I wanted to share with you the career transition from a financial institution to an education sector. I used to work in a financial institution for a few years before I took a leap of faith into education line. There are a lot of differences between those two industries in almost every aspect of work. However, I will only touch on a few here.
During my previous job, I was a Risk Management Officer. My task was mainly to investigate incidents that occurred every month, the loss incurred, how to recover the loss and to chase all H.O.D to submit monthly report to me. The summary was presented during monthly top management meeting. Other than that, we do perform Internal Audit & Risk Framework. The most interesting thing about this job is that I am able to travel to other offices/branches when carrying out investigations. I don't do similar things every day, and getting to know a lot of people while representing Malaysia in some international conferences. 
The not so fun things about the job is definitely super high stressed, investigating is not an easy task to do as I need to look back the process flow from the beginning to find gap that causes the error to happened and to suggest ways to mitigate the risk. I was having a good life before, but I left it all of that just to complete my thesis, which I have already extended 1 semester for it. Plus, I kind of feel that I have been working too long in that company. I needed some fresh air. 
After completing my studies. I decided to tap into different industry, be it Oil & Gas, Real Estate etc. And there was Vision College, a step into education line. To be honest, I never heard of Vision College before. It was an unfamiliar small college located near my house because when people talk about education institutions in Kelana Jaya, the name Unitar will always popped up.
I had a totally different experience in Vision College. Though it is a small college, but it has been surviving for the past 12 years. To my surprise, it has good courses like Diploma in Medical Imaging, Diploma in Nursing and even Postgraduate Diploma in Ultrasonography. And now, they have Diploma in Law Enforcement.
Working with Vision College gave me a mixture of feelings, but as time goes by I started to feel enjoyed being part of them. I used to be among the youngest in my previous department and suddenly the opposite way here. Other than that, they don't have a proper system for everything, most are being done manually. After all, Vision College is still a growing company, all of that will come through time.
My current job allows me to travel across the country but not to those tourist spots but mainly deep into all the rural areas which I never heard of before. I am like an explorer, finding potential students every time I'm on the field. Recruiting new students more or less reminds me of my study time as a student leader. Doing consultation, helping out with their problems and dealing with the parents is basically the same thing I did before.
I love the job that I'm doing now, it gave me a pleasure seeing all these kids decided to change their future by pursuing their studies. Watching them grow and becoming a much more responsible person is the best gift in life for me. Thanks Vision for that.
Moreover, I get to know all of the staff here unlike my previous company there were thousands of staff and I barely know half of them. The people are very nice here and young; like me. Because of that, I also become a much more playful person. I guess it must be the young blood that runs through my veins. Last but not least, I never had a chance to work in a small company before. It is actually very good for starters. You will get to learn a lot of things, multitasking. All of this will definitely help you in building a good career ahead. Just spend a couple of years then you're good to go.
In summary, I do experienced a lot here, I have a good and very young team and I love them so much, I get a chance to travel, I rarely get sick, and I even developed a whole new experience that I never faced before. Working, be it in education, financial institutions or anywhere are mostly the same. It is all about how you manage yourself, how you handle the situation and to cope with the environment. I do miss my life as a young corporate, but I am more keen to learn more about education industry and how far it can take me to.
Prepared by,
Zhafri Zanuri
Course Counselor
Vision College
