May 25, 2008

KL: practical training visits

I was in KL from 19th to 24th May for visiting students at their training places. It was an exhausted period (and tense of course) spending in roads to find out the location of their training (or we call as LI - Latihan Industri). I have 11 students - one at wisma A&C, one at menara manulife, one at menara milenium (these buildings are at damansara height) one at TTDI, two at pj, two at PWTC, and two at mint building (this is the worst, I spent 1 and half hour tawaf jalan sultan ismail, jalan p.ramlee and jalan bukit bintang to find out this building. bcos geram sngt we cursed many times this building and mentioned it as bangunan buruk; nota: bangunan ni sgt dhaif berbanding namanya) and another one student at Mont Kiara.

I went to KL with Efa and we spent tuesday for students of Efa and the rest of the days for my students. We got opportunity meeting their supervisors (except for two training places) and we could see the differences between supervisors at government sector and private (Efa got almost supervisors at Putrajaya).

There are few places that I hardly forget. The one at wisma A & C is so professional. She is the beautiful Caroline Bai who is the account director at Y&R, an advertising company. She's simple yet warm. The next is Ian at Milk & Co. We talked many things from the student perfomance and his concern, past times at Kuantan (as he spent two years at SABS) and our college and its activities. He mentioned few times on enjoyment of our conversation as each of us passionately listen and respond to each other (and Efa and I mentioned his name many times along our journey back to our place).

Our last day was at CIMB at different branches. But the remarks from their supervisors are priceless. Mr Low at PJ is so friendly and informative. Perhaps bcos he handles mortgage loan and has to meet clients and potential clients outside. One part of our discussion highlighted on the nature of working in this sales environment. He mentioned: The nature of this job needs you to feel sense of urgency all time. We could not wait to be given tasks and to be guided. We have to ask (in other word be proactive) what to to do or else we do not know what you do not know. The interns also need to know how to handle objection (This is my interrupt; Ibah: it sounds interesting) Mr Low: 1st of all we must have knowledge on our products, and we must have mindset that our product is the best in market, affordable and cheapest (thank you Mr Low, u really understood me by addressing this secret). Ibah: so we must have belief in our product and objection is no longer a problem. Mr Low: Yes, how could we convince others if we could not make ourselves confident with our products. (Thank you Mr Low, perhaps this excerpt could be part of Secret by Rhonda)

Most of supervisors gave the same remarks, the needs for proactive attitude, self initiative and communication skill (hey, they do not know how did I communicate after completed my 1st degree - disaster). Anyway the most outstanding supervisor goes to Ian of Milk and Co. I am sure Efa with no objection will support my decision regarding this award winning recipient.

This visits were not always accomplished without having visits to others historical places. We ended our daily visits to Pavillion, Lot 10, Sungei Wang, The Mall, Suria KLCC, One Utama, Megamall and Sogo. Not to be forgotten Seremban Parade on the way exiting. After having our last shopping, I visited my old place - Kolej Mara Seremban (InsyaAllah I will write on this touched visit.

I do not know my HOD will assign us or not for KL area in future. This is because we have identified our second home in Damansara Height and Hartamas. It is perhaps a bad news for our HOD =).