#2: Do you know what this job role is about?

When you get this question, it is not about your understanding of the job! It is a way of telling you: "Are you sure you wanna take this shit?"

Well, you may prepare yourself by reading the job ads, and have an understanding of the roles and responsibility written. However, most write-ups are simple advertisements, and you know advertisements are there to capture your attention, very vague and little facts. So, then you have an understanding that this company is selling you a job.

There is one source where you may refer to, to have a better understanding of the job itself, is through O*NET. Here you can get more information about the job, including:

• Tasks to perform the job
• Tools and technology used
• Knowledge, skills and abilities required
• Detailed work activities
• Level of education required
• even the Work context and etc.

Understanding the job itself helps you to figure if it is suitable for you to pursue as your career, drawing the career path for yourself. However, getting all this information only helps you to have a better picture of the job itself, and I must warn you that most of the time, it is not what the company can offer you.

So, that is the tricky part of answering this question. It is not about the level of your understanding towards the job, but to express your humble understanding and let the interviewer guide you further of what they are offering, and what they expect from you.

You may briefly express your understanding of this vacancy and emphasize that is what you understand from the job posting, show your curiosity towards the job by inviting the interviewer to guide you further.

"bla bla bla is my understanding of the job posting, correct me if I am wrong. Perhaps, Mr/Ms X may give me a job preview, so that I would be able to further understand?"

#1: Am I too demanding? What is a realistic pay?

Some say salary is confidential because that is your price tag and people just don't want to be valued that way. So, salary is personal I would say. It depends on the lifestyle you are in, and also the demand and supply in the market. There is an average for each position, but it also subject to many factors ie urban vs rural, industry, local company vs MNCs, etc.

Thanks to the internet, we can get some of these data online. Jobstreet.com ask their users to input salary information annually to feedback them the market rate. So, you may do some study before sending your resumes. Here is the link.

Kelly Services publishes their salary guide also every year, and this is the report for 2014. It is a very comprehensive report, the only thing is, not that the data is not updated, but it is not the latest, and not in real time. Anyway, it is a good reference and I don't think there will be any real time salary database in public domain, but if you know any, please do inform me!

And sometimes, you may get this information through online articles like this one does done by MYMenLifestyle.com (2014), gives us an idea of the Top 10 highest starting salary for fresh graduates in Malaysia.

So, once you got the idea how much is the price tag for each position, factor in your lifestyle and that will suggest you an idea of desired salary. Feel free to give your comments.

<< Back to Table of Contents

Hello World!

Hi there, I am Sunny with the nickname sunnysardine since long time ago. Glad that you are reading this. For friends who have known me for ages, you might have some questions for me, else you might have even more questions to ask, so I have prepared a Q&A here:

1. So what is this Ask Sardine (blog) all about?
   It all started just because I have a idea of writing a book to help people do some self discovery when comes to career. However, after I started, something happened. I think I need more interaction with real people (like you) to further explore the topics that I might not have explored my own and include them so that it will help more people.Hence, this blog is here to the rescue (something like the Web2.0 revolution, if you understand what that means, else  never mind to bother). I will publish my chapters as blog posts so that people can start now to help themselves instead of waiting me to complete the book, and hopefully feedback to me if it works for them.
   
   Table of Content:
1. Preface
2. Purpose
3. Personality
4. Interest
5. Strength
6. Values
7. Opportunity
8. Goal
9. Resume
10. Interview
11. Define
12. Blog  (where I will give my opinion based on questions from readers)
    
    
2. Okay, so you sure you can answer my question?
   Well, I wish I can give my opinion for most of your question but that is definitely just an opinion from me. I will try my very best to provide practical opinion and tools for self discovery. Not a definite answer.
3. How do I send you a question?
   You may send in your question asksardine@gmail.com
4. Are you going to publish this book when it is ready?Yes, but I have not made my mind on what kind of platform it could be. However, if will be distributed FREE to the public.

If you still have any question, feel free to comment below or you may just send in your career questions to me now. Thank you for your attention and I wish you a successful career ahead.