Hello
August 5th, 2009
it’s become very hard to blog. after a long, full day at work squinting at the computer screen, the last thing i want to do at the end of the day is stare any longer at the computer. perhaps this presents the cure to my computer addiction. but i miss writing. i miss my bohemian life circa 2006-8. my mind is crumbling bit by bit with each passing day because i’m just not thinking enough. how do adults not feel jaded by this routine, this impossible ennui, and all the ridiculous unspoken rules that form the bedrock of the games that grown-ups play? i am in a zoo. i am in a crazy, organized, tight-lipped jungle.
three posts i attempted, but have yet to finish: a tribute to the wonderful person that is Yasmin Ahmad, a calm and collected response to Noor Azam — a smug and smarmy journalist with delusions of superiority — and finally, an angry analysis of the selfish and undeserving. i’m not too sure where to take any of these three posts. i have the feeling they will become cracked and forgotten, because in 15 minutes i can go; in 15 minutes i can be home, and i can be with friends, and music, and KFC, and Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. do i see a pattern here? i just revisited this list i wrote when summer began. almost three months later, i’ve barely scratched the surface of that list. in one month, i will be almost gone from here.
i spent the more productive portion of the weekend telling young Ivy League hopefuls that it’s not all that difficult to get into an Ivy. sometimes i wonder if i’m even really qualified to assure such things, because goodness knows what a fluke it was that i made it in myself. but it’s true though — it’s really not that hard. application essays are perhaps the biggest leniency in the entire application system. like i mentioned last weekend in my presentation about essay-writing, one doesnt have to be ‘a good writer’ to craft an arresting application essay — one just has to have stories to tell. and everybody has stories. everybody has 25 random things about themselves, and everybody has a favorite food, a pet peeve, a regretted moment, a conscience, needs. the sky is fascinating, sure, but soil is where all the good stuff is.
i also showed my CV and one of my apps essays during my presentation. i’m still not too sure why i did it — an instinctive and zen response to the call of duty, it felt like — but i already regret it. on my CV were my most important extracurricular pursuits, honors, achievements and volunteer work, and i never show people these things because it looks like such a bragpile when collated. it takes away the softness, the meaning and the balm that lies beneath everything i’ve ever done — when i built that playground, did i know it was eventually going to end up on a CV? when i won those debates did i do it because i wanted to go to a college that would take me so that i could debate for them? i only knew i wanted to go to an Ivy six months before the deadline. once upon a time i thought all that mattered was getting into an American college — any American college — and doing all the things that make me happy. now i am not in just any American college, and i am doing all the things that make me unhappy. i let people push me around. i let people make me to go to places i dont wish to go to. i show people my CV and then have to fight back regret. someone tells me that Malaysia only has a small racism problem, and i sit back and say, i’m too lazy to argue with you. i may as well just disappear.
so i showed one of my crappier apps essays on the big screen during the workshop. i’m very private about these things, but i had to convince myself that it was for a good cause because people will learn, and with that, people will go to better schools. the potential of plagiarism was of course at the fringes of my mind, but i didn’t think that i’d be disappointed with my decision. but of course, just a few minutes into the display of my essay on the screen, the unmistakable sound of a camera shutter went off in the hall. why are people like this? why are people kiasu? why did students come up to us — pen and notebook poised — and ask if we could recommend some charity organizations to volunteer at? why is it that charity only comes to mind when it can get you into a prestigious university? how could someone ask, “what if i can afford the school fees but i still want a scholarship?”
the above is a picture of me at The Met in New York. that was me, with shorter hair and tanner skin, and at the juncture of two different worlds. i was wearing white. i was arguing about the animal i was standing next to — my position was that the animal is a dog, not a lioness.
my heart was so light.
Entry Filed under: General
71 Comments Add your own
1. megan | August 5th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
you go girl =D
i know what you’ve gone through. There was once this scholarship hopeful girl who inundated me with emails, when i replied, she replied back to me that she wanted my answers in the order her questions was poised!!!! seriously
i like the met =D and new york. Was there when the plane landed on the hudson river lol
2. lily | August 5th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
:) i just wanna smile..can you try?
3. CloudyRainbows | August 5th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Because people have different reasons and objectives in the pursuit of their future.
4. eileen | August 5th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
hello pinkpau. sorry you felt that way about the workshop. but i’m glad i attended; the lessons i learnt were not about CV formats or what to send in (seven recommendations! =o) but that the app process is just so random. with so many ways to go about it, which may or may not work. be light again pinkpau!
-eileen, who was with cousin audrey. & cool moms haha.
5. weiqi | August 5th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
sometimes in life, we only get to see the ugliest thing as we go along. but those are what real life made up of. when there’s nothing else to believe, i guess we can only believe in ourselves.
6. farhana | August 5th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
you sound so sad. maybe you’re not, but i feel as if you are (maybe it’s because i don’t feel so good right now?). work is hard, but it pays the bills. oh how fun it would be if we all could do the things we love more :)
7. Zeek | August 5th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Hey Pau,
wow. ur drafting 3 very heavy post i would say.. i think Yasmin Ahmad alone deserves a post herself. she’s a true talent and i have to say, many malaysian actors/tress woudlnt be what they are now w/o her. so its a lost to the nation!
bohemian life circa 2006/08?! you mean carefree life or does dat mean you dress like a hippie, hide by the dark alley n smoke weed?
8. missfiona | August 5th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
omg yesss we’re all so jaded, very unfortunately sighhh
9. ubikentang | August 5th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
*hugs*
we’ve done our best. it’s really up to them how they want to present themselves. if they plagiarize, the admissions officers will notice anyway.
you’ve done your best, let this not deter you from helping others who are really passionate and will present their truest self in their applications.
10. lishun | August 5th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
it took a couple of talks about various paths to becoming a specialist before i realised that an impressive cv and carefully crafted essays can only get me so far…it is the attitude with which i approach things that will determine the level of “success” i achieve.
i hope those who snapped pictures of your essay or (this one kind of pisses me off) asked you for a list of organisations to volunteer with will realise that truth too.
i’m still waiting for you to show up in seremban!
11. KY | August 5th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
don’t be ridiculous, su ann, that “animal” is a man pretending to be a liondog
12. mich- | August 5th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
*pat on pink pau’s head* and *hugs*
13. Patricia | August 5th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
i knowww. it’s something like how i dont wanna memorize long bm poems but i HAVE to because it’s 5% of my test results. 5 stupid percent. when i so want to use the time to finish a novel…
cheer up suann, even if it looks bad, it’s gonna be better eventually :) get yourself an ice-cream & plenty of nasi lemak! try tapau-ing some prata too, it works every time. :D
14. The Passerby | August 5th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Smile. That’s all it takes.
15. The Passerby | August 5th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
n_n
16. reallybites | August 5th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
i vote for the yasmin ahmad post!
17. Adrian C | August 5th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
clearly a dog. i can see the bone between its teeth. LOL.
18. Ee Vonn | August 5th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
A very nice post! :)
19. Christina | August 5th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Absolutely agree with what you wrote. makes you wonder why we bother with all our studies eh? Sometimes it’s easy to follow the current rather than fight against it.
20. annant | August 5th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
life aint always a bed of roses…
this is what they say, LIFE.
*hugs*
21. mae | August 5th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
I’ve been itching to email you for a while now because I feel like what you’re going through now is so heartbreaking-ly familiar. And you know that spells out for one person to reach out to another. Of course, I don’t know what you’re going through except than what you reveal here.
But otherwise, I’m just a reader, and I love that you are so wise beyond your years and so profound. It’s lovely. :)
Hugs and smiles, SuAnn.
22. nyrac | August 6th, 2009 at 12:33 am
it’s a funny world, this is. oh please do write about kak min, i would love to read your take on the wonderful person that she was… don’t be sad. you sound sad. but it’s true when you say adults become numb to the mundane things in life. i think i am becoming an adult now, because i have learnt to grow numb inside to a lot of things.
sigh. probably being numb is just another self defense mechanism from being hurt and disappointed all the time.
23. the search « the se&hellip | August 6th, 2009 at 12:58 am
[...] 6, 2009 at 00:58 (thoughts) i just read pinkpau’s post and one particular phrase stuck out. …and i am doing all the things that make me [...]
24. kiasu andrew | August 6th, 2009 at 1:29 am
you where got show your resume. that one one year old lah. expire already.
25. tamago | August 6th, 2009 at 1:32 am
pinkpau pinkpau all i can give is a warm hug.
*hugs*
i doubt it’ll do any good but its the thought that counts right? =)
26. songjun | August 6th, 2009 at 1:41 am
wtf are you babbling on about? ITS A FISH DAMMIT. Cant you see the fishy like resemblance?
Goodness.
27. maysnow | August 6th, 2009 at 3:11 am
oh my dear pinkpau… *hug hug hugssssss*
after reading your blog…just feel the need to hug you so badly..grab someone beside you to do it now~
if i happen to bump into you right now…don’t be surprised if a stranger shoves reese’s peanut butter cups down your throat and gives you a big bear hug…that’ll be me hehehe… (crazy fan alert! =p)
wish i could carry some of the heavy-ness for you dear…*sayang sayang*
28. PaperPlanes | August 6th, 2009 at 6:53 am
i completely understand your position in this.
i hated creating my CV and writing cover letters because it felt like i’m bragging about myself and what i’ve done. and these documents cannot fathom “me”. although i have put down who i am and what makes me “qualified”, they just trivialize the humanity in the achievements and the work accomplished.
also, i thought it’s very odd of kiasu students nowadays to live inside the box and produce work according to only what was successful before. by doing this, they don’t really present themselves in their work and everything seems very robotic and boring. they are too scared to do something different and just carefully tred on a path that was once laid upon by a predecessor. from what i’ve been hearing, “hirers” (companies, exclusive schools, etc.) look for those that stand out. how can those students stand out if they cannot find what’s unique about them and present this, instead of copying or following what’s been done before?
29. Swee Ping | August 6th, 2009 at 9:17 am
i know how you feel bout its hard to blog, especially after a long day at work just looking into the screen. that’s why when i’m at home, i don’t touch the PC nor laptop or surf the net or blog.
it’s normal. maybe you just need to find a balance that suits yourself. blog when you feel like it, as you wanted.
i felt myself are getting more dumb as each day passes because unlike back at school, i knew so many things and now i feel my brain is so mundane cos i wasn’t thinking constructive stuff, or intelligent stuff (not that i am). i’m just drop dead tired when i got home from work.
who said adults don’t feel jaded by their routine. i am super jaded. :-(
30. Swee Ping | August 6th, 2009 at 9:22 am
p/s: have you visit your grandma?
31. claudia | August 6th, 2009 at 10:04 am
how do you know whether it’s your right or left ovary hurting?
32. Charis | August 6th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Su Ann, I understand how you feel. The bit about considering charity only when it could help build a CV upsets me as well. I wonder if I should have told them that I didn’t put any ‘volunteer work’ into my CV or app because I hadn’t done any then, and that I didn’t go out and pick some random organization to volunteer with because there was nothing I could find that I believed in, and doing it would just have been such a fakery that I’d forever question myself had I gotten into my dream school. But that would have probably stirred up a whole other nest of questions and misconceptions.
Hopefully while staring at a Word document full of words and ideas that don’t seem to be theirs, contemplating piles of certificates and awards waiting to be collated and summarized in words (did the facilitators say bullets? or columns? or paragraphs? how now how now?), and wondering how to make sense of it all – a moment of lucidity will hit them, and they’ll realize that it’s all so frustratingly shallow and irrelevant.
After which the real application work starts.
33. pinkpau | August 6th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
megan : geez. i usually dont reply emails like that. makes me so angry.
lily : am smiling now!
cloudyrainbows : not too sure how that justifies the way they do things…
eileen : yes, exactly — that is perhaps the most important take-away point of the whole workshop: that there is no surefire formula, but we can only share what worked for us. which may not work for everybody. glad you caught on that :) when are you and audrey applying to college? and i dont feel particularly badly about the workshop; i actually had a lot of fun and met a lot of cool people — you and your cousin included! it’s just a couple of strange incidents that stuck out, that’s all.
weiqi : i’m learning much from these things :)
farhana : indeedy. i think we all need to promise ourselves to do things that we love every once in a while…
zeek : i just havent found the right mood to write that tribute. and your last sentence made me laugh :P
missfiona : j-j-j-jaded! you’ve got your mama’s style but you’re yesterday’s child! to me!
ubikentang : that’s what i keep telling myself :) *hugs back* sometimes its not so much the plagiarism, but the kiasuism that really gets to me.
lishun : that organizations for volunteer work thing kinda caught me off guard too. sigh.
KY : its a doogggggg
mich : hugs back :)
patricia : why would you need to memorize these poems?! no need la :) just read, comprehend and appreciate. you dont even need to analyze the poems cos all the buku referens do it for you. you’ll come to appreciate BM a lot more when you study abroad, trust me. i’m very glad now that i worked hard at BM, especially sastera, when i was in school.
the passerby : i often find that you are right :)
reallybites : my friends said they dont want to read cos so many people wrote already :(
adrian c : i know, right?
ee vonn : thank you! not too sure which part you’re referring to, but thank you nevertheless!
christina : haha that’s not what i meant though. i personally like studying :) but if i didnt like studying, then yeah, i’d probably be ten times more angsty than i am right now…
annant : i know :(
mae : thank you :) your comment made my heart flutter.
nyrac : it is. and it’s the saddest thing that could happen to humans.
kiasu andrew : i wouldnt have regretted it so much had i shown my latest CV, cos there’s less stuff in the one-pager and about 3/4 of it is work experience. expire also ppl can still copy the activities mah… actually, it’s not that i mind la, because at the end of the day at least the applicants are doing SOMEthing, but it really bugs me that they can come up to us and ask us which was our “favorite” organization to volunteer at. wtf. charity is charity and should not be confused with honors and achivements -_-
tamago : hugs do me LOTS of good, believe me :)
songjun : WHAT DO YOU KNOW, CHEMICAL ENGINEER! go play with your thermodynamics la!!!
maysnow : hahaha peanut butter cups!! i havent had one of those in ages….
paperplanes : ahh :) you understand. you said it better than i ever could. i think the next time i run a workshop or a panel, i’m going to quote you. thank you for the wisdom :)
swee ping : is it weird that i feel stressed when i dont blog? also work saps me no matter how much or how little i do. it’s really weird. but the days are worst when i dont have anything to do. i wish my job offered a little bit more opportunity to think :( but such is the life of an intern, i suppose. and yes i have visited my grandma!
claudia : cos biology tells you that the left side of your body from your POV is the left!
charis : your comment made me remember how i felt when i was working on my own applications. i remember having a blue or black ink dilemma, if you can believe that. haha. but i really hope you’re right about the epiphanies. thank you charis — i now have a little bit of hope to remind me to be patient when dealing with overzealous applicants :)
34. annabel | August 6th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
re: ppl who can afford it asking for scholarships – i cannot understand kids like this. i blame the parents.
i too am interning at the moment for the summer and i too ask the exact same questions you asked. i always ask, how do adults NOT to crazy with the same bloody routine day in day out month after month year after year. it just sort of rolls by. and now i FINALLY begin to understand what all those literary prose authors were talking about. people do crazy things at the end of the day to keep boredom away, while others find comfort in routine…
bottom line is: i hear you!
35. annabel | August 6th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
oh dear, i meant “go” crazy not “to” crazy. my brain has sort of withered with this internship, haha.
36. Swee Ping | August 6th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
em… i guess it depends whether blogging professionally i.e. commitments for sponsors/readers or just for yourself. anyway, i don’t think its weird. i blog for fun and at times, do feel stressed when i saw the many drafts pending cos personally i don’t like to leave things idle.
sign of lethargic. my guess is you don’t enjoy what you do? it happened a lot to me as well, a lot or little work. it’s not just intern’s life, even some jobs, you aren’t allow to think.
great~! :-)
37. carol | August 6th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
i love you limsuann :)
faster come back. we go do fun things. promise. don’t bother with those irksome people.
you have like 1000+ rollover minutes waiting for you ;P
38. yizhen | August 6th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
*bear hugs* more hugs for you. :)
cheer up k. kiasu people everywhere oso got.
but there are scarier people out there; i pray that you don’t meet any of those.
in the meantime, enjoy your last month back home and try to do as many stuff on your list as possible! ;)
39. kiasu andrew | August 6th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
@pinkpau @ charis
blue ink.
40. thegeekinpink | August 6th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
i help students with their college/university applications each day. it’s my work.
god help me everyday when i deal with overstingy parents who wish to use their kids’ ptptn loan to do investment/buy a car/service a house loan…
i wanna kick them. everyday.
41. sheon | August 6th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
i know that feeling, when you did something sincere, and then having people judged it as a ‘publicity’ stunt.
i would love to read your response to the racist article published on utusan. that article made my blood boil!!! DPM’s remark to the article made him my new enemy. and what happened to the catchy 1Malaysia slogan? why do they keep driving all these racial wedges into our community?
yasmin. her commercials are brilliant. respect. however i think ‘talentime’ is better off as a commercial, not a movie. poignant and a sweet movie nonetheless.
you look great in the photo. camera loves you, and its always enjoyable to look at the photos with you in it. :)
42. fatcat | August 6th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Hi pinkpau, i wished there was a workshop like this in s’pore for junior college applications. T_T i didn’t get through (though was shortlisted) cause i didn’t know there was an “unspoken rule” about referral letters. oh, how i regret now… :(
43. Patricia | August 6th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
ahh but i have to it’s a direct order from atas. apparently im in independent ch school. hardly anyone takes spm, we focus and strive for uec (smth like a levels, only in ch) so our bm teacher teaches us upsr standard malay & for eng, we’re still doing grammar at form 5.
boo right. so that’s why i have to memorize poems lar, for silly tests.
44. sha | August 6th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
hey suann! my sister was there, she said she couldnt read a word from the cv!
anyway just wanted to say hi :)
45. audrey | August 6th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Hello! Eileen’s cousin here. I’ll be applying for college next year :)
I’m glad I went for the workshop. I learnt a lot there, especially about the application process. Thank you so much to you guys for teaching us that! And if it’s any comfort, due to my very very bad eye sight, I couldn’t read your cvs. I’m sorry T__T
46. Jun | August 6th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
psst! i sometimes re-read those 2006-8 posts that got me hooked on ur blog in the first place to feel inspired :)
47. voon | August 6th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
weekend lets go ice cream and leave our emos behind?
48. Michelle | August 7th, 2009 at 3:46 am
The young bohemians; with their art galleries and sushi bars.
49. songjun | August 7th, 2009 at 6:39 am
please please; its chemical engineer with a master’s degree in Business mind you so i KNOW ITS A GODAMN FISH.
Thermocouple you then you know.
50. Michelle | August 7th, 2009 at 9:05 am
“What is the body? What is the mind? Am I only a collection of the accidents of birth, of language, of country? I am awake, I dream and sometimes I seem to rest peacefully in my very being. The body changes and deteriorates. It cannot be the Self. The mind is fickle, intemperate, and yet powerful. It enables me to master my environment – but what does this mastery mean? Today I am a success, tomorrow, a failure. Should I be only the praise and blame of others? Civilizations come and go; what meaning, then, can my petty mastery have? Awake, I am the world: it and me are so mutually involved that I can only partially discriminate between them. Asleep, I still remain its victim. And even when awake am I not still half-asleep? …”
Elliot Deutsch. “Moksha and Jnana-Yoga.” Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction. p. 108
51. Koh Sin Yee | August 7th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
hihi,
may you be well, peaceful n happy.
52. mabel | August 7th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
hi pink pau. i asked you abt columbia before. and you were very nice about it. and i was kinda noob cos i didn’t understand what all the stuff on the columbia site said. anyway, i remember you were very nice abt it. and it’s great that you take the time to reply all these emails and talk to all these ppl. it’s always the one or two people that spoils the whole experience. i’m sure there were many who were really happy to get to hear you talk.
be happy pink pau :)
53. Jin Rui | August 7th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
i think sometimes people just want something so much that they forget about what’s truly important. cliched, but it’s … like that.
when i first signed up as a volunteer for a charity drive i — am ashamed to admit this — had honors and achievement on my mind too. not entirely, but the thought was still there. i’ve changed though. it’s completely no fun doing things just for the sake of being able to write it down in a resume or something, no fun at all.
i sincerely want to do what i can to help other people now. maybe (hopefully) those people who asked about the “favorite” organization thingy will feel the same.
54. Kiran | August 7th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Cheer up Su :) I guess plagiarism doesn’t have a break to it. From school, to media, to publications, and blogging — it’s etched with such sickening, unethical behavior. What happened to being honest and responsible? Gone are those days, sad right?
55. flory | August 8th, 2009 at 9:02 am
for some reason 90% of my schoolmates are CV-padders. i can’t decide whether this is unusually Malaysian and kiasu, or whether it does actually happen as much elsewhere. and plagiarism is not dead: editing our school paper for two years saw SO many plagiarised articles it ceased to be funny…
cheer up, dearie, and have a cookie. preferably the really fudgy gooey sort riddled with chocolate chips. and a hug.
56. PaperPlanes | August 8th, 2009 at 10:33 am
@pinkpau: haha thanks :P feel free to quote ahead ;D
57. freakyfriday | August 9th, 2009 at 2:00 am
malaysia’s not only the one kiasu. singapore too.
but let’s hope ppl learn to be more sincere over time..
for their own sake
and heck care what they do
surely u have helped a few good ppl in your service.
btw. i disagree that essays are easy. i got many random things. but i don’t think too much about them. they’re not worth a full page of words by themselves. about the things i actually think about. i keep forgetting or never sort it out properly. ok. nvmd. i’m still sad that my essays sucked. :(
i vote for the angry analysis post.
i vote for lioness.
58. sTiTch | August 9th, 2009 at 9:17 am
It’s only been a week without a blogpost and i’ve finally come to realise just how much quiantly.net means to me as a staple food for thought…
So thank you for this post, and may you find your desired path through college soon, doing all the things you like and envisioned.
Life is no Utopia, but there are always ways to make the best out of it!
59. Hello, real world. «&hellip | August 9th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
[...] Comment! Inspired by a post in quainty.net. [...]
60. smartypants | August 9th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I am always for a dose of ‘good kiasuism’ but this is horrible!
“why are people kiasu? why did students come up to us — pen and notebook poised — and ask if we could recommend some charity organizations to volunteer at?”
Aiyuh yuh…got retribution…
61. smartypants | August 9th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
….I mean if the heart=intention is not right…….
62. Christina | August 10th, 2009 at 1:36 am
Nah, I didn’t mean that studying wasn’t enjoyable, it was just the idea that no matter what classes you do, no matter how much you learn about subjects that you’d never thought you’d take, the final expectation is to get a good job right? But the fact is that the ultimate goal is ultimately not really worth it. The path you took to get there is probably way more interesting than anything that happens after.
63. Nigel | August 10th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Looks more like a cow-dog to me. Something about it makes my mind scream ‘PREY’ instead of ‘PREDATOR’
64. mumzzy | August 10th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Su Ann, you’re so sincere in helping other students…*hugs* just felt geram to hear students taking photos…want to go to ivy league, but don’t want to do their own homework! copy copy copy….it’s okay, they can take all the photos they want, but the college will know who is genuine in their applications when they start writing it.
65. hw | August 10th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
IMO CV padding happens everywhere, but over here in Malaysia it’s just on a more extreme level. There’s a fine line between emphasizing your strengths while underplaying your weaknesses and padding one’s CV with irrelevant ‘achievements’ or overstating work/experiences.
I did some interviews for a company I worked with before, and I was appalled by the amount of people who performed the latter in their CVs. I mean, if you put 4 years of work experience in a certain field or language, you’d better be able to answer basic questions in that field. Sure a good CV will get you in the door but ultimately if you’re overstating and padding your CV it’s just a waste of time to both yourself and the person reviewing your application as most likely you’re going to last at most 5 minutes in the interview before you get thrown out.
66. kezanne | August 11th, 2009 at 3:27 am
lets plan something to go against those selfish students who can afford their college fees but still insist on a scholarship just to be branded a “scholar”
67. Hasan | August 11th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
YES FINALLY SOMEONE SAYS IT! Some scholars can be annoying. Its the way scholarships work that propagate this mentality. They tell you what to do at every stage in true Malaysian fashion. The student really has no choices and thus does not have to make any important decisions about their own lives. They expect to be told what to do, how to do it and why they should do it.
I’m so glad I opted out of Malaysian scholarships.
68. kit | August 11th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
aha! a debater. no wonder we got along ’so well’ the first time!
69. pinkpau | August 11th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
kit, we actually talked about being debaters ‘that first time’ :) you didnt believe i was a debater and told me that you’re probably more accomplished in debate circuits than i am :P
70. AK | August 13th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
i can resonate with you because i felt exactly the same when i was at the crossroads, going from young grad to working adult. i have been working part-time since 14 years old so i suppose my transition was smoother. i don’t believe in taking nonsensical “gap years” because it will just reduces the time a young person can understand the concrete jungle out there. maybe that is the reason why i have rather high office politics quotient now. when i volunteered to help out at national events or charity at the back of my mind i have to admit that i some times think about my CV, but that never hindered in any way, i.e. frequency, type of NGO, etc. i just gave what i could and i wrote what i rememberd for my CV. to me, volunteering can be crappy too when my part-time work experience as almost anything legitimate makes me a stronger person than what i did for volunteering. but those like you aptly described – pen and paper poised – are turnoffs. having working full time for 4 years, the trick is to really ask yourself what do you stand for and try to incorporate these values into work. if not, breathe in the fresh air, look at the clouds and remember what you learned in geography, have a cheap meal by the road – take time to relive those student days and remind you are you once again. and yes, i gave up blogging cos i don’t want to face the pc when i am home again as well. which is why twitter is the perfect solution for so many of us. when gdp growth is the only answer to globalised societies, there is no way we can escape from this perpetual suffering of wanting to be ourselves.
71. it never rains but pours &hellip | August 18th, 2009 at 12:39 am
[...] last weekend in KL and A., Z. and i would be spending it – of all things – at a workshop and a talk – but we met some incredible people there, and i’m just about certain i want [...]
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