Government Jobs

This letter appeared in the Star of 1 February 2008.

Elusive job in the civil service

THE past weeks, a few government officials including our Chief Secretary have announced that the Government will change its method of recruiting people as civil servants.

This is a good move, and I hope it will able to attract excellent people to join the Government and GLCs. It will also diminish any criticism against the Government that recruitment methods are biased and selectively based on race and gender of the applicants.

However, I will like to share my experiences when applying for government positions since graduating a decade ago.

I had been applying for jobs with the PTD, government agencies and also GLCs for as long as I can remember without receiving any feedback whatsoever. I was not called for any interview.

My latest experience was when I applied for a post with a newly set-up government authority for one of the economic corridors.

I managed to pass the two interviews, including one with the managing director of the agency, with flying colours.

According to an HR official, I would get the job but they needed to do some restructuring within the organisation before they could issue me an offer letter.

I waited for nearly three months for the agency to issue a Letter of Employment (LOE) and was given a lot of excuses by their HR department for not being able to issue one immediately.

Just this week, I received a letter from the agency saying that they could not offer any LOE. They also could not tell me why they could not hire me.

Even though I do respect that it is their sole prerogative, it is very sad that this agency, which is supposed to lead government investments and projects, performs unprofessionally.

By the way, I am Malay with an overseas degree in accounting and with working experience in IT and project management.

The PM or Chief Secretary to the Government can announce a lot of policies or encourage people to join government service, but at the end of the day the bureaucrats decide the applicant’s fate.

DISSATISFIED APPLICANT,

Kuala Lumpur.

If it is true that the letter writer is a Malay, then it is proof that the brain drain will continue irrespective of race. The civil service will never be able to attract the best and brightest that the country has as long as the little napoleons frustrate the noble aim of filling in the jobs with quality. We will definitely get the quantity.