BACK AND FOURTH: All they know about the job is that it is "vacant"

In a recent interview session that was attended by this writer, among the questions posed to a candidate was, who is the current Malaysian prime minister, deputy prime minister and name at least three Cabinet members.

For the first question, the answer that was given is Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Even then the candidate failed to give Muhyiddin’s full name, stating his title as Datuk Seri, not Tan Sri. Regardless, the answer was wrong.

For the second question, the reply was Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein. This is despite Malaysia not having a deputy prime minister.

The position was last filled by the current prime minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, however, the candidate was confident of his answer.

For the next question, the candidate was only able to name Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin and failed to name the other two ministers.

And this particular candidate was applying for a journalist position and even graduated from a journalism school.

I can’t even imagine how he is going to cover events or even write stories if he was given the opportunity, as it is evident that his knowledge of current affairs is limited and the answers given were wrong.

If a journalism graduate can't name the current Malaysian prime minister correctly, what of other university or college graduates? This is very concerning and unsettling.

How are 18-year-olds, who are now able to cast their ballots due to the implementation of automatic voter registration, will vote for candidates or parties that will represent them but have no idea on domestic issues, politics or even current affairs.

It can be said that a majority of candidates during the interview session had a weak grasp of general knowledge and some were not even ready for the interview.

They did not even prepare with the right knowledge that is required for the job that they applied for.

There was a candidate who gave a cynical look when asked why did he attend the interview without making the appropriate preparations.

There was another candidate who entered the interview room without any care in the world, without any documentation or materials to support his case.

The last candidate came in wearing a belt, a shirt and pants that did not match at all.

Clearly finding a suitable candidate in this day and age, is not as simple as it seems.

It can be said that many had taken things for granted and felt that jobs would simply fall into their lap without any effort to convince their future employers of their worth.

It is clear that the sea of graduates in the job market today, are not equipped with practical skills or skills to communicate and compete.

They are not ready or even prepared to face their future employer or care enough about careers that they wish to embark on.

Their knowledge of jobs that they applied for is that it is simply “vacant”.

This is because there are some who confidently applied for the post of “News Editor”, even though they had just completed their studies and without experience. How do they have the intention to fill in a role that requires 10 to 15 years of experience in journalism.

It's time for universities to look into these matters seriously and equip these graduates with the right know-how and prepare them for interviews.

"Back and Forth" by Rozaid Rahman. He is Sinar Karangkraf Group Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer.