By: Tan Weng Han
To most, yesterday was
only another ordinary day where we woke up, got ourselves scrubbed, proceeded
with usual daily Wednesday routine. ‘Less you are a student from Faculty of
Information Communication and Technology (FICT) Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman
(UTAR), yesterday (2/7/2014) would be a very special day for you because UTAR
FICT held its 7th Industrial Exposure Day at Block N, starting
9.30am in the morning.
“It is indeed a special
day for me and for the rest of the FICT students as no class shall be conducted
on this day. FICT students who are in their year 2 or year 3 bachelor degree studies
shall get the opportunity to be interviewed by the companies from the market for
an internship or job post,” said Jia Jun, a year one Business Information
System (IB) student.
“Although for the year
1 students like me are unlikely to seek for job opportunities, we get to learn
about all these companies’ profiles instead, which will come in handy in
future.” He continued.
A quick count reveals
that there were at least 20 companies at the Block N corridor, each looking for
their prospective employees or interns. Some of the companies that attended to
FICT Industrial Exposure Day were: Fushionex, Opensys, MSC, LF Logistics, Enovade,
One-Strategy Solution, LifeTech, Murata, ManagePay, Sherwin-William, Lintramax,
Canaplus, Flyn, Silverlake, Datamicron, ComputerXpress, Accenture, Brunsfield,
Pannage, ComputerXpress, Lifetech, Alcatel-Lucent, Atos Worldline and so on.
Even the mogul companies like Huawei, Hilti, Hitachi-eBworx were there to seek
for IT expertise among the FICT students.
 |
It is only 10am in the morning but the Block N
corridor had already been
occupied by students as well as companies’ employees. |
(From the left)
Students are asking for the mogul company Hilti’s information.
Next to Hilti is
TMS, which is another reputable company itself.
 |
(From the left) Hitachi-eBworx, Lifetech and
Huawei
have set up their companies’ booth
waiting for the interaction time with
the students. |
“Because we care”
FICT Industrial
Exposure Day was not as successful as it is today if judged from the companies
that were being invited to present.
“Initially, there were
only 13 companies being successfully invited, and then it went up gradually. Last
year we managed to get 19 companies and this year we get 30 companies instead.
What’s more? – they come to Kampar on voluntary basis,” said Dr. Choo, the
organizing chairperson who is also the UTAR FICT’s deputy dean that manages the
students’ development and industrial training affairs.
“Because we care for
the students you see, which is why this Day was being held at the first place,”
he continued.
“It is a win-win
situation to both the companies and the students, the companies get to choose
their future employees from the large pool of students; while students
themselves could acquire the knowledge and experience or even get hired prior
hand before venture into the market which is highly competitive.” He ended.
 |
(From the left) Dr. Choo, the organizing
chairperson and his colleagues:
Mr. Tou, Mr. Soong (sitting), Mr. Koon, and Mr.
Sun.
Each poses happily for the camera. |
“It secures my future”
Wen Bin, a student from
FICT Communications and Networking (CN) who has completed his studies last
semester now waits for the UTAR convocation in August. Currently, he has been
employed by Hilti as an IT System Engineer.
“I get to know Hilti
last year (6th Industrial Exposure Day), although I did not apply
for a job position immediately, the prior knowledge about the company by even
knowing their existence in the market, has helped me to secure a job, hence
secured my future I would say.” Said Wen Bin.
Michael Cheng, also a
student from CN was there on the Industrial Exposure Day as well. He applied for
an internship position in Murata. “Murata is one of the IT backbones of PDRM
Malaysia, I hope that the odds are in my favour.” He said in an optimistic
tone.
Similarly, Ronny Wong
and Richard Wong, a student from CN and Computer Science (CS) respectively, had
applied for a position in Alcatel-Lucent, Hitachi, Carsem, and Pentax.
 |
(From the left) Ronny
Wong and Richard Wong pose for the camera
after being interviewed by the
companies.
|
“Passion must come first, all else second”
We understand that the
CGPA of a student is one of the important prospects that shape the student’s
future in the market. The good news is, it is not the most powerful indicator.
“It is true that we are
seeking for fast-learner and student with exuberance of confidence. At the same
time we are also looking for the other positive traits in a student for example
traits like integrity, courage, teamwork, commitment and so on. Above all,
passion must come first, all else second.” Said Dr. Nithia, the Hilti’s
developer who was there yesterday on Industrial Exposure Day.
Amanda Eng, the account
manager of Hitachi-eBworx said something similar as well. “Companies nowadays
acknowledge the Generation Y as a very unique generation. Not only we monitor
them differently, they themselves also actively monitor the company. Therefore,
we must constantly provide adequate guidance and training for them to flourish.
Nevertheless, it is the effort invested by the generation Y that will help them
to flourish ultimately.
 |
Dr. Nithia, the
developer of Hilti who is in charge of employee recruitment
|
 |
Amanda Eng, the account
manager from Hitachi values
the uniqueness of Generation Y
|
The FICT students’
attendance to Industrial Exposure Day is compulsory. However it is not as
burdening and stressful as the word “compulsory” may mean. The students that
attended are rewarded as well, by the companies. For instance, Hitachi-eBworx
awarded every student with free movie ticket if they submitted their CV; the
same goes to OpenSys who awarded each of the student a powerbank after the company interviewed them. The most luxurious reward was from Fushionex who awarded
two students with iPad mini, one from lucky draw and another one for answering
a quiz correctly.
 |
Various company talks
were prepared for the students.
iPad mini was rewarded to students during
Fushionex’s company talk.
|
