Tengku Zafrul gives advice to students on seeking jobs, managing finances

CIMB bank group CEO Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz during the result..

NILAI: Undergraduate students are advised to step out of their comfort zone and start to strengthen their communication skills to gain better job opportunities.

CIMB Group chief executive officer, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz, said with intense competition among fresh graduates, both local and foreign, job seekers needed to equip themselves with skills that were different from their competitors.

“You (fresh graduates) need to learn what is happening in the world and learn as much as you can from many (people) outside university, including meeting and interacting with them.

“Be confident on the job that you want and learn as much as possible the role that you want to apply for,” he said during a sharing session with Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia’s (USIM) students, in conjunction with the “Be$mart Financial Literacy” programme held in Nilai on Sunday.

Tengku Zafrul also advised the students to manage their finances wisely as the cost of living is increasing, especially in the city.

“It is shown that 50% of youths are earning below RM2,000, and it is difficult to live with that amount of salary. Equip yourself for a situation where income is enough to cover expenses,” he said.

Meanwhile, another panellist, USIM pro-chancellor Tunku Besar Seri Menanti, Tunku Ali Redhauddin Tuanku Muhriz, said although he came from the royal family, he was also exposed to financial planning as early as seven years old.

“At that time, I was given pocket money of RM2 daily and I needed to save up in order to buy the things that I wanted, like a book.

“My parents were very keen to have me exposed to financial planning education,” he said.

Tunku Ali Redhauddin also advised students to balance between lifestyle and priority needs and to manage credit card wisely.

“When I started work, I still tended to overspend and I was pretty bad at budgeting,” he said, adding that he was also trapped in a credit card debt until he was 30 years old. - Bernama