Hiiiiii Sorry boss, I'm here to offer input and share key learnings in the industry but not a job placer.
If you're super desperate, you can PM me your CV and I can help forward to my ex-colleague (in agency) but no promises!!

Hi - I'm sorry I honestly do not know. I only know companies pay a levy and they can claim training expenses from HRDF. Process wise differs from companies.

Probably a common misconception in Malaysia; Recruiters = HR.
Recruiters are not involved in HR policies actually - We are specialist in Talent Acquisition. For bigger companies, there are several HR pillars ; Recruitment, Comp & Benefits, Organisational Development/Employee Branding/Engagement, L&D - So I'm not a Jack of all trades



This post has been edited by mimikw: Feb 24 2022, 10:19 AM

I just saw this post. Can't deny it's an overly competitive market out there but I beg to differ on your friend's statement. This may be controversial; many recruitment firms think clients are more important because they are the source of $$$ but I strongly believe candidates are equally as/if not more important because they're your "product"; without product, you cannot make a sale.

Clients only come to you because you have good candidates so I firmly believe in offering the best possible service to your candidates. What makes the candidates choose your agency over 1000 other agencies? It's the personal touch. If they like you (esp senior candidates), they will work exclusively with you (nobody wants their CVs to be in the hand of 10 recruiters)

Even if s/he might not be a good fit for this role now, this candidate could be GOLD for your next role in your next 10 years career as a Recruiter. Happens to me in soooo many instances where I reject them (politely) but stayed in touch and eventually place them somewhere else the following years.
So yeah, as a Manager who manages a team in an agency before, I always have my team to close off any ongoing candidates when a role is closed. No such thing as leaving them hanging after speaking to them

This post has been edited by mimikw: Feb 24 2022, 09:08 PM

For me, something that can be copied and paste easily cos during my agency days, we have specific template for our clients so it looks neater/more professional. Those with weird tables/graphs so are hard to work with.

The usual. Work experience, education experience from your most recent role (top) to least recent (bottom).

1. Companies & Roles (the bigger the names, the easier to place!) - sorry this is true in many cases.
2. Career trajectory (the best resume showcases trajectory - a tell-tale sign of a solid performer. We like to see how a candidate get promoted from role A to role B to role C through the years not a job hopper. If you hop one time too many, do state reason for places you stayed for less than a year.
3. Key achievements - this is an area where most candidates got wrong. Many list down their job description instead of achievements. I do not need to know what a Sales Manager/Solution Architect JD is - I know at the back of my hand and I probably look at 50 CVs of candidates doing the same job.
What sets the resume apart is your achievements; and they have to be specific/measurable. "Achieved cost saving within the Logistic services department by 20% within the first 12 months by implementing xxxx" "Successfully reduced XXX consumption from xx% to xx% YoY" "Overachieved Sales target at 130% every consecutive quarter in 2018 and was awarded as the Top Sales Employee company wide".
4. Only applicable for grad level roles - Education background/internships

Can I also add...
One thing I don't really care.
Master's/MBA - honestly it's not THAT important. I rarely, rarely ever get any hiring managers asking for Master's Degree holders (I'm referring to all Junior Executives, Managerial, Senior Managerial, Directorial roles). PhD? (Never ever). They're probably useful in a certain way but EXPERIENCE over EDUCATION, anytime. So yeah save your money!!!

This post has been edited by mimikw: Feb 24 2022, 09:31 PM

Sorry, I do not have much experience in this industry honestly.

1. If job boards/agencies are not working out, how about getting referrals from your own network? Do you guys have any networking events/groups/? Get introduced by someone gets you to the door.

2. Who are your Top 5 direct competitors and Top 5 indirect competitors? Search for their Recruiters on LI and PM them? They'd likely want you but you may want to request for their secrecy when handling your CV as the circle is small.

Already replied this question a few times along the way. In summary, company's policy

I guess really depends on roles? Maybe it's helpful in research/academics? For all Commercial and Corporate roles I've worked on before - Masters Degree is always only a good to have, never a requirement.

Yesss. Not only Malaysia; many international companies are offer >10K fully remote roles for full stack dev.
there is a global shortage for software engineers.

FAANG - check out Blind for fully remote jobs. plenty of them but you need to master Leetcode (correct me if 'm wrong?) My company has a dedicated Recruiting team in Singapore hunting for SWE in SEA to ship over to California under H1B visa as SWE are soooo expensive to hire in Silicon Valley.

Really depends on what you're looking for - I can't really advise what's the best career move if I do not know you well enough. If you want to move out of audit, leave as a AM? It gives you better choices out there. An auditor with 4 YoE can practically go anywhere and still get hired.

If you're looking at monetary gains, I'd go for the FP&A/Financial Planning route vs Accounting. Most accounting roles are now taken over by COE in Cyber and can be pretty mundane.

Yeah of course there are CVs that are better written than some, especially those who highlight their key achievements and show good career trajectory.

Sign-on bonus is more common for senior hires, but this usually need an additional layer of approval - When you ask for it, be sure to justify it with a reason (could be missing out on upcoming bonus/promotion/increment).

Congratulations on your new role!
Upskilling is always a good thing, whether it is to stay with your current role or to move to a new role. But do note, it's always easier to move field at a junior level where companies are more open to take a bet on the hire/train vs moving at a later stage. Python/SQL is also a good skill for Analyst type of roles.

Many reasons! My best guess is they want to keep the job confidential/exclusive (especially if they're from an agency). If the candidate is not interested, why bother sharing the job with them and have them share around within the industry so a competing agency can pick the role up and send their own candidates to the clients. For candidates. it may seem to be a job application process, to an agency recruiter - every job/candidate is business.

When I was a Recruiter in my agency days, I do not share the company/role upfront before I know for sure the candidate is looking for a, say Production Manager in the Automotive/Robotics industry because candidates tend to speculate. Sometimes, these roles are not advertised and are given to me exclusively by my client so there's abit of kiasuness there. So yeah, how I'd do it is - speak to candidates to gauge interest first, and share if only they're open to know more.

This post has been edited by mimikw: Mar 7 2022, 09:38 AM

Ditto on the other reply to this post -


I'm not very familiar with IB scene but I know hiring managers are a BIG YES on internal referrals 99% of the time. If you have someone to vouch for you, you're pretty much set on landing a role. Don't bother with your starting pay too much, focus on the first couple of years, learn and master the trade. When you have experience, competitors will be banging on your door next

For grads, your education background + internship will possibly land you an interview but it all depends on how you impress the interviewer to get that job.

Hi, yes your calculation is correct. The average/target billing per recruiter is RM50K a month (back at my agency) so about 5K commission but I hit 80- 100K pretty consistently so commission can be pretty solid. We get it upfront (bigger agencies).
If the candidate resigns/didn't pass probation, the client will still have to pay for the fee but they will get a free replacement candidate within the guarantee period (usually 3-6months) - we never sign 6 months though

AGREE with the other reply to this post. Always sign before you tender. Nothing is set in stone until you SEE and SIGN an actual employment contract.

And never accept a counter offer, it's not very ethical honestly

Recruiters (at least the better ones) love getting as much details possible to ensure the right role fit for you/client. Imagine a real estate agent who wants to know the buyer's preference on location, budget, size, etc etc etc. the more they know about you, the better they can match your expectation right?

On why they fail to get you a new job - the market is simply very competitive, you can be good but they're many better candidates too in the market. The only way is to skill up, gain better experiences, involve in interesting projects, furnish your CV, do interview preps, do mock interviews, up your game to compete. Only you can help yourself here

There are many jobs out there but all companies are competing for the top 20% of the available talent pool; likewise there are many job seekers out there but everyone is applying to the top 20% available jobs in the market.

This post has been edited by mimikw: Mar 15 2022, 04:33 PM

Hi, you don't have to show it if you don't want to though there's technically nothing wrong about an out of town address too. For your situation, if you are applying to KL jobs, they will automatically assume you'd be in KL for the role so the more important thing to note down is your notice period/how soon can you start. Eg: 2 weeks/4 weeks?

A good recruitment consultant is very similar to a good sales person.
They'll assess your communication skills, confidence, EQ, drive & hustle and ability to build relationships with stakeholders. The common misconception is Recruiting is more HR; it's actually more Sales than HR. Consultative selling is the key. From my experience, depending on the size of the firm, candidates that presents themselves well are always the preferred lot.