Muhammad Aliff Aiman Bin Abdul Rahman

A day in the life

My day-to-day tasks as a proposal engineer mainly consist of reading technical specifications, designing automation systems and providing proposals to clients. Even though I am still new to this role, an important aspect that I’ve discovered to be essential is to have good communication skills. I need to communicate internally with my team on understanding the requirements and assigning tasks. It is also important to liaise externally with clients, understand their problems and propose the best solutions for them.

Company culture

The work environment at Siemens is definitely healthy. When I joined in 2018, I felt welcomed by everyone. I came in as a fresh graduate, this was my first job, and I had no experience of the industry. Nevertheless, my colleagues helped me a lot in understanding how the organisation works and also in settling down. Everyone has their own goals, and we use this as motivation to push each other every day to become better in our individual roles.

Overcoming obstacles

Creating a proposal requires a lot of communication. Before I start designing any systems, I usually will have a discussion internally with the team on how to manage the task given. Luckily, I have a great and helpful team who’s willing to help and guide me, since I am still new in my role. It’s also important to have a good relationship with clients to understand their needs and help them solve their problems. With the recent COVID-19 situation, all these communication and discussions were done online.

Facing COVID-19

Even though this pandemic took everyone by surprise, I think Siemens did a great job in handling the situation. When Malaysia was under lockdown, everyone started working from home. Daily online updates internally and discussions externally with customers are mostly done through Microsoft Teams.

After the lockdown, employees came back to the office in batches. We carried out alternate rotations with half on Team A and the other half on Team B while following the SOP, which includes physical distancing. This strategy ensures that when there is a situation, there is still another team to support it.

The new normal

Nothing really changed for me, besides following the SOP set by my company and physical distancing. Everyone here in Siemens are goal-driven, and we understand what is needed from us to achieve our goals. Having everyone on the same page makes it a lot easier to work together and get the job done. There’s really nothing much you can do about this pandemic situation. It is definitely affecting everyone globally, so I just have to keep my head up and continue moving forward with the help of my colleagues

Culture: ★★★★★ 100%

Work-life balance: ★★★★★ 100%

Travel opportunities: ★★★★★ 100%

Professional development: ★★★★★ 100%

Personal growth: ★★★★ 80%