Edmund Wee

Entry 1:

"First Day At Work" - Week 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        On the 5th of January 2015, the day was finally here when I step foot on the corporate world for the first time ever. A host of different emotions were running through my vain on the day before but more particularly, I was extremely nervous. I have no idea what will be expected from me nor what job task will I be performing nor who are the people that I will be working with. Luckily, a few rounds of badminton that day also meant I was very tired and managed to curb my usual insomnia issues. I woke up that next morning feeling fresh and was pretty pumped up to undergo my first day at work. I took a warm shower, wore my best looking ironed shirt and were off to work, hoping to create a great first impression at work. I went to my friend’s house and we carpool to work only to realize that I have forgotten to bring along a necktie. I was disappointed with myself and were prepared to apologize to the boss for my negligence as I always thought that a necktie was an essential piece of dressing for work. Anyway, back to the journey there, our plan of carpooling is that I would follow my friend’s car to her workplace (since she has a season pass parking given by her company) and I will take an approximate 15 minutes walk from her workplace to Plaza OSK, the place in which I will be working in. The walking journey turns out to be a good thing, as walking through the breezy air in the morning meant that I could calm myself down before reaching my workplace. It was also a first-time experience for me as I was surrounded by the busy white-collar workers in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and were looking forward to be one of them.

 

        As I stepped in the building and took the elevator to my office in the seventh floor, I was surprised that the lights in my office are still not turn on yet and the doors are still locked due to the fact that I was very early that morning. Due to my nervousness, I didn’t realize that I actually reached about 40 minutes earlier than what was my supposedly arranged working hours, which starts at 8.45a.m. I waited outside the office about roughly 20 minutes and finally, there was a worker who came and unlocked the door and invited me in. I was asked to sit at the seating area nearby the reception counter and wait for the HR manager who appointed me initially to come in. After waiting for another 15 minutes, the HR manager came and assist me while passing me my stationaries, name tag and eventually bringing to my desk. I was introduced to the people in my Business Process Department and came to realize that we are just a small team of 4 people (including me) under OSK Holding’s Corporate Strategy Division. It was not necessarily a bad thing though as I believed that working in a small group meant that I get to communicate more with the people in my team and ultimately, learn more things.

 

        My  team leader, which I had already met during my interview, was a wise and friendly man.  On the first day of work, he invited me into his office and brief me about the goals of his team and some of the things that he expects me to assist him on. Also, to ensure that I am not lost, he even give a brief history of the company, its complex structure that consist of various divisions and its culture. Much to my surprise, the chat lasted for almost an hour and his willingness to spend so much of his busy time on me had convince me that he is a leader takes care of his people as in this case, his staffs. Immediately, I realize the importance of social skills and leadership skills and hoping that I could learn a thing or two from him at the end of the day. From the conversation, I have not only learned about the details of what is being said to me but by observing his actions and the way he communicate taught me so much more and was very much motivated  to working with him from then on. 

 

        Moving on, I was given a quick tour around the office by one of my colleagues, whom she would also be my mentor for this three months period. I was introduced to the rest of the people in my division and were told where the various necessary facilities are located. I also found out that our business process team is a relatively small team, which comprises of me, my team leader, who is also my supervisor and my two other colleagues. Unfortunately, in terms of what I have learnt from my job in the first day, I have not much to write about since the whole day was pretty much spent on setting up the computer for me meant that I could not do much things. I was given a stack of manuals to read in an upcoming hotel project that we will be handling in the coming weeks. I hope to give you more updates by then.

 

In a nutshell, this is what I can reflect about on my first day at work:

• The corporate world might not be as daunting as what was first thought.

• OSK Holdings Bhd. is a huge company that have a net worth of almost RM3billion.

• The people that I am working with are helpful and are willing to teach me.

• My boss gives an excellent first impression to people.

• Being at work early is always better than being late.

• Neckties are not part of an essential dressing among back-end corporate staffs.

 

Entry 2: 

"2nd Week at Work"  - Week 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        A week flew by while I was busy settling life at the workplace. Along the way, there are a few interesting events that had unfolded over the past week and while some experiences are expected in a workplace, some did caught me by surprise, or at least, not what I have expected prior to joining the workforce. The expected experience would of course be the very distinct environment of a workplace as compared to an education institute which I had spent more than half of my life in. The noticeable quiet environment, which one could only hear the sound which the printer makes or the typing noises that derives from the keyboard, it does take a little time to get used to although that was pretty much what was expected. Gone are the days where we speak and joke during classes and instead, we will all be busy with our work in the workplace.

 

        Nonetheless, the thing that caught me by surprise was the people there. I have often hear stories since I was young, whether it was from my parents or from some other working adults and we are often been warned about dealing with different types of people that we will meet in the working environment. Some of those stories are pretty negative, ranging from unfriendly colleagues to untrustworthy people, I was preparing for the worse and had been constantly telling myself that I would stay strong and deal with the necessary challenges that lie ahead of me. However, as it turns out, the people there that surrounded me had been amazing so far. They are kind, friendly and are always willing to make time for me whenever I asked for their help.

 

       In the meantime, I have also met this friend of mine, whom what I view was a ‘Good Samaritan’ that sits just right beside my desk. His name is Jo, a lawyer in his early 40s, and he plays a major part in helping me to settling in seamlessly. On my first day at work, my desk was pretty messy, as it had been left vacant for quite some time according to this lawyer friend of mine. Without seeking for his help, he voluntarily helps me clean and reorganize the desk with me. He even gave me a mug and asked me what would I like to drink every morning and he will arrange with the ‘tea lady’ in our office. Once in a while, he even brought me to places nearby the office for lunch and had later on, became my lunch companion for most of the days. I really appreciate his kindness and his willingness to help me settle in a new environment. With his profession status and his age, the fact that he is willing to spend so much time in helping a newbie like me also show that he is a very humble person.

 

        My Business Process department colleague on the other hand, whom I like to refer to as my mentor, was also an extremely kind and friendly lady. She is really patient in teaching me things and had spent the necessary time in explaining my job scope to me. Perhaps things were not as bad as what I expected from the start and instead, I feel blessed to be surrounded by these people. Hence, the lesson I learnt from this experience is that we should not judge something or someone too fast, especially to people whom we never even met yet.  I realized that it was important to carry a positive attitude to a new environment so that we can be excited about the challenges that lie ahead and be less nervous about it. In addition, I also felt their assistance are invaluable to a freshman in the office like me. It was not easy working in a corporate office for the first time and adjusting to the environment can be difficult especially if we do not know who we can approach to ask for assistance. I am just so thankful that I have met these friendly people and hopefully that one day when I am a senior worker, I could return the favor by assisting juniors who are new to the workplace because I know that they will be going through the exact phases that I have been through.

 

        That is it for now. I will definitely mention more about my job and what I have been doing in my next entry! Stay tuned.

 

Entry 3: 

"Learning the Job"  - Week 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Hello folks, I have just completed my week 3 of internship training. As previously mentioned, this post will be concentrating more about my job. To know more about my roles and responsibilities, please refer to the “My Roles & Responsibilities” section of the site as the following post would be focusing on what my department does and my thoughts about the job. I have been assigned in the business process team and while I was not too sure on my job scope previously, I now have a much clearer idea of it. But first, let me start with what our Business Process Department concentrates on. Our aim is to analyze current processes of a business and look to improve from it by introducing new way of doing things that can shorten the time taken for a process to be completed or with better results. In short, our ultimate goal is to improve a current system of a business process to be more efficient and effective. In my opinion, this seems to be a pretty challenging job and this explains why I decided to choose this company in the first place. Although I did not have much knowledge on this field since it is not my specialized field of studies, I felt that I could learn a lot of valuable lesson on the fundamental of business management.

 

        How we will usually start with a new project is that we would take an informal approach of auditing. We will gather information of current standard procedure policies and manual, while taking into account, what are their current practices. To achieve this, we will contact the relevant department to gain information of the processes and if necessary, interview some of the people who understand the current practices of the business process. After that, we will compile the information gathered and will conduct an in-depth discussion among our team members. With a final decision achieved, we would then create a new standard procedure policies and manual for the relevant department. We will then explain to the people involved in those business processes about the details of the new procedure and if any additional training is needed for the workers. A follow-up with the relevant department will then be made to assure that the new process is implemented and if they have seen any improvement in results.

 

        Therefore, being part of the team, I will be in-charge in outlining the processes developed by drawing out the processes for easy viewing. I was required to draw it using Microsoft Visio, and thus, was assigned to learn and familiarize with the software. My mentor being her usual self was patient and helpful in teaching me the various features of the software and how I can master it. It was pretty interesting to learn a whole new software which can make our life easier in assisting us on processes drawings. Knowing that I will be involved on the drawing part a lot, I was very eager to learn. Is like learning a video game that you will be playing it for the next three months! And who knows? Further down the road, the knowledge gained may be valuable to my further studies and my work next time too.

 

        Along the way, I have also learnt that being attention to details is really vital in our line of work. Of course, like many other work, it is important to be attention to details so that we do not record the wrong information in the program, but more to that, we have to be very attentive to the information collected as some of this information can be wrong or incomplete. This is because these information are gathered from people and hence, we often have to look out for human errors. In fact, sometimes is through this lack of information that we find fault in their current practices. Easier said than done, it is actually not that easy to look out for these errors made, as we often have to put ourselves in the shoes of the workers, who sometimes conduct works that we are not even familiar with. Therefore, I believe my lack of experience in this field and the lack of understanding in a lot of business processes out there would prove to be a huge challenge. However, knowing that it is impossible to learn and understand all types of business processes in a fortnight or so, I decided to do as much reading as possible whenever I am free on business processes in general and hopefully it will help me in my work in the upcoming weeks.

 

Entry 4:

"Kick-off Meeting at Swiss Garden Hotel"  - Week 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        On the 27th of January 2015, my team and I were invited to Swiss-Garden Hotel & Residences Kuala Lumpur, a company under the PJ Development (PJD) Group, to analyze and improve the overall business processes of the hotel. As aforementioned, PJD Group are affiliated to OSK Holdings Bhd. and thus, we are also involved in projects in relation to companies under PJD Group.

        Anyway, this day turns out to be a pretty special day as it was a great experience to have the opportunity to attend a big meeting like this. I never expect it to be such a formal meeting at first, but instead, just a casual meeting inside a boardroom as what was explained by my boss. However, when we arrived there, we came to realize that a beautiful and grand presentation room was set-up for us and even my boss were a bit shock at that time. The meeting consist of the four of us from my team, the head of department from each division, the senior management advisor, and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Swiss-Garden Hotel & Residences himself. My team leader would then go on to conduct a brief presentation during the meeting to explain the goals of our next project. It was a two-way communication presentation and hence, this gives me an opportunity to observe the various questions asked by management leaders and the way the presenter tackles those questions, both of which impresses me a lot. It was a contrasting environment as compared to attending a presentation that is held in the academic world as we do not even often ask questions in the first place.

 

        These people made me think of what it takes to be a leader with their ability to think quickly and critically, while reacting to a subject matter, I was so impressed. The COO was an excellent leader himself, as he brought the crowd to speak up and ensuring that everyone attended the meeting was involved. My boss who is conducting the presentation, caught my eyes with one of his slides when he outline the following six critical success factor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Sorry for the picture quality as I was sitting pretty far away from the screen).

 

The six critical factor includes:

• Alignment of Vision

      – Every team member should be on the same page as to what is to be achieved

• Executive Level Sponsorship

       – Executive level needs to provide adequate capital to complete the task

• Project Team Commitment

       – Every team member should put their heart in achieving team’s goal

• Teamwork

      – Every team member should tolerate and work together to overcome any obstacles that

         come across

• Information Availability and Transparency

      – Information should be accurate and timely

• Prompt Decision Making

      – Be firm and be efficient in making effective decisions

 

        This is a simple and yet effective guideline and thus, I decided to take note on this. His belief is that a project requires this six critical factor regardless of how big or small a team project is. He convinced me that being a team player is extremely important as nothing great can be achieved without teamwork, commitment and having the same alignment of vision with the rest of the member of the team. At the same time, we also need to be firm and have the ability to undergo prompt decision making, something which I am always lack of and wish to improve on. I have learnt a lot from his impressive presentation, but this is one thing that I would like to highlight on in this reflective journal.

 

        My boss then ended the presentation by giving a good quote to the audience;

“At the end of day, it is not about your boss complimenting your work nor the financial rewards you get through bonuses, it is about personal pride. The best reward that an individual will get is that at the end of day, he knows he has achieved something that he wants, that he can tell people that he is part of a team that has had made a difference in the organization. That to me, is the best prize.”

 

        When I first heard it, I felt that this statement was spot on and is definitely something that I want to bring home with me at the end of today. I think to myself and realize that sometimes if we could set a goal that we really want to achieve, achieving the goal eventually would prove to be much more rewarding than the financial rewards that comes with it. I believe that passion will motivate us to take the extra mile further in the things we do and not the prizes of our achievement.

 

        All in all, it was a great exposure to have sitting in the same room with these people. I was happy and fortunate to be given this chance and I was excited to kick-start our work with them in our next project.

 

Entry 5:

"Commencing the Hotel Project"  - Week 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Ever since the first week of my internship training, my boss had been talking about this Swiss-Garden project where I will be given the opportunity to participate in. Finally, after a long delay due to various reasons and pubic holidays, we can finally kick-start our project. We started off by first interviewing the Executive Assistant Manager of the hotel and asked for his opinion on which department can we begin with. He explained to us the complex structure of the hotel and recommends us to begin the project by focusing on a few places first. My boss analyzes the organization structure and decided to start with the front office, finance department and the sales and marketing department, delegating the work to each one of us. I was later on handed the front office and will be in-charge of the business processes that falls under the front office. In all honesty, I was hoping to get one of the other two departments due to the fact that finance processes are more related to my studies while I have always had an interest in marketing.

 

        Regardless, I am not going to complain and should instead be grateful that I was given the opportunity to handle a department. In addition to that, my boss also told me that this department’s processes are more straightforward and thus, explains the reason why he handed this department to me. I agree with his thoughts too thinking that processes made by front desk and concierge should be pretty straightforward. How hard would it be to check-in a customer or greeting the customers and gather their bags and send it to their respective room right? However, after conducting more in-depth studies, I came to realize that the processes involved are not that simple after all. It totally shows my naivety of my perception towards business processes. Checking-in a guest for instance, can be divided into various categories namely, VIP guest, online travel agent guest, reservation guest, walk-in guest and corporate or government guest.

 

        Since our aim is to review and enhance the current processes, our first step was to update and make the current standard and procedures manuals more detailed and easier to read, while improving the processes, if possible, to be more efficient and effective. Hence, my challenge now is to analyze those processes and then see where we can look on for improvement. That is when I came to realize that their current manuals are a tad outdated and some processes are even incomplete, which makes my challenge even tougher. I requested to my boss that we should have an interview with the Front Office Manager before we could start with anything. This is because she would know the current processes better than anyone else. After looking through the current manuals, my boss agreed with me and decided to arrange a meeting with the respective manager. I was really happy that my request was not overlooked and we proceed to the meeting.

 

        Due to my inexperience, my boss decided to bring the whole team along so that we could gather information quicker and more precisely. True enough, I was a little bit out-of-sort and out of pace on my first meeting as I have troubles coping with what is being discussed during the meeting. I don't know if it was my lack of knowledge in business processes or the transition from a study environment to a working environment was just too much to handle. I was fairly disappointed with myself as I see myself gathering information from my colleagues and asking questions. Nonetheless, I was blessed enough that my boss is a very understanding man and was not too harsh on me and my colleagues are willing to share their information. With a relatively lack of opportunities to convey teamwork previously as we are not involved in group projects, I suddenly sense the power of teamwork as we discuss and brainstorm ideas after the interview. It was yet another memorable day in my internship experience.

 

Entry 6:

"Presentation Day"  - Week 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        A week has gone by since our first interview session and we were asked to have a brief presentation on our findings, thoughts and idea propositions. Prior to this, I had spent an entire week working on gathering and arranging all the information that we gain and drafting out drawings of all the process flow using Microsoft Visio. After all the trust and confidence that have been given by my boss on me, I really wish I could return the favor by delivering a good work if not, impress him. Unfortunately, my presentation was not really up to par as I would have hope and here is the story. On the day of presentation, my mentor asked me to give her a brief walkthrough on what will I be presenting later that day. She looked at my work and managed to point out quite a number of mistakes that I made. Luckily enough, she was really helpful and was patient enough to correct those mistakes of mine really quickly. I felt really fortunate to have a mentor like her. She is like an elder sister of mine whom taught me and directed me since the first day at work and it is no different in this case. At the same time, this was also when reality hit me and found out that business processes are undoubtedly much more complicating that what I first thought of. I quickly get the necessary changes done and prepare for my meeting.

 

        During my presentation, my boss had pointed out even more mistakes that I made. Most of which, is the missing of processes in between the steps of a certain business process. After the presentation, he consoles me and told me it was common for intern to made mistakes like this. However, what I have learnt here is that despite him telling me that it was okay, I managed to get his indirect meaning of saying that mistakes like those might not be so acceptable when I am a fully-fledged worker next time. He taught me the key to producing good works, and that is to have the passion and heart to work on a task given to you. In this field, the key of tackling work like this is your ability to put yourself in another person’s shoe. Of course, along the way, knowledge plays an important role in understanding certain processes, but the ability to imagine being the person undergoing those processes are just as important. For instance, in one of the concierge processes that I did, by knowing the roles and responsibility of a bellman in luggage delivery process is not enough as we will miss out steps such as greeting customers or placing a check tag on a luggage. Like previously mentioned, our work requires the upmost attention to detail when we produce a manual and hence, our ability to be creative and imagining a certain processes are vital.

 

        To make amends for my relatively weak presentation, I took the extra time after working hours to do more readings on the internet and seek for colleagues help whenever I am unclear of something. I wanted to create a passion for work within myself by learning to love the job and tell myself that I am more capable than this. The results are great as I managed to complete and enhance a total of 9 processes on that day. When the next day arrives, I present the work to my boss again and this time, I got a total of 6 processes error-free, which includes new proporsal that I have made to the current processes. I felt rewarded when my boss told me that he has seen an improvement in detailed thinking and complimented me on the job well done. That small compliment from my boss made a huge difference in my working life, but knowing that I shall not get too carried away, I seek to continue to improve my work.

 

Entry 7:

"Emotionally Challenged"  - Week 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

 

       Before I begin, this was one event that I was really hesitating whether to include this as part of my Internship portfolio. After all, this is not something happy to begin with and could instead; leave a negative mark on my internship experience. Nonetheless, negative experiences often derive from a mistake and this mistake will lead to a lesson learnt at the end of the day. Hence, reminding myself of the mistake also meant that I would remember the lesson learnt.

 

        Here is the story. I was in my week 10 of my internship training and one day, I got called to my supervisor’s office. I found out that there was a complaint about me, stating that I was not focused at my work. At that point of time, I was shocked and was hit hard mentally as I was perhaps not prepared to face disputes like this. It never came into my mind that a colleague would actually complain about me as I always thought that I have tried my best in delivering my task for them. What happened was that one morning, I forgot to check my email and a colleague of mine have instructed me to print some required documents for a meeting later on that day. She then approached me asking me why didn't I check my email and I apologize to her immediately and get the required work done. Although I have successfully printed the documents for her in time for the meeting, little would I know that she would actually complain to our boss on this issue. Suddenly the flashes of thoughts that I had always been told by working adults flew by me again and that in the workplace, not everyone would be that friendly nor understanding. In addition, I had a hard time explaining to my boss that it was a misunderstanding because I did not want to sound like I am pushing the responsibility or blaming another person on this regard.

 

        It was an emotional challenge for me because for some reason, I was very much affected by this issue. I no longer feel happy being in the workplace and started to feel frightened of being in an environment like this. It took me almost an entire week to get over with it when I realized that I should not let issues like this to affect what was an enjoyable internship experience of mine so far. Instead, from this experience, I have learnt that there is no room for error in the workplace as we might just be reprimanded for the smallest of mistakes that we made. In fact, if there is one major difference between being a student and being a worker, in my opinion, is that we would have to hold accountability of whatever things that we do. Hence, it may not be something positive to talk about in my internship involvement but what I have gained from this was still something valuable.

 

Entry 8:

"Last Day at Work"  - Week 11

 

        The 20th of March 2015 marks the last day of my internship training with OSK Holdings Bhd. It is with a heavy heart to leave this company and more specifically, the people there that I have met who have became my friends along the journey. It was an emotional day indeed but at the same time, it was also a very busy day for our team as we were rushing on some ongoing projects. Me on one hand was busy brushing up my part for the hotel project and making sure that I can handover my incomplete projects to my colleagues without any undesired issues in the future. It was funny really, that now I will be the one gathering and briefing my colleagues on my work when it used to be them briefing me all the time. I felt I have matured as a worker so much. However, since my business process colleagues and my boss are all busy with their work it also meant that I would not have the chance to have a farewell lunch with them, which was a shame. Thankfully, my other colleagues from the other team who are now my close friends decided to have a small farewell lunch with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        After the lunch break, my HR manager approached me and was asked to handover the necessary items before I leave the company. This meant that my computer will be reset and I shall spend the remaining of the day doing pretty much nothing. Which was not such a bad thing though, since I have been spending the whole morning being so busy with my work, I finally had the chance to cherish some of the last few hours on my desk. Shortly after, my boss called me into his office, which turns out to be another memorable moment in my internship experience. As always, he had been a bright spot in my time there as he continuously gave me directions, encouragement, advises and strength, while I face a heap of challenges in front of me. He gave me a fair assessment during my tenure here, giving me an unbiased opinion of what he thinks of me and what are some of the areas that I can improve on. He even discussed with me about my future plans and what career path that I am looking to take. I told him truthfully that business process is not in my long-term plan and he knows that stating that he can see a lack of passion of me in this field. Fair enough, I accepted and agreed with his honest opinion, as I know deep inside, I am still very much inclined to my field of studies in finance and economics. He also tried to advice me about choosing my career path and talk me through about the importance of choosing a work that I love. The chat went on for an hour and after numerous advises that he had given me in the working world, he told “if there is one thing that I can remember about him in the future, it better be this conversation”. Indeed, he was a very helpful and humble man and I could not be more grateful to have the opportunity of working with him.

 

        To sum things up, the past three months had been a roller coaster ride with a very distinctive experience from being a student. From this three months, I have been exposed to various type of challenges and looking back now, I felt I have now become a much more matured worker. From a person who pretty much does not know what business process is all about to a person that can now give advises on enhancing business processes; from a person who has no experience in attending a corporate meetings to a one who had the opportunity to attend a formal meeting with the top management of an organization; from a low-esteem freshman in the workplace to a person who has the confidence to be involve in discussion and meetings. I could not be more grateful to my colleagues and more particularly my boss for all the help and guidance that they have given me.

 

        However, above all else, I felt the most valuable lesson that I gained from this internship is that I now have a clearer idea on my future career path. For my future career path and my future plans, this internship made me realize that business process is not my kind of job that I want. Perhaps I knew this from the start, but I chose this job because I knew I could learn a lot, which suits my internship goal but as a permanent job next time? Maybe not. Although I like the project-based work setting, I would prefer work dealings with finance or economics and that is why, I will be looking to get to a bank or research firm for my second internship in July.

 

        All in all, it was with great pleasure working with my team and the company and was delighted that most of my goals and objectives that I have set previously had also been met.

 

                                          ✔ Develop interpersonal skills with colleagues.

                                          ✔ Involve in team discussion and projects.

                                          ✔ Improve presentation skills.

                                          ✖ Communicating with customers.

                                          ✔ Learning new software.

                                          ✔ Develop a clearer career path and future plans for myself. 

 

Ending my reflective journal with a group photo of the entire OSK Holdings's Strategic Management Department that we took during our Chinese New Year celebration!