If you are looking to build/properly manage your first company, this book is a must read. Unfortunately, it is only available in Bahasa Indonesia and even for me, I find some words that were challenging and needed my family members to translate it for me. The spelling of the book was rather odd but I find it pretty fascinating that the core of the message can still be applied to today's hiring process.

The book is titled "Management Personalia & Sumber Daya Manusia" By T. Hani Handoko. The first edition was published back in 1988 and the book that I read was its second edition. There are 250 pages outlining and explaining basics of personnel management and human resources management. It is certainly most helpful even if you have small companies and especially those who are looking to build one.

This helpful book used to belong to my aunt, who studied management back in college. She gave me this book when I was in highschool and I wasn't really that interested in it then up until today over a family gettogether, I was immersed in the book as well as asking my aunt to elaborate some of the concepts that I didn't understand.

With my family who used to work in this field, I read this book within an hour and grasps some of the importance during the hiring process and how to asses someone's efficiency and capability at workplace. The book also mentioned potential biases that we might have such as the common " nepotism" behavior during hiring process.

There is also Halo effect that could happen during hiring process. In short, the book also discuses the potential of unfairness and non-merit based during hiring. When you read this book as an individual or in between searching for job, this book will give you a gentle slap of reality and also a sneak peek into how HR (Human Resource) manager decide their candidates.

Inside the book, they also have some suggested questions during an interview. So, trying to see if the questions is still the same, I asked my cousin in law and she told me, it's all still the same. The book was stashed away inside my drawers and today it's found the light again and I read it. I didn't know management would be this interesting because back in the day, when I studied this thing, it's always mind-numbing.

As I was reading it for fun, the book inspired me to asses my own skill and renew my cover letter and resume. I haven't had it renewed in a few months now though I don't really need it but just "in case" is always on my dictionary when it comes to work. My aunt told me, the book would help if I decided to start a small company and register it 😂

This book serves a gateway for me to explore more personnel management book. While nepotism,halo effects, & favoritism are rampant, at least we are aware of it and just perhaps there's 1% chance of merit-based at play. Who knows!