Anonymous career talk from Malaysian job seekers — salary, interviews, company culture, WFH and more.
Age 30: ~RM30,000. Age 40: ~RM80,000. Age 50: ~RM150,000. Retirement target: RM240,000 minimum. Most Malaysians are behind. EPF alone is not enough — voluntary contributions matter.
Admin internship in the finance dept. Slower pace than corporate. Team was kind. I handled billing reconciliation and reporting. Interesting to see healthcare operations from the inside.
Real Agile is rare. Most teams do waterfall with daily standups and call it Agile. A few MNCs (especially tech product teams) do it properly. If a company says they're Agile, ask what their sprint cycle is.
Took the leap after 4 months of job searching while employed. Quit, focused full-time on the search. Got 3 offers in 6 weeks. Sometimes removing the safety net is the push you need.
Be direct: you need time to transition properly. Good employers respect this. If they want you to start immediately and you need 4 weeks, that's a reasonable ask. Burning bridges with old employer helps no one.
Different from corporate. Very mission-driven people. Sparse resources mean you learn to do a lot with little. Pay was RM500 (volunteering essentially). Rewarding if you care about the cause.
Typically 3–6 months. During probation, either party can terminate with shorter notice (sometimes 1-7 days). Employer doesn't need to give reason. Know your rights before signing anything.
It is if you treat it like a business. Invoice consistently, save 30% for taxes and EPF, maintain 3 months emergency fund. The freedom is real. The instability is also real. Not for everyone.
Stays under 2 years are the new normal in tech and startup roles. Hiring managers care more about what you accomplished than how long you stayed. The rule of thumb: each move should come with reason.
Minimum: 20Mbps stable. Comfortable: 50Mbps. Video calls and file sharing: 100Mbps+ recommended. Unifi is most reliable. Time fibre is good. Celcom/Digi mobile broadband as backup.
Post-merger, things are still settling. Some redundancies happened. Culture mix is still awkward. Pay structure is being standardised. Brand is Digi-forward now. Stable job if you can handle ambiguity.
Quantified achievements (grew X by 30%). Specific tools used. Side projects or personal websites. Awards or recognitions. Clean formatting — no photo, no IC number unless asked.
Given 2 months notice. Updated CV immediately, activated network, converted outstanding achievements into portfolio. Got 2 offers before my last day. The redundancy notice was the kick I needed.
SMEs with 10+ employees contribute 0.5% of payroll. The clawback process for training costs is bureaucratic but real. Many SMEs never claim it. Worth having an HR person or consultant manage it.
Expected glamorous design work. Reality: AutoCAD for 3 months, model making, and a lot of printing. But you learn the craft. The draftwork makes you faster and more precise. Important foundation.
At least once a year. Apply passively — 2–3 interviews per year minimum to calibrate. You don't have to accept anything. But you should always know what the market will pay you today.
No serious boundary between personal and professional. Expectations to go above and beyond without extra pay. Guilt-tripped when you enforce your working hours. Family language = boundaries are negotiable.
Both are GLC-adjacent. Proton pay has improved since Geely investment. Perodua culture is more stable and structured. Engineering roles at both have genuine complexity. Depends on your engineering specialty.
For drafting, summarising, brainstorming — always okay if output is verified. For client deliverables — depends on company policy and client agreement. Transparency matters more than the tool itself.
Don't try to prove yourself immediately. Observe. Ask questions. Learn the informal org chart. Find out what your manager actually values vs what the JD said. Deliver something small but solid in week 2.