Wednesday, May 19, 2010

experienced interviewee, anyone?

where do I belong
...
she've been blessed with smart brain.. no doubt. she've always been top three in the final exams. she represented the school for so many competitions. she performed well on stage. she wrote scripts for the school dramas. she was president of the clubs, the secretary of social soceities, the prefectorial and class-monitor board member. and she simply good, academically(.. of course, like all other geeks, she's so bad in sport!) she never have to try hard during exams.. and as she entered the university, she thought she still got the groove. of course she got it wrong.. all wrong.. she graduated fine, but, the result was not something that she proud of... but of course, she can still sell herself with the scroll from the UK!


it's hard being ambitious. she's been too comfortable getting all the ambitions fulfilled before. with not-something-she-can-be-proud-of degree, she knew getting employed by Fortune500 would not be an easy task (if she have nobody to practise cronism and nepotism). 


after five months of experience-less fresh graduate, she got a job. they called her in for a 'training engineer' position who supposed to be in charge of training materials, schedules, documentations bla bla bla.. something that she knew she can put up with. she went for the interview. the senior staff there already knew before she entered the room, they knew she will be hired. oversea's grad, 'free-hair', fresh, young.. that's all the boss care! another sad fact, but that was the truth. the hr called her up at midnight, telling her she got the job and will need to start immediately,and she didn't know that it would be peanuts!.. but it was great experience.. whenever she need to tell any interviewer her best career achievement, she would highlight her first job ..there's so many things that she've gone through, but the best things because she knew she was not alone.. her collegues and the boss was the best!

but, she couldn't help herself from being ambitious.. that was why she took up the offer to the "best employer in Asia yr 2000" company.. though the iraq, the navy, the SATU experiences were fun, yet, she changed the direction. she thought she'll be just fine working in a factory, as long as the name of the employer is well-known. she went to the interview. it was scary - two chinese senior engineers with one HR officer. she thought she won't get the job, but she did. well, it did not lasted long. after a year, she got a phone call, asking if she would be interested to join the oil & gas company based in KL.



she went for the interview. it was 'tough'. she didn't know what the interviewer was asking. she didn't know what the product the company deal with. but she convinced them that she can learn well and fast. somehow, she managed to charm the interviewer and he asked her to wait. she met the bald mat-salleh.. their MD. he was pleasant. he shook her hand, and asked "so, your fiance is working with Petronas?"....hmmm.. and she nodded naively. the MD asked her to wait - she roamed for two hours, and she came back for the offer letter...and fuhh.. who said interviews were difficult? at least, not to her.


after a while, she got bored. too many frustations and empty promises mounted. and she still the same, the ambitious her. she didn't understand how can somebody got a higher increment with bigger bonus and that was not her. and to add salt on the wound, there were no appraisal structures in place.. so, how did the evaluation done? .. and she is still wondering...


she did try her luck once a while. went for two interviews, did well and got the offers.. twice.. and she rejected them, twice.. one was because she didn't think that she was mentally prepared for a lady boss, and the other, she just did it for the sake of did it.. of course, the boss promoted her to become the senior.. else, might take a while for them to evaluate her, she thought.


and early this year, she started it again. she updated her CV and posted them. she got called. she went to three interviews.. the first one, she was lacking in process engineering and didn't get the post.. the only interview that she didn't get the job, as much as she could remember. the second one, they didn't hire them directly. they were contemplating. with her senior position to suit the junior post in the company, she was being put on hold. of course, they contacted her back after three months. she was told they were preparing the paperwork - may take a while as they need the HQ back in US to sign off. 


and while they are preparing, one of the Fortune500 company is preparing a letter for her too. it was supposed to be out last week. but, as there are bits and pieces that the HR need to sort internally, she still waiting for the letter. she was told the letter is ready, might be availabe for collection next week.. and she can't wait any longer.


the interview was the most interesting part. she's been trying to get call for an interview for the past seven months. she got an email only after seven months... was called for technical interview.. and she wondered how technical could it be..


the technical interview sucked big time. at least that was how she felt.. she never got nervous with interviews. she knew she can carry herself good. after going to her tenth year working, nothing technical is too technical.. but then, there were they. with one of the confident candidate. he was so confident that when she got a chance to ask him "how was it?"..this stranger told her "o my, i didn't realised i was there for more than an hour..".. and suddenly she knew there were more butterflies in her stomach than she ever had before... aggghhh... and, after forty minutes, she knew she might fail the technical assesment. it was not so technical as she've expected; she've been blabering about her technical experience bla bla when one of the interviewer asked her half and hour after that "what actually you do?".... darn!


and a week after, another email came in. it was too good to read the email that she passed the technical assesment and was due for structured interview.. she went for the structured interview.. very well 'structured' she may said. it was interesting. the assessors were tough. they said there were no wrong or right answers..but, they were looking for the best answers, to ensure best candidates were selected.  she was given a case study. a reading about "side effect of science".. she started by telling her opinion.. a genuine one.. and they started throwing questions.. what if you were the PM? what if i was Karpal Singh? what if Obama said no?what if, what if, what if.. she was mentally exhausted. then, they asked her to tell them what did she do when there were work crisis, how she handled issues, what she did to get things through.. and without her realizing, it took them two hours before they could released her. she didn't know what to feel after she completed the interview. there were no wrong or right answers, and she didn't know whether she did well or not. 


she did not have to wait long. a phone call the day after giving a hint that she was recommended for a position.. and she thanked Allah for the blessings. 


she still waiting though. the official letter is yet to come. should be on her table by next week, InsyaAllah.. but, she knew, there'll always some possibility that things didn't work out as planned. so, she'll wait and keep on praying. 


she just can't wait any longer.  

.........
p/s: the structured interview - they rate her 1 for empathy (very 'hostile') and 4 for creative solution... hmmm.. a lady boss anyone?

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