Hasanudin Abdurakhman

Work:
PT Elnusa (Oil Company), Junior Field Engineer, 1994.
Faculty of Engineering, University of Tanjungpura Pontianak. Lecturer 1995- 1996.
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan, and Visiting Researcher, 2002-2004.
Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, Research Associate 2005.
Center for Interdisciplinary Research (CIR), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, Visiting Associate Professor (2006).
PT Osimo Indonesia, Administration Manager, 2007 to 2008.
PT Osimo Indonesia, Director 2008-2013.
PT Indonesia Toray Industries, General Manager for Business Development, 2013 – present. With the additional duties as Manager in Indonesia Toray Science Foundation 2014 – present.
Testimonial

Testimonial:
Department of Physics Alumnus. When started studying at the Department of Physics dozen years ago (in 1987) I was often annoyed with questions about the courses I was taking.

“Majoring in Physics? You study at Teachers’ Training College (IKIP) or UGM? ”
“UGM, for sure.”
“But why is at the Department of Physics at UGM? Not at the Teachers’ Training College? ”

“If at the Teachers’ Training College Physics Education. The graduates can become a physics teacher at the school. If at the Dept of Physics at UGM? ”
“So, what you can do when you graduate?”
“Many. I can work as a researcher (at BATAN, LIPI, BPPT), as lecturer, as employee at a company, too. ”

Such an explanation was not necessarily make people understand. Many think that those who can work in the industry are only engineering graduates. After a dozen years on, it seems the situation has not changed much. People still consider the Physics Department has not offered a lot of places in the job market. Even students of physics itself may think so. There was uncomfortable experience I have ever tasted, although not directly. I have a cousin who lives in Bandung. He studied at a polytechnic institute where demands acceptable good works. Even before graduating they reportedly had tied up a contract. I heard a lecture in the physics department, he was told by my brother who happened to visit his home. “Change the subject wrote his sister. Sorry you later will graduate unemployed. He said”.

When he heard that I can only smile bitterly. But I am sure that I will not be unemployed. When I graduated I had worked briefly in the oil field, as a logging engineer at PT Elnusa, which was still a subsidiary of Pertamina. Physical job collecting data of oil wells through various types of measurements. Yes, this is the work of physics, which is also done by the engineer. In oil wells, data on the electrical resistance, porosity, gamma ray intensity, and others necessary to ascertain whether in a well contained oil or not, as well as allow it to be pumped or not. Before that I was interested to apply for the job at company that manufactures semiconductors in Batam, although I finally canceled.

Soon I was working in the oil field. I was quit, then moved to work as a lecturer, then I got a scholarship for M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs in Japan. After I graduated from my M.Sc. program, actually I was offered a job in the quality control at Matsushita Electronics, to be placed at its plant in Indonesia. But at the time, I chose to go to the Ph.D. program. Having graduated from Ph.D. degree, I worked as a researcher at two universities in Japan.

After two-year-working in Japan, I returned to my homeland to return to work as a lecturer. Unfortunately, I face problems so I decided to resign and return to Japan to work as a researcher. Then I come back to my homeland, working in the plastic processing plant for six years. This work is absolutely no relationship with the physical sciences. My task is to manage all aspects of the company, involving human resources, finance, taxation, logistics, production, and many more things. Then I moved to my current job, building a new business as a GM business development. This job is a little much to bring me back in touch with physics research, though indirect nature.

Going through the career path with spectrum of jobs that can be undertaken by the graduates majoring in physics with very diversed. From all of that just once I “went away”, working in a field where physics was almost completely unused. The rest, all are closely related to physics. Including the two that I did not take.

But why physics graduate is often considered difficult to get a job, especially in the industrialized world? Some should we expect as the cause. First, the industrial world does not seem to get adequate exposure to the physics department. For example the company are more open to hiring graduates of chemistry than physics graduates. Many chemistry graduates who were employed in the field of quality control or product development. Whereas the competence of graduates of physics and chemistry does not differ greatly, especially in the context of employment in the industry, mostly in the early careers only require a basic level of competence measurement. Majoring in physics itself is rarely present themselves as a department that has the competence to work in the industrialized world. Business does not seem to specifically emphasize the question of competence. Curriculum apparently still do not have a specific stress. As a result, students do not have a clear vision to work in the industry, and are not confident with it.

Third, many physics students who do not master the other skills needed to work in the industrial world, one of them English language skills. When I took a test to work in the oil field once the test is very simple, that are IQ tests. People with good IQ can certainly pass. But the matter is given in English. As a result, more than half the participants falling at the first stage, but to my knowledge they are all smart. Lack of English language skills make them a little failure. The story I steered away. Many have scoffed at when I worked as a factory manager. I considered too pragmatic, does not appreciate his doctorate and physics that I have. “Move the field” for some people considered major sins, such as hypocrasy.

In fact, “switch the path” for me is an opportunity to learn, expand the horizons of science. By moving the line, I had a chance to learn a lot about the ins and outs of the business. There are aspects of human resource development, financial management and taxation. In short, I learned how to build and manage a healthy company, making a profit. The capital is what brought me to work now. At this job knowledge (research) physics combined with business knowledge. Moreover, not many people know that I have long “path”. The last year in Japan, I worked as a Visiting Associate Professor at the Interdisciplinary Research Center, Tohoku University. Where I did research on the structure of DNA. At that time one of the trends in the world of research is working the possibility of utilizing the DNA in nanotechnology. Because in the period before the research on DNA done by researchers in the field of biochemistry and medicine, then half of the time I spent in medical school library, I learnt a lot about the biochemistry and medicine.

So, from my experience, the real physics graduate can work in any company they want. The condition? They have to build solid competence for it, and want to continue learning. Both work in the fields directly related to the physics, as well as when working in a completely different field. So, there is no reason to worry about being unemployed. On the other hand, this is a challenge for the manager of the department of physics to help students develop specific competencies, and at least, to promote it.