Malaysia Appreciates Expat Too Much

Aku rasa macam nak menulis bila aku baca satu update kat facebook merungut pasal MMHE. Pasal skang ni tampuk pimpinan MMHE di conquer oleh expatriate. Bukan yang board of director but the MD/CEO and other few senior management roles, tapi tak mendatangkan hasil apa-apa pun. Macam P. Ramlee cakap, masuk angin keluar asap. Sia-sia je bagi gaji mahal-mahal tapi habuk pun takde. Ce tengok gaji diaorang ni, aku tatau sahih ke tak, ni aku copy dari update tu la..

Ironinya..Malaysia Masih Aman dan Selamat

Teringat dekat kata-kata macai-macai kerajaan BN, polis-polis di raja BN dan menteri-menteri BN yang mengatakan Malaysia ni masih aman. Yang cakap camtu tu tolong lah baca artikel ni. Aku pun tatau macam mana diaorang rate bende ni and based on what statistic..macam orang-orang kita kata, kalau takde angin masakan pokok bergoyang, ye tak?

Nasib baik aku dah pindah pegi Singapore...huhu!!

Oh, click kat picture for link to the article.

Job Vacancy - Product Sales Manager

I received a call from recruiter of Amoriabond based in Netherlands yesterday about a job vacant in Bangkok. Below are the details:

The Product Sales Manager will be working in the Optimisation and Upgrades division. He/she will be responsible for selling several products and services to new and existing clients in the utility, oil and gas and industrial sectors within the Asia Pacific region, including:

• Control retrofit, upgrade and optimisation solutions
• Compressor Water Wash
• ECOMAX - automated combustion tuning solution
• Fuel System conversions and Power Augmentation upgrades
• Manual combustion tuning services
• Remote monitoring and diagnostics services

This is a challenging role and an exciting opportunity for the new Product Sales Manager to establish themselves within the region and organisation.

The role involves identifying opportunities to sell service solutions and developing client relationships in the region. He/ she can leverage existing relationships in the region and sell the full range of optimisation and upgrade solutions.

Due to the fact that these are capital funded projects and the sales cycle can be more than one year in duration, it is important that the sales person is very organised and proactive in order to develop sales pipeline for the future.

Skills and experiences she's looking for:

• Knowledge of Asia Pacific region
• Customer base and points of contact
• Good technical background with Gas Turbines and ideally controls for Gas Turbines
• Ability to sell at all levels within customer organisation (maintenance, procurement, senior management)
• Project/ service sales experience

Person specifications:

• Engineering background
• Sales success in the region
• Good knowledge of Gas Turbines and control systems
• Able to work independently
• Organised and able to prioritise tasks
• Proactive and driven
• Fluent English - written and spoken
• IT proficient

So if you happen keen to exploring further this position, please contact Ms. Amelia Pask at her email:amelia.pask@amoriabond.com.

Good luck folks!!

Tip of The Day

I found this very useful tip for us to take some times to think about it.

Tong Sampah Besar

Pejam celik, pejam celik dah 77 hari aku dekat Saudi Arabia, lebih tepat lagi di Al-Jubail City. Oooo I miss my family! Ini outstation aku yang paling lama selama aku kerja setakat ni. Bila la nak balik ni? Kalau ikut visa expiry date, 26 June is my last day in KSA. By hook or by crook, aku kene keluar dari KSA pada date tu..kalau tak maybe kene masuk jail or blacklist by KSA imigresen. Tapi punye la celaka aritu time aku bagitau customer visa aku dah nak expired, boleh dia cakap "Don't worry Mr. Shah, we will extend your visa one more month". Hati dah berbunga-bunga nak balik terus layu. 

Journey To The Middle East

After 2 weeks been in this new company, I got a job order to the middle east. Just about time I completed my basic training for the compressor and turbine. I never been to middle east before, hence the excitement. My destination is Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

The process of applying visa begins. My first application got rejected due to in-similarity between letter of invitation and my background study. The letter specified Engineer but my field study was Bachelor of Technology, it has to be engineering study. I don't know the arabs can be this picky. So we asked the customer to amend the letter and replace the word engineer with consultant. After slightly over a week, my visa approved. Almost 3 weeks to apply the visa, it much more easier to enter Europe than KSA, even for a muslim like myself.

2nd April was my departure date from Singapore to Doha, Qatar which took about 7 and half hours flight. I flew with Qatar Airline. I supposed to transit at Doha for 3 hours before embark on another flight to Dammam, KSA. What happened was, we already boarded the plane but it had been grounded and delayed because the captain of the flight has noticed the engine warning light blinking on the panel. So the ground staff started to check what went wrong with the engine. We were inside the plane for one hour and half before they decided to actually grounded the plane. So we get off of the plane to board another. While waiting, the airline staff provided us with some snack for lunch. Maybe to ease our frustration. Alhamdulillah, the next plane was good and finally we arrived at Dammam Airport around 2pm local time, after 6 hours transit at Doha.

The mechanic tried to find out the problem at the engine

I thought I had been through all the hard part..and I thought wrong. I spent another one hour and half at the immigration, queing for my turn to come. I spent more time there than in flight from Doha to Dammam. I started to have this bad impression to Saudi people. Not heart feeling to Saudian though.

My habitat for this couple of months

At 4.30pm I arrived at the hotel..The Sharq Hotel in the heart of Jubail City. Poor driver, he was waiting for almost 5 hours!

Jubail City at the a.m. Taken from rooftop restaurant.