Hi there!

This is Syaza Nazura, and welcome to the new Kejar Kerjaya newsletter! In this newsletter, we will share insightful career tips and inspiring stories that can hopefully help you in your own career development.

If you are wondering why you're receiving this email, fret not! Everyone here would fall under one (or more) of the following categories:

• You have previously subscribed to my weekly email newsletter, Say What?,
• You have attended one of my career workshops or webinars in the past couple of years,
• You have indicated your interest to subscribe to Kejar Kerjaya's career newsletter.

If you feel like you have been subscribed to this newsletter by mistake, feel free to unsubscribe at your own leisure - no hard feelings!

That said - we hope that you will find this newsletter insightful and helpful to you as you navigate your own career development. Feel free to reach out to us or reply to any of our emails with your thoughts, questions, or ideas. We'd love to hear from you!

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Moving on to today's topic of interest, let's talk about a recent viral news in Malaysia (one that makes the round every couple of months or so) -

Should interns be paid an allowance/wage during their industrial placement?

Rashifa's tweet made the rounds in the last couple of days about how interns are not free labor to the companies, and so companies should strive to pay interns an allowance (or the minimum wage) to help ease the burden for the students as they embark on their industrial placements/trainings.

There are definitely a lot of opinions about the topic, ranging from:

• Interns are not full-time employees, they are there to learn. For a company to take in an intern to 'teach' them is an act of kindness, and therefore they deserve no allowances as the company is already spending time, money, and manpower to teach the interns.
• Some companies treat interns as full-time employees, as they are being asked to do actual work/labor, and sometimes even work on weekends. Therefore, they deserve to be paid accordingly.
• If the university is asking students to participate in industrial training as part of their degree requirements, the university should be the one providing the allowances to the students.

With any debate, there are a lot of layers to consider, including:

1. The duration of the internship (3-6 months is the typical length, with some internships lasting 12 months).
2. The objective of the internship (is it a degree requirement to help the students gain exposure to the industry, or is it an optional internship where the students personally reach out to the company to explore new areas?)
3. The industry that the student is interning in (some industries are notorious for not paying their interns).
4. The size/type of company (in general, most MNCs and bigger companies tend to provide an allowance to their interns, as compared to smaller companies and SMEs who may not have the necessary funds).

Interns bring value, and that deserves the proper compensation.

We firmly advocate for paid internships wherever possible, as unpaid internships can cause even greater gaps between the privileged and unprivileged students.

Not every student is privileged enough to be able to participate in an unpaid internship, where they might have to fork out their own money to pay for travel expenses, rent, food, and other daily expenses throughout their internship duration. For those students who are studying/interning outside of their hometown, the cost can be even higher as compared to those who are staying at home with parents/family.

And while we understand the notion of "The students need to learn how to hustle and survive, they cannot expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter", it is also important to note that paying interns a liveable wage (or a minimum internship allowance) is an act of courtesy.

A paid intern leads to a happy intern, which can overall lead to better productivity in the workplace. They will feel more included and accepted within the team, which can also boost their morale and lead to a better internship experience.

[Blog post] Know your value for your career development.

This leads on quite nicely to our new blog post on Kejar Kerjaya, on the importance of knowing your value to help you in your career development.

Read more

So, to end this particularly long first email, our question to you today is simple.

Are you aware of your own value? And what is one thing that you can do today to improve your value to your (current or prospective) employer?

Until we see you again in the next newsletter, stay awesome & have a good week ahead!

Best,

Kejar Kerjaya