Posts Tagged ‘career’

Review of the Sucess: Redmummy

September 1st, 2010

It just happened that in this previous long weekend, I don’t have much to do and I hopped around the blogosphere – something that I’ve not done rigorously since last three years. Things have definitely changed and most of the blogs I used to read last three years are either deleted, not updated, or already soaring high with fame and popularity.

But truth been told, I never read RedMummy.com before even though I do know her blog’s existence due to media coverage that she’s got; and it’s for simple reason – her topic is feminine. Jadah hapenye aku nak baca blog pasal mekap2 henbeg2 sume kan. Nak baca pasal anak-anak or parenting tips, aku kahwin pun blom!

Since I don’t have anything better to do, I read it today just to find out how she made it to success with personal blogs. It’s hard to be a successful personal blogger, obviously. It’s even harder than having blog dedicated to certain niches where you can have a focused topic to talk about. So, she and her blog have impressed me quite shockingly.

Reason that I’m so impressed with her are:

She’s a married with two kids Malay woman.
She still has a daily job in KLCC (I believe she’s a secretary)
She involve her family totally in her blog making them her own dream team.

Elaboration: Reason #1

If there’s a title for super-mom, super-woman, super-wife (and apa-apa je lagi yang super), she’s earned it. I am not sure how she can manage her time superbly. Aku ni baru busy-busy kerja sikit dah memaki hamun stress macam siyal sume bugima barbiturat keluar dari mulut aku! And she used to write 8 posts per day while nurturing her two kids and keeping her daily job? Really, gotta salute that. not worthy

I am not gonna comment on the quality of her posts or whatnot because that wouldn’t be fair. Of course, you cannot compare her posts with Obefiend’s; that’s like comparing an apple with a lemon. After all, her blog is dedicated for her personal life. Obefiend’s is dedicated for politics, his cynical thoughts and smirks. How can those two be the same meh?

And being Malay who is also a Muslim, it’s not like she can write like KennySia where alcoholic ads or partying is part of the life. Her simple life of her family is somehow being made interesting with her creative posts. It’s not her daily mundane tasks or her office day-to-day operation that is being revealed there. Somehow, her simple hectic life is being turned into an art that attracted million readers to read it.

That’s just — creative beyond boundaries. She seems not to have a writer’s block.. (or at least that’s what I believed at this time of reading..)

Elaboration: Reason #2

There’s nothing much to elaborate actually. She has a day job as a secretary, yet she has talked so little of her job. Most people find that it’s easier to talk about their jobs and whatnot mundane tasks they are assigned to; after all, that’s where our times are mostly spend, aight? winking

By doing this, her confidentiality is kept private and I would think that her boss wouldn’t mind at all. There’s no business deals or operations being revealed that might compromised their legality. There’s no conflict of interests at all. She didn’t write her blogs in the office (like most of us do.. kohkohkoh )

That, I believe, is what makes her a very professional and trustworthy person. I believe her PR skills and her people / social skills are top-rated.

While her dream of being a full-time blogger is yet to be achieved, I would think that it’s very possible. Good luck Kak Red! big grin

Elaboration: Reason #3:

Success is not a one man show. Often, it needs a team. Usually, family makes a bad team, especially in business. We’ve seen a whole lot of Malay drama showing how corporate entities can crumble when a family member turns rogue. Okay, I might be biased due to my own family differences here LOL.

Nevertheless, Kak Red involved her own family in his blogs. Me? Nak add Facebook mak aku pun dah takut weh! HAHAHA laughing

She’s lucky to have a very understanding hubby that supports her all the way into the blogging world. And it’s her very biggest advantage to have a very dedicated and hardworking IT Specialist to help her with all the technical stuffs as well. And I mean all the words I’ve said; most geeks or IT people are just plain lazy as far as I knew. I just need to look in the mirror for a prove.

Agak-agak kalau aku kawen nanti, Kinkin nak ke tak jadik famous blogger macam Kak Red ni? Heee~ hee hee

Conclusion:

With all the reasons given, it’s a no wonder that with hardwork, a good team, dedication and luck; success will just be in your grabs. She deserved the thousands of moolah derived from her blog. Not many people can do what she has been doing (and keep doing it). It makes me awe, and her determination has been very fruitful.

I might be so very late on congratulating her; after all, she’s been in the media and my non-worthy blog reviewing her is nothing compared to all those publicity. But what I’m sharing here is just a sincere astonishment on how an average people can be successful, once you found the magic systems.

Making money with blog is not about having a blog. It is about passion and hardwork. Kak Red, I salute you.. not worthy

P/s: Copy from one, it’s plagiarism. Copy from two, it’s research – Wilson Mizner

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Posted in Review, Thoughts and Opinions

Tags: blogger Business career Emotion: Thoughts redmummy success

Goodbye IBM, Oh y halo thar HP!

August 28th, 2010

After three long years with IBM excluding the eight months period of internship with them, it’s time to move on for me. Yes, you read it right. I’ll be resigning from my position in IBM and joining HP in Cyberjaya, effective 27th September, 2010, albeit that HP being the business competitor to IBM laughing

While some responses I got is like I am the biggest betrayer to IBM (which is expected — you know, some of my teammates stop talking to me in this period of resignation), some of my friends was amazed at my ability to withstand IBM for so long. Some of them even asked me..

How come you can be so long with IBM?

Haha. I don’t have much answer for that actually. While some might think that 3 years is a short time, some do thinks that it is a very long time. Depends on each individual perception, everyone will have a different answers. Oh well, let me try to answer some less trivial questions, shall we?:

Reason I’m leaving IBM for HP:

I got to be based in Cyberjaya, which is much nearer to my current residence in Kajang now. No traffic jam, no tense before reaching the office I hope.
I got to do DB2 for HP’s internal system, so I still will be doing what I do best — a DBA, a Server Administrator, and will be a DB Developer as well. Oh yeahh!!
HP offer me a bigger pay. 22% more pay from my current, revised salary; and same benefits as offer by IBM. Surely will help my financial condition.

Did IBM gave me a counter offer? NOPE. And if they did, most probably I won’t stay too due to the first reason (unless it was like 200% or 300% more pay which is of course, ridiculous). Do you know that I have to travel 40km one-way to come to office? Even in the no-traffic-jam road condition, it will still take me one hour to reach office or vice versa.

Multiply the one hour with *at least* two; and that is the average time that I need to be stucked in traffic jam normally when coming or going back to the office. It just not making sense any more to me – financially and timely. And the cost to rent a place nearer to the office also is quite high.

It has been three years and sadly, I do not have any savings that can be liquidated easily (read: cash savings) while with IBM. It all went back some way or the other to IBM. Maybe I can quote Petronas most popular saying:

Energy received, energy returned.

It just… not returning to me in terms of monetary value. laughing

So, with this movement to HP, at least I have fulfilled one of my 2010 resolutions (#3) with an over-achievement. I hope this would ease the resolution #1. Hehehe. Sayang, are you ready? winking

(Reading back the 2010 resolutions post, I gotta *pfft* myself. I haven’t started on #4, #5 most prolly won’t get done, and #6 is slowly failing… sad )

Would you recommend people to work at IBM?

Of course I do. It’s a good place to learn, grow, and equip yourself with a lot of knowledge. But as the saying goes, there’s no workplace that is totally heaven. It still have some perks here and there. Here’s what you need to expect:

Don’t expect people there to spoonfeed you anything. If you want to grow, you got to take your own initiatives. Self-learn, getting technical certificates, and offering to start an initiative or whatnot. That’s the way to success in IBM. Of course, your manager can be your mentor / guidance, but that’s about it.
Working hard and working late is expected. There will be time when an extra effort is needed to meet your goals or personal business commitment (PBC – something like KPI for IBM). People calls you when you’re just about to pack your bags? Normal.
Equip yourself with communication skills and people skills. That is the most vital tools for you. If you need to meet 100 peoples around your work, you will find 100 different attitudes. Bonus tips: Equip yourself with body languages skills too. People tend to say accordingly but act differently. Things like “taichee” their tasks, recognition steal, defensive stances, “cover my own ass” attitude is normal. It’s a jungle there. HAHA
Don’t expect the environment to be happening. Most of the time, most team or department will have the dark, bleak, quiet and boring environment. I kid you not. The most noise that you can hear is the keyboard typing or people calling others in phones. At least this is true to all departments I’ve been in these three years. Bring an earphone and a MP3 player, that will help a lot.

Okay, that’s the expectation. What about things that you can learn?

Business process. You’ll find that IBM matrix structure is quite clean (even though at times the roles or responsibilities are not). I got to say that their business process is very effective, albeit at times can be quite slow. If you plan to setup your business later, IBM is a good place to learn it’s perks. You will learn to have a business mindset too.
Vast technical knowledge. IBM has many portals that you can learn all kind of stuffs you want. Take a look at IBM Redbooks for example. You can download one Redbooks, download the installer, and do your own hands-on. Believe me, that’s the best way to learn technical stuffs. While not all portals are equal (sometimes there’s also stuffs that is not available), it’s a good place to get as much knowledge as you can absorb. In the end, you can get a chance to take professional certifications too.
Globalization. Since IBM is a very big company with a lot of branches all around the world, you will have a chance to work with a lot of people, each with different speciality and comes from different background. You will work with people from US, China, India, Australia.. just to name a few. If you have a solid communication skills, even a base foundational skills; that will helps and you will find that your communication skills grow a lot.

Well, that’s all I have to say about this. Wish me luck in my new career praying , and may some day our lives cross again for the betterment of the world. (Haha, that’s such a wishful thinking) laughing