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YAYASAN PENERAJU · TALENT MANAGEMENT (TECHNOLOGY) · 30 JULY 2026 · LIVE ON TEAMS

Future-Ready
Careers

How AI is changing the workplace — and how to be the applicant it can't ignore.

Fathy Rashad — Co-founder/CTO, Cleve.ai

Fathy Rashad
Quick intro

I build AI
for a living.

CTO @ Cleve.ai · 100K+ users
MIT GenAI research at 19
15+ hackathons judged in Malaysia
QR to mfrashad.com
mfrashad.com
in/mfathyrashad · IG @rashadventure

I've reviewed hundreds
of applications.

Here's what actually gets you hired in 2026.

1 in 3

Malaysian graduates end up underemployed —
“gaji cukup makan.” The degree alone isn't enough.

~35.5% of employed graduates in semi/low-skilled roles — DOSM Graduate Statistics 2024
250

applications land on one corporate job opening.

HiringThing job application statistics, 2025

Only 4–6 get interviewed.

HiringThing job application statistics, 2025

An AI reads your resume
before any human does.

97–99% of Fortune 500 companies screen with ATS — Jobscan, 2025
💬 Type YES in the chat

Who has used AI for a resume
or cover letter?

74%

of job seekers already do. It's not cheating — it's the baseline.

Greenhouse job seeker survey, Nov 2025
The game, honestly

It's a numbers game —
so play both halves.

Volume: apply wide — most rejections were never about you.
Visibility: when a human looks, be impossible to ignore.

Diagnose yourself
No interviews?
Not your skills — your packaging:
resume · portfolio · brand · outreach
Interviews, no offers?
That's a hard-skills gap —
go build (AI makes this faster too)

Tonight: mostly the packaging game — plus faster skill-building with AI.

From my hiring seat

4 things I judge in every candidate

01
Communication
Can you package yourself?
02
Projects
Can you build things?
03
Experience
Used in real contexts?
04
Drive
Will you excel?

AI doesn't change what I look for.

It changes how fast you build proof.

01

Communication

Your packaging — resume, outreach, voice.

Resume bullets that work · 1/3
CV bullet with tech stack highlighted
Name the tools & stack.
Resume bullets that work · 2/3
CV bullet with role highlighted
Own your role in the team.
Resume bullets that work · 3/3
CV bullet with metrics highlighted
Let the numbers talk. 93.4% · 405 splits · RM400.

Too lazy to write bullets?

Mine them from work you already did.

gitresume GitHub repo
gitresume — your git history → cited resume bullets

Built by a Malaysian student.

Shawn Chee · github.com/Shawnchee/gitresume
(the tool itself is his best resume bullet 😉 — always verify AI claims before pasting)

Case study · my own CV
Rashad's rendered ATS-friendly CV
My CV was 5 years stale. AI rebuilt it — one column, standard headings, ATS-friendly. Boring on purpose.
my actual CV — generated with AI + RenderCV
Generated, not written
Master record
every number I've ever earned, one file
→
AI tailors
reads the job posting, mirrors its rubric
→
Rendered PDF
1–2 pages, ATS-friendly

Rule #1: AI never invents — every claim traceable. “The taste and the truth stayed mine.”

Tailor it per job — free
RenderCV — open source CV generator
Paste the job description → AI rewrites your bullets → RenderCV renders the PDF.
github.com/rendercv/rendercv · your CV as a text file = AI can edit it per application

Rule #1: AI never invents.

Every claim traceable to something real.

“The taste and the truth stayed mine.”

AI for the meta-work, not just the writing

Researched all 17+ program mentors, with sourcesand honestly scored fit — flagging the bad “prestige” picks
Caught a hidden 2,000-character form limitbefore it silently truncated my essay
Pulled my live traction numbers into the CVstraight from my website's data
⌗

How to not get buried
in the pile

Spray wide with AI.
Snipe your top 3 by hand.

Personalization takes energy — you can't fake it at scale.
Spend yours on the few companies you'd fight to join.

AI autofill

AI can fill the forms for you.

Resume in, application out.
Volume just got cheap.

Outreach

DM them.
Even after you applied.

AI drafts. You proofread. Rewrite it in your voice — every time.

Everyone sounds like AI now.

Sound like a human.

Short. Personal. A little risky.

✅ A real application we received
Career switcher application message
“…came across Rashad's TikTok of him drilling his curtain.” Personal beats polished.
✅ Another one — remember this guy
Faw's application message
“i actually used cleve for a day and i'm pretty impressed…” He did the homework.
💬 Spot the problem — type it in chat
A suspicious application message
❌ He pasted the whole ChatGPT reply
Application with ChatGPT preamble left in, cofounder laughing
“Your response looks great! …here's a slightly tweaked version:” — sent as-is. My co-founder's reaction says the rest.

AI is your ghostwriter,
not your voice.

Draft with AI. Rewrite it like you're texting a friend.

Case study

How Faw
got hired at Cleve

He didn't just apply.

He hacked us.

Used the product for a day → sent real feedback →
found an exploit in our system → shared it in his application.

Then someone DMed me for him
LinkedIn referral message mentioning the exploit
“I was busy. This put him on top of the pile.”
The Faw formula
Use the product
for real, not 5 minutes
→
Say something real
feedback, bugs, ideas
→
DM + referral
even after you applied

Founders are busy. Outreach is how you get seen twice.

02

Projects

Can you actually build things?

AI coding moved the bar
Impressive in 2019
Static landing page
Todo app · CRUD demo
One semester
→
Impressive in 2026
Full-stack app — frontend + backend
+ auth + payments + deployed
Weeks, not months

What used to be mid-level engineer work is now the student project bar.

💬 Guess in the chat

Full-stack app with auth + payments,
built with AI tools. How long?

1 weekend

for the working core. ~2 weeks polished. That's the new normal.

I interview intern candidates.

Most have never opened
Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code.

Companies now expect AI fluency like we expect Git.
Being fluent stands out — because most aren't.

“Fundamentals or AI tools?” — both, weighted by target
Big co / MNC
Fundamentals · manual coding · LeetCode interviews
They can afford to train you on AI later
Startup / SME
AI fluency from day one — ship faster, ship more
Your speed and output quality are the hire

AI fluency is rising everywhere — but targeting MNCs? Still grind the fundamentals.

How to learn in the AI age
01
Build with AI
ship beyond your level
02
Ask it to explain
every line you don't get
03
Rebuild it manually
fundamentals still stick

AI to learn faster — not to skip learning.

First — congrats 🎓

Your certification is
real proof.

Months of structured skill-building, verified by an exam.
Recruiters notice it. Keep it front and center.

A cert gets you into the race.

It doesn't win the race.

Everyone in your cohort holds the same one.
What you build on top is what separates you.

Stack on top of it
📜
Minimum
The certification alone
😄
Great
Cert + a project using those exact skills
😍
Best
Cert + shipped, public work anyone can click

Cert proves you learned it. Projects prove you can do it.

Level of projects
😓
Minimum
School projects
😄
Great
Side projects · freelance · open source
😍
Best
Shipped a real product with real users
How to showcase
🙂
Good
Projects listed in your CV
😄
Great
A complete GitHub profile
😍
Best
Your own portfolio website

The best applicants are googleable.

Made by Malaysians 🇲🇾
hannahdaud.github.io
hannahdaud.github.io
janelleis.online
janelleis.online
mfrashad.com
mfrashad.com (mine)
Yours doesn't need to be fancy. It needs to exist.
What makes a portfolio good?
01
Visuals
screenshots · demo videos
02
Write-ups
tell the story behind it
03
Delight
animation · interactivity
1 · Visuals
faw.dev project grid — every project has a visual
Every project gets a screenshot or demo video. No visual = doesn't exist.
2 · Write-ups
Janelle's case study — the story behind the project. Doubles as a blog.
janelleis.online/case-studies/forum.html
3 · Delight
Small animations & interactions — the difference between seen and remembered.
3 · Delight — mine
The pixel me? AI-generated.
mfrashad.com

You can vibe-code this
in a weekend.

TERMINAL
Claude Code
agent builds it with you
EDITOR
Cursor
AI-first code editor
PROMPT→APP
Lovable
describe it, get a site
DESIGN→SITE
Figma Make
or v0, Bolt — pick one

No coding needed — describe it in plain English, react, iterate. Free hosting included.

Rashad's GitHub profile — pinned repos, contributions
Never leave your GitHub empty. Pin projects · write READMEs — AI drafts them.

Same for LinkedIn.

Headline, about, project sections — AI drafts, you edit.
Recruiters check it before they ever reply.

03

Experience

Have you applied your skills in real contexts?

Level of experience
😓
Minimum
Coursework & cert labs only
😄
Great
An internship or one real client project
😍
Best
Freelance / part-time / building — alongside study or work
No one hiring you? Manufacture experience
Freelance one small clientan RM500 project beats zero experience
Rebuild a local business's site — pitch themworst case: portfolio piece. best case: paid client
One PR to an open-source tool you usepublic, verifiable, senior-reviewed
Ship one tiny product with real usersAI collapsed the cost — next slide

AI collapsed the cost
of shipping.

ChopChopSplit: 6 students, 1.5 weeks, real users, seed funding.
“No opportunity” is no longer the excuse — build your own experience.

Malaysian tech salaries · loyalty vs moving
Stay at one company+10–15%/yr
Strategic jumps+20–60%/jump
Hop every year — tracked cumulative+162%

Not a disloyalty lecture — negotiate with data, move when growth stalls.

Daren Tan (Developer Kaki) — MY tech career talks · self-reported data · full video on the resource page
Age you save your first RM1,000,000
US jobage 30
Singapore jobage 47
Malaysia local jobage 56
Remote — foreign employer, living in MYage 37

A 26-year spread on the same milestone — from one career decision.

Assumes start at 23, ~10%/yr increments, flat spending — Daren Tan career talks · illustrative, not financial advice
Pick a lane — it decides your prep
STABLE
MNC
Petronas · Accenture · TM
fundamentals + LeetCode
LEARN FAST
Startup / SME
broadest scope
AI fluency valued most
ARBITRAGE
Remote
foreign salary,
MY cost of living
FREEDOM
Freelance
RM50–200/hr —
real MY dev rates

Each lane changes which interview you prep for — remember the MNC vs startup split.

Resource · careers

Daren Tan's
MY tech career talk

Job hopping vs loyalty — with real increments
MNC vs startup vs remote — pros, cons, take-home
Freelance pricing — what MY devs actually charge

YouTube: “Tech Career in Malaysia” · Developer Kaki — link on the resource page

Resource · salaries
Malaysian Paygap — salaries with stories
paygap.asia — real MY salaries, with the story behind them: the path and the price.
04

Drive

Do you have the motivation to excel?

How I read drive
🧑‍💻
Hackathons
ship under pressure
🏆
Awards
competitive proof
🚪
Communities
meetups · open source · lead one
🏃
Initiatives
blogs · volunteering · events

My blog got me into
MIT research.

A professor found my AI tutorials online — at 19, no connections, no application.
Learning in public compounds.

Cleve — AI workspace for writing and thinking
No time to build a blog? Write notes in Cleve → publish → free public pages.
cleve.ai — this talk's resource page is hosted this way. QR at the end.

AI raises the floor.

Proof of work raises the ceiling.

Use AI to build more — not to fake more.
Your cert opened the door — your proof decides the offer.

Do this, starting tonight
One real project on your cert skills
Vibe-code your portfolio site
gitresume your commits
Build a master CV record
Complete GitHub + LinkedIn
Publish what you learn
DM + referrals + real feedback
Snipe your top 3 companies
Resource · skills
roadmap.sh — developer skill roadmaps
roadmap.sh — pick a role, follow the map. What to learn → AI is how → portfolio is proof.
The resource shelf
CAREERS
Daren Tan's talk
job hops · paths · rates
SALARIES
paygap.asia
real MY pay + the story
SKILLS
roadmap.sh
what to learn, per role
PROOF
Portfolio examples
hannah · janelle · faw

All linked on the resource page — QR on the next slide.

Everything from this talk. One link.

QR code to the AI Job Hunt Toolkit

All tools & links from this talk — published as a Cleve note (yes, the blog thing from earlier 😉)

Connect with me
QR code to mfrashad.com

mfrashad.com · in/mfathyrashad · IG @rashadventure

DM me. I actually read them — Faw is proof. 😄

Now go build
something.

YAYASAN PENERAJU · TALENT MANAGEMENT (TECHNOLOGY) · Terima kasih! 🚀
Appendix

Backup slides

📱 Live poll backup

Have you used AI in a job application?

🎯 PLACEHOLDER

Paste your Menti / Slido QR here
Extra ammo
29.3% used AI on their resume last year — nearly 2× the year beforeiHire State of Online Recruiting, 2025
65% of students use AI for cover letters, 64% for interview prepInside Higher Ed, Oct 2025
78% of hiring managers look at online portfolioshiring-manager surveys (indicative)
Median all-graduate salary RM4,521 vs fresh-grad ~RM3,000DOSM 2024 — experience compounds; start building it now
gitresume in 4 steps
1 · Paste repo URL
clones fully in-browser
→
2 · Filter your commits
by author + date range
→
3 · Generate
bullets cite the exact commits
→
4 · Verify → paste
claims ≠ measured outcomes
l4n1skyy.github.io
l4n1skyy.github.io — a student's simple site
mfrashad.com
mfrashad.com — mine, 8 years of iterations
Start simple. Iterate forever.