Vuthy's Sharing Mission

There are thousands of companies in Cambodia, but not all of them have Human Resource Department (HRD) as some are so small and don't want to spend money on HR staff. Without HRD, some of the HR tasks are left to administrative staff to control the employees which I think is horrible. Some companies are equipped with HRD, but still the way they act is not so friendly to the staff or staff-to-be. For the word staff-to-be here, I mean those who wish to work there or already applied a job application and in the process of waiting for their HR staff's mercy to inform even if they could not make it. 

There are many ways that I consider as unfriendly or not so welcoming for those companies or institutions. First, they never respond to your e-mail no matter what you ask; yet they consider themselves as a professional. If I'm not wrong, they are the one who typed their e-mail in the job announcement in newspaper. Second, they will never let you know when you happen to fail the interview. Here I mean you might spend a couple of weeks checking your email curiously and hell they stay calm as water.

From that, I could feel how selfish and arrogant those HR staff are. They only care about the company's benefit by informing the successful candidate, leaving out others and they are simply lazy to inform as they consider it useless.    

However, not all of the institutions are bad, I had a very good experience with the HRD in DFDL Legal & Services for its standard Human Resource management. I remember they were so friendly with the recruitment process. First, I did not see any advertisement for the recruitment of Legal Assistant. They did post it over the internet - job classifieds in major recruitment agency website. However, I was unaware of that, but I had uploaded my CV to DFDL server. Later, I was informed via email that DFDL received my email and it will be kept in their database for job opportunity. A week after, I was contacted by its HR whether I am interested in the position available at DFDL. I went for the interview, but I did not make it. A week later, I was informed that I could not make to the second interview; and therefore, they would keep my data in their server for later opportunity. I think this is the coolest HR I have ever encountered. 

In short, I do hope that any other companies could do the same - value other's time. No one should be left ignoring and assume that they fail. That's not how a professional HR staff do! You know what assume actually means? It actually stands for ass + u + me, that means when you assume someone has done something wrong, you actually make an ass of you and him. Things don't work out that way, right? If I happen to own a company, I would definitely follow DFDL management style such as follows:

1. Inform the candidates after the company has received the application - some people might misspell the targeting email address, and they will never know if you have already received. If you are not that hardworking, you may set an auto-response which only takes a couple of minutes.

2. Include the salary that you may provide in the announcement. You may consider it not professional, but again think about the time a candidate has to ask for permission from their current workplace for your probably-less-pay interview. If things are clear, it will help your company as well as some of them don't have to come and surprise with what you've gotta give them. Oh, by the way, there are some organizations which pay interviewee 10$ per interview! I do remember it. Well, I do not expect all of the companies to do so. So, please just state your salary in the announcement.

3. Inform those who fail the interview as well. Do not leave out anyone. I call it "Respect" and "Professional" because there is an accountability in there.

That's it from me. Criticisms and Suggestions are welcome in the comment box below :)

Credit to: Siekhouy Hout 

- One convenient way which might help a personnel to become an ambassador is to apply for a study at Royal School of Administration; there are three departments for government officials to choose - Economics, International Relation, and Administration. If you wish to become a prospective ambassador, you shall apply for International Relations; most of the government officials graduated from RSA shall be offered a particular position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the process of becoming an ambassador is still a blur to me.   
- There are many institutions that can appoint one as an ambassador. However, I would like to limit the scope to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Once you become a department director, when you are nominated to work at Cambodian embassy, you will be granted the ambassador title. Of course, the IR degree also count. 

From Department Director up (under-secretary of state, secretary of state, etc). Some high ranking officials from the Council of Ministers are also appointed as Ambassador.    

Credit to: Lim Hok Seng

Below is an extract from Wikipedia on the changes of Cambodian flag through various regimes. 

 However, the extract provides wrong information regarding current Cambodian flag as there is another flag stated in Cambodia Constitutional Law promulgated in 2008.

The flag shown below is a Cambodian national flag used in Cambodia Constitutional Law promulgated in 1993, just like the flag shown in Wikipedia, which are both wrong. 

Even Google Image also shows hundreds of wrong Cambodian flag. We need to be aware of the issue. Cambodian flag is outlined in black and has no stairs.

In order to be more precise, I would like to take this chance to explain the meaning of each colors and the symbol in current Cambodian flag as follows:

-          As the above picture of the Cambodia Flag indicates the overall background is Red and Blue

-          The description of the Cambodian Flag is as follows:

§  three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (double width) and blue

§  a white three-towered temple representing Angkor Wat* outlined in black in the center of the red band

§  the Cambodian flag is the only flag in the world to incorporate a building in its design

§  Angkor Wat*  is thought to be world's largest religious structure

-          According to Ancient and Heraldic traditions much symbolism is associated with colors. The colors on the Cambodia flag represent the following:

§  Red - hardiness, bravery, strength & valour

§  Blue - vigilance, truth and loyalty, perseverance & justice " 

Source: http://www.flags-flags-flags.org.uk/cambodia-flag.htm

If you ever searched on how to write a CV and a Cover Letter before, you may have found many links guiding you  how to write an awesome CV and a charming Cover Letter. However, none of the link mentioned the importance of using PDF rather than Ms. Word when you submit your application to an employer or to a school. 

My post here is to focus on the idea of sending out PDF rather than in Ms. Word document. To me, it is better to send out your CV and Cover Letter in PDF form for two main reasons. First, people could see how professional you are as you could prove that you are a computer literate. Second, no one could ever blame you on the wrong format that might appear on your recipient's computer screen. If you type in Ms. Word, for example, the texts might appear disorder as you and your peer use different version of Ms. Word. That is not the only problem. There are many more that I could not think of for now. In short, it is better to send out in PDF if it is not necessary for your peer to edit your document.

Here I am going to show you just how. 

1. In my Microsoft Word 2007, I installed Adobe Acrobat Plug-in so I could convert all of my document into PDF with this plug-in.

3. Above mentioned are to do with your CV. How about a Cover Letter in which you will have to sign? For Cover Letter, after typing, you will have to print it out. Sign where you have to sign, and then, you will have to scan your Cover Letter in PDF, not in JPG form. In this way, you will have both CV and Cover Letter in PDF forms; and you are ready to send out!

These are all the tools that I use before I send my application out. If you have any comments or suggestions, I would be very happy to learn from you.