Interview with Mr. Siew Chin Kiang, staff partner of KPMG, Malaysia about his view on The Role of Youth in Today's Economy and The Differences Between Local & Foreign Undergraduates.

 An interview session form our Public Relation team mate with Mr Siew Chin Kiang, one of our speaker in MASC 2010.

(The Role of Youth in Today's Economy) 

Every year, a thousand or more fresh accountancy graduates leave the safe confines of Malaysian universities and colleges to compete with each other for positions in the top accounting firms. Such a surplus of qualified graduates necessitates a grueling filtering system put in place by the firms to ensure that they obtain the best candidates for the job.

The question then arises: What can a fresh graduate do to stand out from the crowd?

To find out, we talked to Mr. Siew Chin Kiang, staff partner of one of the largest and most prestigious professional services firms, KPMG Malaysia.  He shared with us his views on the role of youths in today’s economy.

According to Mr. Siew, honing their technical skills is the very first step that youths need to take in order to succeed in the future. Why did he say that? This is because the basic criteria that firms look into when reviewing potential applicants is whether they have a good knowledge of the fundamentals. This will then allow the youth to progress and develop quickly.

Mr. Siew also discussed about how quickly today’s economy is changing.  What we experience upon entering the workforce may not be the same as what we have studied in school or university. Nowadays, in order to succeed in their chosen careers, youths must possess both technical and soft skills.

Soft skills, such as the ability to communicate and socialize well, can often determine whether or not candidates succeed in attaining their desired job. Mr. Siew emphasized that during the interview sessions, candidates must be able to ‘sell’ themselves to the potential employer and demonstrate their strengths in comparison to the other applicants. To that end, their answers to interview questions should not be too generic as this is their opportunity to impress the interviewer with their uniqueness.

 In other words: Don’t put the interviewer to sleep.

On the subject of technology, Mr. Siew’s said that there are different challenges posed by the level playing field that technology promotes by granting everyone the same access to extra knowledge, as well as the added distractions of modern life. The youths today must use technology as a tool and focus their energies on what they need and want to achieve in the future. Youths must be determined and adaptable in going after the future that they have set their minds on.

In addition, Mr. Siew stressed that a successful youth must also be independent and adaptable irrespective of the economic conditions that they experience upon graduation. Success also depends on how good the youths are in targeting and selecting the opportunities that come directly or indirectly to them in their careers. Thus, they must always stay alert and prepare themselves to be ready when the opportunity is before them. This preparation will involve going through and learning from the different kinds of obstacles and difficulties along their career.

(Local Undergraduates vs Foreign Undergraduate)

The remainder of our interview session concerned the differences between local and foreign undergraduates. While he did not deny that foreign undergraduates are often more adapt in terms of soft skills, local undergraduates often have the upper hand when it comes to technical skills. 

However, all differences aside, both local and foreign undergraduates are treated the same during recruitment sessions and getting the job depends on who is better able to ‘sell’ themselves to the interviewer.

In conclusion, Mr. Siew’s parting advice to the youth of today was to learn from others, focus on what they are trying to achieve and develop each year, be hard-working and be able to work in a team. Other than that, Mr. Siew also stressed that there is no shortcut in moving up in a career and everything must be done step by step in order to obtain a successful life in the future.

To know more about this topic, join MASC 2010 as this will be your great life time opportunity to explore this topic deeply with professional body like Mr. Siew Chin Kiang.

See you! ^^

MASC PR Team and Mr. John Zinkin

 

Hello guys,

 

our PR Team had interviewed 

Mr. John Zinkin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC).

A brief biography of Mr John Zinkin:

John Zinkin has 38 years experience in business, of which 20 have been in Asia, holding senior line management and corporate strategy/business development positions in major multinational manufacturing, marketing and consulting companies.

He is also the Deputy Chairman of Institute of Corporate Responsibility, Malaysia – a network designed to promote best practices in Corporate Social Responsibility and he has written “What CEOs must do to succeed”, published by Prentice Hall in 2003 and co-authored “Corporate Governance”, published by John Wiley in 2005.                                            

   (sources from: umcors)

Mr John has the following messages to share with accounting students.

1.      Values and motivation drive people towards success. What has inspired you to be who are you today?

The key theme in my life has always been learning. So to answer your question, what inspires me is the interest to learn new things. The day you stop learning is the day you die.  

What also drives me is doing something different, seeing it through; and where I’ve worked, helping the organizations become better than they thought they were capable of being. My biggest satisfaction derived from work is not in terms of ‘numbers’ even though that’s important. It’s being able to see the difference I‘ve made to the people who work with me—getting them to be ‘bigger’ than they thought they were in terms of capability, courage and entrepreneurship. 

2.      What were the main obstacles and challenges you faced in your journey of life and how did you overcome them?

Throughout my working life, the main obstacle I faced (and still face) is politics. Politics exist in all organizations. As time goes on, you will learn that doing a good job is not necessarily the whole answer in a workplace. Typically, when you are young, you think that as long as I do my job, meet my targets, I will be okay. Unfortunately, that is not always true in reality. Besides doing your job well, you have to be able to manage the politics in your workplace and of course, your boss.

A big challenge everyone will face is how to stand up after you’ve been knocked down. If you are aiming to be in a leadership position, you have to learn to stand up again and again each time you’re knocked down. As a leader or an employer, you have to give hope to the people who work with you. The same is true whether you are leader of a nation, a multinational company or a small organization. If you fail to give hope to the people who work under you, if you fail to give them focus, and if you fail to appear confident and certain in front of them, you will not be able to lead them. These are lessons you need to learn if you want to achieve success in life. Don’t forget to learn from your mistakes too.

Recap from committee:

Another important lesson we have learned from the interview is that the workplace is not a perfect place. We have to be able to adapt and be smart in managing situations—whether they are tasks given, problems at work or people who are working with us.