A Closer Look at Zebra Penang's Early Careers Program & Recruiting

Zebra Penang is committed to advancing our internship and early careers program – hiring 80 interns in 2021. Throughout Q3, the Talent Acquisition (TA) team together with regional HR business partners (HRBPs) participated in four successful virtual career fairs and recruitment events.

"Zebra Penang started the internship program in 2015. It is a community project to support and prepare the?students?to gain industry experience prior to?entering the job market. The internship project is aligned with our strategies to drive Zebra branding and visibility?in the job market to build a?future pipeline for new career opportunities.?I would like to thank all the team members who are involved in this program directly or indirectly to support the success and the continuation of the Zebra internship program."?–?Yam Chew Chong,?Director of Customer Support Service?

One event was organized by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for their language students. During this two-hour virtual fair, more than 150 students joined us to discuss?Zebra's products and solutions, company history, milestones, and career opportunities. We ended the session with a fun game of Kahoot! The students were actively participating and eager to learn more, and we have happily added them to our talent pool for future hiring.?

In July, we participated in INTI International College Penang's career session with more than 50 students focusing on IT and computer science. The event went well with many engaged students who have shown the utmost interest in being a part of the Zebra Herd. The TA team and local hiring managers also participated in the virtual JobStreet Malaysia Career and Training Fair (MCTF) 2021 for the first time to elevate Zebra's employer brand and grow our talent pool. Thank you to all those who represented Zebra!

In addition, we hosted a "winning interviews" workshop for 200 students in their final year at INTI to help prepare them for entering the workforce. More early careers recruiting outreach is planned over the coming months.

Today's internship market?is competitive, and high-caliber candidates aren't looking for jobs making copies. They want real-world experience that will help them excel in their careers. Here's what our interns are saying about their Zebra experience:

• "I have had an amazing experience working as an intern at Zebra Technologies. I was working on the editorial team under Mr. Mark Choo Jui Sern. Mr. Mark has a team of amazing people who have helped me through my internship especially Lim Hui Ling, my mentor throughout the internship period. They have patiently guided me in completing the tasks assigned to me. Lastly, I want to say that I love the working culture of Zebra Technologies and I will gladly return to Zebra Technologies if I have a chance."?–?Oi Zhi Sheng
• "Throughout my internship period, it was a blissful experience. The team helped me in many ways to grow and learn from them and, most importantly, allowed me to work with them for a short period of time. Personally, I would like to say my internship was a great one that I will cherish forever. Thank you to Naomi and team for taking me into your team and helping create my own path for my future."?–?Deven
• "I am grateful that I have been given an opportunity to be an intern at Zebra. I am able to practice and make use of my learning skills at Zebra to build a simulation tool to perform analysis on the Hold. This gives me insight on the hold prediction on how long it takes and what are the crucial parameters impacting the hold timing. My success story was able to build a basic hold analysis model with predefined dependent and independent variables."?–?Chua Choo Chin
• "I had a great time completing my degree's internship at Zebra Technologies. I was interviewed by Che Boon and was lucky enough to be chosen by him for the internship position. I was placed in the ANZ team, and my colleagues Eleanor and Stephano are very helpful and supportive. Due to the pandemic, we couldn't go to the office physically but they were very friendly and helpful throughout my internship. I enjoyed the time there!"?–?Yenny Tee
• "My internship with Zebra has been a very fruitful journey for me as I have gained knowledge that can facilitate my career growth in the future. In my opinion, Zebra has done a very good job in terms of its new hire onboarding process. They have an amazing new hire training program with a professional trainer who can train the new hire in an interactive and interesting way. Furthermore, I am very satisfied with all the tasks and work assigned to me because I can learn a lot from the tasks. My manager and buddy are very helpful and patient. They are willing to provide step-by-step guidance when they are assigning tasks to me. Although I am not a fast learner and I tend to ask several questions when I am working, they are always willing to listen to my concerns and help to answer all my questions. Additionally, my manager has also been really kind to me, and she will always check with me to make sure I am not overloaded with tasks. In short, Zebra is a great workplace that allows employees to learn and grow. Highly recommend to those who are looking for a job to join Zebra!"?–?Chiah Chow Cinn

Recruiting for young talent has been increasingly important in today’s multifaceted environment. Scarcity of talents and tightening labor forces have caused the war on resources to be more difficult and challenging. Early Careers engagement can be one of the ways to build up Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and create a consistent talent pipeline to gain a competitive advantage.