Ultimate Career
Career Worth Living For!
Are You Poisoned?
Feb 24th
I walked past the doctor’s clinic last week on the 4th day of Chinese New Year and saw its waiting room filled with people.
I wonder if you noticed such a phenomenon, the doctor’s business is always the best after major holidays like Christmas, New Year, and Chinese New Year.
This is interesting because aren’t people supposed to be well rested and relaxed during such holidays??
The problem with such holidays is that they always involve gatherings and lots of feasting with friends and relatives.
There is nothing wrong with gatherings and feasting except that we tend to overeat and thus overload our systems.
Other than this, we also poison ourselves.
Poison?
Nope, I don’t mean the obvious smoking or drugs.
I am talking about foodstuff that leaves acids in your body and reduces your body’s ability to function at an optimal rate.
Acids burn and whichever parts of your body is the weakest will fall apart first. If it is your stomach, you will get stomach trouble like gastric flu. If it is your throat, you will get sore throat. If it is your lungs or nose, you will get a flu.
Research has also shown that when cells are put in acidic environments and deprived of oxygen, they mutate and become cancerous. Acidic environments will also cause your immune system to be weakened.
One of the key poisons that we take in without thinking daily is sugar.
If you remember, eating too much sweets causes tooth decay. It is the acid that the sugar produces in your mouth that burns through your teeth.
Just imagine what several glasses of Coke everyday will do to your system. And how much more such sweet and acidic food you consume during gatherings and feasts?
Other acidic foods includes sugar, meat, corn, coffee, beer, plums, prunes, eggs, fish, liver, wine, yogurt, tobacco, softdrinks, vinegar, most fermented foods and aged cheeses. Just Google “acidic foods”and you will find a whole list of them.
What we eat everyday are mostly acidic. What you can do is to balance that off with alkaline foods.
Most green vegetables are alkaline and surprise, surprise, lemons, limes, oranges, and strawberries are actually alkaline.
Here’s what you can easily do to help balance your system: Squeeze some lemon into a glass of water and drink that throughout the day.
Here’s more. What is more poisonous is the acid you manufacture yourself.
Negative emotions, like stress, resentment, anger, depression, sadness causes your system to become acidic as well!
In fact, very acidic.
I’m not saying that you have to avoid all negative emotions. These emotions are built-in as a feedback and signaling mechanism for us so that we can function better.
The trick is to remember that when such emotions occur, they are a signal to you that something is not going according to what you want and so, it is time to do things differently.
Do not remain in such negative emotions for too long. Getting “addicted” to these poisonous emotions is the surest way to burn yourself out quickly.
Remember that health is wealth. And your life can only be meaningful if you have the health, energy and strength to do what you want to do.
Education in China: A Balanced Approach to Resource Allocation
Feb 10th
Original new fulltext at http://www.zaobao.com/zg/zg100209_001.shtml
教育资源过度向大中城市和重点中学集中，使农村中小学严重萎缩，也使众多农民及普通市民子女失去通过学习改变命运的机会。
于泽远 报 道
北京
中国总理温家宝近日提出，中国力争用10年左右的时间，基本完成义务教育均衡发展，使教育资源更多向农村地区、边 远贫困地区和民族地区倾斜，确保每个适龄儿童少年不因家庭经济困难等原因而失学。
中国教育界的乱象由来已久，主要包括教育资源分配严重 不公、中小学教育完全依附于高考指挥棒、大学学术腐败、各级学校管理官僚化等等。其中，教育资源过度向大中城市和重点中学集中、使农村中小学严重萎缩，也 使众多农民以及普通市民的子女失去通过学习改变命运的机会，因此有学者指出，中国最大的不公其实就是教育不公。
2008年8月底，中国 开始制定面向2020年的《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》，并成立了由温家宝任组长的领导小组。一年多来，官方通过调研、专设网络讨论区、组织网民 座谈会、发动媒体参与等形式，数十次易稿，形成了纲要初稿。温家宝近日也连续举行五次教育座谈会，听取社会各界人士、尤其是教育界人士对纲要初稿的意见。
温家宝说，教育公平是最基本、最重要的社会公平。中国教育要解决的主要问题，一是教育公平，二是教育体制改革。
教育部高官日前也公开 表示，将力争区域内义务教育在2012年实现初步均衡，到2020年实现基本均衡。
有关学者并不乐观
不过，有关学者对10年内实现义务教育均衡发展的目标并不乐观，因为地方政府在教育投入上向来重城市轻农村，最多会把“教育均衡发展”理解为在现有 格局上 的均衡，不大可能将更多的教育资源投向农村和边远贫穷地区。实际上，很多地方政府一直把全面免费义务教育制度当作一种“施舍”，农村地区的义务教育经费时 常被挤占挪用，造成城乡学校之间、重点学校和普通学校之间的财政投入差别巨大。
同时，城市中小学择校之风盛行，一些重点学校由于高升学率不仅享 有更多的教育投入，那些有权、有钱或有门路的家长也纷纷把子女送往这些学校，拉大了重点学校与普通学校之间的差距，加重了教育不公。
近 年来，舆论对于各级学校的官僚化、学术腐败、权学交易等现象也多有批评。中国科技大学原校长朱清时在座谈会上向温家宝建议，高校必须以教授为主导，改变当 前依靠行政权力治校的局面。
温家宝说，官方今后将扩大学校的办学自主权，要以教学为中心，发挥教师的主导作用和学生的主体作用，改变教 育的行政化倾向。同时，大力倡导教育家办学，发挥教育家的办学才能和特长，让那些有终身办学志向的人不受任何名利干扰诱惑，把自己完全献身于教育事业。
温家宝还强调，要实现教育的科学发展，必须进一步解放思想，敢于冲破传统观念和体制机制的束缚，树立现代办学理念，在人才培养、考试招生、办学体 制、管 理体制等方面进行大胆创新，允许实验和探索。
北京有关学者指出，要改变学校的官僚化倾向必须取消各级学校的行政级别，改变由党政部门自 上而下的校长任命制，实现学生为本、教师治校，校长由教师选举等多种形式产生。这不仅要涉及党政如何掌控学校这一核心问题，还要调整一大批现有制度受益者 的利益，可谓困难重重，绝非短期能做到的事情。
这名学者说，以大学引入教师和行政岗位竞争机制为例，很多大学已经喊了好些年，但目前中 国内地还没有一所大学真正引入能上能下的岗位竞争机制。原因说起来并不复杂：这些大学都是有行政级别的单位，“能上不能下”这一官场规则在大学里同样适 用。
Why Did They Teach That In School?
Jan 28th
Did you ever have this thought in mind while going through school:
WHY ARE THEY TEACHING THIS?
Well, perhaps at that moment, you didn’t think of this question since school is *supposed to be* a place where you do what you are told. Well, at least in primary school. Then, in high school, you were taught more complex and advanced stuff that it made your head spin. From this point on, you would have started to realize that much of the stuff taught in school will never ever be used in your entire life.
For me, those “stuff” will be calculus (yes, simultaneous equations, differentiation, integration, and the like), technical work (as in, metal work, wood work, handling tools, etc.), and chemistry.
Schools want to be sure that they covered all grounds (but according to who?). This type of education is “just-in-case” education.
What a grand waste of youth!
Now, on hindsight, I’d have preferred lessons on:
- Relationships (how to find my life partner, how to deal with people)
- Finance (i.e. how to earn, manage, and grow my money)
- Making good decisions and choices (i.e. how to think)
- Health and Fitness (living with energy and free from illnesses)
- Career and jobs (finding them and doing well in them)
- Emotions (how to manage them)
- How to care for and bring up children (yes, most people do want to be parents eventually)
- Sex (what to do and how to do them)
Aren’t these what we need on a daily basis as human beings?
Aren’t these more important than mathematics, history and chemistry?
Yet, why is it that school don’t teach such things at all?? And they simply leave us to figure them out ourselves by trial and error. They assume that because you have completed secondary education or tertiary education, you’d have no problems with these areas in life. Why is it that such vital life issues are treated as trivial matters by our society?
Stop at Nothing
Jan 26th
I read this little piece of news last week on The Standard in Hong Kong.
Another one of the myriad, innovative ways people, students included, are cheating in mainland China. It sure seems like they are very determined and will stop at nothing to get what is perceived to be ”must-haves” for them. How nice if such focused determination were used for more productive and progressive things.
Having taught in China now for one full year, I know that cheating is part of the culture and landscape. You simply can’t avoid it and it is widely accepted. Everybody knows it but nobody does anything about it. Some will just lament about it. Others will say, “Everyone’s doing it. Am I going to be stupid and get left behind??”
Universities have to put up posters that say, “Cheating is illegal. Don’t cheat.”
Sure, that’ll work.
Since living in Hong Kong, I have seen faked soy sauce, fake eggs, fake milk powder, fake iPhone, fake Rolex, fake LV bags, pirated DVDs… in fact, whatever it is in the world that can make money, there is always a replica made in China. This proves that “reverse engineering” is a gift and talent here which do not need much development.
How about this: The best cheating I have come across is this: Student paying Teaching Assistants to do their project for them. That’s personal outsourcing taken to the limit!
But it is not the cheating that is the root of the problem. All these cheating and copying are merely a means towards an end. Faster, that is. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. A short-cut, if you will. You will notice this often with people jumping the queue. Frowned upon in developed nations but, hey, if you don’t do it in China, you just have to wait… and wait.
I believe, the root of the problem is the need for speed. The need to earn money faster, to get qualified faster, to get promoted faster. Of course, all these with little or no effort. Is this the price to pay for rapid industrialization? For developing “too fast”?
I do think that it is a conscious collective choice that is being made. Nothing else can be or should be blamed.
I often think about this: How much better and faster China will progress if such creativity, ingenuity and energies are channeled to really and properly improve lives and the standard of living? How much more learning (and thus development and progress) will occur if such innovativeness and resourcefulness are used in the learning process? How much better they will be liked and welcomed as friends?
Post-80 saga
Jan 26th
We hear and read so much about the post-80’s generation these days. Other than the high profile “activists” in the recent rail saga, here’s one of those reports by The Standard on the psyche of Generation Y:
http://tinyurl.com/yg5wqzv
http://tinyurl.com/yhsyd23
I am Gen-X and have 2 brothers who are Gen-Y and can see clearly how we are quite different in our outlook. But should differences in outlook, emotional make-up, environmental conditioning and perspective outweigh sensibility and responsibility?
From the behaviour of the handful of Gen-Y youths with respect to the rail saga in Hong Kong, it certainly makes the community around them think so. As much as them thinking that the government is forcing their way through the village affected by the proposed express rail link construction, they have exhibited the same behaviour in their rally and protest. How could you ever end a “war” using another war? How could you end violence by using violence?
I do hope the people involved this time have realized that real power doesn’t come by force. They should be working on INFLUENCE and such an ability does not need numbers. Quite obviously, they didn’t have any clout to present much influence on the decision-making process.
Is it possible to work their way into the Legco process? Surely, this will not happen overnight but the chances of getting their ideals pushed through is way much higher that way. And that is when they’ll really be doing something for people in need.
Market Prospects 2010
Jan 25th
I often get questions such as:
“What are the employment prospects these days?”
“What are the hot industries?”
“Who is hiring?”
Employment (or unemployment) statistics are just good conversational topics but they are not worth following for your career planning.
The only employment statistic you should care about is either 0% or 100% – that is, are you employed or not.
The next question to ask is, “Are you in the job you want or not?”
So regarding market prospects for 2010, the answer is, “Why should you care?”
What you should be focusing on is your individual career. Yes, all things being equal, I would go after growing industries instead of shrinking ones.
But all things are not equal.
It is more important to know your values, skills and interests and match them with the right industry, job function and company instead of picking employers from a hat and force-fitting yourself into them.
Two tips to think about:
1. Let the market respond to your actions.
The market is invaluable in providing guidance on what your skills and qualifications are worth and how you are perceived by it.
If you are aiming for certain jobs or titles or salary levels and are not getting interviews, you need to find out if you are targeting wrongly or simply not positioning yourself properly for what you want.
Rather than reading market news and trying to incorporate that into your planning, craft your best plans and take action from there.
Then, collect market feedback specific to your actions and adjust accordingly.
Remember, if you continue to do the same thing again and again expecting a different result, you are an idiot. And believe me, a lot of people fall into this category.
2. Go for the ideal, not the available or popular.
The reality is that a career is always made up of what you bring to the table (i.e. value) and what the market will take. Don’t get me wrong, I am not dismissing the importance of what is available in the market.
But you must always keep in mind that markets change, expand and new markets emerge. So, when you look only at what’s available currently, you are not seeing the complete possibilities.
When you aim instead for what is ideal for you and look for a way to bring that to market, you include market expansion and creation in your potential outcomes.
In other words, going for the ideal gives you more opportunities.
So, if you must know what the market prospect is for 2010, you have the perfect answer – it depends on how far you are willing to go.
How’s Your GPA?
Jan 18th
Most university students I know are very concerned with their GPA. In fact, ultra concerned. To the motivated student, and especially for those who plan to further their education, the Grade Point Average is the holy grail which needs to be upheld at all costs.
However, does the GPA really say anything about a student’s academic abilities?
Let’s take a look.
In the tertiary education world, there are general 2 types of universities. One type grades students based on their academic performance according to a well defined set of performance criteria. For example, “a student will be granted an ‘A’ if the student demonstrates outstanding understanding and application of the concepts within this course. The student’s score should typically fall within the range of 85 and above.”
In simple terms, here are the standards for this course, and your grades depends on your achieving the standards. Your grades are criterion-referenced, so to speak.
The other type of university grades students based on their relative performance within the cohort. This means that there are no standards drawn out for the grading but an arbitrary bell-curve (i.e. statistical normal distribution) percentage is used.
In simple terms, a certain percentage of the cohort of students taking a course is allocated for each grade. Example, the top 10% will be given an “A”, the next 40% a “B”, the next 20% a “C”, the next 20% a “D”, and the remaining will be given an “F”.
With such a relative grading scheme, you may still get an “A” even if you scored 60/100 overall as long as your score is within the top 10% of your class. This means that your grade is given to you IN COMPARISON to your classmates. It effectively does not care about what you are really capable of since there is no independent standard drawn out. In other words, your grades are curve-referenced.
In the current tertiary education world, there are VERY FEW universities progressive enough to be criterion-referenced. Most universities are curve-referenced.
What does this mean, then?
It means that the GPA you scored in a curve-referenced university has no bearing whatsoever on your actual performance as it indicates only how you performed compared to your classmates. Simply put, you may score an “A” (i.e. GPA 4.0) but all that means is that you scored better than 90% of your class. It does not say, at all, how well you have achieved the learning objectives of the course.
Curve-reference exhibits the big-fish-in-small-pond phenomenon. It’s just like me owning a motorbike in a village where most others are using bicycles and that makes me rich.
So, my point is this: GPA in a curve-reference university doesn’t really mean much. This is why although the same term (i.e. GPA) is used throughout the world, they are not equal.
The next time you apply for university, make sure you check whether their grading system is criterion-referenced or curve-referenced.
10K in 5 minutes
Jan 4th
If you know the story of Fedex, they operate on a hub-and-spoke operations and their hub is located at Memphis. What this means is that all Fedex packages, large or small, in the US are shipped to this centre in Memphis first before going on to their destination location.
You can imagine the amount of packages that are handled on a daily basis at this distribution centre. And to handle such an amount, the technologies involved are also mind-boggling.
One morning, EVERYTHING stopped working.
There was electricity at the centre because the lights and computers in the office still worked. However, all the machinery that processed the packages simply refused to function.
The pressure is on and every minute that passed by implied ten of thousands of dollars lost.
The centre manager was almost in a state of panic and called the repairman again.
“I’m just 5 minutes away,” the repairman said.
Once the repairman arrived at the centre, he surveyed the conveyor belts and machinery.
Within a few moments, he walked over an electrical junction box in the middle of the centre, opened it, took out a screw driver from his toolbox, and turned a screw in the electrical junction box a quarter of an inch.
Immediately, everything started working again.
“Wow, you saved my life!” the centre manager said. “How much do I owe you?”
The repairman said, “Ten thousand dollars.” (US$, mind you)
“What??! You were barely here for 5 minutes and it costs US$10,000??”, the centre manager exclaimed.
“OK, please give me an itemized bill so that I know the breakdown of the US$10,000,” he continued.
“Sure,” the repairman said, took out a pen and a piece of paper, wrote on it and gave it to the centre manager.
The centre manager looked at the note, smiled, walked into his office and brought back US$10,000 in cash and paid the repairman.
In the note, it says:
“Turning screw: US$1″
“Knowing which screw to turn: US$9,999.”
A lot of times, we look at successful people and high achievers and think that they are just lucky. Sometimes, we even think that their jobs are so simple and easy that we can do them for just half their pay.
Just like the US$10,000 that the repairman charged, turning the screw is the act that most people see and, indeed, it is a simple thing to do and you don’t need a degree to do it.
However, to know which screw to turn within a short period of time that will solve the problem, the repairman would have taken years of discipline, training, practice, mistakes, errors and more importantly, learning and improving.These are the effort and experience that people cannot see. Yet, without them, the problem cannot never be solved.
We will be successful only if we learn all the time – when we do things well AND when we make mistakes.
In this new year, make a fresh start by always daring to try new things and learn from them. Never be afraid to make mistakes or be concerned with what other people may say or think.
They are not living your life. You are.
I want an iPhone 3GS
Dec 17th
My sister-in-law and her family visited my family over a weekend last month and we had a good time catching up. Her son, Ryan, is 11 years-old this year and although I have known him since his birth and have even taken care of him for a short spell 4 years ago, he is growing up to be his own man and, entering his teenage years, he now tends not to enjoy adult conversation nor company.
Ryan spent most of the entire visit glued to my laptop computer that was in the living room where everyone was. I would peek at what he was doing occasionally (mainly to ensure he was not messing up my files) and found him on the Apple Computer website.
Specifically, he was on the iPhone pages of the Apple website.
Before I knew it, he interrupted the adults who were happily chatting away over coffee.
“Mom, look! The iPhone 3GS is so thin and it’s so cool!”
Three minutes later, he shouted again, “Mom, the 3GS can take videos and upload them to YouTube! Isn’t that something?”
Another 5 minutes later, he exclaimed, “Mom, there is voice command for the 3GS! Wow!”
This time, his mother responded, “Ryan, you don’t need an iPhone. I’m not buying one for you. You already have a mobile phone.”
It turned out that Ryan had been bugging his mother over the past week to get him the latest iPhone 3GS. And when I asked him why he needed an iPhone, he said, “Everyone in school has one and it’s really cool” to which I responsed, “Ryan, the iPhone cannot make you cool. Only you can.”
Of course, Ryan didn’t understand what I meant and he also didn’t get the iPhone 3GS he coveted.
From this little episode, it reminded me of the way most of us try to persuade, influence and convince others of something – in other words, our “selling” strategy.
And guess what? Job-hunting is a “selling” process whether you like it or not.
Most people think that the best way to sell is to do what Ryan did – promote the features of the product or service: The iPhone is thin, it can take videos, access the internet, and issue commands via voice, etc.
In job-hunting terms, most people promote ONLY their features thinking that those will sell: Their degree(s), work experience, internship experience, special skills, awards, extra-curricular activities, community service, professional memberships, etc.
Just like Ryan’s mother, the features of the iPhone 3GS meant nothing to her. They may be cool to Ryan but they do not appeal to his mother at all. In fact, an iPhone is expensive to buy and to maintain, especially for an 11 year-old.
Remember: To an employer, you are always on the right-hand end of this simple equation:
Profit = Revenue – Cost
To make business sense, you will only be hired IF:
1. You are affordable (i.e. low cost), and
2. You can generate sufficient value (or revenue) to cover the cost of employing you (i.e. high benefits).
And so, your features may be cool to you, but they will only be cool to the employer IF and ONLY IF they can generate benefits to the employer.
In order to sell successfully to employers, you must approach from the BENEFIT angle: How exactly will the employer benefit from having you on the team? What value can you bring.
No doubt, features can be part of the selling process to provide support for the benefits but features should never be the main focus.
Remember: We don’t buy features. We buy only benefits.
When Ryan understands this, he will be in time to get an iPhone 3GS for Christmas.