IMTIYAZ SMKTJ 2011

Saturday May 7th, 2010, Kulim: I was invited by SMK Taman Jelutong, 09000 Kulim to be one of the panelists for the Career Nite. The Audience was students in form 4 and 5. Not sure what to talk, I decided to have a short discussion with Ustaz Rahim Sudin and proposed a perspective. It was 4pm on Saturday itself before I turned on my laptop to prepare a presentation (last minutes again… I am never changed). Alhamdulillah, with the help from Allah, the presentation was ready within 2 hours. I was having a thought that preparing my slides was tough until I realized that finding the school was tougher. I left home at 6.40pm and only arrived in SMKTJ 8.05pm.

As I entered the hall, I was told that there were presenters who are an engineer, a university’s lecturer, a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist and a hafiz ustaz. I was wondering where am I in between these professionals in their respective fields. Nevertheless, I feel good about my career so far. I feel good what I am doing today and the progress I making and the best of all, the choice I made for my career. Other than two familiar faces amongst the presenters, the rest are aliens to me.

The program started late due to technical problems of the LCD projector and sound system. As the first speaker, I decided to talk about what does it takes to have a good career instead of talking about my job. I talked about Real Madrid football player Christiano Ronaldo and GP Champion Valentino Rossi. I am asking myself, why I am not able to give a local example. No answer to this. Maybe I need to do a lot more research not to do the slides at 4pm of the presentation day :)

Again, I thanked Allah for His help that gave me the courage and thought flow for my speech. I managed to deliver what I had intend to talk and now I am waiting for a feedback from the school on my presentation. Insya-Allah with the feedback, I will try to improve further myself.

The program ended around 11.30pm. During the Q&A session I was asked these questions:
• I want to be a business person, what degree should I pursue?
• What is the job of a marketing person?
• Can I become a businessman right after university?
• How much is do you (me) earn monthly? (Even my mom never ask this)
• How much capital should I have to have to start a business?
• What should I work after my university? (this question kills me… either I am not clear in what I had presented or he didn’t get the message)
• If I work for Motorola, can I get free phone?
• Why do you choose to work with this company?
• My parent wants me to be a lawyer, but I want to be a forensic specialist, what can I do?

Above all, I am happy to share my little experiences that I have in my career days with these young talents. No one knows that one day they are the leaders that will change the world while never forget that they are the slave of Allah. As I drove back home, I told myself, should I were given the same talked 25 years ago, am I a different person today? Verily, we can plan but at the end of the day, the plan of Allah that will take place.

Finally, I pray to Allah SWT so that all the students of SMKTJ will always in the blessing of Allah and the IMTIYAZ program will achieve its objectives and goals. Ameen.

Note: You can get a formal report about this program at http://pembinapenang.wordpress.com/

11:16am @ 35,000 feet above South China Sea
May 10th, 2010