Posted by laifhoy > 2014-05-10 14:08 | Report Abuse

Dear Mr Koon

Whilst money is a great motivator, I would advise young people to have a passion with whatever they do. Perhaps 'Follow your heart, not the money yet'.

If one really like what one does, one can strive to be among the best in the field. Be it banking, engineering or other more mundane work like cooking, tailoring, shoe-making, or perhaps in sports. At the appropriate time, the money will follow. Not everyone can complete a tertiary education; and that should not be a barrier to success in life.

Posted by alphajack > 2014-05-10 18:18 | Report Abuse

Passion is more crucial these days rather than picking a designated career, Mr.Koon. For an instance, a mediocre accountant major from a mediocre school can only do so well but someone with a different major (maybe not even finance related) but with a strong passion in the capital markets can rise to be a top notch investment banker these days because the latter could sustain 13-14 hours of work a day, countless Excel modelling and he uses every single free time to read about Market news and to analyse new stocks. Passion and the ability to stay strong and not falter is the key to success in the long run. Of course, other minimum requirements may come in such as IQ 120 minimum, a good education and competitive and intelligent peers but the key factor is still PASSION)

Posted by Tommylim > 2014-05-10 18:40 | Report Abuse

I admire my father from been very wise. He knew from the start what career me and my siblings should pursue for wealth and prosperity of course happiness. He also knew what each of us are capable of, he studied each of our IQ in school, constantly talked to teachers for feedbacks. He encourage all of us to participate in school curriculums be it in sports and associations. He never fail to ask us about our sports activities and our roles in school associations. Too many parents only concern about getting A's in examinations but fail to understand that to be complete individuals,70% of our daily lives are mostly social activities and you cant measure it with A's. My father also discourage us to pursue studies which he consider commercially available but professions void such as business studies, arts degree and finance. There's huge demand for workforce in oil and gas, civil works, shipping, energy firms etc. The main problem with most of courses offered by private and public universities are not relevant to these high demand and high pay works. Most parents unfortunately don't spend time to understand their children abilities and career suited for them. And typically, most parents and eventually their children blame government for their own failure. Thank you.

Posted by forsight > 2014-05-11 23:20 | Report Abuse

Mr Koon, you are only seeing things from a narrow perspective. Thank goodness, not everyone chooses accountancy, else the world will come to a grinding halt, and what a boring world it would be.

Posted by nofear > 2014-05-12 01:50 | Report Abuse

sop> I'm not Mr Koon. But I think you should find out more about the course 1st.

Must check that subject ends up in which faculty. If its in faculty of business, it more to finance. If its in faculty of science or maths, its more mathematically inclined (similar to actuarial science).

Difference is that if its in faculty of business, she'll be taking more subjects about business, management etc. If its in science faculty, there'll be more maths, rate of change, optimization etc.

Posted by nofear > 2014-05-12 02:12 | Report Abuse

Mr Koon is right! How many fresh grads pursued their dreams and end up regretting. How many people in biotech and food science are working as shop keeper, or end up in manufacturing keeping an eye on production line. Truth is that most of the youngsters do not know anything about their university courses when they applied. They can say they want to go into electrical engineering or electronic engineering / civil /mechanical, but do they know what those engineers are actually doing?

If your kids want to take a particular course, make sure he has the will! Not to complete the degree, but to be best of the best of the best. Must take initiative to work with lecturers (from 1st-2nd year), must know that degree is just a degree, your track record and past projects are your best resumes, no one looks at your cgpa unless its too bad. From what I see is that students get comfortable after getting into uni, join this activity, join that activity, no time dedicated for studying. Sem break should be used to initiate on research projects / taking up an internship. Students with good results enter uni, still get good results, but that's what they think. They forgot that the world is their real competition, and with TPPA probably coming up, must take extra initiative to remain competitive.

However Mr Koon left out on tech sector. The booming industry that can make you a millionaire/billionaire. Malaysia's top researcher's are not too far off from US. Software engineering, computer science, electronics makes a lot of money also, but provided u must really put your heart into it.

Mr Koon, i think you should do some extra consideration when giving out scholarship. Some students have bad results for a reasons. Results don't have to good, but must be reasonable. And most importantly! If they don't have the will and fighting spirit when they're young... Forget it.

I always feel sad when scholarship-holders waste their sponsors' money.

Posted by nsk82 > 2014-05-12 08:12 | Report Abuse

Instead of choosing a chosen career for someone whom you care, my personal conviction is to develop a new generation whom can think for themselves.

To build a resilient nation, we need skilled & knowledge workers from all fields to propel innovation & competitiveness.

That said, we should start early with educating young.

Also, financial planning should be part & parcel of our education system.

Thorough examination of our education blueprint SHOULD have given the highest priority given the dwindling of students'achievement in PISA test score.

Posted by Fung Chee Fui > 2014-05-12 09:03 | Report Abuse

Personally, I disagree with Mr Koon on encouraging youngsters to take up accountancy course. Unless one is enormously passionate in doing accountancy works, I think he/she is better off studying something else.

The reason is simple. Engineer/scientist/doctor/lawyer/IT pro/whatsoever, with some effort and time, could somehow easily acquire adequate accountancy knowledge in order to succeed in the business arena. In contrast, it is almost impossible for a pure accountant to learn engineering or medical or other sophisticated subjects (unless enrolling into a degree course again).

I've seen many trained-engineers, lawyers even doctors who are successful investment bankers or investment analysts and they can perfectly understand ICULS and financial statement analysis. In Wall Street, rocket scientists are hired to become traders.

So, in my opinion, passion should come first when choosing what to study. I agree with @nofear that not many youngsters actually understand their chosen course and ended up disliking the subjects and eventually, their job. I think parents MUST play an active role, not in choosing the course for the child, but in helping them to discover their passion and how to move on from there.

Posted by TAFA > 2014-05-12 10:21 | Report Abuse

agree with Fung Chee Fui..i am engineer in practice and currently study the basic of accounting and investing..for me it not that hard to digest on those subject..maybe due to abundance of information on these age that make it easier to understand those subject compare to mr koon era..for me what most important is finance education/literacy..youngster should learn how to generate positive cash flow and accumulating asset..

Posted by mmtalents > 2014-05-12 11:08 | Report Abuse

me and few of my colleagues are software engineer, and we end up an millionaire, not in paper but cash in our bank account. it does not matter what profession you are in, if you are passion about it, you will make it, passion come first, then money will follow, if not, you will just end up being an ordinary account executive.

Posted by nofear > 2014-05-13 17:10 | Report Abuse

@mmtalents > I think Mr Koon left out the tech sector. But Mr Koon has a point. What are they going to work as if someone graduated as a food scientist, Astrologist, Theoretical physicist?

Mr Koon pointed out that no matter what, end of the day, after working for 10-20years or more, the passion may die out and what all of us want in the end of the day is to bring back a bowl of rice to the family.

Posted by mmtalents > 2014-05-14 00:02 | Report Abuse

i think the university education is just to give you a foundation, you have to be innovative to excel, there are plenty of things or business you can "create" with food scientist, Astrologist, Theoretical physicist.. Nestle is the best example, without food tech or food science, there is no Nestle.

Posted by sosfinance > 2014-05-14 08:45 | Report Abuse

I am not familiar with where engineer ends up eventually, but I do know that those who take accountancy, CPA or CFA has lots of options. Let me name a few: Investment Analyst, Corporate Finance in Investment Bank(IB) or in commercial, Corporate Banking in IB, CFO, Investors Relation, many positions in IB (compliance, internal audit, risk management, credit department, relationship manager, finance and accounts, etc), Financial Planner (if they take CFP), auditors, tax advisors, start their own practices, company secretary, CEO, insurance companies, etc.

Some of the positions mentioned can also be handled by Engineers, but, I believe what Mr Koon says you have a wider choice, and I agree that what an engineer can do in a specific engineering field, an accountant may not be able to do it.

As for FINANCIAL EDUCATION, everyone can do it, be it doctor, engineer, SPM leavers, journalist, reporter as long as they have the heart to learn it, just like PIANO. What is more important is that students MUST ask around the specific people for their advice, the options available for each type of course offer. No point agreeing or disagreeing to the opinion that what other people said, explore it with guidance of those who work in other industry.

Posted by mmtalents > 2014-05-14 11:31 | Report Abuse

I'm not say Mr. Koon is wrong, I'm just saying a student should not choose a course based on how much money that can make in the future, he/she should choose something that they like or passion about, but by 18 year old and he/she still does not know what they like, then it is a serious problem for this country.

Posted by emperor > 2014-05-15 20:37 | Report Abuse

Mr koon, I fully agreed with you. Me myself is a structural design engineer working in consultancy firm for almost 5 years. I am 28 years old and now facing dilemma in my future career. I start to get boring and feel unfair working like slave day and night under pressure of this so called management level people. I am thinking of studying part time MBA in local uni due to my financial constraint as I have use all my money buying property and stock. Can you give me some advice on this as I am thinking of working in business development sector for prestigious property developer company? And what is the value of getting this "local" mba certificate?. Thanks in advance.

Posted by cckkpr > 2014-05-16 10:31 | Report Abuse

In accounting profession, whether it's good times or bad times, you dont see accountants being retrenched or out of jobs. Even during closure, you need the accountants to help you deal with it appropriately.
Yes, engineers and doctors can pick up accounting not because its easy to learn but out of necessity. I dont call what they learn is accounting, its just some basic form of book-keeping or more what the chinaman used to do as "in" and "out" recording. Understanding accounting means at least drawing up your records up to the trial balance stage and able to interpret accounts from the balance sheet stage.

Posted by AC Gan > 2014-05-21 10:24 | Report Abuse

Mr.Koon... totally agreed with you & my son is pursuing in Accountancy,currently..!

Posted by Chan Chee Kin > 2014-07-06 13:57 | Report Abuse

Can't agree more, Mr. Koon. Without the guidance, some of our young generation have wasted a lot of unnecessary time, considering time is the most important factor for you to accumulate fortune. After i left school, i have seen friends who take different path, and end up very different fates. I, myself being academically strong, naturally choose the science & engineering path, and that in a way limit my ability to amass wealth. I shall not blame others, but will really encourage the young generation to get more exposure. For myself, my career path had already completed half way, i imperatively need to make some adjustments before it's getting too late.

Posted by diuhailoh > 2014-07-06 14:04 | Report Abuse

My friend no go school only print vcd at home now billionaires ady.

Posted by sunztzhe > 2014-07-06 14:38 | Report Abuse

Not all newbies will want to be accountants, engineers, doctors, lawyers etc. It is very relevant for any person to ask around, read and try to understand the economic trends coming up in Malaysia if one chooses to work in Malaysia.

A more realistic advise is to advise the newbies to know their own skillsets, be honest with their own strengths and weaknesses, find something they really want to excel in and in that process develop the passion to be very competent and successful in their chosen fields.

Posted by andychucky28 > 2014-07-07 09:41 | Report Abuse

Try going for a long vacation and you will know what you to do!