PETALING JAYA: August 23rd 2017: Leading Malaysian entrepreneur, Dato’ Sri Vijay Eswaran has urged higher learning institutions in the country to encourage students to become job creators and not merely job seekers.

Addressing a student’s forum held at University Malaya recently, the Executive Chairman of the QI Group said students should learn to challenge the status quo, take risks and create employment.

“When you are in search of your first job, in addition to looking for a post that matches your qualification, you may have to choose between working for a startup and working for an established firm. The decision you make should be taken after careful consideration of the pros and cons of both work environments in terms of the kind of environment that suits your personality and preferences.

“If you ask me, and in all honesty, no one has it easy and you are going to find fresh complaints even on the other side of the bridge. However, it is worthwhile to gain a basic understanding of the various stages of development in a business’s life cycle from startup to corporate,” explained Vijay to an audience of 150 university students of different levels.

He noted that conservative thinking frequently led to students saying that as long as they need to get some work experience, they will want to work for someone before venturing out on their own.

“Here, we are mostly job seekers and are ever locked into one chain or to another. But the Chinese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Japanese are willing to get experience first, but want to be their own bosses and create jobs while luring others to work for them. The world is moving forward very fast and there is no space for job seekers as jobs are lessening with artificial intelligence, automation and robotics taking over. On the other hand, the population has grown,” explained Vijay.

He also pointed out that a startup, like how he began his journey, calls for students to be the leader and the team. “You come up with the idea and you see it through right till the end. There’s little or no delegation, and that’s the beauty of the startup experience!” He stressed that students should keep in mind that when they sign-up to work for startups, they need to enter into a psychological contract with them to shoulder their vision.

Vijay also shared his experience, noting that working in a start-up is more fast-paced, ever-changing and on the whole, a place where there’s a lot of action and free communication in contrast to the slower-paced and more structured corporate environment.

“Overall, you have to consider which factors are essential to help you work toward your goals. Will you do better with an always evolving, “think outside the box”-type mentality, or a structured environment that allows you to methodically work toward your goals? To me, neither is better than the other. And it completely depends on your personality, work style, and unique needs to determine which will be the best for you and your career,” added Vijay.

Vijay also highlighted that the global economy, propelled by technology and other services, has witnessed unprecedented growth in recent years. He disclosed that the next twenty years will see a parallel acceleration in the technology economy, powered by startups.