Third Interview: National Infocomm Scholarship

Hey readers! Finally I am able to fulfill my promise to post about my third interview with Ecquaria! Are you surprised? Perhaps, since it is the first time I actually fulfilled my promise for posting something... One takeaway from this event is that procrastination is bad. I mean, I failed to fulfill my promise to post about introduction and Skyrim because I keep procrastinating. As a result, more events come along the way and I feel more compelled to write about the more recent ones. Returning readers (if any) will realize that I have been away for quite some time. Well, after this third interview, I fell sick a few days after. After I recovered, I went back to work and thus less time to spend doing other things. I took some days off again and thus now I am able to update my blog again.

Anyway, let us not waste another moment (aka procrastinate) and get to the main story.

On that day, I was feeling more confident than on the day of my previous interview, mainly because I was better prepared and my Mum kept reassuring me that there was no pressure in getting the scholarship (initially my Mum admitted that they had difficulty to finance my study should I decide to continue studying in Singapore even without scholarship). I decided to let go of the burden about the future and focus on the present (so profound!!). The day before, I had a "dry-run" on how to get to the interview location, since it was really far from where I stayed (for Singaporeans or someone who knows Singapore landscape well, I stayed in Eunos and the interview is in Yishun). From the dry-run, I found a place to change to my interview attire (I do not want to crumple my interview attire even a little, sorry for the OCD symptom), a place to have lunch before the interview (thinking my previous interview was a mess because I did not have lunch before), the bus to be taken and the bus stops to take it from, and how to get back. That was also another reason why I felt more at ease; as for my previous interview, on the day before the interview itself, I got lost in NUS and perhaps that is why I was rather anxious on the interview day.

The area was not very far from the MRT Station, fortunately. Only about 3-4 bus stops away. It was some kind of industrial complex; there is Phillips, for one, and other companies which I never heard of, much like this Ecquaria that interviewed me. 

However, not everything went smoothly. It turned out that I came WAY too early, unless arriving 1315 when your interview is scheduled at 1400 is not too early for you. I came almost at the same time as the guy whose interview is scheduled at 1330 aka the one before me. Anyway, I got to know him a little; he was a Singaporean in his second year of NS (National Service, for the benefit of those who do not know), accepted to NTU Biz n Comp (just like me) programme and took 1 hour in the interview room. Yeah, you read me right. 1 full hour. So I only enter the interview room at 1430, aka I waited for more than an hour there. Well, luckily I was not as nervous as last week, so I did not lose my composure even after the long wait. I did go to the toilet twice during the period, but that was more because of the air-con and not my anxiety (or so I hope). One interviewer was also so kind to be my company during the 1 hour wait and we talked for about 15 minutes or so. So the waiting was actually not much of a problem to me.

So I entered the interview room. It was a small room with a small round (or was it square? I can't remember) table in the middle and 4 big office chairs. The interviewers were all rushing to the toilet when I came in due to the 1-hour long interview with the person before me. I looked at their name tags (the ones that are put on the table). The main interviewer is the CTO of the company, the kind interviewer was the head of HRD, while another one is a representative from IDA. There should be 4 interviewers in total, the kind interviewer told me, but the last one, the Vice-President of the company, was unable to attend the interview. Well, not a surprise, really. Presidents and Vice-Presidents are the busiest people in the company, believe it or not. I knew it for a fact, even though some of you may think that Bosses have the least job of all.

Anyway, I was somewhat glad to hear that the Vice-President was unable to come, since the less interviewers the merrier, for me. However, for some reason, the kind interviewer was not present for the full duration of my interview, which was only a little less than half an hour. I think she was accompanying the next interviewee, much like when she accompanied me during the 1-hour guy's interview. Or maybe she has had enough information about me during the 15 minutes talk. I do not know.

So, here is the course of my interview. Firstly, the IDA rep told the CTO a little information about me; my name, my short history (she told what I am going to say should he asked, "Tell me more about yourself" - a recipient of ASEAN Scholarship for secondary and JC level), and which universities I am applying for. He then asked whether I am accepted into the courses, and which one I should choose. I told him I am still deciding. Then he told me about his experience, that people even in the remote part of the world know what Nanyang Business School is. So, somewhat, perhaps, he encouraged me to take NTU's offer. After that, he asked me why I choose Computer Science, and what knowledge I have about computer. I gave some answers, but he cut me half-way and asked me more in-depth regarding my experience in JavaScript. I do not really know how he knew this, perhaps I wrote it somewhere in my essay, but my answer had not reached the part regarding learning JavaScript. I decided to just be myself and be honest, so I answered truthfully that I have close to zero experience, that I have just started, and that I only reached the subject of "Object-Oriented Programming".

Then he continued to ask me about the software I mentioned in my previous answer: Photoshop. He asked me what projects I had done, and I answered with the most recent project I had done: designing posters, banners, and brochures for my father. Then he asked me further, mostly about my thinking process, as he asked me to present my design roughly on a small whiteboard available there. I was initially a little hesitating, trying to describe my brochure in words, but he insisted on me using the white board so I did. I think I made a little mistake here by letting him prompting me many times to do something. Always give more than what your Boss asked you to do, they say. However, I did not. I even felt that I gave very little information. It is my tendency to tell as little information as possible to other person who is not directly connected to what I was talking about, as I am scared that I will bore the person by my talking. It should not be like that in an interview. The interviewers want to know more about you. So you tell them more about you, not less. So his question regarding "What special effects did you use in making the poster?" went unanswered. I was not so sure what he meant by "special effects" in the first place, though. I am not familiar with layman nor technical terms of Photoshop's features anymore, I guess. He actually emphasized at the start of the interview that he wants to see the person I am, what drives me, what makes me tick, my thinking process, etc etc very clearly, but somehow the message only sank to me after the interview, not during.

Then he asked me if I could show him the poster. Of course I did not bring it there. I suggested that my father may upload it to Facebook, so I open my phone (he asked me to do so). A deafening silence followed, and that made me a little uneasy, so I said that I don't think my father uploaded this one. Then he, out of the blue, asking me what phone I have. I was taken aback a little, wondering what he actually meant by that question. I answered with some obvious confusion, and answering with one-word for every question he threw at me regarding my phone like, "What OS?", "What app do you use the most?" etc. It was only after the interview that I knew where he was coming from; my essay. I wrote that I took interest in making my own custom Android OS. I really did. Mainly because I would like to know what hinders many developers from porting an unofficial custom OS to my device back then. It was a piece of junk really, 3.5" of screen, 600 MHz processor and tiny RAM and storage of about 200 MB each. However, I pushed that device to the limit by installing CyanogenMod 7.1.3, equivalent to Android 2.3.7. It was at its best when I installed CM 6.1.2, or Android 2.2.x equivalent, but I was too lazy to revert back as some things may go wrong, so I decided to leave it there, with all the problems and annoyance, then I passed it on to my Mum, who rarely used it due to the battery and call problems.

Anyway, he then proceeded to ask me about something that, again, I feel is quite out of the blue: "What is your view about travelling?" I thought I heard him wrong so I asked him to repeat, twice. Well, apparently I heard him right. I was not sure how to answer it, so he helped me by asking me if I had traveled abroad with just friends, which places have you gone to and the like. Once again, I answered them shortly, since I was too stunned by the question that was seemingly coming from out of the blue. And I was taken off guard again after he said, "Okay, I am finished. Anything you would like to ask to me or Mandy (the IDA rep)?" Holy crap, that was really short, I thought. Like, way too short. Compared to the previous candidate, at least. So I tried to extend by asking some questions that I have prepared beforehand, though I actually had already asked them to the Head of HRD earlier during the wait:
1. How do you gain trust of the government who you provide your e-government service with?
2. Why haven't you expanded to Indonesia, when you have expanded to some faraway countries like Mexico and some other countries in the Central America?

However, I still did not manage to get the interview to continue. Well, too bad, I thought. At least now I lost with a head held high. I also feel I have gotten some insight into how companies conduct interviews, which is slightly different from university's way. The CTO had also given me some things to think about, like when I said somewhere in the interview that I would like to improve my communication skills by taking the double degree in NTU, he told me that getting out of your comfort zone is one thing, but being someone you are not is another thing. It got me thinking. On one hand, many people always say to just do it, or else you would never know how high you can achieve, but on the other hand, people also say to just be yourself and be happy. For a reserved person like me, the two sayings present me with two opposite sides of a coin. Should I be more daring and see if I can achieve more than what I thought I was capable of, or should I just stay reserved and be happy with it?

Other than that, he also asked me if I prefer to work as someone who is at the forefront and talk to people, or be the ones behind the scene. Of course most companies would want the speaker. But they would need people working on it behind the scene as well. It would be ideal to get both in one person. Perhaps I was too honest when I answered it, but I would rather to tell him who I really am rather than being someone I was not, since I am not good at bluffing in the first place.

So, in the end, I did not get the offer from them. I got the offer from the interview that I thought I screwed up instead. I was disappointed, of course, but I need to get real. Prestigious scholarships require you to be exceptionally outstanding, not just someone with a big dream but has not started working his ass off towards achieving that dream. Nevertheless, I got some insights from the CTO of the company. And I am thankful for that experience. As opposed to the scholarship interview with NUS, where the interviewer interviewed many people in one day, 15 minutes allotted time per person, almost without rest except for meals, the value of each applicant's individuality is greatly diminished. The only thing that the interviewer wanted would be to get the information he needed from the applicant as quickly as possible and proceed to the next one. As for interviews with companies, they value each and every applicant as different individuals with different traits, dreams and expectations. Interview was scheduled for 30 minutes each, but may exceed as per needed. Note that I am not talking only about the company that interviewed me, but also my friend who was interviewed by StarHub. There are two rounds of interview in his case, and he noticed that the things he said on the first interview is brought up in the second one. His interviews also lasted for more than 30 minutes in both rounds, which I consider now to be a good sign.

Anyway, this concludes my series of interview for scholarship. I already accepted the NUS ASEAN offer and chose NUS as my choice of university. There will be one more interview coming up, though this one should not be as serious as the other three which I had written here. This time is with Tembusu College, a residential college in NUS. To cut things short, try to get information about what Tembusu is on this link. It is getting quite long, too. So, I would like to end it here. Just a heads-up, I will go for a social camp for my faculty from 8-12 June so I will not be updating my blog for a week, approximately. Do not worry though, most likely I would post my experience in the camp here as well, just as a record for myself and perhaps for you readers to enjoy as well! Thank you for bearing with me, my stories, my going-out-of-topic sentences and my horrible English! =D