Final year

Assalamualaikum peeps,

After more than a year I left this blog untouched, it's the time of the year again for me to do some writing here. It is so interesting to see back what I have been writing here for the past 5 years. I remembered that I first started this blog during my time at CPU where I intended to just write my personal reflection on what is happening around me and at same time trying to improve my writing skills..haha.. Now, this blog is merely a medium for me to fill my boredom of live by sharing my not really  interesting experience here.

As the title says, I'm currently in my final year of my studies here at UofT. It is really fast isn't it. How fast time flies is really beyond me. I admit, you wouldn't always see sunshine and rainbow while you are here, but a mountain of hurdles to be passed. As you reach the top, than you'll see the real picture of your life here and how you can do better on your way down. Since this year, an influx of first year students comes to UofT, that is the piece of advice I'll give if you want to succeed here. Transition from high school or pre u to the real university life is not as difficult as it seems. I don't want to talk much about it here, maybe in the next post, but what I want to say is if you have the motivation and goal to succeed plus smart study skills (something you would acquire over times) and say no to procrastination, than nothing will stop you from getting good cgpa.

Back to the main topic. It is about a month before the semester ends. What I can say, my final year is not that bad. I have 4 subjects; plant design, engineering materials, intro to psychology and social inequalities. It seems less hectic than what I have been gone through in my second and third year. Most of classes start after 11am which is really awesome..haha.. The main subject will be of course the plant design. Plant design is where you utilize all of the things that you have studied before; reaction process, reactor sizing, economic analysis, mass and energy balance (basically you can list of the chem eng subjects here..haha). My team is awesome too.. even though there was a moment of awkwardness and insecurities whether this team will be performing well or not at first...haha

To tired to write now (not really used to write essays for quite some time).....I couldn't imagine the time I will leave Toronto for good.. or should I stay here for a couple of years before going back.. The thing that is  always playing in mind right now...

My New Workplace

Assalamulaikum,

Life as a working person is no longer the same as a student. There are certainly no homework and lectures to go. But there are subtle differences in term of the hours that we spend each day at home and at work, our interaction with our coworkers, how to be a proactive and the most importantly on how to meet or exceed the expectation of our employer. That should be enough for the introduction of this post...

Right now, I have been working for about 3 months at Holcim Canada as a Supply Chain Analyst intern and about another 12 months to go before I start my 4th and hopefully my year at UofT. It may be weird to some of you about a year internship program that I undergo at the moment. At UofT, we call it as a Professional Experience Year (PEY) but at other universities, it is usually called as a coop program. If you think about it, you might think that this program is just a waste of time because you have to graduate a year later. But for me, the experience to work in Canada prior to graduation is a valuable experience for the future. A year is an ideal period of time for a company to train a student in their respective fields compared to 4 months summer vacations. And the most importantly is that you will have a better cv prior to graduation and have the higher chances to be called back by the company that you have worked before. I don't want to go on and on telling about the benefits of doing pey or coop's program.

View from my office

Welcome to my office..haha

Above are some pictures that I have taken from my office. A bit introduction about Holcim Canada, it is one of the biggest building materials and construction companies in Canada. It has several divisions such as aggregates, cements, concretes and constructions. For me, I am working under Dufferin Aggregates. Even though my nature of work is 90 percent office based, I have visited a couple of quarries and pits before. So, I know a little about how the quarries are operated and how the rock blasting is done and some other stuffs haha... but not that much..

As a Logistics or Supply Chain Analyst (I don't really know which one is my real position name actually).. I work cross functionally to improvise, maintain and troubleshoot the current logistics and supply chain operations. It involves developing new tools and improvise current tools such as shipment analysis, order management tool, incident management tool, inventory, daily and weekly vendors reports and so on and so forth. Also, I will help my manager to analyze the logistics performance and make decisions based on the tools that we have.. It really requires a lot of analytical,  problem solving and programming skills,  especially in excel vba... It is a great job, considering that you will have to do a lot of different things every single day and it is always all about problem solving and process improvement.. As a chemical engineering student, all of the things that I have said earlier did not not really seem like a chemical engineer job, isn't it.. But for me, to gain this kind of experience in such as big and reputable company is much more valuable. Maybe after grad, I will work more in the production side in the cement or concrete plants. Who knows? But after all, engineering job is all about problem solving and how to make things work better.. I hope that I can continue my job at my highest performance for these 12 months period...

That's all for now..Till next post

Job Hunting Mode ends

Assalamualaikum,

It has been quite a while since my last update in April. Today I just want to talk a little bit about job hunting. At one point of our life, we will reach this time where we need a job badly and we have to prepare our best for it in order to compete with lots of other people who are also looking for the same job as we are. To clarify here, this post is not intended to give you any job interviews tips or tricks, it is merely my thought and expression that I had during my time searching for a pey job.

Sometimes, it can be quite frustrating and time consuming to prepare for a certain interviews in term of the company's backgrounds, go over job descriptions and practice to answer the common questions such as 'tell me about your self' and many other things. Usually, we believe that we have prepared our best for it but it turns out to be not what we are expected. To some extend, looking at most of your friends who succeed in securing their job even though they look less smarter than you..haha.. make you feel that you are so dumb and loser. But it all depend on your luck, passion and how much preparation that you have done. At the end of the day, Allah knows the best for our life. We just need to keep increasing our efforts, prayers and always be motivated. And yeah, at last I got a job in a quite big company and I am so relieved and thankful to Allah. 

Even though, I do not really graduated yet from my studies and I have one more year to go, being able to work/intern for a year in a company related to your field of studies before entering your final year, getting a lot of money and having higher chances to be employed after your graduation are quite an astonishing accomplishment and experience for your future career.

I hope that a lot of my friends out there that still do not have any jobs either for internship, pey or permanent position will get one soon.

Post Final Exams

Assalamulaikum,

Yesterday was my final paper of this semester and right now I'm officially done with my 3rd year. I can't believe how fast time flies when you suddenly realized that you have only one year left or 2 more semesters to go before wrapping up your undergraduate studies. Honestly, this year was the toughest year I would say compared to the two previous years with a lot of workloads and serious chem eng courses. My prof said during the last lecture that once you guys have past the 3rd year, you have all of the required skills and knowledge to be a chem eng. But still, what I learned was still basic and not really advanced at all. I know that once you are in real working environment, everything is gonna be different and challenging. Right now, I am really looking forward for the summer here and still I didn't secure a job yet but I have one last interview this Friday. For this time round, I hope that I can do my really best and I wont disappoint myself.

That's all for now.

What to expect in Chem Eng Undergrad

Assalamulaikum,

This week is the final week before the final exam starts. So for my team and I there is a lot of report, assignment and project that need to be submitted. Being a productive student, finishing works at the eleventh hour is a norm right. Here, I just wanna share one of the projects that I have successfully completed on time. In order to prepare the chem eng student to the plant design project during our forth year, we need to do a mini plant design project. My team needs to design the reactor, distillation column, heat exchangers, controllers, valves and other tedious stuffs for ethylene hydrogenation process. Here, I attached the P&ID for the process.

With still one more year before grad, now I know what the hell are people in chem eng doing in the real working life..Well, there are many fields and job scopes actually that I can work in. One of them is working as a design engineer..As what I did in my project.  I need to design the chemical processes in order to produce the desired products that I want, so I decided the reactants that I will use, the type and size of the reactor and separation column and many other freaking stupid stuffs..haha.. there is a lot of thing to consider in order to design a chemical plant I mind you.. One of it is of course related to the safety requirement. Failures or accidents in chemical plants can  cause a disastrous damage and can cost lots of life too..

Plan for the future

Assalamualaikum,

Right now it is actually almost 3 am in the morning and I don't sleep yet. It is not that I have works to do at the moment but I'm just wondering about my uncertain plan for future.. Maybe my plan for this summer... As I don't get any job yet whether in Canada or Malaysia.. so I can't decide what to do next after my 6th semester final exam. I have about 3 more weeks to receive any job's offer and to make a decision.

Last Monday, I had an interview with Holcim, a cement and concrete manufacturing companies with a lot of expertise in construction field. I have yet to receive any news from them... I hope something good will happen next week..

What I would say, after SPM until now, I didn't really have any proper plan for my future. The moment I received MARA offer to study in Australia based on trials result and the moment I received the JPA scholarship to study in Canada and I rejected MARA..haha.. a lot of things happened and I didn't really have a full thought and control of my action actually. During high school, I'm thinking of doing something related to software engineering or electrical engineering in the future.. but it ends up I'm studying in chemical engineering instead.. and last couple of weeks one consulting company enquired me whether I am willing to do the acca, something related to accounting after my grad..and I said yes..haha.. I can conclude here that a lot of decision that I made through out my life was based on what somebody is willing to offer me..But someone else would say that it is the rezeki that anyone else wouldn't get and I should be really thankful for it

After all, I pray to Allah so that I can get a job here...please...

A new chapter in my life

Assalamualaikum,

After a very long time without any post, I suddenly decided to write something here. Well, there is a lot to catch up since my last post in July last year. It is almost the end of my 3rd year actually. A couple of weeks before my 6th semester's final exams. It has been a very challenging and tough year I guess, with those labs that last for 7 hours but it is worth while experience I would say. Familiarise your self with all of the equipments that will be used in industry will be beneficial as an engineer. I am right now quite familiar with those piping, heat exchanger and distillation column stuffs.

Another new chapter in my life would be my nomination as the president and vice president of Malaysian Students Association of University of Toronto (MASAT)...haha.. I need to write its full name here. I haven't actually hold such high position since my primary school. But, I feel I have the motivation and determination to serve Malaysian community here better and being involved and taking part in a lot of activities here. At last I have been elected as the vice president with a very tight margins. Congrats to the president. She is the first women president here..haha.. Nvm, I think I can work well with her for the rest of this year and next year.

For info click here

http://masatoronto.blogspot.ca/

I think that's all for now....

Life as an intern - Part 2

Assalamualaikum.

Last week, July 10 2012, marked the two months of my internship here in PPG Shah Alam. It is really hard to believe actually that I have past a couple of months here considering the hardship and challenge that I have to face throughout my time here. There was a time when I felt so distressed and almost giving up my job. But, the challenges that I faced here actually made me stronger and better. There were thousands of good and not so good experiences I gained here that I could use it to improve myself in the future.

In the previous post, I wrote about why I'm doing my internship here, so this post will be mainly about what is my everyday activities and daily routines at my workplace. For most of the time, I'll be working in the lab. I'm assisting QC technicians to perform several quality lab test on paints based on the given specs for each paints. I'm responsible to ensure the quality assurance of all finished paint products. Basically, there are several tests that I need to perform on particular paint before it can be sent to the customer. It includes, fineness or the appearance of a certain paint, viscosity, weigh percent of solid,  sagging properties and many more. If any of the paint's specs are out, for example the paint's viscosity is too low or even too high, I need to make some adjustment and calculation to solve the problem. It may sound boring to some of you but to be truth, it is not really related to my current study actually. Maybe there is a bit that touches my course but not that much. After all, this is my first official job I've ever done in my life and I need to be able to cope the situation well.

Also, I've been given a variety of assignments or projects to be done within a certain time frame, which is throughout my internship time of course. So far, I've been involved with a lot of lean manufacturing project, such as how I'm going to improve a certain process in the plant such as the paint production process or packing process. To do that, I need to do a lot of so called paper work to properly outline the steps that are going to be taken for each process and also the power point slide to present my project to my supervisor. Another thing that I forget to mention about this factory is that it is fully manual operated plant. At first I thought, all of the process here were going to be fully automation, since PPG is one of the well regarded paint manufacturing company in the world, but sadly to say, this company depends to much on foreign workers that do not really have much skills and determination plus the language barrier that make life much harder for the supervisor and management. 

Side note.. there is still one month left before leaving this company.

To be continued..

Life as a intern

Assalamulaikum,

Currently, I am doing my internship as a chemical engineering student at one of paint manufacturing companies in Shah Alam, PPG Performance Coatings. I bet many of you do not realize or know the presence of this company or even heard about this company before. But, this company is quite prestigious worldwide..haha.. The headquarters of this company is at Pittsburgh, USA and if you check the company's profile, it has a lot of manufacturing plants all over the globe covering North America, Europe, Asia and many more. Probably, other paint manufacturing company such as Jotun, Dulux and etc are well known to the public because their products are widely used to paint the house and building. But, the truth to be told, PPG products cover more than house or even the building, they provide the coating or paint for marine ship, coating for cars and many other industries.

So, back to life as an intern here. Most of my friends were quite surprised, why do you start your practical so early in the second year? and the second question was why do you do your internship here, not in Canada instead?... So, for most of the time, I have to explain  to them again and again about my internship here. To begin with, as an engineering students, we must equip ourselves with a lot of knowledge and information in real engineering life that cannot be found in the class. In class, for a chem eng students, we solved the differential equation, learn heat and mass transfer, process engineering and etc... But in the real life, there is more that, and that kind of knowledge can only be obtained through internship or working in a particular industry. I think the best way to gain knowledge is to not wasting my 4 months summer holiday with just sleeping and doing nothing at home instead, doing an internship at any company that can provide me with experience and condition of the real working life.

For the second question, why here in Malaysia, not in Canada, the place where you're studying right now. To be truth, I have applied for a lot of job post in Canada that is related to my field and among tens of applications, I received two interview invitation, one is ERCO WorldWide and the other is Atlantic inc.. Erco is the chemical manufacturing company and atlantic is basically a paper manufacturing company.. But, due to the higher competition here in Canada, I have failed to get the position in both company and the main reason is because my CV or resume is not really appealing to them as I have no experience and what I have in my resume is mostly my projects and other academic experience. So, I decided to do my internship in Canada next year after my third year, but first I need to find a valuable experience by finding a job here in Malaysia.. and after a lot of applications and emails, I got a place here in PPG Performance Coatings Shah Alam..

Even though, there is a lot more to tell about my job here, maybe I will wrap it up in the next post..

To be continued..

Journey back home - Toronto - New York - Malaysia

Assalamulaikum and a very good day...

As the title tells, right now I have arrived safely at my home in Kampar, Perak and I am going to spend about 2 weeks at home before starting my internship.

My whole journey was really full of obstacles and hurdles..haha. My journey started from Toronto on April 26. I took a megabus from Toronto to NYC at 8.30am.. I brought 2 big luggage since I can bring 2 luggage for my flight.. To my surprise, I am only allowed to bring only 1 big luggage .. Oh my god, should I throw my bag away. I asked the driver could I pay for more or something like that, so the driver said I needed to buy another ticket... Gladly, there was a lovely white lady who didn't check in any bag, so I used her space to for my bag. Solve the first problem.

Looking at the map, Toronto and NYC seem to be like Ipoh and KL, but to be truth it took 12 hours to safely arrived at 28 st, 7 avenue, Manhattan, NYC. Actually it was my second journey to NYC, but before this I came here with my 3 other friends but this time I'm alone in NYC and I'm not really used to the MTA or subway map in NYC.. so many lanes

MTA maps in nyc

So the story of me in NYC began.. I arrived in NYC at 8.00 pm and my flight was actually on the next morning and I didn't have any plans to sleep on that night. So since I brought my 2 big luggage, I needed to carry both of them where ever I went.. haha.. can you imagine carry those 2 luggage around nyc with so many people... To find a place to sleep, I went to almost 10 hotels whether it was budget hotel or not.. and as I expected all hotels were fully booked.. so what to do... I drink a coffee at dunkin donut and went to the John F. Kennedy Airport which is situated not in Manhattan but in Queens which is about one hour journey by subway.. Luckily I found a hotel near the airport worth $100 per night. Long story short, I took the flight to Hong Kong the next morning and arrived KLIA on 10pm. 

Before I forget, I just want to advice all people travelling across States especially NYC, be prepared to give any tips to anybody who helps you for something, whether the person helps you carrying your luggage or try to help you finding a room. Even though, you do not give them the tips or you give them to low, they will ask for it or even ask for more..haha

The end....

What Chemical Engineers Do

Rase nak buat wordless post gak

Starting back

Well, no updates for almost a couple of months are really sick man. It doesn't mean I'm no longer active in blogging even though I have a lot of things to share with all of the readers, but I prefer more to read other's blog post rather than expressing my thought here.

To begin with, it was almost two years I'm living away from my family and just 3 more months before the summer holiday which I totally can't wait for it to come. Some of us, my colleagues probably from northern earth hemisphere have already booked their flight ticket back home, especially for those who are first year students. I know the feeling of missing something that we are accustomed to especially, the food, people, weather and a lot more in Malaysia, that is the reality. 

But for me, the future even though it's just a couple of month to go, it's still blurred. I mean, I cannot decide whether to go back or not. Well, for those who don't know, I really want to do any internship program here in Canada in any chemical processing plant or oil and gas industry to increase my experience because even if you are graduating from any top university in the world, without sufficient experience, it will be hard enough to find any good job.

Last but not least,  next week is the reading week. Basically, it is a week off for all students here and many other universities in Canada too. It's kinda weird to give a short break just in the middle of the semester, not at the end of semester to give students a bit time to study for the final. But, after all it is a bless for me to finish all of my assignment and studying for the upcoming mid term.

New phone

I don't know since when I'm becoming an apple fan boy... just got my iphone 4s on the first day of the sale and i sold my iphone 4 through kijiji straight away.. hahaha

I think it is enough for update

The Excitement of 2nd year just begins

Salam and a very good day to all of the readers...

Albeit the last post was a few months away, that doesn't mean I'm already gone somewhere else hiding inside a cave or what so ever... it is just my anticipation to read other blogger's posts is above my willingness to write anything in this blog...

A few days away for us as a muslim to end our barakah month of fasting and we will say hi to the prosperity month of Syawal.. hopefully we will continue our persevere in restricting our self from a lot of temptation in the subsequent months not only in Ramadan month itself.. well, enough said about Ramadan...

Next, I can say that time moves and being wasted without our consciousness... time flies so fast until we cannot really reminiscence what are the things that we have done in the past.. and it same goes to my life here in my home sweet home since last may until right now, the end of august and soon the month of september where I will be leaving all of my comfortableness and say hello again to the hectic academic period of the so called chem eng.. 4 months seem to be relatively shorter than what it should be..haha.. Seriously, I don't want to count the days of my departure, instead just let the days pass and yes .. it is the day of September 7.. The most importantly is.. I will get rid all of my sublime efforts before this and start this fall semester with such ferocious effort..

Last but not least, Happy Eid Mubarak to all Muslim around the world..

I'm back

Salam..

Actually it's quite late to post about my arrival at my home sweet country... One week past and everything is going back to normal.. all malaysia's styles... Gladly, I'm not experiencing all those temperature shock.. haha.. I think it still ok here in Perak even though in the middle of the day it is extremely hot and my lighter skin is going to tanning a bit.. After all, I'm so thankful to Allah for giving me a safe and comfortable journey with less difficulties and hurdles... Right now I have to plan my time wisely so that I'll fill this 4 months holiday with a lot of memorable and enjoyable experiences....

But the thing that I am a bit frustrated about is regarding broadband connection here.. There is no digi 3G coverage around my house even though I have subscribed with digi smart plan unlimited data usage.... I have to go to the middle of the town to get the connection.. and my father's maxis wireless broadband is quite good but the quota is something that I sad about.. 2 gb limit is far less than what I've been using back in Toronto with 80 gb quota..

After all, I'm so happy to be here where my body and soul belong..

(For those who still have my digi number, FYI I still using that number right now)

Niagara Falls

Salam semua...

Sekarang ni baru je sampai kat Niagara Falls ni untuk cuti selama 3 hari sehingga hari isnin.. Bagi sesiapa yang tak berkesempatan atau akan pergi melawat air terjun ni, saje la nak tunjuk sikit pemandangan yang boleh dinikmati kat sini..

Walaupun tak banyak gambar jadila tangkap guna iphone ni.. Besok lak, nak membeli belah sikit untuk sedare mare dengan diri sendiri dekat factory outlet.. Tadi dah tengok sikit2 la sekitar factory outlet tu.. kira ok la harganye berbanding dengan barang2 kat Toronto..

Ok la dah nak tidur ni.... Salam semua..

First year is over..

Salam..

At last, I have something to write in this blog.. Yes... I'm officially over with 1st year chem eng.. what a great relieved.. So, I'll be free from all of the academic craps at least until september... but the result will be out... perhaps just before my departure.. hopefully... I pass all the subjects and enjoy my holiday the fullest...

That's all ... oh before I forget.. tomorrow I'll be heading to niagara fall.. staying at the inn nearby the factory outlet there for two nights.. Maybe I'll try to put some photos here...

new mobile apps

Salam to all....

right now I'm testing my new mobile blogging apps that is really easy to use everywhere and anytime especially for those who like to type on the touch screen smart phone.....

work harder this time

Salam

Nothing to update right now.. Totally struggling for just about a month from now before the final exam..... Here, I just want to share a picture that is not really something to be showed off.. but it's kinda inspiration for me to do it again this semester... and I hope more and more of my friends can do it also.. Currently, my mid term was not really at the level that I'm expected .. need to work harder to achieve my target...

Reading week

salam..

At last, I'm going to write something in this dusty blog.. Actually, a lot of thing I want to write here.. but don't really have the right mood ..haha

Well, right now is the reading week for me in uoft and most of my friends from other universities here.. Actually, in the reading week, there is no class for a week. What a relieved after a bit struggling in this semester with all of the distraction that can be prevented really.. So for me the significant of this reading week is to catch up everything from the first half of this semester before going further to the end of this semester.. This is a great time for me to revise..haha.. (bajet study lebih) but I must to study weh... Just after this break I have a lot of test that contribute to higher percentage in my final mark..

Initially, I want to go somewhere.. Ottawa maybe because there is program being held there for two days... but I better have a good rest this week.. and of course I'm really struggle to finish my part for my design course.. I don't really know if there is such design course offered in other universities.. but here in uoft is yes..

I have to deal with client.. examine their problem statement bla bla.. and set up gant chart (I don't know whether I spell it right) it is basically the schedule for our entire design project till the final presentation... Luckily, it is a team work.. Well , in real life engineers deal in a group.. it is great exposure for me.. Forget to mention here.. my group's project isn't that bad.. a bit easy though.. I have to make a safety video in chemical engineering laboratory.. sound not that bad... must as soon as the project progress, I feel the pain bit by bit..haha..

Ok, it is enough for update