Posted in Careers on Sep 27th, 2009
Through a local recruiting firm, Cindy (not her real name) had landed a meeting with the chief financial officer of a retail company that she hoped to work for. After exchanging small talk, the CFO asked her: “So, what do you think of our stores?” The candidate replied honestly that she’d never been in one. [...]
Posted in Chess on Sep 25th, 2009
The Malaysian Masters will determine who our best player is. WITH the excitement of the Malaysian Chess Festival and the KL Open behind us, it is time to start looking again at the more down-to-earth chess activities in the country. But what have we here? For one, it’s the Malaysian Masters knock-out series. This event [...]
Posted in Careers on Sep 22nd, 2009
Choosing where you work will always have a major influence on your career opportunities. It is always more secure to work in a growth industry as lay-offs and facility closures are financially and emotionally painful for any employee and his family. A person with an average capability in an attractive industry frequently makes more money [...]
What to avoid when you go for job interviews: acting uncool. You may be drooling for that job, but don’t show it openly. Employers will quickly lose interest in someone who appears desperate for work. It’s also so uncalled for to be self-deprecating or self-apologetic. After all, the employer won’t bother to get in touch [...]
Posted in Chess on Sep 18th, 2009
Even on a limited budget, we can still host interesting tournaments that attract strong foreign players. ONE observation made by Malaysian Chess Federation honorary life president Datuk Tan Chin Nam at the prize-giving ceremony of the Malaysia Open last month was that chess promotion need not mean holding elite tournaments graced by the best players. [...]
Posted in Chess on Sep 11th, 2009
The recent Merdeka tournament saw tremendous fighting spirit and the participation of a great number of foreign players. THE recent Merdeka rapid chess team tournament was a great success. The organisers had targeted 50 teams for the competition but the number of entries surpassed their expectations. A total of 66 teams with more than 300 [...]
Posted in Insurance, Investment, Mutual Fund, Unit Trust on Sep 9th, 2009
This appeared today in The Malaysian Insider regarding a move by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to ban the use of financial products with misunderstood names. Hopefully, Bank Negara Malaysia can take the cue and see how the use of these terms can be regulated here too: If you have ever been sold a financial [...]
Posted in Careers on Sep 8th, 2009
As the labour market tightens, organisations worldwide are strengthening their employer value propositions to appeal to young talents, writes SUZIEANA UDA NAGU in The New Straits Times this week. She quoted British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Berhad (BAT) human resources director Cheryl Wong as saying: “In the spirit of diversity, BAT prefers hiring a mix of [...]
Posted in Chess on Sep 4th, 2009
The Malaysia Chess Festival opened on a high note. BY my reckoning, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) has at least drawn acknowledgement from Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek that the Government could have done more for the game. “This is a game that needs more publicity and aggressive promotion to bring in [...]
Posted in economy on Sep 2nd, 2009
Looks like there is an alert out for the collapse of the Commercial Real Estate market in the United States if this article in The Wall Street Journal on Monday is anything to go by: Federal Reserve and Treasury officials are scrambling to prevent the commercial-real-estate sector from delivering a roundhouse punch to the U.S. [...]
