Understanding Venture Capital

I have come across this term before when i watched Biz talk on Bernama Astro.

There is this company called Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (MAVCAP)

http://www.mavcap.com/

Well, i tried to google what does it means by this term. Let's have an understanding on venture capital.=)

Venture capital equity means investing financial and human capital in partnership with you.

Venture capital equity is the business of investing capital, either financial or human, in partnership with your business's management team. Investments are made into new start-up businesses, or for expansion of an existing business. The investors prefer investing into a more established business with a history of profitability, but they are open to all businesses that have good potential.

Before a venture capital firm will consider your business for an investment they will look to see that your business has a new and unique product or service which is in high demand. If you feel that the market potential for your product would allow your business to reach $50-$100 million or more in value over the next 5 – 10 years, than you are in a good market as far as venture capitalists are concerned. The goal with venture capital equity is to earn a high profit, so the VC firms have high standards for companies they invest in.

They also want to ensure, before investing, that your business has a strong management team with entrepreneurial enthusiasm with a vision for strong growth. Proven business success among your management is a plus.

Venture capital is often invested into stages with a company. Generally $1-2 million is invested for start up, and then $7 million or more is provided throughout the life of your business for proper and accelerated growth and expansion.

Our free business capital search engine provides you with a list of venture capital firms that are waiting to fund your business venture. The capital search engine also contains thousands of other investment options for your business, unrelated to venture capital.

Get a pass for YOUTH FESTIVAL~

Youth campus cartoons~~

I have got the pass for the coming Youth 10 events this weekends.

Just a very simple step to do, a click to the ' Get The Pass' and fill in you full name, email address and lastly your HP number. I have register under youthsay.com to get more info on the events and so on.

I bump onto the acronyms RSVP, i don't know what it means.

And eventually i google in Wiki:

RSVP may refer to:

• "Répondez s'il vous plaît", is a formal French phrase that, directly translated, means "Answer if it pleases you." It is with this meaning that invitation cards and similar documents are often marked with "RSVP".
• A verb, meaning to respond to an invitation in the aforementioned context.

jeng jeng~~, a new word to learn to day!~~

Myers Briggs Test Results

Today i bumped onto one of the LYN threads, which a senior Forummer advices a junior forummer on taking the famous test - MBTI test.
So, with a curiousity look on my face, my instinct told me that i should try on the test. Why not?! HAhA =D
Out of my curiosity, this is the first time ( i think so) that am doing this kind of test, asking me 40 questions, and done with the result!~

And the result is non surprisingly, an ADMINISTRATOR.=)

well, it is not to my surprise, and on another notes, it is indeed very accurate!
Administrator may encompasses many other ares, according to WIKI:

Administrator (sometimes abbreviated admin) may refer to:

* Administrator (business), a person for the performance or management of administrative business operations
* Administrator of the Government, in various Commonwealth realms and territories
* Administrator (law), a person appointed by a court to handle the administration of an estate for someone who has died without a will.
* In the independent agencies of the United States government, the highest executive officer in an independent agency whose name ends with the word "administration"
* Academic administration, administration of a school
* Administration (insolvency).

School administrator is one of the possibility? wellafter all, i think i am more suitable to sit in the office~! Wee~~~ Huh! stop dreaming now, get onto the present la.=p

Extroverted (E) 54.05% Introverted (I) 45.95%
Sensing (S) 51.43% Intuitive (N) 48.57%
Thinking (T) 52.94% Feeling (F) 47.06%
Judging (J) 57.14% Perceiving (P) 42.86%

Your type is: ESTJ

ESTJ - "Administrator". Much in touch with the external environment. Very responsible. Pillar of strength. 8.7% of total population.

Take Free Myers-Briggs Personality Test

So, what to wait for, let's take this MBTI test and see what kind of personality type that you belongs to.=)

CFA Professional Qualification

I have heard of CFA programe. I am curious.

Is this a very tough course?

I have no background in Finance nor Accounting, I am a science student (BioChemistry). . I am currently not even working in a Finance related position. But I am thinking of broadening my career option.

I might just enroll into level 1 for a preview, I am not that keen to be a Chartered Holder, my main purpose is to obtain some formal education/training to help me be a better investor. Taking Level 1 only seem like a good idea.

Some useful advice on the this industry:

As it is, I am not optimistic that any research house will hire you. You should at least pass CFA Level I before contemplating applying for a job as an analyst. Even then, the competition may be keen. Back in the 1996, there were only 23 CFA in Malaysia. I was the only one with CFA Level III in my firm. To day, there must be thousands of CFA in Malaysia. The analyst route to investment industry is a very tough one.

Alternatively, you may want to consider working through the mutual funds industry as investment advisor. You can take a CFP course. It's a lot easier. Or you may want to start off as remisier, at the same time taking CFA courses and work your way to become a Institutional Dealer with a brokerage firm.

Alright, if you ever wonder the difference between the two:

CFA = Solely on Investment Analyst . You will be a maestro in evaluating investment vehicle and provide advices to HNWI or Corporate Investors.

CFP = Solely on Financial Planning. You will be a maestro in drawing financial plan for individuals. I think there may be some small overlap in some modules especially the investment part with CFA. CFP will study M'sian Tax, Insurance & Risk Management, Investment & Portfolio Management, Estate Planning, Will Writing, Trust and Retirement Planning.

While some said the CFA Level 1 is of not much use, another suggestion pop up:

If you want to get educated on investment in an in-depth level, I highly recommend that you get a copy of "The Intelligent Investor" and "Security Analysis". There are considered as the 'stock market bible'. They teaches you Fundamental Analysis.

Yes, CFP is another course that I have my eye on. I will probably do the CFP in the very near future. Hopefully!=)

I love finance, and I think this is the best strategy for me to enter into the world on finance from a non-finance background.

Probably a recommended link here : http://www.kmdc.com.my/html/programmes/prog_04cfp.html

~~YOUTH 10 is coming~~

The Malaysia's largest youth festival is coming!
I am all hoping to get there to enjoy every little things that a youth should be enjoy.

The activities range from sports, dance,music,discovery,shopping etc...would definetely look forward to join it!!

This really coincidental with the time where i would be having a trip to Bukit Tinggi with friends this coming weekend(29th and 30th). But still i am hoping to fork out some time to go for this meaningful and interesting event!=) another job task is to convince my fellows trip friends for participating on this great event.=)

For more info :
http://www.theyouthfestival.com/

Buying Insurance

This morning when i watched TV3, somehow i bump into the the morning talk between the host and a Takaful Invesment Officer.
I learnt from the talk as well, and would like to share it here.=) On how to make investment link product. It is not a high risk policy.People need it because they need protection and at the same time they want some of their money to be invest with not much hassle.Hence the customer got 2 in 1 products.

When a customer buy an investment link product, your consultant would normally asked you and suggest you which fund that you preffered. Is it a high risk investment with high returns or low risk investment with average returns. An Aggressive Diversified fund like Growth Fund put their strategic assets allocation mostly 70%-80% in equities, fixed income securities & liquid assets-25% and other assets - 5%. The majority of the total return is likely to be in the form of capital gain by way of increases of unit price or by creation of additional units (bonuses) after the end of each distribution period.If you fancy a high returns figure and dont mind the risk, this is a fund that surely suitable for you.If not, better stick to a balance diversied fund or Conservative Diversified fund which gives you average returns . Also the risk is between low to average.

while some fo you might ask:

May i know what is the difference between tranditional insurance and
investment link insurance in terms of advantages and limitation.i've compare my
insurance package with my friends. Mine is tranditional where i have to pay a
fix amount till the end of policy (if not mistaken)while most of my friend buy
investment link insurance. i found that normally their payment is cheaper than
mine for same coverage, let's say 200K life insurance.Next, a friend told me
that she only need to pay for 20 years, after that she no need pay for the
insurance but she'll still be under protection.

The reply is:

A traditional insurance policy is one that guarantees you level premiums and returns (in most cases) based on age of entry. It may be slightly more expensive (if it includes critical illness coverage) but usually serves as a form of forced savings. As it usually comes with cash value, after a while you can allow the cash value to pay off your insurance charges at the expense of your returns.A investment linked policy on the other hand is a good choice to provide high protection at an affordable premium and is usually what is called as a complete package plan which can be customised to individual needs.

Traditional and ILP both have their benefits.ILP you can get big protection in young age with cheap premium. However, when we are getting older, the insurance charges will increase drastically. Thus, if you were paying quite a low premium for that, your cash value inside the policy might not sufficient to cover the insurance charges and riders.Traditional policy might be more expensive compared to ILP. However, the premium is fix because it do not have insurance charges for that. Another benefits is that the death benefits will continue to increase with age. Lets say you buy 100k protection at age 30, the amount of protection will increase with the cash value and it might reached 400-500k, and with the same premium you pay. Like me i bought a life insurance at age 1 about RM20 per month, now i still paying RM 20 per month and the protection is massive.Besides, traditional and ILP both have premium holiday. Means you still can do the same thing as your friend after paying for a certain years. After all, Traditional or ILP is both depends on your needs.


Insurance charges are charges that they charge on your protection and also riders attached. Lets say RM 100 monthly now and his age is 25. Insurance charges and commission will be deducted from the RM 100 and the left will be used to buy units for investment. Because his age now, his insurance charges will be lower than the premium, and therefore you can see some growth in your cash value as there are money left to buy investment units. However, insurance charges might increase with your age just like medical card. You can still continue to pay RM 100 premium, but if the insurance charges is more than RM 100 a month, then company will sell off your units to pay the insurance charges. So now, you can still pay RM 100 BUT your cash value will decreases consequentially until there are no more investment unit in your policy. That time, you can choose to pay higher premium or lapse your policy. That's why its better to pay higher premium now to build up your cash value.

ILP:

• Pro- Able to enjoy higher protection with low premium at low age.
• Cons- The insurance charges will increase along with age, and your value inside might be eroded.

Traditional :

• Pro- The premium will never increase, no insurance charges incurred. The death benefits and cash value will increase with your age.
• Cons- Premium of the same protection might be more expensive than the ILPConclusion, traditional and ILP run together would be the best. Just my opinion.

Well, this may be a typical questions for someone who decides to buy Insurance:

Hi all, i hv few question to ask b4 buying a new policy, am considering of buying 'all in 1' type:

1. Ist a reliable agent a main point to consider?

2. How to justify if d agent told u the premium of ILP is fixed, no more worry increasing of premium in future, is this believable? anything in the policy agreement can prove thier words?

3. For term stand alone medical card, heard most of ppl claim that no guarantee renewal, i mean if u claim the illness b4, when next year renewal, the insurance company usually will not cover the claim illness or else they will increase ur premium for the coverage. Is this a main point to consider if choosing a stand alone medical card, no matter which insurance co.

4. i wanted to buy a policy with life, CI, TPD & rider of premium waiver, plus some savings and medical card(R&B RM150), option of buying ILP (all in 1 policy, benefits in premium waiver if something happened, but disadvantage of lower project return, risk of premium increase) or traditional type (Life+CI+TPD+higher of guarantee savings/returns) + stand alone medical card(disadvantage of no guarantee renewal & premium may increase after certain year)

5. for ILP, how do we know the fixed/standard rider, which mean different agent may apply different rider into the plan with different additional premium.(for example, a ILP, different agent with the same insurance co. will quote different charges, how do v choose the right rider to meet out needs?), what is the basic rider for a ILP?

6. Period of Term until age 70/80/99yrs is consideration point?

7. For ILP, the coverage of Life must be greater than CI?Sincerely need yours advise or opinion, tq

The answers:

1. 70% on product and 30% on agent. Because life insurance is to protect you. If agent does not service, you can do yourself in their headquarters although it'll be a bit troublesome.

2. From the illustration you see i ILP is fixed. Because ILP works on unit cancellation, and the cost of insurance is not guaranteed, and if the performance of the fund is not so good in the future, you may need to top up to get your ILP working. To see how it works, pls attached a copy of the illustration of your ILP proposal and I'll teach you how.

3. There are life stand alone card and general stand alone cards. Life cards are normally guaranteed renewable up to a whatever age the card expires. For general cards, it is normally not guaranteed renewable.

4. Take note when you buy a traditional policy with premium waiver because a premium waiver will normally waive the basic death portion. The riders ie. CI or Medical Card or PA premiums u still need to pay. Traditional policies will be priced higher for the same coverage as compared to ILPs, but the advantage is you'll have consistent returns at the end. ILP on the other hand will be cheaper in price but returns are not guaranteed. So my advice is, how much protection you need and what is your budget, then only decide what policy to get.

5. Look at their sales illustration and ask them what every rider means. Yes you are true that different agents from the same company may give you different riders at different prices. But you don't need to worry because you may not need all of them. The rule of thumb to choose ILP is to look at the cash values projected at the end of 30 yrs. If the cash value is zero at say 25th year, then you will have a tendency to top up. Again this is based on illustration basis maybe 3% to 8% every year. This only serves as a guide. It may go higher or lower depending on the economy.

6. For life and CI, the term is normally 100. For med card is normally 70, 81 and 100. So on the med card, do look for every pros and cons, meaning if a card can cover you up to 100, but lacks this and that, then whats the point? Again in M'sia, the sick age shall be in the region of 50+ to 70+. So judge this for yourself.

7. No not true. Depend on which company. For Great Eastern, AIA and ING, the life must be greater or equivalent because their CI rider will deduct a portion from them when a claim is made. For Allianz and Pru, you will have the option to seperate out the CI rider meaning if claim CI, it wont affect the life portion. These are the companies that i've gathered information so far by reading their policies. GE, AIA and ING may have new riders, so agents from these companies do confirm ok.

Venture into Stock Market.

Well, somehow, i am striked with the decision of whether going for investment , be it stock investment or property investment. well it sound like with my current status as a university student, i am not too mature enough to explore the current trends in the stock markets yet. perhapss, this is not uet a calling for me to venture into the share trading. plus i don't have much time and commitment into analysis and investgate the whole spectrum of market shares.

So i tried to find some information regarding the Stock market, just as learning guidelined for a newbie like me.

A senior reply to me as below:

If ur still a student my personal opinion is stick to your studies no offence...

share trading can be time consuming and tedious, if ur new try and read and gain more knowledge first dont jump immediately into trading. No point suggesting any counters, because if anyone says that that XYZ company counter is very good andyou will make tonnes of money from it I will say he/she is a lier.

Buying stock is a very subjective matter, it all depends on u reading the materials in the market and doing homework first before u rush in to the market and get slaughtered.

On the other hand, hope is not that bleak for u I suggest u start a unit trust account it works great in a bull market and steadier returns.

Well, some says opting for Unit trust:

Ya la, get unit trust better, u dont really have to focus too much on it and u can get fairly decent long term returns. If ur really hard up on the KLSE, why not try an index tracker like the OSK KLCI tracker fund? The buying in price is fairly cheap, bout 1%, redemption 1%. And if u buy from HSBC they'll redeem half of the charges back to you.

But anyways, i think it entirely depends on ur risk appetite: can u accept that ur money may depreciate? Or do u want sumthing thats like capital guaranteed?If the latter then go Amanah Saham or sumthing la. Worse come to worse main kutu hahahaha .

Some opinions are more inclined towards Unit Trust:

I'd say with RM2000 you're better off putting your money in some unit trust. Learn how to invest and then you can dive into the stock market. I doubt as a new investor you will be able to beat unit trust performance. Plus your funds are so limited and you are a student. However, I must add that your time horizon for investing is rather short and you can even lose money with unit trust if you only keep for a year or two. We dont know what the market will be like. A time line of 3-5years will be safer.

Here is an article about investing with very little money like your RM2000 - http://klsestockreview.blogspot.com/2007/0...rk-for-you.html

For some useful info on stocks listed on Bursa Malaysia you can visit
http://klsestockreview.blogspot.com

Opinions by Jordy, experiencers of stock market:

as a student myself and possibly younger than you by a year, I can share my experiences with you.
I started trading in KLSE 8 years ago, when many people were still brushing up for PMR. It was a great experience back then watching the stocks and reading updates in the business world.
I didn't have any basic knowledge of the stock market then, I just traded by following speculations (or pure luck).
It was good as I managed to accumulate a profit of 30% by the first year, and my parents were proud.

That was just before the 2001 9/11 attacks, when I suddenly lost all my hard earned cash + profits prior to that because of lack of knowledge.
I never looked back then, but continued to earn money to start my investment again. My money was stuck there for a good few years, without earning me anything, because the stocks that I invested in were not so performing. So I just managed to breakeven.
Not long ago, I beefed up my stock trading knowledge by reading a lot when I had a break during lessons.

Now lucky to say, I have the chance of having a bit of knowledge in stock analysis, reading annual reports and invest in the right stocks.
I have accumulated enough capital to divide my investment between stocks and unit trust. In good times, I am earning an average of 10% in less than 2 months from stock market, and another 10% in around 1 month from unit trust.

I must say, for your RM2000, it is very difficult to spot undervalued stocks which you can cash into, without doing the due diligence and time for research. I sacrifice my study time to do my research and self-study on the stock market. Are you able to do that?

Regards

Perhaps, there is so much more for me to learn=D

I want Humane, no war!

These are the photos which i have the chance to snap it out while on my way to enjoy the exhibition by Soko Gakkai society on UM not too long ago~

It focus on the humanitarians wars and so on. let's together ponder the bad effects of wars.

and how our communication can bringus close together. i won't brief much on that, just a very simple yet meaningful reminder for all. Let's PONDER.=)

MLM again?

I really don't know should i suited to a selling profession? can i makes a good sales boy? Am i able to have the weet mouth to persuade others for a certain products? i really wonder. it is not that i am not confident enough to be a sales boy, furthermore, who know, i might end up as a sales boy in future, if there is really no other job for me T.T

Okay, stop it! Why i am ought to post here is i have seen and heard a lots of friends from introducing me A company is good, then comes another B company has a potential bussiness market to grow, then again C company has environmental friendly products worth to be shared to consumers, etc... This kind of scenario, i really have experienced it thoroughly.From Amway to Score A Programme then to Melaleuca.

Today, my formal school headmistress introduce me about Melaleuca, she said the products are really good la, environmental friendly la, very efective la and so on. Well, what i think is, people often have to experience themselves first, if they feel that they are good, then only come a time where they are able to promote and to share it woth others , seriously, it is not an easy bussiness So, why i think like that?



1. How to convince people to switch from other products to ur products...??? for eg.. spirulina.. we know one mlm company selling it.. it was their hottest products a few years back... but now... u c in any pharmacy.. even dozens of other company produces spirulina.. how do we tell other other people that my company A spirulina is better then company B spirulina...just a thought...

2.Of course MLM products are more expensive. They have to be to support the expensive sales channel approach they use. Secondly, MLM products are not the type of high demand product that sell themselves. MLM products would never sell in significant volumes at stores or online without the "in-your-face" sales people pleading to your weaknesses and emotions.You don't see very much MLM in N.America. People prefer to shop at high-volume stores like Walmart, etc. or factory outlet stores which have very little overhead such that they can provide the lowest prices. Another reason that MLM is not very popular in N. America is that people are more skeptical of "get-rich-quick" schemes. Malaysians are still quite "undeveloped" in this sense and have dreams of getting rich quick through MLM or the stock-market or some other scheme.

Thus, I believe that Malaysian's are in general very naive or greedy. If something sounds too good to be true, it almost always is. Yet we see people invest in crazy schemes and respond to emails such as "forward this email and Bill Gates will send you some money." Malaysian's need to learn that it is very rare to get rich quick and that money needs to be earned honestly with hard work and brains.

3.MLM considers itself a BUSINESS, with the caveat that YOU MUST bear losses initially through consumption of their products. Why is that necessary? Because someone needs to feed the ones at the top, who apparently wants to make all the money in the world by doing absolutely nothing.

I've also come across some useful links :

http://www.mlmsurvivor.com/ - has very good articles and information regarding the fallacy and sheer deviousness of the MLM industry.

http://www.merchantsofdeception.com/-the ebook offered here is free, and full of information and the tragic story of a certain high level MLMer for Amways.

http://www.mlm-thetruth.com/tax_study.htm - another fantastic informative sites with facts

I don't wish to touch anything else but the business because no matter what this is it is still a business.McDonalds restaurants are locally operated in Malaysia by Golden Arches Sdn. Bhd which directly operates many stores and also sells franchise licenses to qualified entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur with a franchise license can only operate the store in the license and cannot sell the franchise "downline".

According to McDonald's Malaysia web site, only two franchanisee exist in East
Malaysia and only 3 out of the 250 stores in Malaysia are franchised. McDonald's
franchise system is very different than a network marketing scheme. McDonalds is
the normal structure organization that has a HQ and then local office in each
country or region with "branch offices" or in the case of McDonalds directly run
restaurants or francise owned restaurants.

Unlike MLM/network marketing the franchisee of McDonalds doesn't sell or sponsor to any other franchisee, they sell products (e.g. Burgers) to the end customer. McDonalds corporation will receive royalties directly from the regional/country operator of the franchises. A franchise owner collects only profit sold from their store and nothing from any other franchisee. There is no downline. There is only a regional company operator which takes care of issues relating to all the franchisees in that country. A McDonalds franchisee is not a distributor. They are a retailer of products and do not have any downlines. I think you are confusing the generic term "network" with the more specific "network marketing" that is used by MLM. You could call the street roads a network, the railway a network and all your contacts as your network. Network marketing is when you start to use a network of people as the principal way of selling a product AND expanding the network through various forms of renumeration in which "downline" parts of the network fund commissions/bonuses/discounts to higher parts of the network. A distinguishing characteristic of network marketing is that participants are encourage to not only sell products but also are financially awarded to expand the network.McDonalds doesn't fit the criteria for network marketing/MLM in any way. I would guess that most/all of McDonalds franchise outlets have no relationship to any other outlet and are only related to the McDonalds HQ. That could be called a star-topology network in computer architecture sense but has nothing to do with "network marketing".

Thus, I would suggest us to stop comparing MLM to McDonald's.

MLM is only good from the perspective of those doing the selling. MLM is terrible for the customer since the products have so much sales overhead. Products can be bought much more efficiently and cheaply directly from a company or even buying from a direct salesperson who reaps the majority of the commission and not sharing with his upline.

I am not against MLM when they are legal, but I do find that too often MLM are giving too many people the dream of easy money. I further dislike associating MLM to the likes of a company like McDonalds where I see no commonality in the sales approach. Both are valid approaches depending on the product and situation. MLM lends itself well to overpriced unique exclusive products that need lots and lots of people to sell personally. McDonald's business on the other hand is better served by strategically located outlets with well operated management combined with a strong corporate and brand relationship.

The Finding of My Interest

Well, after having spend 1 year of studying Biochemistry,to be in the Malaysian Top Notch university( the leader in research) for the 1 whole year programme of study,it could be nice if i am pouring out my thoughts here. speaking out what i am thinking of being on this course.

If you know me well, u may ask, isn't my ambition is always a teacher since young?

Well, i can say YES! Definitely i am going for education line in future.It is my passion, it is where i could do my best,portray,develop and work hard to achieve what i am going to contribute to the future generation! I love to deal with people, especially people from various cultures. i love to embrace new knowledge. to me , knowledge is something which u can never finish to learn, it is endless.
Thus, i am always thirst for knowledge, i want to learn more so that i can teach more.=) so that i can contribute my knowledge to the Gen Y and X.

After having been in the science courses, having deal with scientific experiments, completing the weekly lab reports,cramping all the biology and chemistry facts onto my mind, i would say this is fantastic! i learnt what i want to really know.
i am thirst for this knowledge. i learn to know the world better, in term of scientific perspectives.

But....

I really like is to understand more on society,to educate them to be a mature thinker, to be aspired to learn more, to make the world a better place, and more importantly to be a person full of humanitarian values.
One thing i might be considering is Psychology.but it is such a wide field. don't get me wrong, i don't have much understanding on psychology initially , the time where i was being offered an opportunity to study Psychology at US.

But now, i start to love it, to be more specific , i love the knowledge of social science. It might not be necessary my future career, and hence that is not what i am studying now. but it might be my favourite pass time. i always love to read and to understand more on it during my leisure time,.

And Now....

To be more specifically, i want to do something related to Human Resource field!

I have asked a question at Lowyat Forum today. The question is specifically addressed to aLYN Forummer, Joey Christensen, a Human Resource Generalist.
This is her reply:

I'll cut it short for you.

1. If you have a B.B.A (Hons) in Human
Resource Management, you'll definitely have the basic or fundamental in HRM.

2. CGPA 3.8 and above (out of 4.0) in your academic result will most
likely to boost your chances in promotion down in your career path.

3.
The market now demand someone that is more of a Human Resource Generalist than a
Human Resource Specialist. For example, I am responsible for the whole spectrum
of HRM.

4. A sound experience in conducting Training & Development
(T&D) via PSMB, is an added skill set.

5. Wookie...I think I need to
stop here because it's Friday and I need to submit my report before 6pm.

Lastly, for a Engineering or Biotechnology graduate to venture into the
human capital field, it's highly recommended. I think you should start from
scratch and there's so much to be learnt.

It worth a shot at. Good luck
to you.

Just for today, here comes her reply with regards to the question on how to prepare myself for HRM from now onwards.

Do some reading on: Compensation, Recruitment, Training and development, and
Performance appraisal, as well as Principles of management, organisational
structure, and industrial psychology. Other relevant reading materials include
Business administration, Public administration, Psychology, Sociology, Political
science, Economics, and Statistics. I would recommend you to take some time to
understand our Labour law, Collective bargaining, Labour economics, Labour
history, and Industrial psychology. There's endless reading to be done.
Organisational Behaviour is also a good read. To be honest, I'm learning as I
work. Human Resource Management can be fun and enjoyable. I've forgone the
opportunity of reading Law last time due to the scholarship that I received. I
ended up taking Human Resource course in a local University.It's all yours to
choose. Good Luck.
Well, you may ask:

Is that my ambition to be HR manager?
Oh well, i can't say it would be a 100% i am going for it, but at least i do know where my interest lies at.Perhaps, i might be doing something unrelated to what i am studying now.
As u may realise that, a lots of graduates go into something which is unrelated to their respective fields of study. Well, not my time to make a decision right now, but this is where i have found something which might be my future goal.

Brain Drain problem?

Somehow, i come across this while posting at LYN forum.

Questions by easylife :

As a PhD holder in Computer Science from a New Zealand University, I'm wondering how much I can earn as a lecturer in a public and private university (Monash, Nottingham) back in Malaysia. I expect at least RM8000. Is this possible? I would consider working in Australia, NZ, Singapore or HK if salary is low in Bolehland.

I'm single, 29 years old guy. So, don't comment on family expenditure

A reply:

Hi EasyLife, if you are still in New Zealand, I strongly recommend that you try to find a job there and gain 2-3 years experience plus salary is probably higher (plus the higher currency rate). And if at all possible, try to work there for 10 years, if you really wanna, gotta, have ta go back to Malaysia, at least you have a bunch of money saved (supposed you have a financial plan), this is one way to make money faster than working in Malaysia:

Example #1 - Work in NZ - Supposed you earn NZD5000/month in NZ: 5000 * 2.25 = RM11250 per month or MYR135K a year. Considering worst case scenario that you never receive any raise in 10 years, you would still earn RM1,350,000 (of course, after income tax and all, it's probably around RM1 Mil).

Example #2 - Work in Malaysia - Supposed you earn RM5000 and all the assumptions remained the same as previous example - RM60K * 10 yr = RM600K

That's a pretty obvious choice, isn't it? Now let's say you're sick with NZ after 10 yrs of work without any raise, you bring your RM1,000,000 and stick it to several saving/FD accounts, depending on the rate at the time, it'll still generate at least RM1K interest per month. Or, if you had been great in investing your money, you would probably already own a couple houses and shops that generating monthly rental income for you.

Speaking from my personal experience, I'm 35 and have been working in US for 8 yrs (Master in info science, working as application developer). If I'm willing, I can retire at age 40, go back to Malaysia and do not have to work at all for the rest of my life, of course this is based on my minimalist lifestyle.

The world is big and options are unlimited.

Being a lecturer

I think for people with PhD, the range in IPTA is somewhere around this:

Normal Lecturer: RM5k - 6k++
Senior Lecturer: RM8k - RM9k++
Associate Professor: RM10k - RM12k++
Professor: RM15k - RM16k++

Well, this may be a facts:

lecturer. it actually depends on your qualification and the post offered.

lecturer DS45 or senior lecturer DS51/52

IINM To be able to attain DS51/52 you need to at least severed the Uni before as an tutorDA41 /lecturer DS45 while holding Master degree

having Phd doesnt automatic guarantee you a post in senior lecturer, you must at least have some teaching/tutoring experience or maybe some good publication (ISI journal)

DS45

P1T1 = 2213.96 (you always get higher than Pangkat1 or Tahun1 depended on the offer) (Pangkat depends on your experience, tahun depends on your serving year in government sector and it can be carry forward from other position)

Allowance = 700 + 550 +300 = 1550 (allowance are income tax free)

DS51

P1T1 = 3976.93

Allowance = 700 + 600 +300 = 1600

Pay are not so great, but at least you have flexible working hour, and annual leave of 30 days and sabbatical leave of 6 months.

and plenty opportunities to go outstation with daily allowance (food allowance/hotel/travel) and sponsored trip.

If you have Phd you can apply to teach Master program in the weekend which pay around rm150 per hour (2 hours a week, and one month will have an extra of 1.2k)

even your research funding can reach 100K++ per year, and you can use to buy your computer/notebook/......whatever that you can CLAIM useful to your research...

the only downside is you not only work on lecturing/ but also you must work on your research (which is the only method for promotion to Associate Professor) and the plenty office/admin documentation work.

By:Alexdino


Some Views on lecturer of IPTS:By LYN Forummer

I don't think so. I am a lecturer in an IPTS. I joined when I was a fresh PhD graduate and I got more than 5k. Even that I am already considered 'underpaid'. I know here is another IPTS that pays 6.5k for fresh PhD grads but I really do enjoy working here and I love my job and therefore I have no plans to move.

An academic is a respectable position despite what other people in the industry might think. The claims that academics do not have "real world experience" is a deeply flawed and they simply do not understand that our work involves working very closely with industry, governments and policy makers using academic knowledge to solve "real world" problems. You can challenge them to name one industry that does not need research.

The other unique part of this job is to be in a privileged position to apply your knowledge in nurturing and educating young minds, which I think is priceless. No word can describe the satisfaction when you know you are in the position to shape them into knowledgeable, bright and responsible adults who are going to inherit this world. This is something that you do not need a reward for. Even if there is a class of unappreciative students, a mere student who comes up to you to say "thank you" makes it all worthwhile.

To my opinion, I think those words of discouragement that I have seen thus far in this forum are stemmed from discontentment, or more accurately jealousy, that people have for academics because of the prestige of the job, the level of education that many are not able to achieve, the kind of respect that we get and more importantly the level of job satisfaction that we enjoyed. How many people can actually tell you that they love their job?

To put it simply, having a PhD really closed up a lot of doors for you and this is not especially helpful if you're a young graduate with no work experience; but it also opened up many more doors that not many will have the key to do so.

Therefore, do not feel discouraged. It is a hard route but remember, work hard towards your dream and you shall reap.

I’m so glad to know that you as brilliant Malaysian with high academic qualification are willing to serve & contribute to the country, unlike many other talents who chose to work overseas for better income instead.

In my opinion, work as lecturer no doubt is a good choice as it can produce many more talents to facilitate our country’s development. However, I think you should focus on R&D works (what the country is lacking of), so that we can pioneer the industry and thus making Bolehland really Boleh. AI, data comm., these are all the trends man!

Man, don’t waste your talents, and your years of hardwork!

How much does Gov workers earn?

Some of you might wonder how much does a Gov workers really earn?
i just saw a news regarding many graduates flock to make their way for the application to being a MALAYSIAN ANTICORRUPTION COMMISSION(MACC) staffs.

I just got the information from a lowyat forummers about the salary scales: it might act as a reference only:

Salary scale for doctros (pegawai perubatan) is here:

http://www.jpa.gov.my/pekeliling/pp07/bil21/pp2107.pdf

basic pay (UD41) starts at 1999.10 with yearly increment of RM 100.
You go to the next grade (P1- P2) via PTK examination. Next post (44-45-51- etc) is promotion based on qualification (specialist etc) and post availability.

The fixed allowances will be around 1000++.

If you also interested to look into other govt. service (eg.lecturer/police/teacher) you can find it here:
http://www.interactive.jpa.gov.my/ezskim/Pekeliling.asp

ANd this quite attract me attention:

Pegawai Penyelidik yang memiliki Ijazah Sarjana Muda akan ditawarkan gaji permulaan P1T1 (RM1221) manakala calon yang berkelayakan Ijazah Sarjana akan ditawarkan matagaji permulaan P1T6 (RM1551);

the starting salary is indeed a peanut.

and then this comes again:

bagi calon-calon yang telah dilantik dan kemudiannya memperolehi kelayakan lebih tinggi ketika dalam perkhidmatan, mereka tidak layak diberi pelarasan ke matagaji permulaan yang lebih tinggi. Ini adalah kerana peruntukan di perenggan 2(i) hanya terpakai semasa perlantikan sahaja. Contohnya, Pegawai Penyelidik yang dilantik atas kelayakan Sarjana Muda dengan gaji permulaan P1T1 tidak layak diselaras ke matagaji P1T6 apabila memperolehi Ijazah Sarjana 2 tahun kemudiannya

.
the interpretation is:
P1T1 is the where one start (fresh), then if you meet the KPI the next year your grade will be P1T2 (horizontal pay rise). If you are excellent and pass the PTK examination you can apply to get to P2 grade (vertical pay rise). The salary increment are not limited to post available but to get to the next grade then you have to find a vacant post (meaning to go from N44 to N48 you have to wait until the one on N48 retire).

However for lecturers as long as you fulfill the post requirement you can get the promotion.

Purity of Sciences

Which sciences are pure? to define how pure it is, let have a look:

thanks Clep from Recom for sharing this:


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( Well, actually i have saw this somewhere ealse, can't really remember that, it sound interesting to me.)
XD

every little Last moments

well, first year have already finished!

without realising it, i have completed my first year in UM, wow! time really flies! i don't kow what else i can say about the flying of time! in a nick of time i will be an adult, working, married, and strike hard to make my dreams come true.haha!

Well, i have just got back to penang from my activity( MA Sheng Chuan Cheng Ying) after my finals.It has been 5 to 6 months since i last enjoyed the feeling of being stay at Penang island.=p well, actually i miss my home. very much.

today, i feel like posting some pictures here XD

That is my little cousin, Pei Ying ! CUTE!