Anonymous career talk from Malaysian job seekers — salary, interviews, company culture, WFH and more.
From my job scanning: banks and MNCs prefer Oracle or SQL Server. Startups and tech companies split between PostgreSQL and MySQL about 60/40 in favour of Postgres now. MongoDB for document stores.
Moderate keyword matching helped. Stuffing hurt readability which hurt human review. Sweet spot: use job posting language naturally in your bullet points. Do not repeat keywords robotically.
Licensed counsellor: RM100-200/session. Clinical psychologist: RM180-350/session. SOLS Health, ThoughtFull, and MindaWell are popular platforms with sliding scale fees. It is worth the money.
Sold Notion templates on Gumroad and Etsy. Made RM1,400 first month, settled to RM600/month passive. Low effort once set up. Start with templates for things you already use daily.
By local companies, generally yes for entry level. MNCs prefer university degrees or demonstrable project skills. The portfolio matters more than the paper after 2 years of experience.
Left 7-year marketing career at 31 for a bootcamp. First dev job 8 months later at RM4,200. Now at RM7,500 after 2 years. Absolutely not too late.
Just wrapped up my 4-month internship at Grab (food team) and wanted to write a real review since most I found online were generic. What I worked on: Actual features that shipped. I owned a small dashboard project from…
Got burned badly by my last job. Looking back, ALL the signs were there during the interview. Sharing this so others can spot them early. 🚩 Red flags I missed: 1. They couldn't clearly explain the role. Asked "what do…
Google certificates: best for tech and digital marketing, employer recognition growing. Coursera: widest course range. LinkedIn Learning: softer skills and business topics. Google for ROI per ringgit.
Junior (1-3yr): RM80-120/hr. Mid (3-6yr): RM120-200/hr. Senior: RM200-350/hr. Projects: min RM3,000 for a simple app. Charge more for tight deadlines. Do not discount just because they ask.
Quality beats quantity. 2-3 tailored applications get better results than 20 generic ones. Set a daily limit: 3 tailored apps, 5 loose ones, 2 LinkedIn DMs to relevant people. Track in a spreadsheet.
Told manager I was doing a focused evening for a personal project. Set auto-reply for after-hours. Batch-responded at 8am. Three months in, no complaints, better sleep, same performance ratings.
AWS: most mature ecosystem, most jobs. Azure: dominant in enterprise and GLCs (Microsoft contracts). GCP: Kubernetes and data pipelines. AWS certifications have the best ROI in the local job market.
Group case study then panel interview. The group case is where candidates differentiate, lead without dominating.
I was all set to apply for a part-time Master's in Business at UM (RM35k total, 2 years). Then I started doubting myself. Arguments FOR I've heard: - Required for senior roles in some GLCs and government - Academic/rese…
Been here about 14 months. Here's my honest take: Work pace: Fast. Like really fast. Quarterly OKRs mean you're always in crunch mode. If you're used to slower GLC pace this will be a shock. People: Majority young (mid…
Every rejection hits differently when you are already anxious. What helped: treating job search like a job (9-5 only), tracking metrics not feelings, and taking full weekends off from applications.
Web Dev Bootcamp by Colt Steele, Python Bootcamp by Jose Portilla, AWS by Stephane Maarek, SQL by Jose Portilla, Complete JavaScript by Jonas Schmedtmann. These are evergreen and updated regularly.
Leveraged 8 years of supply chain expertise. Started writing LinkedIn posts about niche problems. Got 2 consulting enquiries in month 3. Raised rates every 6 months. Left full-time employment in year 2.
I said: I am very excited about the role. Based on my research and experience, I was hoping for X. Is there flexibility? They came back with Y which was higher than the original offer. Just ask.
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