Thursday, July 15, 2010

accepted

sigh.... for months i've been waiting for the official offer to come in. and finally, it landed. it does take forever, and alhamdullillah, i finally got it. am not going to talk much about how i feel bla bla bla.. i have so much issues with the current company, which i'm so looking forward to quit my job instantenuously..of course, that doesn't happen.. after 77 months, i officially tender my resignation.

am writing this posting, just to share with the future candidates on the interviews.. it was not an easy one, and i was impressed with the very structured interview.
as i was considered as an experienced candidate, i got an invitation for the first technical interview. wasn't sure why it was called technical, as i was fully aware that the position that i was 'eyeing' for won't be so much technical. my background has always been 'technical' .. i was the project engineer, product engineer and application engineer. and as i 'desparately' need to join Petronas for the benefits and desparately need to go away from the wierd company i'm currently working with, taking up the non-technical position won't be as hard as i might have thought.

i came fifteen minutes early, and there was this one guy in the room, being interviewed with two smartly dressed managers (who might be my future boss). i, as calm as possible, was very much ensured that i was prepared for the interview. and when i was called in, i was prepared to hit the road. technical interview is a stage where the future boss wanted to find out our career background, to understand our working experience, so that they knew they can fully utilised that for the vacancy they currently have in their organization. i explained, and apparently, my technical experiences seems to be a disadvantage to me. at least that was what i felt after the forty minutes chit-chat session. i was trying to impress the interviewers on my technical while they have no interest on it at all. of course i did read about the supply chain management etc before coming to the interview. when i describe about supply chain, i frankly told them it was based on my collegues (who supposed to do what they were supposed to do) experience and the what was written on the wikipedia. of course i did some scm, but, that was because those who was supposed to do their work didn't do their work that i need to unofficially 'intervene' and do it.. that was how i got the experience.. after half hour, one of the interviewer asked me, bluntly, 'what actually you do?'..... and dush, dush, dush... that was it.. the most irritating insulting question that made me think i won't get to the next stage.

i was heart-broken. to me, the interview failed, miserably.. i got one chance, only one.. and i blew it.. nope, i didn't blew it.. it just that, on paper, i might not meet the expectation!
 
it was four weeks after that i was given the news that i was shortlisted for the structured interview (SI)..yup, another interview. and before i went for the interview, i need to submit more than hundred online questions that they called it OPQ - some sort like personality test to evaluate what type of person you are like.. which, from an insider, i was told that my online test was so bad.. they can't make any firm conclusion about me as my answers were an average threes and fours, not a strong tens! two days before the SI, my throat got infected... i was so panicked as i could hardly speak.. how do one goes for an interview and don't speak? i requested the doctor scooped out the thingy inside my throat, and that was bad... but, i was prepared to face the music.
 
there were few candidates, but there were only three girls, which later i found out that one was fresh grad and two (including me) were experienced candidate.. frankly, not that i intend to bitch about the other girl, but for an experienced candidate, she didn't show that she's all prepared for the interview.. she didn't even know that it would be a one-to-one(two, actually) session.. she thought it was a group interview... huh, which year are you living on girl??? you should google up structured interview petronas.. and wham bam.. you might not be so clueless as you were.. so, this definitely boost my confidence.
 
anyway, i was a given two piece of paper, one blank paper for me to jot anything.. and another one writted "case study: effect of science".. i read the article, trying to comprehend it, and wrote few notes on the given paper.. i,thankfully, wrote notes and points that i may want to highlight on the articled, and luckily it wasn't junks bitching about the blur girl who was so berlagak as she didn't even care to smile at me..why is that? i'll tell you later..
 
and so, after ten minutes, i was called in. my accessors (as what the HR been telling us) were a couple - En M, a nice wise gentleman from PMU and Pn S,a smartly dressed lady from (.. i forgot, oopss). As expected, the session started with En M explaining to me how the interview be.. 
"..there'll be a two hours get-to-know session, which we will go through on the given case study, and Q&A session, and if we got time, maybe some role play..so, why don't you start with telling us about yourself.." 
with that, i opened my mouth and somehow, there was no the confidence me in the room. i can hear my voice shivered and as hard as i tried to sound calm, it got even worst. and En M was such an easy person that he calmed me down with his pleasant smile and the next five minutes was history.
 
The case study
The article given to me was the 'effect of science' which, if i could remember correctly, talked about a medicine that was still not been medically proven which has given a pre-mature insenility though it meant to help woman who has difficulty to conceive. 
En M: So, what do you think about the article?
Me: It's not fair that the UK government decided not to pay the compensation as they were supposed to approve the medicine before it can be used on human. 
En M: If you the government, you will pay the compensation?
Me: It least, i'll make sure that all the safety measures has been taken care before anything.
En M: Let's look at current scenario. The H1NI case.. it's a plague, and we need to medically cure them fast.. the vaccine they've given, am quite sure is not 100% tested on human and we might not know the side effect in long term. do you think the government need to the responsibility?
gosh, this guy is good.. i hesitated but still manage to answer him.
Me: At least, for this case, the government should take close measure to ensure the rakyat is well-informed, and should offer long term medical check-up what-so-ever, if they think it is possible..
En M: So, what if you are the PM? what will you do?
o my, o my, it was easy to answer if i was the rakyat.. now, i have to think as the PM, to look in to the cost, effect, popularities all those things....
Me: I will take full responsibility..hahaha..i knew they were smiling, just as i did!
En M: Let's go beyond that.. even if you will pay for the vaccine, as the whole world being infected with this plague, and i, as Obama told you, the PM..'why must i give you the vaccine. i need it, my alliance need it. why malaysia'?
with hesitant.. my answer was
Me (as PM): if there's not enough vaccine for everybody, sell us the formula, let us build it ourselve here.. and in the meantime,we will ask all our R&D to explore any traditional medicine that we may able to use.. 
well, he counter attack, and i took his service.. i was impressed with my ability. 
 
The Q&A session was more like
"tell me a situation when you dealt with difficult customer, and how you encounter that"
"if you were given to choose between money and position, which will you opt as priority"
"tell me how you've been given a task that you never did before, and did you complete it"
"you have an appointment at 3pm that you cannot miss, and you were 5km away from the meeting location when you were stucked in a massive landslide traffic. what will you do?"
and few more questions...
 
then, i realised that we were one and half hour in the interview room... and the accessors asked if i got any question for them.. i got a few.. but the one thing i remember asking was "if there were no wrong or right answer, and we've spent nearly two hours chatting, does that mean i will get the job?"... they smiled. 
 
it was a good experience. I didn't know how well i did. but i damn sure it wasn't as bad as the first one. on my way out, i was asked to leave all the papers, including the notes that i wrote... told you, thank God i didn't write nonsense or i'll be dead.
 
well, i waited for so long...... but, i finally accepted.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



1 comment:

  1. HI,

    Would be going for my SI in a week or 2, thanks for posting on this topic that would be highly imformative for candidates alike me. Compiled a few question from other blogs regarding the requent asked questions etc. but i guess the best way to prepare was just relax and be certain/ sure of ur weakness and strengths and ways to overcome them. Hope the % of getting the position would be high since they will eb coming all the way to London to interview us candidates.

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