University College LondonYesterday was the 3rd UKEC Careers Fair held in University College London. There were more than 30 big names from Malaysia that set up booths and hundreds, if not thousands of Malaysians who attended the event. It's a fair to "cajole" Malaysian students to return and help develop the country. "The country needs you!"
Malaysian lunch. In case you were wondering if it was free; no it wasn't. 4 quid.
I wasn't expecting much from the fair. After all, based on past experiences with other careers fair in Cambridge, 99% were catered for graduating students. Well, I was right for the UKEC one too. Nothing that caught my attention.
What I liked about the event was that I didn't place any expectation on the type of job, people or company. So why did I attend? Well, simple reasons; weekend trip, meet some Malaysians, moral support to my UKEC friends, check out Khazanah and hopefully win a trip back to Malaysia. I didn't win it anyway. But I had loads of fun and surprises as the hours unfolded.
Siti Salina, who came all the way from University of Leeds
I bumped into Siti Salina, one of this year's Chevening scholars. I was glad she called out my name and checked if I was the right person she was looking for. I guess having a blog serves a purpose after all. I had always thought that blogs were just snapshots of life in writing. Now I get to meet new people too! Absolutely no need for ice-breakers. I realised we chatted as if we knew each other for ages. That's awesome!;)
Al-Azmy, how should I address him? Ex-student of Cambridge or S.O. to Datuk Azman?
Then I met Al-Azmy, who was manning the booth for Khazanah. Al-Azmy was 2003/2004's batch of MPhil in Technology Policy student at the University of Cambridge. He's also in the same Cambridge-MIT Institute programme as I am. Great stuff. Coincidentally, he also knew Hasli Hasan who did his ESD in 2004/2005. Hear the best part: Al-Azmy and Hasli are both the Special Officer to the Managing Director of Khazanah, Datuk Azman Mokhtar. What a small world! So, what's my take on Khazanah? No idea man, let me just finish my course first. There are already 13 Cambridge graduates in Khazanah now.
Also had the rare opportunity to meet our no-frills airline mogul, Datuk Tony Fernandes. He's a brilliant and humble man. There's no air of arrogance in him. He gets to the ground and chats with people, regardless if you have the mood for it! He was telling us his past success and failure stories and how it moulded him to be what he is today. Dig this; he mortgaged his house and took a RM20million loan to start Air Asia and today the business is valued at a staggering RM4.5billion. He's got a great story in him and no wonder, he's such a successful man. I did asked him two questions though;
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Air Asia; prefers to be called as Tony, without the Datuk.
"Tony, did you fly here on MAS?"
He said, "Errm, actually, no. I took Qatar."
"So, what do you have for a Civil Engineer like me?"
He answered, "Do you like to build some of my hotels? Well, Tune Hotel is coming up...."
Hotels? Maybe not. I'd prefer an air hangar though and maybe two pantries in it; one for the engineers, one for cigarette breaks.
Maybe I'd drop him an email...but in the mean time, I reckon I had a hair cut.
10 comments:
Very cool! So did the fair successfully cajole you to return to Malaysia to work? :)
-Teri
Interesting courier fair..compared to the one organised in PWTC last week, this is much better, atleast u wont go home empty handed with those big shot around.
That's interesting. I like Tony Fernandez's bit. It motivates me. By the way, I know Al-Azmy too, from another Chevening Scholar Hani Hussain. She is in the same batch with Al-Azmy too - what a small world. So, is Khazanah in your mind now? :)
i went there too.
its nice...
Alden-u hv been rubbing shoulders with big shots for the past few months,any chance of doing political science for your doctorate?
Teri: Keeping options open.
Noris: That's great! Now we have increased the radius of our common friends. Khazanah? I have no idea. Am keeping my options open. That's also if people want me to be in the team.
Zafi: We should have set an appointment to meet each other.
Raymond: What has meeting compatriots have anything to do with politics?? It's just being there for them when they're here in the UK, as much as someone being there for me when I'm visiting their "territory" next time.
return to the country... after what the G-group had done? there better be a very good reason to return, not just some wishy-washy, idealist "return to help develop the nation" (excuse the cynical undertones).
on the other hand, our reputation minded compatriots might be more willing to stand up and listen to a cambridge grad. after all, making a difference, a real difference that is, depends on whether you can get these big shots to adopt your ideas.
Hi Alden, Tune hotel is already up and ready...
Don't go lah , come back to KL the country needs you. Rub shoulders witme.
Thanks for all your ideas and concerns. Trust me, any decision that I make later on would have incorporated all that you have mentioned.
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