How to handle your final year

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim :) 

Alhamdulillahhh, finally done with one of the toughest week so far T_T Somebody should have warned me that final year is THIS tough ! Lecturers have tinggi melangit macam KLCC kind of expectation on us since we just came back from our internship. And seriously, final year is super, super tiring. But nevertheless, it is still a good semester so far. Had our first presentation today and alhamdulilah, it was good ;D  But hey, it's only week 6, I am not even halfway done. Pray for meee ! 

There are a few things that I have been doing to keep my chin up in the midst of all the pressure. It may not work on everyone but hey, you will need to survive your final year too ! :P 

1. Indulge in nature

Nature has always been a therapy for me. Be it a slow jog by the lake, or just taking photos of beautiful bright flowers my neighbour owns, I always find that nature's beauty brings a sense of calmness in me. Had a stressful day ? Look at the sky at 6.45 pm ! ;D 

My neighbour's flowerrr, isn't it a beautyyy :) 

2. Food therapy

I have a habit of forgetting to eat whenever I get too busy. Food therapy in my sense does not mean go-to-a-buffet-and-eat-all-you-want. I just think that after all the hard work, everyone deserves to eat something good ^_^ Sometimes I'll just go back home and cook my favourite food or drag my buddy to eat out somewhere nice. But anyhow, do not over eat yea ! :P 

No caption needed :P 

Mushroom goreng (almost my staple food, that's how much I love it !)

3. Study buddies

This is VERY important. Since final year is so tough, it really helps if you have friends taking the same course. And it becomes a lot lot helpful if you are in the same classes. Assignments and everything is going to be super difficult so having someone trustworthy in your group will help to avoid headache. Trust me.

Syarina and Mia, we are in the same classes for almost all subjects (nak muntah dah rasa :P)
And of course, my food therapy buddies too :P 

4. Spend time with kids

I'm lucky to have three niblings now, and luckier that they live nearby. But fret not, if you do not happen to have one, just go and spend time with a random kid in the park :P Spending time with them is a therapy too, because no matter how annoying they get, they are still cute. And annoying. And funny. And that makes me happy ^_^

But yea, too much of them may result to a more severe depression though :P 

Abang long the bam bam

5. Getaway

Sometimes when I got too stressed out, I would ask my buddies to take me away somewhere just to clear up my head for a while. When you have too many things in hand, a getaway works best, to take some time to ponder on your work and manage your priorities. I found this hard to do at home / in campus since all the work is in front of you and you would want to do everything right away ! So yea. Go away from your workplace, and THINK ! :)

Mira, Mia and me at Laman Seni 7, Shah Alam. A haven for the art lovers! ;D

6. Go back to Allah SWT 

I put this as my final point so that this will be the last thing you read from this blogpost and insyaAllah, the one that you will remember the most :) Sometimes we got to caught up with our worldly affairs that we tend to forget the real purpose of our existence. We tend to forget that we are just creations, and we are actually obliged to make our Creator happy with our deeds. We tend to forget that the prayer is a mean for us to gain some strength, not something burdensome for us to attend. That the Quran is a revelation, and the best medicine to cure our heart's disease. And depression, is, a heart's disease. We are human, and we always tend to forget. 

That is why, it is wrong for us to be too busy that we do not have time to perform our prayer with khusyuk. Too busy that we do not even have time to read up our Quran. That is just, so wrong. After all, we are here to serve Allah SWT. And after all, those are the strength that we need and have been looking for !

Some people have different ways of remembering Allah SWT. But the best part of all is that, you do not even need to find a way. He is there. Everywhere. And all the time. 

<3 <3 <3

So, talk to Him :)

There goes. May Allah SWT gives us strength to survive the final year, and our final days, insyaAllah ;) 

10 Tips for Future Interns

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim :) 

So alhamdulillah, I have just completed my internship last August. I think the working life was really tough, and I am glad that MMU made it compulsory for us to carry out our industrial training. At least we got the sneak peek of it ! *and appreciates uni life more ;)*

A few juniors have been asking me questions regarding the internship, and seriously, we were as clueless before so I didn't mind answering them. But to make it easy and to benefit more people, I listed here the 10 things you need to know before you start your internship. More like, 10 things I wished people have told me about internship before I started. Haha !

1) Make sure your resume is perfect !

I really mean it, PERFECT ! This is the only document that you are going to use to 'sell' yourself. Some companies may arrange interview sessions or have their own online application, but most of them don't. So your email / application letter and resume must be really impressive. You don't really need to include every single thing that you have done in your campus, just put your best achievements, that will do. "Simple and Sweet" really applies here. My counselor in school once said that a good resume is only one page long. Take time to produce a perfect resume, as you will be using it again after you have graduated. There are a lot of samples on the internet, and you may also refer to your seniors / lecturers  / counselors. Although creative resume is getting popular these days, I believe that it really depends on the company that you are applying to. Recheck your resume 1000 times. Ask your friends and lecturers to check and review. It is also advisable to include your contact details both in your email and resume.

2) Research on the company that you are applying to

For audit interns, I advise you to first decide whether you are going to apply to big / medium / small firm. If you are aiming to impress future employers, interning in Big 4 might help. But trust me, when they say you will learn more in medium / small firms, it is true. As they have less employees, I have seen my friends doing audit work for 4-5 clients at one time. Whereas in Big 4, you will be engaged to one client at a time (for audit interns) as most of their clients are giants of their industries. It will help if you first decide which one you prefer. Next, read up about the company. Customise each email, do not send the same email to all the companies you are applying to. By reading up about the company, you may include in your email the reasons you want to have your internship there, they will be impressed ! You may also ask your seniors that have done their internship in your targeted companies regarding their experience.

3) Know when to apply

Most people say that you need to submit your application latest by 3 moths before you start. This also depends on the company that you are applying to. Take PwC for example (as I did my intern there), I sent my application months before but received no reply at first as they were busy selecting interns for the batch before me (they have monthly intakes). But ! Late application may also cause you difficulties, as you need to also fight with the students from other universities to secure a place. Hence, as I mentioned, you need to know when to apply. 

4) Prepare for interviews

Once you have submitted your application, always be aware of phone calls. Some of them might even engage you in a phone interview ON THE SPOT. It is nerve-wrecking (it was for me !), hence you need to always be prepared and expect this. Some of the companies arrange interview session for future interns. It helps if you can find any senior that had their internship there so that you are mentally prepared for the interview especially on how it will be conducted. 

5) Update your logbook EVERYDAY

So once you have started your internship, I personally advise you to have a small notebook that you can carry all the time. If you are sooo busy to update your logbook (that will be given to you by your intern coordinator, where you need to type and submit to your manager every week), this notebook will serve that purpose. You can write all the tasks for that day whenever you have the time. If you jot down your update everyday, the logbook will be the easiest part of the final report. 

6) Take the chance to learn as much as possible

Be brave to speak out. Tell your seniors to give you more work because you want to learn more. Even if you are not assigned to that particular senior, just take up the job, given you have the capacity. The only way to learn is by doing. Expect printing, copying, scanning jobs. While doing all those, you can actually try to read up the document and learn from that too ! And if you are a major introvert (like me !), this is the only way for you to get to know people and for people to get to know you, as you may find it difficult to just get in the crowd for no reason.

7) Do not be intimidated by others

You and your friends will have different experiences during this internship period. Some of them might learn more than you, might be engaged with more clients, might know more seniors. In my case, I was assigned to the GST department. I have always wanted to do audit so at first I was a bit demoralised listening to my friends' experience. But hey. It is okay to have different experience compared to your friends, so do not ever feel intimidated. What you get, is what best for you. If you have tried your best, there is no reason to feel so ! 

8) Create network

Take the chance to know more people. Talk to the seniors, other interns. Do not just live in your own world in the office. It will help you a lot in completing your tasks. And who knows, one fine day you might meet them again in this corporate path !

9) Scholars ! Remember that you have extra money !

This is just a friendly reminder. If you are a scholar, you might want to check with your scholarship provider whether they have extra allowance for interns or not. And if they do have, what are the procedures to claim it. This might help pay your transportation and super expensive food at your workplace.

10) Do your report wholeheartedly

I do not think I can comment much on this as the final marks for my internship has not yet been announced (pray for me !). As this takes up the largest percentage of your internship marks, you might want to really invest your time (and money) to complete this report. Trust me, if you have written all the things you did in those 6 months, this will not be a problem. I strongly advise for you to check the guidelines for the report (usually similar to previous years) BEFORE you finish your intern. Sometimes, the information required in the report are only accessible by the employees of the firm. Therefore it will be helpful to look through the guidelines and collect the information while you still have the access to it.

To wrap this up. Some of the memories during my internship in PwC :) 

The geniuses and I during our last day of internship.

Mini games conducted by the HR dept, and they gave us lots of snacks ! 

Intern reception
- where they gathered all the interns and there were more than 100 of us ! 

That is all that I can think of now, hope this little effort can help in starting your journey ! All the best ! ;D 

Kisah Sihat Sebelum Sakit, Hidup Sebelum Mati

Assalamualaikum wbt (:

Alhamdulillah, Allah SWT mengizinkan masa, mengizinkan ilham untuk menulis lagi. Rindu jugak nak berkongsi kat sini, but asif, idea itu bukanlah sesuatu yang datang dengan senang setelah memetik jari.

Petik jari. Petik jari. Nope. Not any.

Okay, dah mengarut.  

So the story goes. A few weeks back, I was admitted to the hospital due to asthma and bad cough. Saaaangat terkejut masa tu serius tak tipu sebab sepanjang hidup Amal, tak pernah sakit sampai kena admit ward. I had asthma when I was in primary school, tapi kalau kena attack pergi hospital kena neb sekali then, okay ! Boleh kembali berjimba bersama kengkawan. Tapi kali ni, dah neb 2 kali dalam masa 2 hari, tapi masih tak berhenti. And oh, masa ni dah masuk second week of study break (MMU bagi study break 2 minggu for this sem).

Memula tu of course lah reluctant nak pergi hospital. Kalau Doktor decide untuk tahan kat ward, burn begitu sahajalah study break beta. Risauuu, sangat risau. Because seriously, this semester was one of the toughest yet T_T tapi atas nasihat Ummi, terpaksalah akur, hospital it is.

Doctor was shocked hearing how bad my cough was. Neb again. X-ray. Injection. So yupp. Memang kena admit. I posted about it in my Instagram, NOT hoping for sympathy, but really, it was a few days till final exam and I need lots and lots of prayers. To get well, and to do well in exam. Konon bawak buku ke hospital, but heh, once dah inject ubat, memang mata tertutup rapat.

Eh pantun dua kerat :P

Empat hari dihabiskan di hospital dan Alhamdulillah, I felt better. Doktor nak tahan sampai weekend tapi berjaya buat muka kesian minta simpati and I was back in MMU on Friday. Study time ! zzzz.

IBRAH DARIPADA KAMAR HOSPITAL

1)      Sihat sebelum sakit

Kan Amal kena asthma, ya Allah seriously, sangat-sangat sukar untuk baca al-Quran masa tu. Sedih bila satu nafas tu hanya mampu baca 2-3 kalimah. Masa tu sangat down, so akhirnya just baca dengan cara yang termampu.

Masa tu memang tetapkan nekad dalam hati. “Bila aku sihat, aku nak baca al-Quran banyak-banyak”.

Sama jugak dengan solat. Nurse ada cucuk kat tangan untuk masukkan drip (rujuk gambar diatas). Boleh je nak stopkan drip sekejap untuk solat, tapi everytime stop kena panggil nurse, and bila dah stop and nak start balik drip tu akan rasa sakit sikit. So Ummi cadangkan untuk solat duduk and tak perlu bukak drip. Kan kita tahu, setiap pergerakan tu ada hikmah dia. After two days, seriously, I really miss performing the rukuk, and sujud. Alhamdulillah, drip tu di-stop selepas dua hari camtu.

Masa tu memang nekad dalam hati, “Bila aku sihat, aku nak sujud sepuasnya”.

2)      Hidup sebelum mati

During the first week of the study break, I went back to Kelantan for my brother’s wedding. Asthma came in the morning that I was supposed to depart back to KL. Mulanya Ummi tak bagi balik KL yet, tapi atas sebab-sebab tertentu, and sebab exam pun dah nak dekat, terpaksa digagahkan untuk pulang. Tapi on the way balik tu, jalan sangat-sangat jem till we took 13 hours to reach KL. So bayangkanlah, dalam kereta, bertahan dengan asthma tu selama 13 jam. Serius, memang tak stop wheezing langsung all the way. And yang paling sedih, bila borak-borak dengan my friends dalam kereta, diorang tak boleh buat lawak or gelak cause I’ll be laughing too and that’ll just make the cough worse. And masa tu tak boleh terlelap, sebab susah nak bernafas.

And takut. Kalau tiba-tiba tak boleh bernafas. Langsung.

Masa tu memang reflect all the things that I have done, or the things that I have not done. Takut ? Yupp, memang takut. Sebab kita ni kadang-kadang tak sedar. Mati tu dekat. Sebab kita tak tau bila. So dia sangat dekat. Sangat. Mungkin tengah berbaring atas katil sambil tengok Instagram artis-artis feveret, then pintu diketuk.

Malaikat maut tanya, “Kamu dah bersedia ?”  

Kita pun jawab, “Belum la Encik Malaikat. Datang balik lagi 20 tahun eh. Bagi saya kumpul ilmu kumpul amal dulu. Eh eh eh ? Jzkk Encik Malaikat”.

PFFT. NO !

Bila Allah SWT arahkan Izrail untuk cabut satu nyawa, TIADA satu daya upaya pun untuk hentikan Izrail.

Again. Mati itu dekat.

Tapi SEPATUTNYA kita tak takut mati. Pernah dibincangkan dengan kakak dalam bulatan gumbira. “Bila masa terbaik untuk mati ?”, tanya kakak. Kitorang keluar laa macam-macam jawapan sendiri. Tapi kakak tak jawab minggu tu. Dia kata, nanti dia bagi jawapan, suruh kitorang fikir dulu.

Beberapa minggu lepas tu, kakak tanya lagi, siapa yang dah tau jawapan dia. Semua senyap, memang tak tau. “Masa terbaik untuk mati adalah sekarang.”

Eh. Nak kena bunuh diri ke ?

Oh no. Maksudnya, kita kena sentiasa MENJAGA IMAN PADA TAHAP TERTINGGI. Sebab tu para sahabat Rasulullah SAW, mana yang takut mati !

Pergh. “Jauhnya aku..”

Masa tu memang nekad dalam hati, “Selagi aku hidup, akan aku hidup untuk Allah”.

IBRAH DARIPADA KAMAR RUMAH

Allah SWT itu, ar-Rahman.

Bila kita terlupa, Dia ingatkan.

Dia buat kita sakit, atau Dia turunkan ujian.

Bila kita terleka, Dia tarik tangan kita.

Dia letak bersama sahabat-sahabat yang soleh.

Bila kita alpa, Dia ketuk pintu hati kita.

Dia turunkan rasa rindu pada Dia.

Bila kita berfoya, Dia hilangkan 239 orang yang kita tak kenal.

Supaya kita muhasabah, kita mungkin berada antara mereka.

Tapi kita di sini, kenapa ?

Kita sentiasa lupa,  tapi Allah SWT sentiasa mengingatkan. Cuma kita yang sudah faham, kita perlu berusaha untuk cari cara dan sentiasa INGAT. Sebab mungkin, satu hari nanti, Allah SWT decides not to remind anymore, but instead, to send Izrail over. Astaghfirullah. 

Istiqamah, jawapannya.

Wallahua’lam.

P/S: I'd like to thank the person who sent me to the hospital and took care of me for 2 nights. I'd like to thank Ummi for taking care of me the following 2 nights. I'd like to thank those who came to visit. Those who brought me to the clinic. Those who sent prayers from afar and in silent. Those who wished me well in texts and in Instagram. Hope Allah SWT will repay all of you wonderful people with His astounding rewards (: 

Lets pray for MH370, shall we ?