The pa$$ionate choice

He who follows his heart in his career is successful, in his own right.

MARK Zuckerberg stands to earn an extra Us$20bil (Rm62bil) or so from the upcoming Facebook IPO, doubling his current value.

The question I’ve always asked is: Is it possible for a Malaysian to have invented something like Facebook? Apparently not, even in the near future. Recently, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said “the number of science stream students has dropped up to 29% since 2007” ( Interest in science drops to critical level, The Star Online, Jan 26, tinyurl.com/7dcql76).

“The Science and Technology Human Capital Direction Plan 2020’s requirement of 60% from the science stream and 40% from the arts stream had yet to be achieved,” Khaled added.

The reasons for this are complex, and Datuk Dr Sharifah Maimunah Syed Zin, the former Curriculum Development Centre director at the Education Ministry, in her article last Sunday ( Recalibrating science education, Opinion, Stareducate, tinyurl.com/88pckzy), highlighted deficiencies in the education sector, as well as the lack of awareness of what jobs are available for a science graduate.

I think the simple truth is that the local environment itself doesn’t encourage people to take up science-based jobs.

One of the projects my company is involved in is to show JPA scholars opportunities in the Malaysian job market which they may not realise are there. There is a high demand for science graduates – but not for science-related jobs.

For example, we find that jobs in the manufacturing sector offer these scholars salaries of up to RM3,000 per month, which is competitive, considering that the current median salary in Malaysia for fresh graduates is just under that.

However, in comparison, jobs in banking and finance are offering them between RM4,000 and RM5,000 monthly. Think about it: if you were a science graduate, why would you take a job on the factory floor when you can earn almost twice as much in an office?

Even within the same company, there is a stark difference. A biotech firm, for example, will offer its sales representatives RM2,500 per month, whereas those starting out in R&D may only get RM1,800.

A biochemist I know who graduated from a distinguished university spurned the industry she was equipped to work for and joined a telco company to do management development. She was offered RM4,500 per month.

Is it any wonder that even parents seem to be encouraging their children to not go for hard-core science jobs? Just about the only thing we can take heart from is that this mindset does not only affect Malaysia.

A feature by the Us-based National Public Radio highlighted that many students are choosing jobs in investment and banking (tinyurl.com/6up83tn). At universities like Yale, Princeton, Harvard and Stanford, up to half the graduates are now taking up jobs in the finance sector. This has caused concern that the US economy may be heading in the wrong direction.

As one of the interviewees said: “The problem is that when you’ve got 20% to 30% of some of the top talent in this country going into a sector that is not necessarily contributing to economic and social productivity, that’s a problem for the country at large.”

I think it’s credible that our country has foreseen this problem. The question is, what do we do about it?

I am sure that if the salaries for sciencebased jobs are doubled, you will immediately see an increase in the number of people taking up science. But I am equally sure that companies will not (in fact, cannot) make that kind of offer.

The irony is that I am a mathematician by training who has turned to the arts, in such a way that I probably earn less money doing so.

But I didn’t do it for the money. Writing is a passion for me. So is maths. But it’s easier in Malaysia to create as a writer, than a mathematician.

I have a friend who is luckier. He works for what he calls the “financial technical industry”. Simply put, the company he works for designs mathematical models that predict financial market behaviours.

I get the impression the work he does is cutting edge, and he makes quite good money, too. But he didn’t do maths in university to end up in the financial sector.

Initially, he turned to it after his PHD because being an academic doesn’t pay very well. Then he stuck with the company because he found the job interesting. It’s not all pure mathematics and he has picked up a number of real-world skills – something he is grateful for. His passion, first in maths, and later in the company, has led him where he is now.

I’m not sure if many Malaysians are encouraged to let their heart decide their careers.

There must be many young ones who would be happy to take up science because they are interested in figuring out how the world works and what can be done to improve it.

We should be applauding them for doing this, instead of reminding them they could have a “much better career” with a higherpaying job.

Yes, passion can drive you to a much better place if you can harness it. If you believe his IPO letter, Zuckerberg just wanted to use computers to bring people together, initially. (If you believe the film, The Social Network, he did it because he had trouble with women. Then again, it wasn’t money that he was passionate about.)

Not everybody who follows his passion gets to the top. But I think those who honestly pursue it are successful in their own right, even when they fail in the process. At the end of the day, I cannot help but feel that how we as individuals make our choices will eventually determine where we end up as a country.

Logic is the antithesis of emotion but mathematician-turned-scriptwriter Dzof Azmi’s theory is that people need both to make of life’s vagaries and contradictions.