How was your Christmas?!

I trust everyone had an awesome Christmas?! Don't fret if you didn't?  There's always New Year's to look forward to!

We've reached that time of the year when it's all about families and loved ones. A time to stand still and take stock of all the wonderful things that have happened in the last year.

A time to be grateful that we've made it (intact!) through the past year. I'm sure we've all had our ups and downs, but now is the time to wipe the slate clean, forge new friendships, make new memories and look forward to what the New Year has to bring.

From everyone here at GRADUAN, Have A Happy New Year!!

Lights, camera, action!!!

Fancy seeing yourself as a musical star on Broadway? Then I urge you to visit the Enfiniti Academy of Musical Theater and Entertainment Arts (ENACT for short) and check out their upcoming workshops lined up for 2012.

Last weekend saw about 40 participants at the graduation ceremony for “School’s Out, Musical Theatre’s In!” workshop held recently at ENACT. The 3-weekend workshop which started from 3 Dec 2011 was aimed to help participants build their communication skills, unleashing their creativity, instill confidence, teamwork and self-esteem. 

GRADUAN had the pleasure of interviewing Joanna Bessey, the Course Director of the Academy earlier last week and according to her, 3 weekends can create A LOT of difference for each individual. 

It'd be a shame if I spoiled the story for you guys in here so do grab a copy of GRADUAN 2012 next year to read more about the advice Joanna has for those who dare to walk this path.

ENACT is located at: 

28-2, Jalan PJU 5/20D,

Pusat Perdagangan Kota Damansara (The Strand),

Kota Damansara PJU 5, 47810 PJ

Tel : 603 6142 9877

Pictures courtesy of Abdul Qahhar

YCM Summit was here again!

The Annual Young Corporate Malaysians Summit (YCMS) was held for the 3^rd time around and GRADUAN was there!

Held at the InterContinental Hotel, KL, on 17 December, the summit was organized by the Young Corporate Malaysians (YCM) with the very exciting (and very relevant) theme of “China and India: The Next Frontier”.

Established in 2008, YCM aims to provide a platform for young professionals in building their network amongst peers, meeting industry leaders through YCM events and learning to develop organizational and leadership skills.

There was a whole list of amazing speakers and boy did they have a lot of valuable information to give out!

Some of the speakers present were President Emeritus of the Kuala Lumpur Business Club, Datuk Rohana Mahmood, Executive Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia Dato’ Seri Johan Raslan, Editor of the Wall Street Journal Hong Kong Hugo Restall, En Shah Hakim Bin Zain of Scomi Group and many others. 

Maybank Career Day 2011

Hi guys! Were you at the Maybank Career Fair last Saturday? If you were, did you visit the GRADUAN booth to get your very own copy of GRADUAN 2011?

And boy, were there a LOTTTTTT of people at the Maybank Career Fair 2011! There was an estimated 5000 people who visited the fair and that volume alone speaks for itself (seriously, if you've never heard of Maybank, then you're either Tarzan or a martian).

It was an exciting experience to be able to meet and talk to all the fresh and eager faces. The fair definitely exude a positive energy and I say this with confidence - everyone went back a winner! (free career advice from one of the top banks in Malaysia, what's not to love?)

There was even a talk by our very own Pn Elia Talib on advising young employees on climbing the corporate ladder for all those ambitious ones out there!

It was truly an honour for us at GRADUAN to be given the chance to participate in this fair and most importantly, we had a blast!

Here’s hoping to see you guys at the next career fair!

ARE YOU READY? I'M ALWAYS READY!

Three cheers for the Teach for Malaysia Team who is doing their bit to solve education inequity in Malaysia!

Nada Marie and Zuleana Abdul Razak from GRADUAN had the pleasure of visiting the Kem Skorlah! session at SMK Bandar Baru Batang Kali for a fun filled day of teaching. 

A non-profit organization, Teach for Malaysia is a partner organization of Teach For All, an international body which enlists outstanding graduates and young professionals to teach in high-poverty areas in its mission to eradicate education inequity.

FUN FACT: Malaysia is the first country in South-East Asia and the third in Asia to introduce this programme!:)

GRADUAN’S day at Kem Skorlah was an inspiring experience. Watching the kids learn through various means is truly amazing! We take out hats off to the TFM Fellows!!

The dedicated TFM Fellows!

Kem Skorlah at SMK Bandar Baru Batang Kali is a 4 week training platform for Teach For Malaysia Fellows to hone their teaching and leadership skills as well as provide Form 1 and 2 students free additional classes during their school holidays. 

The students got to play all kinds of games, including the ever popular Jeopardy, to better understand their lessons.

This is Jeopardy!

Maybank Career Day

Hi guys! Maybank is gonna have their very own career day on 10 December 2011 (Saturday). Catch them at Foyer, Menara Maybank from 10am until 5pm.

Highlights: 
Meet their Senior Management Team 
Career Clinics 
Lucky Draws 
Maybank Scholarship Scheme 

See you guys there!!!

Blood suckers

Ever wondered what it would be like if you were a vampire? No? Well neither have I. But to millions billions gazillions of Twilight fans out there, this would most likely be top 10 in their wish list - to live out the lives of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan (or perhaps to just strike off Bella and claim their rightful place next to Edward). The latest continuation to this epic love triangle of vampire + human + werewolf has finally made it to Malaysian shores last week much to the delight of our Events Exec, Neesa Omar.

On 23 November 2011, our local Twilighters held an exclusive premier for Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 to celebrate the marriage of Edward and Bella. A fictional but gorgeous wedding nontheless. Three cheers to the happy couple from us at GRADUAN!

Yep! The wedding is THAT huge!

BoBoiBoy!

Are you guys familiar with our local animation scene? If you are, then two thumbs up for you! If you're not, then keep on reading this post :D

Our Editorial Coordinator had the pleasure of visiting Animonsta Studios Sdn Bhd in Cyberjaya last Tuesday. Yep, the studio that gave birth to BoBoiBoy, one of Malaysia's top animation series. According to her "it was an eye-opening experience". Getting the chance to learn about what lies behind the scene of producing a high-quality animation was definitely a valuable experience for her. She said that the words "cool and fun" immediately comes to mind the moment one steps into the studio. BoBoiBoy is inspiring as well as addictive which goes to show how much thought was put into the storytelling and creation of each character,

We'd hate to ruin the fun for our upcoming GRADUAN 2012 issue so we'll save the juicy details for the magazine instead ;)

NRC11-GRADUAN Career Talk @ Universiti Malaya

On 22 October 2011, GRADUAN had collaborated with NRC11 to organize the first ever NRC11-GRADUAN Career Talk at Universiti Malaya. We had the pleasure of inviting 8 amazing individuals to speak at the event -

YB Senator Dato’ Sri Idris Jala, YM

Tengku Dato’ Zafrul,

Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani,

Dato’ Noorizah Hj Abd Hamid, Ms Chin Suit Fang,

Dat

o’ Sri Syed Zainal,

Mr Johan Mahmood Merican, and Mr Paul Subramaniam.

Gomen nasai!!!

If you're wondering what the above means, well it's Japanese for "we're very sorry for not updating our blog in a long while". We truly are! Buuuuuut we're happy to report that the Graduan-Masca Australia Recruitment Drive 2011 was a success! Thank you very much to all those who participated in the event! Hope to see everyone again next year :)

(pictures of the fair will be uploaded by next week)

Stay tuned for our next update, which is in another 30 minutes, because we will be spamming the space with pictures from the NRC11-GRADUAN Career Talk @ Universiti Malaya!

Graduan-Masca Australia Recruitment Drive 2011

Its time again for all Malaysian students in Australia, take this chance now and get hired before you graduate. This year promises to be even bigger and better than ever, see you guys soon!!

SAAAAAAAY WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

GRADUAN FIRST EVER TALENT NETWORKING FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UM Career Path 2011

UM= U’re Marvellous! UM-Career Path 2011

One and a half day in UM is certainly not enough for the UM graduates, GRADUAN® is indeed in demand.

It was raining early morning on the 22^nd of March, however that did not stop the massive crowd hitting the Dewan Tunku Canselor (DTC) for a dose of the University Malaya Career Path 2011.

It was full throttle for the organizing committee as graduates and future graduates along with the guests and VIPs were invited for the Opening Ceremony at 2pm on the same day.

The event was launch by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University Malaya, YB Datuk Dr. Ghauth Jasmon with a very aspiring welcoming speech, followed by a short multimedia presentation and also souvenirs presentation.

The VIPs were then escorted to visit the entire participating booth of companies that took part in Career Path 2011. There are more than 50 companies from both public and private sectors in Malaysia can be found such as MMC Corporation Berhad, Philip Morris (M) Sdn Bhd, Maybank, CIMB Group, BASF group, SHELL Malaysia, Prudential Assurance Malaysia Berhad, Honeywell International, IBM Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), Ernest & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, STAR Publications (M) Bhd, SP Setia Bhd, Schlumberger, Continental Sime Tyre PJ Sdn Bhd, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Sony EMCS (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Bursa Malaysia and many more. Even the mascot of Nippon Paint (M) Sdn Bhd decided to make an appearance along with its company to entertain the crowd.

According to Professor Datuk Dr Rohana Yusof, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student Affairs Division) of UM stated that one of the objectives of Career Path 2011 is to help the graduates define their career goals, understand their career options, and market themself effectively. The first step in their job search process will be to determine the type of employment that is right for them. Hence, the career fair is here to help them, but finding the right job will require considerable effort on their part.

Congratulations to all graduates on your achievement to making it this far. GRADUAN will indeed be next to you guiding you step by step all the way.

MMU Career Fair 2011

Hello readers!

Team GRADUAN had a blast in Multimedia University, Cyberjaya on the 22nd and 23rd of March.
700 copies of GRADUAN, 200 copies of Careers in Capital Market and 100 Postgraduan were distributed to all the young and eager graduates of MMU-ians.
There were a total of 53 companies that participated in the fair and in turn, made the career fair a success such as DHL Malaysia, Star Publication, Juris Technologies Sdn Bhd, Hewlett-Packard Malaysia Technology Sdn Bhd, Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad, Manulife Malaysia, Accenture Malaysia, IBM Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Genting Berhad, TM Berhad, PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia(PWC), Ernst & Young Malaysia, GRADUAN(of course) and many many more!

To further entertain you guys, we have also pictures from where it happens!

OZ OZ Oi ! Oi! Oi! -- Australian Graduate Career's Day in KLConvention Centre!

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE MATE~ !!

IIUM CAREER FAIR 2011

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA (IIUM)
Career Exhibition 2011
In the early morning of 22nd February 2011, throngs of students filled in the Conference Room hall in IIUM’s Cultural Activity Centre eager and anxious to find out what the working world has in store for them. The IIUM Career Exhibition 2011 was officiated by Y. Bhg. Prof. Dato' Sri Dr. Syed Arabi Idid, Rector of IIUM on 23rd February 2011. It was 9am but the atmosphere was less than quiet, it was a calling of future for these students as thousands of questions were fired and replied answers can be heard from all sorts of direction.

There were 15 participating companies promoting their brands such as SHELL, PROTON, CIMB Group, PERODUA, Ambank Group, UMW Group of Companies, MMC Corporation Berhad, SCICOM etc and Biz Connexion Sdn Bhd just can’t miss the opportunity to be a part of this career fair. Hundreds copies of GRADUAN, POSTgraduan and Careers in the Capital Market were handed out to the keen graduates which saw them impatiently flipping through the guidebook and holding on to them as if it was their only life-line. :)

There were also opportunities for the students to talk to potential employers regarding the current job market and at the same time surveying available job prospects. The event which lasted for 3 days saw exhibition booths by participating companies providing valuable career-wise information along with a walk-in-interviews held by certain participating companies. For those who aren’t sure of their career destinations, a career clinic was held in order to help job seekers in identifying their career interest and also job-related personality types.

It was all good fun when GRADUAN met with the job-hungry faces, knowing that we have indeed provide all the details, tips, tools and advice essential for the students in handling future job applications and interviews.


Sooooo, for those in USM, come and meet us on the 4th – 6th of March where your career future is only a ‘book’ away. ;p