In this 3-part series, three notable women in Malaysian society pen a letter to their younger selves in the spirit of self-love and reflection. In part 1, Puan Sri Siew Yong Gnanalingam reminisces about fateful decisions that led to a wonderful career at Malaysia Airlines as one of its first female executives.
Dear Siew Yong,
The year is 1969, after the May 13th racial riots and you have just graduated from the University of Malaya, with your whole future ahead of you. An ambitious Capricornian, you have applied for your dream jobs in the public relations field, even though you graduated with an Economics degree.
Your dream is to also travel the world and so obviously, you applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, besides applications to an advertising agency and the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB).
The first job offer came from EDB and you grabbed it. It was not a mistake as you learnt a lot in your first job and was recognised for your dedication and hard work with a promotion within 5 months.
However, a month later, an event caused a traumatic experience for you. A job offer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was personally delivered by your parents, who advised you not to accept, as you wouldn’t have been able to marry; no husband would follow his wife on an ambassadorial position to play second fiddle. This is the early 70s, when family roles were extremely conservative. It was a hard decision to give up the dream offer.
In the meantime, you had also applied to Malaysian Tobacco Company for a position as their first lady executive and beat 6 other shortlisted candidates for it.
Why did you sacrifice your promotion to take the MTC job to the disbelief of your boss? The promise of a training stint in UK was a big bait for a starry-eyed baby bird that wants to fly.
Now on reflection, having declined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs job and the EDB promotion and joined MTC as its PR Executive, was it worth the sacrifices? I am telling you today, all the fateful decisions you made during the first 6 months of your working life have been good, as you had your BAT training stint in UK as promised, reconnected with someone from University who will be the love of your life, married him and are blessed with 3 wonderful children and 5 grandsons to date. Although you had to leave the company 7 years later when your husband became a Director, you later joined MAS for the dream job you never dreamt of living, to travel the world in first class comfort for you and family. You had the most wonderful career of your life as MAS spokeswoman and head of PR for 17 years and a short stint to build the image of MASkargo, before retiring as Vice-President, Group Communications at 50, fulfilling a 19-year career in MAS.