Anonymous career talk from Malaysian job seekers — salary, interviews, company culture, WFH and more.
Score each of these 1-5: role scope, manager quality, team culture, growth potential, flexibility, location/commute, company trajectory. Total it. Salary is just one input of many.
Designing Data-Intensive Applications (DDIA) is the bible. Supplement with Alex Xu System Design Interview books. ByteByteGo newsletter is free and excellent. Practice on Excalidraw.
Running dual monitors in 600sqft. Biggest upgrade was a proper chair, fixed my back pain completely.
Third time this has happened to me. My manager presented my analysis in a townhall with zero mention of me. Didn't even say "my team did great work", it was all "I've been looking into this and found that..." I know thi…
Figma won. XD is practically abandoned. Figma Dev Mode makes handoff much smoother. If you are not on Figma yet, move now, every design job posting asks for it.
Go to HRDCorp EzHRDF portal. Search by provider or course type. Make sure the provider is registered. Your employer contributes the levy, push HR to use it before year end or it resets.
Tech hiring has picked back up after 2023-2024 slowdown. Finance and banking are actively hiring at mid-senior level. GLC hiring is consistent. FMCG and retail are cautious. Highest demand: AI/data and cybersecurity.
Do 1-2 projects for free (or at cost) for NGOs or friends. Document them as case studies. Cold email 20 relevant businesses with a specific offer not a general pitch. First paying client came from email 11 for me.
Started running 3x a week during the pandemic. Focus improved, anxiety dropped, sleep quality went up. The energy I get from a morning run is worth more than any app or system I have tried.
Rotational programme with great exposure. Pay around RM4,500-5,500 all-in for fresh grads. Solid WFH-limited structured environment.
Every fresh grad I talk to turns down GLC jobs because the salary looks lower on paper. But no one is doing the full math. Here's a quick breakdown I did: Private company: RM5,000 base. EPF employee: RM550, employer: R…
Quiet quitting is often the symptom of a worker who is mentally exhausted and protecting themselves. If you find yourself doing the bare minimum, ask whether the environment caused that, not the individual.
Be honest and brief. I took time off for personal/health/family reasons, and here is what I did during that period that kept me relevant. Prepare 1-2 upskilling or project activities to show you were not idle.
Feast or famine is real. March was RM8,000. April was RM1,200. The solution: minimum 3 retainer clients, 3 months emergency fund, and never stop marketing even when you are busy.
Next.js + Supabase + Vercel + Stripe. Free to start, scales cheap, Stripe works in Malaysia with SST registration. Build and deploy in a weekend. Highly recommend this combo.
Started with fast.ai top-down approach. Then went back to statistics fundamentals on Khan Academy. Kaggle competitions for practice. Took 18 months to feel competent. Hired as junior ML engineer after that.
Training is solid and the brand name opens doors. Salary around RM3,200-3,600. Good for stability.
Check in privately, not in a group. Say I noticed you seem stressed lately, not that you look terrible. Offer specific help (I can take the next review). Do not problem-solve unless they ask.
Webflow is great for marketing sites. Bubble for simple apps. Hiring managers do not always respect them as engineering skills. Good for solo founders and non-engineers to validate ideas quickly.
If you cannot explain it simply, you do not understand it. I write notes as if teaching a junior. Gaps in the explanation show gaps in my understanding. Best study method I have found for any subject.