Long Long Interview = Long Long Post

How should you react when you get called up for an interview???

i dunno... who said i was going to tell you anyway =)

Anyway, i received a call up on Thursday to go for Bank Negara Scholarship interviews. Apparently they had sent an e-mail to me and i was supposed to reply them. So i casually opened up my mail which is usually filled with facebook updates, and sure enough it was there in my deleted messages - dated the previous Tuesday. I shuddered to think of what would have happened if they hadn't called me.

I didn't know what to expect since the interview letter stated 7.30 am to 6.00 pm @.@ So i just did some research on Bank Negara ( an interesting read actually, finally understood some economic things i heard of before) and read an article about going through interviews i had pulled out of The Star a week before. Its really strange and amazing how God works. I saw the article, thought 'hey, this is interesting!', pulled it out and put it on the table. A week later, WOW!! A need fulfilled.

I woke up at about 5.00 am that Monday. Took a bath, had light breakfast and headed to Lanai Kijang where the interviews are held. When i reached there, i had a plan. I'd make friends, be friendly and have a good time. But the moment i reached the lobby, a wave of coldness took over me. I just sat there in the lobby with the others. Too frozen to do anything. I was so nervous and i don't know why. So i just said a silent prayer and tried to mix around. By the grace of God I was a bit more warmed up during breakfast and soon we were being briefed. We were told that out of the 2600 applicants only 37 of us were shortlisted!!! Wow, i couldn't help but feel a bit proud =)

The first stage, essay writing. 1 hour 2 essays 1 english 1 malay. Honestly, i wrote nonsense. 1 hour for 1 is not enough for me let alone 2. I struggled with the bm essay a lot not because i was rusty but because i just couldn't think of any points, well not in that time frame. So i just wrote whatever that popped up in my empty mind and pray it made sense lol. I really hope this part does not weigh much XD


Immediately after that i was sent to have my 3 to 1 interview since i was first in the orange group list. And you know what?? I loved my interview. It was nice since the 3 interviewers were really friendly and nice. It was more like a chit chat session i guess =) Come to think of it, i felt that the whole Bank Negara staff were really friendly. It wasn't that kind of put-on-fake-smile that you see everywhere but i really felt genuine warmth.

Next up for me was individual presentation where they would give us a case study to present. The case was 'Working at home through the internet' and i opposed it. I did this in MUET before but anyhow i was still rushed and i didn't really have time to compose my thoughts. As a result i think my presentation was a bit clumsy and cluttered. After that, i was bombarded with difficult and tricky questions and i was able to answer all of them but i wouldn't know how well i answered them lol. Overall i think i did ok here but it isn't a good sign when one of your points get questioned =)

After that i was pretty free. If only i knew i would have brought a book. I waited with my team mates as there was only the group presentation left. But some of my mates had not finished their interviews yet - pity them. Group presentation was the most challenging part of all. They gave us this case study of us being a SMCT (Special Mission Critical Team) of Sunrise Construction Sdn. Bhd. whereby we were supposed to propose several management initiatives to the company during the current economic crisis. Our list of to do's

Take up specific roles and explain our job (project manager etc.)
Present our ideas to the management
Suggest problems that may arise and how to solve it.

Problem was we had 20 minutes to prepare while they watched us @.@ and... after reading the really long question twice... i was still blur... I didn't dare open my mouth. But somehow we managed. After our presentation, they fired us with questions and gosh some of them just made me freeze because i just didn't know how to answer them. But i guess we did well in the sense we covered up for each other well. =) Love my team yeah!!

So that was it. The entire interview process. Just wanted to thank everyone for their well wishes, prayers and concern. Really helped!! I omitted tonnes of details because i know this is a really long post and its so dry... Anyways, until next time. Praise the Lord!!

Sweet... Bitter.. Sweet

Today was fun. Finally had an Iskandar gathering =) Woots!! The planned 3 day 2 night trip was a failure... but today's outing was good - 8 came (pretty late) .
Did I tell anybody how i hate planning outings?? Well, i do. The bigger the group, the worse. Its just so hard to get people. Sometimes it just gets discouraging. But hey, people have their own reasons don't they. That's why 8 was a great number for me =)

Anyway, Alice in Wonderland wasn't what i expected. It was pretty cool in parts but i wish they'd show more of the characters which to me was what made it interesting. I could vaguely remember the cartoon but i really don't remember much about mad hatter. We were late for the movie (Malaysian rubber time) =P But i don't think we missed that much.



After lunch and after visiting some friends... we went BOWLING!!
Well it was funny hahha. Really took my mind off things. It reminded me of why i wanted to meet up with these guys in the first place. There's really nothing better than having fun with good friends. It was an off day for me in bowling... cheh... asyik senget ... but still respectable. Devar was REALLY lucky today... 2 strikes??? Left siva fuming. Wei Liang did well.. his first time haha... well xin yi... what can i say... more power!!

After that was weird... meichern went missing.. literally. We assumed she went back so we had an ice cream and went home ;P sorry

On another note, i realized something today. Sometimes, we're just so caught up in things, we forget to be a good friend. We expect so much of others but yet we don't put in the same amount ourselves. Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.. right? But instead we get all critical and we judge too quickly before we even think through why someone reacts a certain way. I felt disappointed in myself today... i wasn't sensitive enough. I regret acting too quickly and i feel i have let someone down. I was too eager to comfort my own ego that i wrecked things up. I guess i'm just not there yet. haiz.. in time i hope i will.

Anyway, a shoutout to one of my best-est buddies, nothing beats sitting in the same class for 11 years.. A very Blessed 20th birthday... hgnis rednivlad lol... hope you see this after you completed your assignments XP.

It just seems life is a series of ups and downs... bittersweet... Just have to take it all in.

(I realized i'm back to long posts... but hey at least its more regular right?)

You don't miss the water til the well runs dry

I was watching The Book of Eli a few hours back, and something struck a chord with me. Regarding the old days ( its set in the future so old days means now ),
Eli said,

"People threw away things we would fight for now. They didn't know what was really precious."

-well it went something like that-

I was just thinking. How true. People just don't know how to appreciate things when they have it. A few songs come to mind.

Counting Crows - They Paved Paradise
Craig David - You Don't Miss Your Water (Til The Well Runs Dry)

Just something to we should all think about.