Learn Hardcore Malay: Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu menarik. - My work experience at that office is interesting.

So pengalaman kerja literally means experience (of) work, which is how noun–noun phrases are normally ordered in Malay.
If you said kerja pengalaman, it would sound wrong or at least very strange, because it would suggest work of experience, which is not what you mean.

Why is saya at the end of pengalaman kerja saya instead of in front, like saya pengalaman kerja?

In Malay, possessive pronouns (my, your, their) normally come after the noun phrase they belong to.
So:

pengalaman kerja saya = my work experience
kereta mereka = their car
rumah kami = our house

Putting saya in front, as saya pengalaman kerja, is ungrammatical. If you want saya at the start, you have to change the structure, for example:

Saya ada pengalaman kerja di pejabat itu. = I have work experience at that office.

What exactly does pengalaman kerja mean? Is it only “work experience” for CVs/resumes?

Pengalaman kerja generally means work experience, but it is not limited to CV/resume context. It can refer to:

professional background:
- Saya ada pengalaman kerja dalam bidang IT. = I have work experience in IT.
past job experiences in general:
- Pengalaman kerja saya di kilang dulu sangat mencabar. = My work experience at the factory before was very challenging.

So it works both as a formal CV term and as an everyday phrase about your past jobs.

What is the difference between kerja, bekerja, and pekerjaan?

They are related but used differently:

kerja – can be a noun (work, job, task) or a verb (to work, in casual speech)
- Noun: Saya ada banyak kerja. = I have a lot of work.
- Casual verb: Saya kerja di KL. = I work in KL.
bekerja – verb only, more clearly “to work”
- Saya bekerja di pejabat itu. = I work at that office.
pekerjaan – noun, meaning occupation / job / type of work
- Pekerjaan saya ialah guru. = My occupation is teacher.

In pengalaman kerja, kerja is functioning as a noun (“work”), not a verb.

What does di pejabat itu mean exactly, and why does itu come after pejabat?

di is a preposition meaning at / in / on (location).
pejabat = office
itu = that / the (refers to something specific or previously mentioned)

So di pejabat itu = at that office / in that office.

Demonstratives like itu and ini usually come after the noun:

pejabat itu = that office
pejabat ini = this office
buku itu = that book

You generally don’t put itu before the noun (itu pejabat) in standard Malay.

What is the role of menarik here? Is it a verb like “is interesting”?

menarik is an adjective meaning interesting (literally “pulling / attractive”).

Malay does not use a separate verb like “to be” (am/is/are) before adjectives in this kind of sentence. So:

Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu menarik.
= My work experience at that office (is) interesting.

Here menarik functions like a predicate adjective: it completes the sentence by describing the subject, without needing adalah or any other verb.

Can I say Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu adalah menarik?

It’s grammatically possible, but in everyday Malay it sounds a bit formal or unnatural in this simple sentence.

adalah is used mainly when:

linking a subject to a noun phrase:
- Pekerjaan saya adalah guru. = My job is (being) a teacher.
or for emphasis/formal writing before some adjectives or longer predicates.

With a short, simple adjective like menarik, most native speakers would just say:

Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu menarik.

Use adalah sparingly, especially in spoken Malay.

How do I say “was interesting” instead of just “is interesting”? There’s no tense marker here.

Malay usually does not mark tense on the verb or adjective. Time is understood from context or from time words.

To make it clearly past, you can add a time marker:

Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu dulu menarik.
= My work experience at that office used to be interesting.
Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu memang sangat menarik pada masa lalu.
= My work experience at that office was really interesting in the past.

If the context already makes it clear you’re talking about the past, the original sentence is often enough.

Can I move parts of the sentence around, like putting menarik earlier?

You don’t have much freedom to move menarik. The normal structure is:

[Subject] + [Adjective predicate]
→ Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu (subject) + menarik (adjective)

If you say something like Menarik pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu, it sounds odd or unclear, as if menarik were a verb (to pull/attract) taking an object.

For emphasis, you can add intensifiers or front something with special structures, but the simplest and most natural is to keep menarik at the end:

Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu sangat menarik. = very interesting

What’s the difference between pejabat itu and pejabat tersebut or pejabat ini?

pejabat itu = that office / the office (already known or previously mentioned)
pejabat ini = this office (close to the speaker, or metaphorically “the one I’m in now”)
pejabat tersebut = that said office / the said office (more formal, often in writing, reports, news)

In your sentence, pejabat itu sounds neutral and natural in both spoken and written Malay.

Could I say Pengalaman saya bekerja di pejabat itu menarik? Is that the same meaning?

Yes, that is also natural, but the structure is slightly different:

Pengalaman kerja saya di pejabat itu menarik.
= My work experience at that office is interesting.
(focus on work experience as a noun phrase)
Pengalaman saya bekerja di pejabat itu menarik.
literally: My experience of working at that office is interesting.
(bekerja is a verb, “to work”, so it sounds a bit more like “the experience of the activity of working there”.)

Both are fine; the difference is subtle. The original version sounds a bit more like a standard phrase for describing professional background.

Is saya the only option here? What about aku or possessive endings like -ku?

saya is the neutral/polite first-person pronoun and is the safest choice in most situations.

Other options:

aku – informal, used with friends/close people:
- Pengalaman kerja aku di pejabat itu menarik.
Possessive suffix -ku (informal/literary):
- Pengalaman kerjaku di pejabat itu menarik.
-nya can mean “his/her/their” or sometimes “the … in question”:
- Pengalaman kerjanya di pejabat itu menarik. = His/Her work experience at that office is interesting.

In a neutral context (classroom, textbook, formal writing), saya is the best pronoun to use.