The Week That Was...

Saturday, January 15, 2005

After enduring much flak from my loyal readers, I've finally forced myself to write another entry in the ongoing chronicles of my life. Heh.

Since my last post, my ankle has started to heal itself. But I am lucky to just suffer a minor sprain. If you guys watched the Cavaliers vs Lakers NBA match yesterday (where the Cavs lost: boohoo!), you'll see how horrifying the ankle sprain that Kobe Bryant experienced. Fuh, if I were to sprain my ankle like that, surely I won't be running around at least for another month.

This past Tuesday, I just got back the results of my test for the Power Generation class, and surprisingly, I got 88%! Heheh... syukur alhamdulillah... I expected to get anywhere around the region of 70%. All good then. In that case, I should still be on track to get an A in that subject.

However, all is not rosy in the world of my subjects this semester. For my Engineering Graphics subject, I performed quite poorly in my recent test, which occurred this past Wednesday. It's not that I don't know how to draw, I know how, but it took me too long to complete the questions. Fortunately, my lecturer will be holding another "supplementary test" to improve our test scores, which, although he haven't marked them yet, should be very low. Somehow, I have a feeling I would not get an A for this subject, but I'll strive my best.

Speaking of getting A's, yesterday Yayasan talked to us final semester students about the working bonds, loan repayments, procedures, etc., after we graduate, and it turns out, the only ways I can wiggle myself free from having to repay my loans are either I work with TNB (which I will try not to!), or I do not work with them, but get a 3.50 and above CGPA.

As I said previously, if I were to repay my loans, I will have to repay around the region of RM14000. That is a lot... If I don't wanna pay back that amount of money, I should just perform greatly in the TNB interview, and get employed with them; or get myself a 3.50 result and "intentionally" perform teruk in the interview, and when I do not get to enter the TNB workforce, I wouldn't have to repay my loans due to my degree results! Although it seems a bit unethical to do it that way, but it seems that that is the only loophole I can find to not be employed with TNB.

Nevertheless, I should seriously consider my options, no matter what result I get. With TNB, I have a sure shot at employment, which I won't necessarily get if I were to search for work myself at other companies. Yes, engineers are in high demand in the country currently, but then again, there are too many university graduates nowadays, that it'll be hard for me to compete with them all, especially with the dismal co-curricular achievements I have for show.

Erm... this question I pose to my readers who are already employed: in interviews for engineering posts, do they require that we have outstanding co-curricular achievements? Or do they just look for technical qualifications?

But working with TNB, I think, is not that enjoyable. At least that's my opinion of the Generation sector of TNB. I'll be working in power plants, which might be akin to working off-shore in terms of variety of work. You'll be mingling with the same community you meet day-in, day-out. Salary? It starts at RM1700. Mooke and Abu, what are your salaries when you guys first started? Also, TNB has this 1 year training programme for its new recruits, which will consist of classes, OBS, hands-on training, and so on. However, I find the 1 year period to be too long! :( If only they cut that to just half a year or so.

But in terms of benefits of employment, there are many! I've looked at the guidebook my friends who are currently working with TNB got, and there are many loans, allowances, claims, day-offs, and so on, that TNB staffs can get, and this is among the few reasons why it is still quite attractive to work with TNB.

To work or not to work (with TNB), that is the question...

Tonight: Man U vs. Liverpool, a match I hope will result in Liverpool's victory, what with them having Morientes and all... Heheh... Morientes: score a hat-trick man!!! :P

And what's more, today, I finally completed the selling of two of my old RAMs! Woohoo! Finally, I can recoup at least a little bit of the cost of upgrading to 1 GB RAM... I was able to sell them off for a total of RM212! But sorry, I don't have extra to blanje you guys okay... ;)


Posted by Nikman Shah at 4:58 pm
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