JPA Scholarship Interview...(Part 1)

It started something like this:

1st April, about 4-6pm.
Conversation #1:
Kit Leng: Did you know you can check whether you can enter JPA interview or not?
Greengrass: Serious? I dunno!
Kit Leng: Yeah, you go and search now.
Greengrass: ok.
few seconds later...
Kit Leng: have you checked?
Greengrass: Yeah..i got it..what i suppose to do??it's 2 days from now!!
Kit Leng: No worries, good luck=)
Greengrass: Thanks

After that, i run through the blog of ppl who actually went for JPA Scholarship Interview before. So basically i see: Dress code (Checked), Certificates (Checked), Time and Venue (Checked) Knowledge in Current Issue ( ).

Conversation #2:
Greengrass: Mum, i'm cooked. I will die soon!
Mum: Why?
Greengrass: I was called up for interview! JPA Scholarship!
Mum: I thought that is a good news?
Greengrass: But i will have discussion on current issues! I duno anything bout the world today!?
Mum: Don't be stupid, you won't die of it. Find the issues online and you will be fine.
Greengrass: *Head banging on the wall*

With my head banging on the wall and fingers typing on the keyboard, i kept searching on the current issues from last year till ...yeah i din search bout the general election. I just found about abducted children cases, SMART Tunnel, Too much As' in SPM, Malaysian Astronaut and Corruption/Integrity. Although i'm half cursing myself for not paying attention on current issues, i'm pretty thankful because i had a reason to keep myself updated. Haha..oh well; nvm.

3rd April
1230pm

I arrived at Pusat Konvensyen Antarabangsa at Putrajaya. The first thing i encountered in the lobby was: There are so many brilliant people! They have the kind of aura that intimidate me a lot. Although the scenery was terrific, i still had the lump in the throat and a knot in my stomach. So yeah...nvm, but my dad put down his work and my mum came here. So i will try my best in the interview although the subject is not my num 1 choice.

I bump into Cheryl! Haha..She's wearing baju kurung: Nampak manis. Actually it took a long time for me to recognise her..haha, until i call her handphone and voila! We were both happy: We are not alone! Haha, she and i on the same room num 16.

200pm
GUlp! Happiness was an instance. Cheryl went in first with other 4-5 persons. I was the second batch. While waiting i talked with other people. We waited for almost 1 hour 10 minutes. We agreed that our batch took the longest time to get out. But when Cheryl came out, she told us that the interviewers are friendly and they are more like chatting rather than interviewing. So i was relieved (for a moment)

We greeted the interviewers(There are two actually, one male and one female). First he explained the interviewing process, wat we will introduce ourselves and so forth. I was the forth to introduce. When the first person open his mouth, i was shivering. Too nervous. So by the time the 3rd person spoke: I lost my consciousness. Literally. I was waiting for the Mr Interviewer to ask me to speak. It's different because: 1) It's the rule in any interviewing process; you wait till the interviewer ask you to speak and 2) What language the interviewer will speak determines what language you will have to answer. So he said: Ya,"Anda boleh mulakan". And i started to introduce myself in malay. It's hard not to bite my words-seriously, the words seemed entangled with my tongue. So i even forgotten to mention about my family background and skipped straight into my extra curriculum achievements and activities. And when he asked about my parents, only i talk about it. It was horrible. I felt like spanking my head on that time.

And then he asked in english: So what your course you are planning to take? Yeah: It's in english. Because i thought of it earlier, so i spoke quite (quite only!!) carefree-ly and in confidence. I mentioned about Mrs Hadid, the Baghdad-born British architect. She was quite my inspiration to involved in architecture. Because, "hey, why not architecture?" I told myself.

And questions go on with 2nd session: Current Issues.

1) What do you think qualities in a good leader should have?
2) Do you think idols, singers, reality shows contestant can become a good leader?
3) Tell us who do you think is your most admired leader and why?

And stupid answers spurred out from my mouth are like these (it was brief one; i cut off my crappy answers and pausing moments)

1) A leader should not only know how to lead, but also can be lead by others. He should work with his people like his family, but at the same time he can be respected by others and people know that he's the superior.
2) Yes, take a good example of Allaryarham P Ramlee. He was a director, actor, singer and he was well respected by others. He opened the chances and give confidence to others on Malaysian entertainment industry.
Mr interviewer: Oh really, name me 3 titles of P Ramlee Movie that you watched.
Greengrass: Oh er, I watched one only..'La..laksamana Do Re MI' (they laughed)
Mr interviewer: Then you said he's...
Greengrass: (Quickly said) See sir, i only watched one of his movie yet i'm admire him already..
After that i thought: I also watched before Nujum Pak Belalang T_T~
3) I admired Tun Dr Mahathir of his vision 2020. He catalyzed the industries and make us Malaysia become a developed country and share the same standard with other developed countries such as Japan, US, China, Russia and others.

Seriously, if i can talk half of my answers as beautifully arranged as that, i'm in heaven. But now i'm still on earth. I paused, said oh-er-ah before continue a new sentences. Others like superb, talking like they are pros..made me intimidated.

430pm: It ended. Relieved. I was happy because:

1) It ended finally.
2) It was the nicest interview and nicest interviewer i had.
3) I gain more experience today.
-be prepared
-practice your speech
-smile a lot
-READ MORE ON CURRENT ISSUE.
4) There are some good people i met.
5) I did something today.

The results: 3rd week of May 2008.=)

To be continued:-