Starting salary for Research Assistant in Malaysia

 As soon as I finished my last paper in UKM, I packed all my remaining stuff and headed to Kuching. I didn't even travel like many graduates these days. I started my first real job as a research assistant in Institute of Health and Community Medicine, UNIMAS. My monthly salary was approximately RM1000. That's pathetically low. But who's complaining. For one who intend to pursue post graduate study and making a career in science, research assistantship is the very first step. Mind you, it's not easy to find such post in Malaysia. I don't claim to be the best. My boss gave me the chance to work in her lab because she liked someone with totally no experience with celll culture, DNA extraction and PCR. 

 

Six months passed and a new window of opportunity appeared. I was offered the post of Research Officer and Mastership in USM, with monthly salary double of what I earned in UNIMAS. One thing for sure. To be a good researcher, learning every scientific methods of getting an answer to science is pivotal. Being a Master candidate with salary is a privilege. Even to this very day.

  

In less than a year, I'm not very happy with the lab management. Not so much of having problem with my supervisor but sharing lab with other research group got on my nerves many a times. So, a word of advice here. Try not to join a research group with no lab facilities of its own. It doesn't worth the headache. 

 

 

I applied online for a research assistant vacancy in NUS, Singapore. I had no friends in the republic. I knew nobody there. The interview was difficult but the boss was happy with my research experience. I was offered a monthly salary of almost double of what I used to earn in USM. I'm actually follow a very conservative route of making a career in scientific world. 

In less than a year, I was offered a training in Miami for two years. Here lies the problem. Research assistantship is tied to the amount of grant applied. In other words, there will be not be much increments with the increasing years of work. I quited soon to join National Heart Centre as Research Officer with salary of at least 25% more of what I earned in NUS.

Last advice from me. If you are a Science graduate, always seek for every chance of improving your scientific skills. Don't look at the low salary in the beginning. Else, forget about being a scientist. Might as well becoming a lab technician which will earn you at least half a million ringgit in five years in Singapore.

Starting Salary of Biochemist in Malaysia

My job is known as Biochemist in Malaysian public hospital. I've been working in the industry since late 2009. When I reported duty on my first day, I was told that my monthly salary shall be RM2782.97.

A biochemistry course is a difficult one. Trust me. There are too many pathways to remember. And too many terms to understand. And with this recombinant technology and that enzymology, where got time to watch movies?

I went into Biochemistry course in UKM because my seniors told us that it's easy to get in. It wasn't even called Biochemistry at the time. The course is spelled as Molecular and Cellular Biology. Biochemistry is my major in Year 2. Sounds sophisticated, right. If you googled Biochemistry Job Prospect, this is what you see on the first search


"The career prospects and employment opportunities of biochemists have shown considerable improvement over the past years. Jobs are being offered by both government and private medical institutions and hospitals engaged in research activities related to various diseases and disorders like AIDS, cancer, mental disorders etc. The pharmaceutical industry where genetically engineered drugs are developed and manufactured also look forward to employing biochemists. Research related agricultural industries and institutions also absorb individuals with background in biochemistry." 

In Malaysia, don't talk about career prospect. Job prospects are hard enough to grab by. One can be best employed by the Ministry of Health, Malaysia as a Pegawai Sains (Kimia Hayat). Private medical laboatories hardly employ biochemists because profit is still much highly rated rather than the results' qualities. In my cohort, there were at least 100 of us. I knew none of them working in public hospitals. 

A quick check on the Net will reveal that there are at least 18 Malaysian institutions offering biochemistry degree course. A simple arithmetic works out approximately 1800 graduates in a year! Do I know what I was going to study when I enrolled into the course? No. 

Do you think these 1800 people know what they are studying? I haven't counted those who go overseas to study biochemistry.

Unless, you are very sure that you want to become a good scientist. And you have great depth of English language, please read my next post. Stay tuned. Else, don't bother to enrol into a biochemistry course.

Durian Season

My father in law bought few durians for about RM10 a piece in Poh Kwong Park area. The durians came from Bau, as claimed by the durian seller. They were huge in size but two of them were filled with worms. The bad ones were exchanged but we were given two smaller size ones. The durians, nonetheless were great. Thick meat, very sweet (one with a tinge of bitterness) and silky in texture.

Durian from Bau

My parents who came from Sibu last Friday, bought a lot of durians near Lachau (a couple of hours from Kuching) If my Maths is still alright, I counted at least 30 of them. 4 durians for RM10. That's a good bargain. Compared to my in law's, the size were much smaller and the meat was not thick. But, texture was as silky, sweet and the aroma was very inviting.

A quarter of the loot

 I ate at least 7 durians for the past 48 hours. There are still a lot of durians in the fridge. We like cold durian. I heard of people complaining of getting high cholesterol but eating 3 prawns. Then how about glucose in my blood with traces of rambutans, langsats,durians and a feast in Four Point's restaurant? Unthinkable.

Great Durian

At least 2 durians were too ripe or the water had seeped in, making the durian soggy

Day 4 in Korea - Korean street food, finally

We had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant but the choices were limited. It's incomparable to our second day's hotel breakfast. Wife said the toasted bread was very good. I didn't even go to try its chef-prepared noodles and omelette. Probably expecting too much since we had a great start.

Restaurant's interior view

As usual, we departed at around 9 a.m. I didn't usually look through the itineraries. I preferred to relax, not expecting too much of the day's planned activities. Rather I tried to enjoy all the new places had to offer.

First stop, Gyeongbokgung Palace. The bus stopped at the vicinity of the National Folk Museum. And we walked towards the kitchen of the royal palace. Julie passed us the entrance tickets which cost 2400 won each. And again, Apple Tour had paid for all the entrance tickets required in our tour.

The kitchen area was huge. Julie explained something about Da Chanjing and  the filming site. She said the place was quite empty and some clients complained about it. So, the tour agency canceled the filming site visit and included the real site of the story as part of the tour.

Part of kitchen area

Entrace leading into the palace

I was busy clicking away that I didn't listen to Julie's explanations. Apparently, the palace held the residences of king and his queens.

Look at the mystical stones at the end of the roof

Who was the mystical creature?

Sun WuKong?

We reached the palace's banquet hall for the king to entertain his guests. Julie said the place had to be built high up because there wasn't any car around during the dynasty. They had horse carriages and the stench was bad. The guests would not go back after dinner and the huge place would be partitioned for the guests to spend their night there.

Next stop, the great hall where the king worked. It's far much smaller than the one I saw in Beijing. The Korean king was rather creative. He built gold decorative dragons high above the roof for his own enjoyment, probably the only thing to release stress during the working day.

After an hour visiting the palace, we were brought to a Change of Guard ceremony. Interestingly, there was a band that was leading the whole episode. An ancient band with ancient musical instruments. The guards were wearing the ancient costumes. I took a number of pictures and tried comparing my height with theirs.

Nice hat, friend

As we walked back to our waiting bus, we saw a cute girl wearing hanbok, the traditional Korea costume. She must had felt awkward because out of sudden, there were so many uncles and aunties taking pictures of her. She even smiled at everyone. 

I just can't emphasize more. In every attraction in Korea, the toilets are structured very nicely and clean. Gawd! One can imagine how toilets look like in Batu Caves or even Zoo Negara! No offence but it's a reality.

It's shopping time. Julie didn't bring us to medium range or low range department store. But rather high end shopping mall called Doota. It's in Dongdaemun which itself is a very huge place. It's a small version of MidValley but the stalls are small selling all kinds of Korean clothes, cosmetics and some limited souvenirs.

Children Floor

Lunch was on our own and we ordered a 8000 won Dolsot Bibimbap after having a great one on the first day. The verdict? A great disappointment. Serving was very small and the taste was too bland.

Moving on, we were brought to a Cultural Centre where we were taught the steps of making kimchi.The guys were hopeless in this work. I let Wife did my portion and the other guys were wandering about in area. All the kimchi we made would be sent to an orphanage. There were some kimchi samplings and we decided to buy a buy 5-get 1 free deal. The kimchi were sold in a 500gramme a bag and sold for 10 000 won.

The instructor who talked in fluent Mandarin

Spread the paste one leaf at a time

Slow and steady

Ta.. daa

Any Korean in me?

As we walked out, I took picture of the local apartments. We were told that in Korea, they need to pay a lump sum of 8000 to 10 000 US dollars to rent a place similar to an apartment shown below for two years. Electricity, water and other utilities bills will be paid by the tenants. Average salary earned by a university graduate in Korea is RM6000 a month and a standard apartment easily cost a whopping RM3 million ringgit!

Picture was taken as I walked on a zebra crossing.

Our bus dropped us at Insadong, a famous place selling antiques and souvenirs. We were very surprised to see many stalls selling Korean street food! As soon as we approached the first stall selling "Dragon Brazier Charcoal Fire Dumpling & Pie". The burning place looked similar to the one in kompia shop in Sibu or any mamak place selling Roti Naan.

Picture taken as soon as we walked down the bus.

The "dumpling" had various types of inti and we ordered one with meat. It was really GOOD!

Highly recommended!

Julie suggested us to try another snack. The queue was long when we approached the stall. It was cooked like how our roti canai is cooked. It was quite cheap with 1000 won a piece. The moment we had our first bite, we went "WAHHH" Heavenly cinnamon smell, sweet filling and crunchy. One would not have been to Insadong if one had not try this snack!

Very highly recommended!

We had some samplings on some other snacks but they weren't that nice compared to earlier ones.

We spent some time checking some female accessories in a shop filled with guys, young girls and aunties alike.

We went to our last stop for the day soon after. We walked towards an old building to watch the Sachoom dance show. It was modern, greatly choreographed show. We enjoyed the interactive performance.

After the Sachoom show, we bid goodbye to Insadong.

We had the last dinner in Seoul. Ginseng chicken soup. Unlike ginseng soup we have in Malaysia, they used fresh ginseng in our soup. Taste wasn't as strong as ours but it's refreshing.

Guess which the meal we had?

Interior view

Mee sua was provided to be eaten with ginseng soup. Ginseng wine was provided but it was very strong like tuak.

We were supposed to put salt and pepper on an empty plate. Pieces of chicken were to be added to the seasoning. Soup was to be drank separately. Everyone had a whole chicken to themselves! Rice was stuffed inside the chicken and it would turn like porridge later on.

Bottoms up! Err... Bowls up!

The last evening in Seoul was spent shopping in Myeongdong. We had a few other street food that night. First, the Green Tea Yoghurt. Not as good as Jeju's but better than normal McD's vanilla cone.

Next, custard bun. Bad choice. It was very sweet and horribly not nice. Not suggested!

We had sausages stuffed with rice cake. They were really good with mustard and ketchup. Must try!

Next, spicy rice cake. It was chewy and definitely hot, for me at least. We had odeng from the same stall. It was quite bland and taste like fishball in our lok lok. We didn't really enjoy them much.

Spicy rice cake

Odeng (Taste like our fish cake)

Last shot of our best snack for the evening

We spent a few hours shopping. I mean Wife. I was window shopping, enjoying the view of people walking around in this metropolitan. We'll miss Seoul and till we meet again..

Bought a lot of face masks

Free gifts