Yesterday I got called for a job interview to work as an Engineer in my sponsor company, MISC, at Group Technical Services. I had approximately 4 days to prepare for it. The letter came straight after I handed in my transcript as proof that I really had graduated! Of course I had a mild case of the nerves at first, but I managed to get over it.
I arrived at 8 in the morning and headed straight for the reception where I got some bad news: the interview panel were engaged in other activities so I'd have to wait for at least an hour for the session to start. I got my sandwich out and was munching my way through when the receptionist told me no eating allowed! Bummer...
In the meantime, I checked to see if my hijab was still immaculate and discreetly made some minor adjustments using the camera function on my iPod touch. It wasn't long after that when we got a piece of paper where we were supposed to list down our strengths and tell MISC how we could contribute using these strengths. It was a 'written test'. I remember filling the whole front page up: which was 3/4 of the A4 paper with the usual attributes employers would expect to see; works really well in a team environment, highly disciplined and efficient, pleasant personality, good planner and has an excellent work ethic as well as good communication skills. Got it down pat in less than half an hour so I submitted the paper to the 'handler' and just lounged, waiting for my turn to be briefed on the upcoming interview session.
Minutes before the briefing was to be held, I excused myself so I could grab a bite from the half eaten sandwich I'd stored back in my bag. The receptionist told me I could use their pantry so I didn't have to go all the way down.
After gobbling down what I could in 2 minutes, I met a lady who walked me through the interview session (Potentia M). It would take approximately 1 and a half hours and I'd be required to do some minor preparations based on a case study they'd give me. The one I got was entitle "Crime and Morality". To cut a long story short, I went in, head to head with two panels from the Human Resource Department, and stated my case in front of them: told them what the article was about: the rising crime rates among youth as young as 7-8 years old and how their crimes were getting more horrendous whilst the government were turning a blind eye to it all. To which I was asked how would I rectify the problem and I responded by tackling the family and social institution, education, economy, mass media and religious values. The session went on indefinitely for about half an hour where they continually grilled me on the choice of my solutions and what I would do to introduce a better one. I found it quite challenging.
The next session required me to role-play. I was given a card where I was the Managing Director who got slighted by a promising athlete right after showing him very strong support to go compete in the World Youth Games in Spain. The athlete resigned without telling me why, so I was in a meeting with his supervisors to determine the cause of the problem. This scenario continued into 2 other scenes, where it became increasingly evident that the athlete was playing foul. So I immediately defended my views and asked for a one to one confrontation where both parties could come together and resolve the issues in a more diplomatic manner.
I thought the interview method was really something and more importantly it was fun! Brought me back to my public speaking and debating days.
My last interview happened 45 minutes later. I had to present my final year project to a panel of 5 senior managers in the MISC. I had my power point slides ready and just spilled out what I had practiced for the last couple of days. It went really smooth. Too smooth I think as one of the panel seemed to be nodding off! At the end, there was not a lot of questions to be asked since I doubt they understood hydrodynamics that much anyway. But I got a 'good presentation with detailed information' from the panel.
At the end they told me MISC will definitely take me in and I'd be expected to report for duty on the 1st of March. Whoopie!!! :D
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