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Panduan Kerjaya
Career guides, Malaysian edition.
Written by members who've done it: resumés, pay talks in Ringgit and freelance paperwork. Practical and local.
Resumés
Your resumé has 8 seconds. Spend them well.
An HR director on what Malaysian hiring managers actually scan for — and the photo-and-hobbies debate, settled.
Pay & negotiation
How to talk about salary without apologising
Malaysians are taught not to talk about money. Here's the script for doing it anyway — politely, and in Ringgit.
First job
Surviving your first 90 days at a new job
What to do when you know nobody, understand nothing, and are terrified of the office pantry small talk.
Freelance
Going freelance in Malaysia: the unsexy checklist
Registration, invoices, EPF for yourself, and the "feast or famine" budget — the paperwork nobody posts about.
SME
Starting an SME: what the first year really costs
Beyond SSM registration — the real numbers from a café owner who opened with RM40k and a lot of hope.
New in KL
New to KL? A newcomer's first-month field guide
Where to live relative to the LRT, how deposits work, and why everyone will invite you to "makan" — compiled from 200 newcomers' mistakes.
Learn it live.
Most of these guides started as workshops. Come to one and ask your questions.
See upcoming events
I have read more than ten thousand resumés, and I give each one about eight seconds before deciding which pile it goes into. Here's how to win those eight seconds.
First: the top third of the page is everything. Your most recent role, with two or three bullet points that contain numbers, should be visible without scrolling. "Managed social media" is noise. "Grew Instagram from 2k to 14k followers in 9 months on a RM500 budget" is signal.
On the photo question: in Malaysia it's still common, but it is not required and it will not save a weak resumé. If you include one, a clean, recent, professional photo — not a cropped wedding picture. Hobbies? Only if they're genuinely interesting or relevant. "Reading" tells me nothing; "restore vintage motorcycles" starts conversations.
One page if you have under eight years of experience. PDF, always. File name: Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf, not "RESUME FINAL FINAL v3".
And tailor the top line to the job. It takes ten minutes and beats any template. Good luck — and bring it to Resumé Rescue if you want live edits.
Many of us grew up hearing that talking about money is rude. Here's the uncomfortable truth: that belief costs you thousands of Ringgit a year, compounded.
Rule one: never name the first number if you can help it. When asked for expected salary, try: "I'd love to understand the scope first — what range has been budgeted for this role?" Most HR teams in KL will share it. You've just saved yourself from undershooting.
Rule two: know the market. Ask peers (this is literally what Teman is for), check job listings that publish ranges, and talk to recruiters who place your role. A number you can defend is a number you can say calmly.
Rule three: rehearse the sentence. Mine, with my mentees, is: "Based on the scope and market rate, I'm looking at RM X. Is that within range?" Then — this is the hard part — stop talking. The silence is not yours to fill.
Asking for more is not greedy. It's information for both sides. The worst realistic outcome is "no", and "no" to a raise is not the end of the conversation — it's the start of "what would it take to get there?"
The first 90 days at a new job are disorienting for everyone — including that colleague who looks like they have it together. They don't. They just got here earlier.
Weeks 1–2: your only job is to learn names and systems. Keep a private note of who does what. Say yes to every makan invitation — this is where the real org chart gets explained. Nobody expects you to produce anything yet; they expect you to be curious and reliable about small things.
Weeks 3–6: find one small, visible problem you can fix completely. Not a transformation — a fix. It buys you credibility for a year.
Weeks 7–12: have the "what does success look like for me here?" conversation with your manager, in those words. Write down the answer. You'll need it at your first review.
And the pantry small talk? "Eh, where's good for lunch around here?" has a 100% success rate. You're welcome.
Nobody posts about this part, so let's do the unsexy checklist for going freelance in Malaysia.
One: register your business with SSM — a sole proprietorship costs around RM60–100 a year and makes you dramatically easier to pay for proper clients. Some clients legally require it.
Two: separate bank account. Today. Your future self at tax time will thank your present self.
Three: invoices. Every invoice needs your registered name, SSM number, an invoice number, the client's details, a description, the amount and a due date. Keep every single one.
Four: EPF doesn't happen automatically anymore. You can contribute voluntarily through i-Saraan — and the government tops up a percentage. Free money, genuinely.
Five: the feast-or-famine budget. Work out your bare monthly survival number, and keep three months of it untouched. Everything above that is yours to enjoy. This one habit is the difference between freelancing and panic-selling your rates.
Six: come to Freelance 101 at Teman. We bring an accountant who explains the tax part in human language, and you can ask the questions you think are stupid. They're not.
I opened my café with RM40,000 and a lot of hope. Here's what the first year actually cost — the numbers I wish someone had shown me.
SSM registration is the cheap part (under RM100 for a sole prop). The real first-year costs: rental deposit (usually 2+1 months — that's three months of rent upfront before you've sold a single coffee), renovation and equipment (my espresso machine alone was RM12k, second-hand), licensing from the local council, and — the one nobody budgets — about three to six months of operating at a loss while you build regulars.
My rule now, after advising a dozen friends through their openings: if the business needs to be profitable in month three to survive, don't start yet. Save longer, or start smaller — a pop-up, a weekend stall, a home-based operation.
And join a table of other owners. The SME borak at Teman is where I learned which suppliers actually deliver on time and which POS systems aren't a scam. That knowledge is worth more than any course.
Compiled from about two hundred newcomers' mistakes — including several of my own.
Live near a train line. KL is a different city when you're near the LRT, MRT or KTM — and a much more expensive, traffic-shaped one when you're not. Check the actual walking distance to the station, not what the listing says.
Rental deposits: the standard is 2 months' deposit plus half a month for utilities, plus your first month upfront. Yes, that's 3.5 months before you move in. No, you usually can't negotiate it much — but you can sometimes negotiate furnishing or a slight rent reduction.
When someone says "jom makan" or "lepak lah", that is a genuine invitation, and the correct answer is yes. Friendships in KL are built over food, and declining too many invitations early on is the most common newcomer regret we hear.
Finally: come to a newcomers' night in your first month, not your sixth. Everyone there remembers exactly how confusing the LRT map felt on day one, and nobody will make you feel slow for asking.
