UTAR Alumni

SEPTEMBER 2017

2 August Sungai Long Career Day

UTAR Career Day 2017, organised by the Department of Alumni Relations and Placement (DARP) for fresh graduates, soon-to-be graduates and undergraduates, was held at Sungai Long Campus on 2 August 2017 from 10am to 4pm.

DARP Lee Wan Poh strongly believes that this career fair provides students with the opportunity to meet with people from different industries to determine their future career choice through company profiles, experience, employee benefit and other employment requirement details necessary to increase their chances of getting hired.

"Furthermore, the career fair provides students with the opportunity to secure him or herself a chance for immediate employment, securing them an official position in the company even before they complete their finals," he added.

Ng Zhe Tao, a Quantity Surveying student, explained why he decided to attend this event. He said, "Although my time as a student isn't up as I am still pursuing my degree, this event gives me a better insight to explore my available options in the future career before I officially graduate."

Engineering student Alex Fung Hui Siang said, "As I am planning to graduate in October 2017, this event has helped me to broaden my options in choosing the type of companies I would like to join once I graduate."

Senior Manager Venessa Ling Hyan Hisan from LBS Bina Group Bhd explained why they choose to pitch in this year's career fair. She said, "UTAR is said to have produced the best quality students, as well as the ability to perform at their best under pressure and interact well with others. Therefore, we would like to give them the opportunity to be exposed to the company's working experience and offer them a chance to work and learn alongside our team."

More companies have begun to pitch in this year's fair in comparison to last year, as the idea of applying for a job overseas has become a sort of threat to the local companies due to the differences in the wages, along with the chances of getting promoted and having experience overseas gave the graduates a perception that working aboard would be a good long term investment for their future career.

"As more and more graduates are beginning to apply for jobs in Singapore, it is becoming a bit difficult for us to recruit candidates for our company due to the intense competition," said ML Global Berhad recruiter, Sim Qiu Xing. "We came here because we wanted to help them, be their platform to flourish. Even though they may think that the grass is greener in Singapore when it comes to work opportunities, doesn't mean that the grass isn't any greener here. Furthermore, UTAR is said to have a good track record in producing students that interact well and contribute ideas that are out of the box, which will be a huge contribution to our company," she added.

There were a total of 80 companies that participated in this year's career fair, and among the companies were Cosmo Restaurants Sdn Bhd, 99 speed mart Sdn Bhd, Fujitsu Systems Global Solutions Sdn Bhd, Sony Emcs (M) Sdn Bhd, Yoong Onn Corporation Berhad, Sunway Property, Top Glove Corporation Bhd, and Redstack Malaysia, just to name a few.