Interview woes

Edit: I removed this post from the blog because it was under scrutiny by a certain company as part of my interview.

Okay as you may know, I have interviewed my fair share of people during my stint as marketing director for Project Taiyang. So I am not really a stranger to interviews and sometimes even find joy in interviewing people. However, when the tables are turned around, it is not always a pleasant thing to happen. Not everyone are good interviewers, and not everyone are good interviewees.

So I would be talking about what constitutes a good interviewee. You just need to do 2 things essentially to be a be defined as a good interviewee.

1) Do your research about the interview

Yes, you need to prepare for your interview despite you thinking that you got it in the bag. You need to do in-depth research about the company, about the department and about the job scope of the position you are applying at. This is so that during the interview you actually got stuff to talk about. Not just talking about your personal experience. They can read it on the piece of paper you sent them called the resume. You need to be able to hold an intelligent conversation with the interviewer so that they got something to judge you on.

2) Go in with an open mind

Okay, doing your research doesn't mean that you need to have a certain mindset going into the interview. You need to be able to change your perspectives constantly, from being able to think in your point of view to different job scope's point of view. This is called flexibility by some people but i prefer to called it open-mindedness. Only when your mind if free to bend to different situations would you be able to be a good interviewee

Next up, after going through 2 interviews are drastically different governmental organisations who shall not be named , I discovered that there are many interview styles.


For the 1st interview, they had a panel whereby they used 4 people in various positions to interview me. Most of the time, 3 people were asking me questions while I answered them fervently while another guy sat at the corner taking down notes. This is what people call the observer whereby he generally has a psychology degree and can read people's body language and actions. During this interview, I felt suffocated as I didn't have much thinking time and my attention was spread across 4 different people. As a show of common courtesy, I had to make eye contact with different people constantly and was really putting a strain on my mental health. I would like to believe they were good interviewers..

but I was not impressed by the questions asked

Essentially they believed that an intern there was just a temporary staff who had no notable skills or abilities. The position of intern I was applying for was to be a leader for 5 other staffs who did work on a contractual basis.  It didn't require much technical skills and involved more about interpersonal abilites which I was really good at (Not even kidding LOL). They kept asking me those general situational questions which could be easily answered by any candidates out there with half a brain. That was what made me question,

So what are you actually looking for in a candidate?

They literally had like 3 seconds of hesitation before telling me that they wanted someone who was able to lead people and push them towards hitting their quota. I wasn't impressed. If you were impressed by this well-rehearsed reply, you got to do some reflecting on your own. And this was when the stereotype of governmental agency was getting real. Go in zuo bo lan and kua bo lan. So when I received the call for a second interview, I was thinking is a governmental organisation really good for me?

So after taking a shit at a nearby shopping centre, I went to the office of the agency today for my interview. Even the security guard there seemed friendlier than then former organisation. He bothered to reply to my casual good morning and asked me about day even though it was just 10am in the morning lol. I changed my pass and headed up for my interview. As usual there were many security constraints in governmental agencies but it was so easy compared to the one at the first agency, change a pass and you can go anywhere in the building! Please, you think a guy applying for interview can do what harm to your ministry sia.

The HR manager was very welcoming and understanding. I forgot to print out the application form and she told me it was fine. We ran through my transcripts a bit and the interviewer arrived promptly. Please, I waited 1 hour at the first agency so there is really no competition. The interviewer was very welcoming and greeted me with a smile. This time it was a 1-to-1 interview and I really enjoyed my time there. He asked me a few technical questions at first and we moved onto different topics such as my NS, my intern at my uncle's company and even why I joined ICS. This was what I call an interview. He asked me engaging questions while allowing me to ask him various questions too. I gave him my opinion on a mobile application he was designing for his organisation and he patiently answered my doubts.

This was what I call a good interviewer

He was very friendly and dedicated to his job. Even though I was just a potential candidate, he took his time to explain to me various things and the interview lasted just under an hour. He even gave me a small tour around the department and explained to me the CEO's vision and goal for the company. It was really nice and heartening to see such a great interviewer. I sincerely hope that I would be accepted for this position as I believe, this is a place whereby I would be able to learn a lot from.

Till then.