Hi there sifus and career people,

I recently just got offered a placement under Petronas GEES. However I have a few problems with the offer.

1. My current job needs 1 month notice before leaving, but I do not have the email offer letter yet. What should I do if they only send the letter later in the month? As I know, the program will be commencing in April. So if I need to leave my current job, it will definitely be against the 1 months notice period

2. Paycut. A very significant paycut. The only reason why I took my current job was at that time of pandemic I did not have any current offer. But it was still a job. So I took it. And I do not enjoy at all what I'm doing. Most days I don't know what I am doing. I had been applying for alot of engineering jobs but none got back to me except my current job.

A little background of me, I came from an engineering field and joined a tech related company due to the pandemic.. currently wfh, quite a comfortable pay, but I have zero interest or joy in what I'm doing.

Working in engineering company like Petronas has always been a dream of mine since I studied in UTP. But because of the paycut, I am really thinking of it. Not only that, I am also aware that I might not even be employed after the 12 months is finished.

What do I do..

Always, always get offer letter first, regardless what the other side tells you
If you are young and you really see a future in the new job, then pay cut is still acceptable, but do raise the concern with her and said that you taking a huge pay cut and see if they can do anything about it or not

How significant are the pay cut? 20%/30%?

Have you considered other benefits of being employed by Petronas? Health claims, optical/dental claims, yearly company performance bonus.

Think long term, I've known a lot of Petronas colleagues, working long term with Petronas can give you a pretty comfortable and steady life.

Hahaha...nearly 45% pay cut. I don't quite know what are the benefits like at petronas yet, still do not have the offer letter with me. But yes, I know that petronas staff benefits are quite good. I do not know if it applies for protege staff as well

I did raise my concerns with her. But the protege pay is fixed already.......

I won't recommend going for GEES unless you are desperate. Not sure about Petronas GEES but my experience in another company is that we treat GEES as cheap labour and fulfilling our "duty" at the same time. We only hire them after the period ends if they have outstanding performance. YMMV with Petronas though.

If your GPA is good, best to try to keep applying for proper job as its both more secure, higher pay and you have a purpose in a specific position in the company.

EDIT: That being said, most GEES participants do get good job exposure...if your up for the experience it could be worth.

This post has been edited by N1ck: Mar 3 2021, 01:35 PM

I believe GEES program's objective is to increase a person's 'employability' in future. Putting this 12 months working period into your resume would be more attractive to future employer instead of just indicating you are fresh grad.

Even if you excelled outstandingly during GEES, your superior still can't take you in as permanent staff unless coincidentally there's an open position at that time. If there's no open position, the superior has to justify/present at so many levels just to take you in.

If I were you, I'd try to get more information on which Petronas company you were offered. E.g. design, refinery operations, exploration, etc. Find out if is this your field of interest.

This.

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