you just disqualify me at the beginning? Why I was given hope, but the hope was taken away after that? It was very disappointing…

Dr. Shee called me again the next day, saying that it’s possible for me to continue with the course, providing that I pass an interview that’s going to be specially organized for me. I was required to write an essay within an hour in the interview, to explain my knowledge of electronics and the reason why I need to take this course. The interview is going to be organized on 22 Jan, which was just a week before the orientation on 29 Jan. I felt stress, as I won’t be performing in writing an essay if under stress. And I have limited knowledge in electronic field anyhow. Negotiation on-going with Dr. Shee, whether I should proceed with the interview, or I shall just give out now, as I was not qualified from the beginning also. I don’t want to waste people’s time and I should let go of the chance for the qualified people.

However, Dr. Shee persuaded me to continue with the interview, as it’s just an official procedure to fulfil UTAR and HRDF’s requirement. I accepted the challenge, and proceed with the interview on 22 Jan. Eventually, the interview was going smooth, and I was qualified for the Master course, again.

Since everything is confirmed right now, I informed my superior Mr. Karuna, about my further study in the Master course. Of course, he was not so happy with it, because it means that I’m not going to be fully committed on my work from now on, and he thinks that there’s a high chance I’m going to leave my work after completing the study. Moreover, the course doesn’t relate with my current job at all. But he accepted that because is a good thing that his subordinate has the wish to perform self-improvement. I’ve informed my big boss Mr. JK also, and he got angry with that. “Why you go for further study?!” He asked me. I fully understand he’s not going to accept that, as he always wants his people to work 24/7. But I didn’t care about this thought, as that’s the choice of my life. You don’t have any right to stop me from performing self-improvement. Yes, I don’t care your thought, Mr. JK.

29 Jan 2018, 7pm at UTAR Sungai Long Campus, I travelled there with Crystal, attended our orientation session with both UTAR and USAINS management, and started our first class on the same day. Well, I’m officially a Master student now, and proceed with the one-year course which targeted to finish by Dec 2018 and graduate after that, providing I able to achieve a CGPA of 3.00 and above.

My wish to further study Master program is finally achieved, after so many years graduated from Degree course. Thanks to Dr. Shee and Conie, for making my starting a success one. This is a new chapter of my life, and I shall challenge it to do better, and must graduate with flying colours! 

The photo above was taken after the orientation

with the management of UTAR, USAINS

Lecturers, as well as all the coursemates