Interview

of all stages in securing a new job, i had to admit i hate the interview part the most. i can take exams (thousands of them no problem!), i can write essays (not good, but i can), but not interviews. it's too much pressure (and i'm not good at impressing people! how sad). so whenever i got a call for an interview, i get this not so nice adrenaline rush and it doesn't help that i hate NOT trying also, thinking that maybe (MAYBE!) this time it's actually my luck!

the last time i went to an interview was last year in november and fast forward to last month which also a month of november i got a call for another interview which (again!) happened to be the same interview i have been to, last year. how convenient! (not gonna tell you what interview it was in fear people will google about this pengalaman temuduga jawatan tenenenenettt and stumble across this blog hehe) but sure you can guess lah! it's a government interview whereby you gotta go through stages before getting a job.

it's a shame that last year i didn't share anything about it and when i tried to recall what were the questions asked during that interview, i can barely remember. so i'm taking this opportunity to write it down so i can try better next time (yes, i am that persevere haha sad).

okay few questions on last year's interview that i remember;

almost everything about agriculture, no joke.

1) berapa jelapang padi yang kita ada di malaysia
2) berapa peratus pengeluaran padi di malaysia dan adakah ianya cukup untuk kegunaan 1 malaysia
3) apakah nama badan di kelantan yang menguruskan hal ehwal pertanian di malaysia
4) 8 bidang tugas piiiiiiitiiiiiiiidiiiii (now you know! kahkahkah)
5) dasar ekonomi baru
6) berapa tangga gaji permulaan piiiiitiiiiiidiiiiii

and few more tetapi mostly memang agriculturish kinda questions yang i have a very minimal to zero knowledge about. hakhak. here's the thing with this job post tau, it's very general they can shoot you any questions from politics to economy to local government to international issues it could be anyyything. they didn't specify which ministry they're gonna throw you into so you gotta arm yourself with as much general knowledge as you can (which obviously i'm lacking at.. hehehe).

tapi alhamdulillah both my interviewers were very nice. no provocative questions, they even helped me with answers (diorang tanya, diorang jawab balik haha), the one from spa was very warm he smiled throughout the session and another one from JPA was a little bit serious. he asked me 1 question (only ONE!) and i failed to answer him hahaha nangis sekarang. his words;

"okay Cik Fasheeha, saya nampak dalam sijil SPM awak ni subjek Tasawwur Islam awak dapat A1. saya cuma nak tanya satu soalan je lepas ni saya pass kepada wakil spa ya, tasawwur tu apa? perkataan tasawwur tu maksud dia apa?

bye bye confidence level. bye bye selamanya.

guys, tasawwur islam is the only additional subject i took in because you knowww Amalina's kind of peer pressure that time. haha. i studied the subject with no teacher no nothing only one textbook! you think i would remember that? NO. i couldn't even remember what i had for dinner last night, FACT.

i didn't get the job, duhhh so obvious! hehe.

this year, i was called for an interview yet again for the same post. if you were to ask me, do i really want the job i would say yes in a heartbeat. i was among the lucky ones who passed the exam on the first try (it's purely a luck, nothing amazing jaw dropping using ilmu hitam here haha), can't cheat either because last year the exam was held in public school and all (this year was at your own convenient home, online exam that is), but as i said before when it comes to interviews the lucky charm just died on me nangis lagi.

i didn't have funny experience during the interview last year but my friend did. one of the questions asked was;

"berapa bidang tugas/kuasa piiiitiiiidiiii dan sebutkan kesemuanya"

he answered 6.

"are you sure? bukan 7 ke?" the interviewer trying to trick.

and he replied, "oh 7 lah tu. mungkin diorang baru tambah 1 lagi."

=__________=' kawan siapa lah tu. HAHA.

the answer is 8, guys.

okay moving on to this year's interview.

alhamdulillah once again, i got a very warm, nice and friendly interviewers. one Dato' from SPA and the other one En. Anuar from JPA. before the interview i prepared myself with last year's questions googling about tasawwur islam (just in case, haha), few things on agriculture (you know, once bitten twice shy i don't want banana to fruit two times), a little bit on GST (hate anything technical but i didn't get any choice, did i?), all those factual information nkra nkea gtp everything. but guys, i forgot my CV. i totally forgot that i didn't even glance at it.

you know what kind of questions i was asked?

nothing factual. nothing latest issue, nothing technical at all.

all questions were from my subject and thesis back when i was studying my bachelor degree. yeay me! *criesblood* didn't i tell you i have a very short memory span?

1) differences between strategic management and management
2) differences between strategic planning and planning
3) can you compare public & private sector?
4) do you think private sector is more efficient than public? and why is that so?
5) kalau private sector ada pekerja yang slow dan tak cekap, kita boleh simply buang diorang kerja it's called retrenchment. kalau public sector?
6) why can't we (government) simply retrench people? what is the term for that?
7) apa patut kita buat dengan pekerja-pekerja kerajaan yang slow dan tak efisien ni?
8) apa itu produktif?
9) kalau waktu kerja kita adalah 8 jam, tetapi kita mampu siapkan kerja kita dalam 4 jam je, adakah itu dikira produktif?
10) okay ceritakan sikit pasal thesis you.

each question ada cabang-cabang dia. like, every time i answered them, they came back with another question which is so phew *kesatpeluhdidahi* easy questions guyssss!!! but i prefer to write the answers down with examples and all and hand it over to them after 1 hour. haha!

my verdict?

LET'S TRY AGAIN NEXT YEAR. haha. (itu pun kalau lepas exam.....)

okay that was my experience.

sharing with you some of my friends'!

"berapa negeri yang ada dalam malaysia?

friend: 13.

"awak pasti? tu cuba awak kira belang-belang yang ada kat jalur gemilang kat dinding tu."

so he counted,

answer: 14

HAHAHA. (ini kawan yang sama yang jawab bidang tugas piiiitiiiiidiii ada 6 tu)

another question;

"nyatakan rukun negara yang ke empat"

friend: saya kena baca satu-satu encik, baru saya boleh jawab.

"okay. awak bacakan dari belakang. mula dari no 5 dulu."

friend: maaf encik, tak boleh, saya kena mula dari yang 1st jugak.

HAHAHA. (again, kawan yang sama yang jawab bidang tugas piiiitiiiiidiiii ada 6 dan yang kena kira berapa stripe yang ada kat jalur gemilang)

another friend of mine was asked;

1) rukun islam
2) rukun iman
3) rukun negara

all at once.

sounds easy but try during an interview you will find yourself stuttering and even mixing them all. why? because you were caught by surprise. who would thought in piiiitiiiidiiii's interview there will be that kind of questions kan? i know i wouldn't!

love the experience but hateee the nervousness that kicked in before the interview! i wish i was more relaxed, guys. maybe i can answer better. but the damage's done. leganya rasa! i have one more friend who's gonna sit for this interview next month! let's pray for her.

i don't know the actual number of candidate sitting for this interview this time, but they want only 300. 300! heard that 80k candidates were sitting for the online exam, and somebody might have said 8000 candidates were through to the next stage (but this one i'm not really sure). 8000 is a big number, 300 is not! hehe.

till then.