Career Path Of A Professional Ops Manager

Written by Kah Moey on July 29th, 2010

By referring to the club meeting update: What Does A Risk Meant To You?Toastmaster Ooi Ing Chyuan (IC Ooi) presented his first speech with title “About Me”, the Assignment No 1 in Competent Communication manual – The Ice Breaker.

His speech was about his working experience. From his speech, we knew that, his career path made his life full of varieties of working experience, from technical to operational, training and management spaces. And, we knew that, he is keen to learn, fight for opportunities, but not a “sit and wait” person.

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Below is the full script of his speech…

Fellow toastmasters and guests… a very good evening to you. my name is IC Ooi.

The title of my speech is about me. There are only 4 to 6 minutes available for this speech and I’ve lived for more than 40 years now. It’s definitely going to take more than just 4 minutes to tell you everything about me. And so, instead of giving you a vague overall description of who I am, I’ll share with you my career and working experience so you can know me more from that perspective.

My first professional job was a product engineer with Intel. My primary area was in test. I developed test programs and failure analysis for yield improvements. The job was very technical. Overtime, I felt that it wasn’t the type of job for me. I got tired of working with machines and computers and being confined in labs and factory. I wanted to deal with people and go out and see the world. After 2 years, I resigned from Intel and joined a small local company as a sales engineer.

The work nature and environment was totally different from Intel. From a huge multi-national organization employing thousands of employees to a company of 15 people, occupying the 2nd floor of a shop lot in Jelutong. That was the company I got myself into and spent my next 4 years. I worked very hard and because of that, I learned many things about closing sales, preparing sales budget, developing new markets etc…and I worked hard because I enjoyed it. Eventually, I was promoted to became sales manager. I had to do a lot of traveling and entertainment, which was fine with me at that time, until I got married. My priorities changed. My focus changed. I realized that I couldn’t go on doing what I was doing anymore. Opportunity came when Intel set up commodity team in Kulim and I was the candidate they looked for.

I rejoined Intel as materials engineer, then switch to commercial as commodity specialist and eventually became the commodity manager. I thought I was going into a less hectic job. It turned out that I traveled even more. Within the 4 years in commodity management, I’ve traveled dozens of times to the US, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, India and Singapore. It was exciting at the beginning but I burned out towards the end. I spend another 2 years in supply chain management as Outsource Program Manager dealing with sub cons in China before I made a 90 degree turn in my career path. I switched to HR department at Intel to become the Training Manager.

It’s a totally different skill set all together. Nothing related to what I had done up to that point. I continued to move on within HR to become HR Business Partner for one of the business units. In that role, I served as HR advisor to the business group. Then, another change came. I got the position of an Operations Manager within a business unit which I’ve been doing until today…

So to summarize, my professional career started from technical to sale and marketing to supply chain management to training and HR and now Operations Management. While going through these positions, I’ve also been an active instructor and facilitator both in Intel and outside Intel. I’ll most likely to continue the Ops Manager role for a while before the next change.

I hope with this short introduction, you now know me more in terms of what do and my professional background. There are many other wonderful things about me that you will find interesting and I’ll be more than happy to share with you when we have time. For now, this is all about me.

Thank you..

 

Through out IC Ooi’s speech, he showed his steadiness, had clear voice, well prepared, and no note was used. What a wonderful speech of his!! I personally was impressed by his professional skill sets and the success that he achieved in his life!

Toastmaster IC Ooi, you did a very good job in delivering your first speech!! And I believe, you will learn even more through out the journey in Toastmasters Club!! We are looking forward for your next speech to tell us more about you! :)

 

Division H TLI (Part I) Training

Written by Kah Moey on July 27th, 2010

Last Saturday, 24th July 2010, Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club Exco members just attended the Division H Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI)  Part I training at The New Club in Taiping.

The training is mainly for club Exco members, to let them know what are their roles and responsibilities, and how to work on it in order to achieve the goals of the Toastmasters Clubs. There are two training session in every term of one year, which are Part I and Part II.

** Click on the pictures to view in original size **

The New Club Taiping

Brief introduction on The New Club:
The New Club was established in 1892 by European members of the Perak Club, which is one of the oldest clubs in Malaysia. A now defunct club that was founded even earlier, in 1885. The New Club holds the distinction of having the first golf course in the Federated Malay State, and the second oldest golf course in SEA.

The Exco members reached the New Club earlier in order to make sure that they went to the correct venue.

The long house :P

This is the venue where the training was held.
I personally call it as “long house”. :)

 

Since the time was early, after confirmation on the venue, the members decided to hang around the area nearby. There was the Taiping Lake nearby the New Club. The lake and the old trees contribute a peaceful environment around the area. Thus, the Exco members took a group photo as memory of the relax environment.

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The Exco members from left to right:
Ben Wan (SAA), YC NG (President), Jeffrey Ooi (VPPR),
Easter Lee (Secretary), Kah Moey (VPM)

After a relax walk around, the members went back to the venue, prepared themselves for the TLI training.

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The TLI training committee members 
were preparing for the training session

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This was the slides for TLI Part I training

 

There were a few speakers (trainers) to provide training. One of them was Sue Chan, DTM.

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Sue Chan, DTM was providing her speech
on “Charting Course for Club Success”
** The picture above is obtained from Kenny Lee’s facebook **

There was another speech by Ramdas Nayar, DTM on “Motivating Achievement”.
After 2 training sessions, they had a tea break.

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The members were enjoying the nasi lemak
provided during the tea break

**
The picture above is obtained from
Kenny Lee’s facebook **

After the tea break, they had the “break up session”, which all Exco members were broken up into different groups, according to their roles. Every group of members were to have interactive session with a trainer, to know what their roles and responsibilities suppose to be.

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During the break up session, the presidents were gathered
to discuss on the roles and responsibilities of a president.
The same session went to the other groups, such as VPE, VPM, etc.
** The picture above is obtained from Kenny Lee’s facebook **

After the break up session, there were two more speeches on attracting the new members and to know what are the important values of Toastmasters.

The trainers, speakers and the Exco members took a group photo after the training sessions.

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The group photo of trainers, speakers and the Exco members
** The picture above is obtained from Kenny Lee’s facebook **

I believe, the Exco members learned a lot from the speeches of the trainers and the break up session.

After the TLI adjournment, Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club Exco members took another group photo at the outside of the “long house”.

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The group photo at The New Club
The Exco members from left to right:
Jeffrey, Easter, Kah Moey, YC Ng, Justin (VPE), Ben

(Finally, Justin was able to make it for the training, although he got to rush from his work. ^^ )

After leaving The New Club, the Exco members from Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club, MEF Toastmasters Club and BM Big Foot Toastmasters Club  and started to have food hunting for a joint dinner at Kuala Sepetang. They got lost, and they finally got the right place for dinner.

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A seafood restaurant on the sea at Kuala Sepetang

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The Exco members from Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club

(The president and SAA couldn’t make it for dinner session as they were rushing back to Penang)

It was great to see all Exco members from different Toastmasters Clubs to have a joint dinner after training. I believe all of them enjoyed the dinner a lot!

You may click on the link below to view more photos of the trip to Taiping. :)
Division-H-TLI-Training-Part_I

 

Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club Exco members, Let us do the best as we can!! :D

 

A Touching Speech About Appreciation To Her Late Grandmother

Written by YC. Ng on July 25th, 2010

Toastmasters Kah Moey completed her Competent Communication Assignment No 3 on 20th July meeting. She delivered a very touching speech, where she shared how her late grandmother made her life a success and how she influenced her throughout her growing journey.

Kah Moey CC3

Kah Moey CC3

…I decided to jot down all the stories told by her. Now, she has left me, and I managed to jot down 15 chapters of her stories. Those are truly grandma stories, which are the stories about a great wife, a great mother, and a great grandmother. She will always be in my heart, and I will always miss her.

- Kah Moey

Jessica Tan, Evaluator

Jessica Tan, ACS, CL, delivered her evaluation for Kah Moey's speech

Here is her full speech…

When we are done for an event, we usually have appreciation session for the committee members to appreciate the efforts they put in to the event to make it a success. Today, I would like to have an appreciation session for a person, who made my life a success. She is none other than my grandmother, who had influenced me a lot throughout my growing journey.

She was the person who educated me when I did anything wrong while my parents were not around; She was the person who taught me the China Hokkien Language, which most of my friends don’t really understand; She was the person who told me all the incidents that she has gone through since the Ching Dynasty, until the establish of the Republic of China, until the World War II, until 26 June 2010. Yes, she has just completed her life of 100 years, a century. It was a long journey for her, but it was a short journey for me to be with her.

Since I was born, she baby-sat me until the last moment of her life. Every time, when I went out with my friends, or went out for any event until late at night, she would sit in the living room and wait for me. No matter it was 8pm, 10pm, 12am or 2am, she just sat there and waited for me to return home. She just wanted to confirm, to make sure that I returned home safely.

And, every morning, when I woke up at 5am, I saw her sitting in front of the Buddha statue. She prayed to Buddha, she prayed for us, hope that all of us have safe journeys to work, to the school and back to home. She prayed for us, hope that everyone of us meets kind people outside, so that our work could be done smoothly. I know, the care and love that she has towards me, and even my family, can be endless mentioned.

I thanked her for the care and love, and I thanked her for the understanding and encouragements. When I was in Standard 1, there was once the nurses came to the school for an injection. I was very afraid of injection at that time, so I appealed to her, saying that I didn’t want to go to the school because of the injection. She didn’t scold me, but she explained the purpose of the injection, and she told me that, I should go and face all the difficulties and fears in my heart by myself, because she and my parents will not always be there for me.

When I went to secondary school, I got the first for the whole academic year. She was so proud of me, although I was not from the famous schools like Jit Sin and Chung Ling. When I graduated from the university, she was so happy until she even called up my relatives in China to inform them about the news of my graduation. When I bought a car, she felt so glad of me and asked me to fetch her everywhere. When I bought a house, she was so excited to pack her things and wait there, to move in to my new house.

From her expressions, from her actions, I know that, she was truly happy for all my achievements.

I still remember, when I just finished my SPM, she fell sick. A very serious illness until she couldn’t even wake up. However, she still managed to teach me how to cook lunch and dinner for my family. I personally don’t like to cook, even until now. At that time, because my parents were working, so I took care of her day and night. During that period of time, when I was free, I would sit down beside her, chit chat with her, and listened to her stories, again and again.

I knew that, she may leave me one day. Therefore, I decided to jot down all the stories told by her. Now, she has left me, and I managed to jot down 15 chapters of her stories. Those are truly grandma stories, which are the stories about a great wife, a great mother, and a great grandmother. She will always be in my heart, and I will always miss her.

I can tell you loved her very much, Kah Moey. I’m sure she heard you from where she was and very proud to have listened to the lovely speech about her.

Well done, Kah Moey! Looking forward to your speech No. 4.

 

What Does A Risk Meant To You?

Written by Kah Moey on July 25th, 2010

Here comes another meeting of Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club on 20th July 2010!

Theme of the meeting:
Dare to take risks

The new term of Toastmasters comes with the new challenges to the new exco members. Some people refer the challenges as risks, whereas some people define the challenges as opportunities.

What is your definition of the word “challenge”? Feel free to leave us a comment about your thought on the challenges that you had in your life before. :) We appreciate your opinions and your personal experience!

With the theme “Dare to take risks”, there came 2 questions during the Table Topic session.

Table Topic Master - Ben

Table Topic Master – Ben

Q1. What was the greatest risk in your life? How did you overcome it?

Rajagopal, DTM, shared that…

the greatest risk in his life was to join Toastmasters. Although he has been teaching English for so many years, but he is still learning, and receiving feedback from other people through the presentation of speeches.

It seems that risks are the opportunities for him to keep on learning in his life.

 

Q2. Please share with us on the risky moment that you have encountered.

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Our IPP, Jessica, ACS, CL, shared that…
She faced a risky moment when she was back from a concert in KL. She missed the bus, so she stayed in the hotel for one night alone, without companion of her friends.

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One of the guests, Livia, shared that…
The risky moment in her life was when she was to choose to go for matriculation course, or go for local university. That was because she was waiting for the response of her application of the government scholarship to study overseas. Now, she has got her scholarship to study in US.

Thanks for the speakers above for sharing their personal experience during the Table Topic session. :)

 

Besides that, we had our assignment speeches from 3 speakers.

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IC Ooi was presenting his first speech, the Ice Breaker
- A speech about the turning points in his career journey

 

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Somascanthan was presenting his speech of CC manual project #3
- A speech to encourage us to go for voting,
perform our responsibility as a Malaysian

 

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Kah Moey was presenting her speech of CC manual project #3
- A speech about her appreciation on her late grandmother

Congratulations to the speakers above in completing their speeches!!

 

There are a few more events coming up soon!!
Stay tuned for the update from Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club website!

 

The New Term Has Begun!

Written by Kah Moey on July 24th, 2010

The first meeting of the new term was on 6th July 2010!
Whoever missed that meeting, you may take a glance of the pictures below to get to know what was going on during the meeting. :)  

Theme of the meeting:
Coming together, sharing together, working together, succeeding together

 

** Click on the pictures to view in original size **
 

We kicked off the meeting with the opening speech
from the president of the new term
– YC Ng, CC

 

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Then, followed by the introduction of guests and role players

Thought of the day:

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championship" – Michael Jordan

 

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After the Word and Thought Of The Day session, we continued with the exciting session –> Table Topics Session!

(First: Erik Ooi; Second: Kangeswary; Third: Leong)

 

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After that, there came 5 speakers for the assignment speech on the stage

(First: Somascanthan; Second: Darvin; Third: Kameles)

 

Congratulations to all the assignment speakers below for moving another step forward again!!

  1. Somascanthan – CC assignment #2
  2. Darvin – CC assignment #1
  3. Kameles – CC assignment #2
  4. EasterLee – CC assignment #2
  5. Ben – CC assignment #4

 

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During the General Evaluation session,

the co-evaluators were providing the reports of the speakers

 

We ended the meeting with the closing speech from the president, YC Ng.

Although it was the end of the meeting, but it is not the end of our learning journey.

Let us work it out in achieving greatness together!