The period is some time in September 2005. I was in my final semester as a university student and I was goin through the motions that most penultimate students would go through – to get a job after I graduate. I had amassed some nascent experience as a teching assistant, HR assistant and Marketing Volunteer in Canada. As I couldn’t work part time as a foreign student, all experience I had would be either volunteer-based or on-campus based. That’s all I had to go with.
Mum had done the honours of going through my CV, helping me to polish it up and giving me pointers of how to make my CV stand out. God bless my mom for doing all that, even though she was not of the corporate background, she gave whatever wisdom and guidance she could to her youngest baby boy who was going to step into the real world pretty soon.
Then of course, came October 2005 which changed about everything and how I looked at God. That incident would be the turning point for me to discover or re-discover my faith in God. Just who was this God I was worshipping week in week out? It was in this famous incident that God would speak to me for the first time and say “If I can do this simple thing for you, just a phone, what more can I do in your life?”
I would not only graduate with good grades from Windsor, but also graduate with a gift from God – to discover who He is as I prepared to return home in December 2005.
Coming home I wasted no time hunting for a job. I was ambitious, I was hungry, and I had God by my side. With the rekindling with my old prayer group in Church and getting my weekly spiritual food fueled up by my prayer group, I was ready to conquer my job hunting challenge.
I wasted no time and within days of coming home, Mum and Dad drove me to the Intel Career fair where I would taste my first career fair experience. I deposited my resume faithfully and hoped for the best. If you were in Penang and you were looking for a career, Intel, Dell and and all those tech companies were the places to be in to launch your career. And so it was no surprise Intel was my first choice.
But I didnt solely rely on intel alone, I also tried to apply for other companies within Penang, but I was pretty sure I would land the job on intel. And so the day came when we found out that one of Dad’s friend’s son was the CHRO of Intel and the friend was willing to help pass my cv over to his son. By End mid January my CV was sent over to David and within a week or so he got back to me, complimenting me even on my strong GPA results. Positive news! And what a glowing compliment from a HR director!
The stars and moon were aligning – David the HR director was keen on my CV and the next thing I knew was I was going to have an interview with the hiring manager, of Intel! This was it, the role would be something around HR (Talent Development I think) and I excelled in the interview. I presented myself confidently and I remember having a good chat with the two interviewers. I felt confident I would get the job. This was in early March 2006. I was giddy in excitement to the point Mum and I were already looking at potential cars to get so I could drive to Kulim (should I posted there). I went for my interview on March 2nd and that evening, i was over the moon.
Then came the great radio silence. I didn’t hear back from the hiring manager or David for a couple of weeks. It was agonizing waiting for those moments. After contacting David a few times, he then broke the news to me – Intel was having a hiring freeze and they will not be hiring anyone. My heart sank. I felt I was left in the lurch. How could God have abandoned me? I thought this was it., I would settle life in Penang, get a car here, have my prayer group meetings, be a worship leader, stay with my folks and be happy here in Penang. Why did God have to take this away from me? What the heck was God doing? I remember crying in front of the adoration chapel in my church.
Around the same time as I was painfully waiting for Intel to get back to me, there was another company down in KL that I applied for. This was IBM, the Big Blue and I was applying for their Team Blue Program, a program that was developed and known in IBM. The Team Blue Program is IBM’s flagship graduate management training program and they run these programs throughout the world. Little did I know that this was not an easy graduate program to get into.
And so in the midst of all this agonising waiting, I get a call from Big Blue inviting me to come down on a Saturday morning for the Team Blue assessment. Nervousness, anxiety and a tinge of excitement filled my mind as I scrambled to put a plan to get down to KL. Mum would accompany me on this journey and we took the overnight train on a Friday night from Butterworth. As it was quite a last minute arrangement, we couldnt secure a sleeping berth and mum & I would had to just take the regular economy coach seats on the train that night.
It was tough trying to get some sleep that night on the train. I was worried the lack of sleep might impede my performance on the assessment the following day and it didnt help that the train lights in the carriage were left on throughout the night. Trying to get some eye shut was nearly impossible and I remember telling Mum about it. And so we endured the lights throughout the night, finally reaching KL Sentral the next morning at 6 am. I recall changing my clothes in the public toilet into something more formal and presentable and we made our way to the Taman Jaya LRT station and from there, we took a cab to the IBM HQ where the assessment would be held that morning.
It was a new experience for both mom and I. We were strangers in KL and the PJ region, relying solely on the directions that HR gave me. I recall feeling lost and strange being in KL and PJ that morning, a similiar feeling I felt a few years back in 2003 when I arrived in Windsor, Ontario. We were trying to find our bearings while taking it all in.
Within minutes we arrived at the building HQ and Mum waited at the ground floor lobby for me while I would go up to the designated floor to check in and prepare for my assessment. Mum wished me luck and I would assume she would have been praying for me that morning by the ground lobby area.
I had submitted all my documents to the attending officer before sitting in for my assessment. I remember seeing other candidates arrived, some dressed formally enough with ties and beautiful university degree certificates which they submitted. Ironically I didnt have my university certificate and because my graduation would only be in October 2006, all I could do was offer a computer printout of a student copy version of my transcripts, assuring the officer that I had indeed completed my university studies but I had yet to graduate and so I couldn’t submit a university degree certificate copy.
I anyway got to sit in for the assessment and given the lack of sleep the night before, I did the best I could. I remember finding the assessment challenging enough and more math based-type of questions, testing logic. At the end of the assessment, I felt spent and all I remember next was just meeting my mom and wanting to go home. We made our way to the KL main bus station and took the bus back to Penang that morning itself. I recall telling mum that I was cautiously optimistic on my performance.
I think it was about a week later that I got a call back from Big Blue. They wanted me to come down for an interview which would be on a weekday this time. This time around, I was more prepared, having slightly more knowledge on making my way around KL and to the the HQ building. I still remember it being a Wednesday and my interview would be around the afternoon/evening (which I had requested as I would have to come from Penang). What was interesting in planning for this trip though was that Mom suggested I take a spare set of clothes “just in case” I would need to stay back a day. I didnt think much of it but thought it was a good idea to just have a set of clothes. No harm being prepared at the end of the day
And so that morning, I took the bus from Penang to KL and upon arriving in KL Pudu Terminal that afternoon, I made my way to the IBM HQ and promptly arrived ahead of time for my interview. I was more prepared this time around, less frantic then the assessment round. I had a pleasnt time with my interviewer and I went through the standard set of interview questions. There was nothing particularly memorable about it other than it going pretty smooth and towards the end I remember asking the interviewer if the company could let me know if I was through the next round as soon as posisble, preferably within 1-2 days as it would be a hassle for me to come from Penang again. Looking back it was a pretty bold move to request for that but also a reasonable one. The interviewer (who would later become my boss!) made no promises but told me he would let HR know of my request, if I was successful to the next round.
As I took the main bus back to the KL bus terminal, I remember receiving a phone call from HR on the bus. They called me to let me know I had gotten through the interview and asked me if I could come for the final round of the interview which would be with the HR Director. This would be the 2nd miracle in this phase which I truly saw the hand of God moving. The first being getting through the assessment with almost no sleep the night before!
Excited, I called up mum and told her the good news and I would be staying back in KL and I would need to look for a place for the night. We discussed over the phone and mum suggested I could either stay at YMCA or with her friend in Bangsar. As I prepared my way to the YMCA in Brickfields, mum called me back to let me know that I could bunk in with her friend in Bangsar.
And so I made a detour to Bangsar instead and reached out to Mum’s friend (who 5-6 years ago had rented out a room to my brother when he was working in KL) and because her rooms were all rented out I ended up sleeping in a makeshift room in the kitchen (which was actually the aunty’s room!). I must have been in awe wonder at the events that were transpiring that day that night while I had dinner at a nearby restaurant. To see how God’s hand was moving so clearly, how He was guiding me was nothing short of a miracle-in-progress moment for me. My final interview with the HR director would be at 10 am the following morning and so unlike the last round the night before the assessment, this time around, I slept rather well and peacefully.
The next day I arrived once again at the Building HQ and made my way (for the 3rd time!) to the HR director’s office. The interview went smoothly and I was confident during the whole course of the interview. The interview was less on assessing my capabilities and proficiencies but more on my people side of things. I would later learn that this would be what the industry would call “the closing interview” with the big boss. I remember towards the end the HR director asking me what I desire to achieve from this position as a Graduate and I remember telling him confidently “Sir, there is alot to learn here and I am willing to just learn” and he smiled and said that that was a noble aspiration, because the company could teach me alot of things, but the company couldnt teach me how to have a positive and right attitude and that was something that would come from within. It would be something that I would carry on for the rest of my life in my career.
And so within 45 minutes we were done with the interview and I shook his hand and left the HQ building feeling satisfied and happy that I had done well and I did the best I could over the last 2 days. I made my way back to the KL bus terminal and boarded the express bus back to Penang that afternoon. I was still in that “awe and wonder” mode, just reflecting once again on all the events that transpired over the last two days. I was thankful everything had gone smoothly and somehow I had made it this far – journeying a 4 hour trip from home and navigating my way around KL and preparing and delivering my interviews. I suppose it was God’s way of preparing me and my heart for the future and of things to come.
But the story wouldnt end there.
Halfway through my journey back to Penang, I got another phone call – again from the HR office to congratulate me that I had gotten the job and I was accepted into the Graduate programme. I couldn’t believe my ears what I was hearing. I got a job with a top 20 company in the world. A month ago, I was dejected that I was rejected by Intel and a month later, I was accepted into one of the leading graduate programs in the world. This would be my 3rd miracle in my job hunting journey. I left Penang a day back, not knowing how the outcome of my job would be, and I would return back to Penang with a job in hand.
I remember reaching Penang that evening and my parents coming to pick me up. My mom was overjoyed and couldn’t believe it as well. My dad was well pleased, happy that his son had landed a job in a prestigious company. I couldnt be more happy that evening, and I remember just giving thanks over the next few days (we returned to St Anne’s church to offer our thanksgiving as well as we had also visited St. Anne’s as I was looking for a job 3 months earlier).
I would start my work as an IBM employee on April 13th 2006 on a Thursday morning.
As I recall that evening after coming home and just celebrating that moment with my parents, I can’t help but thank God and just be so amazed at his Mighty Hand. How he literally orchestrated the whole IBM move. He literally plucked me out, me, someone who has no clue about KL life, someone who wanted to be just settled in Penang with his parents- and pulled me to start a new life in KL. He gave me the best job I could not even dream off (literally I was looking for analyst HR roles, not any fancy graduate programs and certainly not with a prestigious company like IBM) and He guided me through it all.
And so now, 15 years later when I look back, given everything I went through, how could I doubt this amazing God? How could I even say that God has abandoned me when he did these 3 miracles? Thank you Lord, thank you for showing me your mighty works. I am so thankful to have a Saviour and Provider like you in my life. Thank you Lord.
