JPA interview

Sorry for the long silence. Wow, it's been a really long time since I last updated this blog. Well, for a start, let me tell you what I've been through for the past few weeks.

After the SPM results were out on the 12th of March 09 (in which I am satisfied with my results; but still, I won't reveal what I got, LOL), I'd been busy filling up application forms online for every scholarship available. That included Sime Darby, PETRONAS, JPA, TNB, and UEM (I can't remember the rest). Yea, I didn't apply for those 'high-standard' scholarships eg. Yayasan Khazanah, BNM etc. because I'm not eligible. And after few weeks, scholarships' interviewee results were released. I got rejected by Sime Darby and TNB. Frankly speaking, I was not that frustrated because I am aware that the competitions are really tough. But hey, I got JPA and PETRONAS!

My JPA interview was on the 13th of March 09. As other normal applicants will do, I'd made some preparations for the interview. And the day came. My interview was held at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC). My parents took me to the PICC in the afternoon as my interview was scheduled at 2.45 pm. Man, the scenery, the building, is so beautiful, I tell ya. When we arrived, I went to the counter and signed my name on the namelist. I noticed that I would be interviewed in Panel 9 and that my name was the last in sequence. That means I was the last to be interviewed in my group (5 person per group). What was more surprising was that I was the ONLY Malay in my group. Read that, the ONLY!

Then, I went straight to Panel 9. There I met my groupmates. I can't recall their names. Sorry :p . Since we were the second group to be interviewed, we chatted outside the room, getting to know each other. Most importantly, each weaknesses. LOL. But, while standing. Haha. Yea, there were sofas but we just stood there. There was this one girl named Reynu (read Indian). She was so talkative. Yes, she was the one started the ice-breaking session. Other two were Chinese. Then, a Malay boy came to us and join us. Whew, thank God I had another Malay in my group. Oh yea, we were the noisiest there. Chatting, laughing.

Then it was our turn. I started to feel nervous again. As I stepped into the room, I saw two gentleman in black suits smiling at us. Seriously, I thought I would be seeing strict-looking faces. But it turned out otherwise. We took our seats. Then, we were asked to give a brief introduction about ourselves either in English or Malay, one by one. Yup, this was the time to brag about yourself. Haha.

Next, we were given a topic about 'Patriotism'. They gave us about 2 mins to think about the ideas of how to project our patriotism to Malaysia. And yes, no discussion allowed. We were required to present our points in Malay. Next came the second topic. This time was in English. A topic about 'Mat Rempit'. How to prevent this problem from aggravating. Then, that's it. The interview was over. Before we stepped out of the room, the interviewers wished us luck. Seriously, I tell ya, the interviewers were really friendly. And I had a very pleasing and smooth interview. It was like I wasn't being interviewed in the 'interview' format, but more like a regular chat. Now, I can only pray that I will get the scholarship.