This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 12, 2017 - June 18, 2017

HELLO! This is Fung Fung, the 18-year-old who can’t decide on her career path.(Er, please don’t assume that we millennials are forever soul-searching, okay? But YOLO! — you only live once — so, we seriously don’t want to make hasty decisions … and we’re not making excuses, alright?)

Once, I thought of studying animal husbandry in Australia. A country where there are more cows than people should know how to do it right, I guess. But I was told cow farts are causing problems there.

My plan was to get a government grant after graduation to start a goat farm. No, not cattle. (A company tried that before but it failed. That made the headlines some years back … so better not try my luck).

However, I’ve changed my mind of late — I want to be a civil servant. I’ve read news of them getting increments and bonuses although the government’s budget is tight. Budget allocations get cut elsewhere, like healthcare and education, but the government still takes good care of civil servants (good boss, isn’t it?).

More importantly, it is unlikely that I would lose my job. Companies may go bankrupt because of mismanagement or bad economic conditions, like in 1998, the year before I was born.  So many companies went belly up then. Auntie Christine was among those retrenched. Working in the public sector, I will be sheltered from this risk, I think. Our government won’t go bankrupt, will it?

By following instructions strictly and doing what I am told, I should be able to stay in the civil workforce until retirement. “Yes, sir!”, “Boleh, boss!” …  it’s not that difficult to say, I think.

Oh yes, retirement! Pension is another fun thing I heard about. (I know, we millennials are too young to talk about this, but we need to plan ahead too, guys!) If I were a civil servant, I would get paid even after I retired.  Auntie Siow Li, who was a teacher (the cikgu with a fat rotan), told me about that. It is the same for her husband Pak Cik Zulhi, who was a ketua jabatan, or head of department. He is still drawing a  partial salary even though he has stopped working.

Isn’t that good? Your employer will  support you until your last day on this earth. As to how the government has so much money to do that, I think this should not be my concern, right? …  I think there will always be someone filling the nation’s coffers.

Alright, I think I want to be a civil servant, at least for now. The government is a good employer, otherwise there would not be 1.6 million civil servants in Malaysia, right?

Wait a minute! Since there are already so many civil servants, how many more does the government need to hire?

Malaysia has one civil servant to 19.37 people, compared with 1:50 in South Korea 1:50 and 1:17.4 in Singapore. Which is better? Malaysia or the other two? Let’s google ... oops! Don’t think I want to look at the search results.

Anyway, I hope the government will hire me, otherwise I would be raising the youth unemployment figure, which is above 10% currently — three times higher than the national jobless rate.

Maybe I should not worry too much. By the time I graduate from university, assuming it happens in 2022, Malaysia would have become a high-income nation, according to the government. So, there should be plenty of jobs for us millennials and we don’t need to fight with our elders, the Gen-Y and Gen-X, right?

The prime minister has just launched  a Digital Free Trade Zone project (hope it is not like the one in Klang). There should always be hope for us millennials soon. Mr Prime Minister, we are counting on you! Don’t let us down!

Disclaimer: This is neither a commentary nor criticism. The writer is not responsible for the reader’s assumptions. So, don’t take it seriously!

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