By Azra Farzana Shuib
Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) is no stranger in Malaysia. The powerful utility company is the main power-maker in the country and prides itself for being undeniably recognised globally. But in order to sustain the ‘power’ they are generating, they need people who hunger for success.
In their recent visit to IIUM for the Career and Postgraduate Study Fair as the exhibitor and main sponsor, the CAC Main Hall has definitely become better and brighter, as their tagline says.
In recruiting future talents, TNB managers made a point that they are looking for extraordinary individuals. In a field where competitions have become more challenging and diversified, only outstanding attitudes would make the cut.
Manager in Stakeholder Engagement in TNB, Norazril Razali, is an expert in international business. He emphasises that candidates should have distinct qualities in order to be set apart from the rest.
“We are looking for academic qualifications of above 3.00 CGPA, but still, something apart from your CGPA is what I would choose – you must have something to ‘sell’ to TNB.”
“In Tenaga, for one particular position, you have to compete with hundreds of other people,” he stressed, “just for one post.”
Leadership as an instrument of development
Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) is wholly owned by TNB, and is well-known in the academic realm. With the establishment of its Centres of Excellence, namely Institute of Sustainable Energy, Institute of Power Engineering, and Institute of Energy Policy & Research, they act as a stepping-stone for the progression of TNB, especially in terms of research.
“As you know UNITEN from its name, it’s more to energy. We consider energy and its mechanical terms, be it civil, mechanical, electrical and such. We are quite strong in the ‘renewable power generation’ field and we have many projects related to that,” Dr. Firas Basim Ismail said.
Dr. Firas Basim Ismail is the International Liaison Manager and the Head of Power Generation in the university. He believes that TNB needs to engage more people as they have many projects on going involving fresh graduates and postgraduate students.
“We need to train them well to be the leaders of the future,” he said.
He pondered that the current managers in TNB won’t know their positions and situations in the coming 20 or 30 years, and having future talents that possess leadership qualities is pivotal in strengthening TNB, which also values internationalisation as a key to success.
“We need to market TNB internationally as well. We need people to know us as a company that is strong in our field, as well as in offering our services. Many other aspects should be considered, such as the countries we are targeting and the nature of involvement of the particular countries. Therefore, we need to start with ourselves first. We need to strengthen ourselves for the coming years in order to become the champion. We should play the major role in this region.”
As for Norazril, he mentioned that as a manager himself, what he wants to see from fresh graduates is their persona and capability to be a leader.
“You have to show us your leadership drive,” he said.
“TNB can’t create leaders – we create managers. Leadership is about attitude and knowledge, but being a manager concerns the application of what you’re studying about.
“At times you meet managers with no leadership skills, and leaders without managers’ attitude.”
Taking up the challenge to attain high knowledge
Dr. Firas addressed that fresh graduates should have strength in their knowledge. For future engineers, he said, knowledge of thermo and fluid, as well as familiarity with the relevant softwares are important in surpassing the real-life challenges of engineers.
“Be familiar with the softwares. Engineers need to be familiar with Matlab, flow analysis software, AutoCAD, Corel and SolidWorks. I am recommending them to take up the challenge in their Final Year Project as I believe that they need to engage with real-life problems. Our students are still quite far from industry’s expectations. They are supposed to be familiar with all engineering elements.” He stressed.
He cited his experience in Malaysia as a foreigner should be emulated by students.
“I have been here for 12 years and I love Malaysia so much. I have been involved with many exhibitions internationally so I can attract students to study in Malaysia. We have to introduce Malaysia in a good way. That is why you need to be extraordinary. You have to convince everyone.
“As a fresh graduate, get the idea of what you are in for. Be familiar with the outputs, vision and mission of TNB. It is not about getting salary at the end of the day. TNB make engagements with other companies too, so show your exceptional side in interview sessions.”
General Manager of Talent Acquisition in TNB, Rina Sarif believes confidence is the key to impress future employers.
“Don’t be scared to speak, be confident and make sure what you say is of substance,” she said.
Norazril, on the other hand, gave a simple advice to students who are yet to graduate in order to penetrate successfully into the demanding industry.
“Don’t indulge in love relationships. Focus on your studies, get a high CGPA and prepare yourself to be leaders.”
Never-ending opportunity in TNB
Sourcing Specialist in Talent Acquisition at Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Shuhada Adnan described the abundance of opportunities available at TNB.
“Our vacancies are based on our company’s needs. Let’s say we have projects in Turkey and we need 300 engineers, so we need to recruit then. As an agile company, positions are always available,” she said.
As the main power-maker in the country, TNB’s vacancies are available for almost all fields.
“The opportunities are available for almost all Kulliyyah here, be it engineering, finance, accounting, counselling and even Islamic affairs,” she said.
The IIUM graduate in TNB
Yunos Abdul Rahman is a law graduate from IIUM in 2002, and he is currently the Legal Manager in TNB. He has also served in Saudi Arabia for seven years as a part of the team in multinational joint venture companies where TNB is one of the indirect shareholders. Currently, he is involved in legal matters concerning Manjung 5 power plants construction in Perak.
Yunos described his first involvement with TNB was a breeze.
“I didn’t even know anyone from TNB. Before that I did my chambering in an office next to TNB’s office. So there was one night, I was so stressed and tired coming back from work, and I was in the LRT. As I passed TNB’s office, I thought, “working with TNB looks interesting, so I submitted my resume to their website and got called in for interview.”
Yunos agreed that a 3.0 CGPA is important in securing a place in TNB. However, he said, the way candidates carry themselves during interview is more important as to create a good first impression.
“You shouldn’t be overconfident to the point that you will seem to be cocky and arrogant. But at the same time you also don’t want to underplay yourself, thus the balance is what you should work on,” he said.
He also made a point that being resourceful in times of need is an important factor to excel in the job.
“You should show that you can look for solutions, and if you don’t know certain stuff, just say that “I know how to find that. If you give me some time I can look up for the answer.” So look up in the Internet, nowadays it has become easier.”
As a law graduate working in an engineering-dominated company, he explained that it is important to understand a company’s business – vision, mission and shared values. According to him, doing a background check can definitely help in building up answers during interview sessions.
Taking the advantage of being an IIUM student
Yunos stated that the exposure to the usage of English language in IIUM is a good platform to diversify oneself, and it builds up confidence. Apart from that, the openness experienced in IIUM due to mixing with people from other cultures is also something to be cherished about.
“The way that we are ‘brainwashed’ is to accept people and diversity. You deal with different attitudes from varsity years. Whether or not you realise it, you have this resilience of being adaptable with different kinds of people. If we meet people with contradicting values, you can draw the line better,” he said.
Good leadership sustains an institution
Surely, being with the enthusiastic managers of TNB can somehow make you feel the energy between them. But of course, being one of the most distinguished companies in Malaysia, there’s no doubt that one factor that has made TNB as what it is now, is definitely their strong-willed managers.***
Photo credited to Tenaga Nasional Berhad