6 hours

well most of you knew about this, some of you don't, so last Thursday, I had an interview with PETRONAS, this is what I've been waiting for..FINALLY!

and I hope I pass the interview...not just for me, but for you guys out there..YES you know who you are...hehe

anyway, here's what happened on that day..the interview was supposed to start on 12.30, but somehow the morning session got drag too long, so the interview had to start on 2pm..it ended at 6pm! you can't imagine how tiresome and tense that is..almost 6 HOURS!

so basically, the interview has 2 part, the Competency Based Interview (CBI) and the Structured Interview (SI)...what does this mean?

what this mean is that CBI is the part where they ask you a number of question, but not like.."tell us you greatest strength" , its more like "have you been in a situation where you need to make difficult decision" or "have you been given a goal to accomplish and how do you accomplish it?"..question that test your behaviour and skills..and to see if you're would be perfect for the company..so you have to remember the time when you had to this, this take about 1 hours to finish, and during this is also the Q&A session..and I asked them,
"what is a suitable or perfect candidate for a position in PETRONAS?"

and they asked me back,
"what do you think?" ,

here's where it got really good..I just list all my strengths here..hope they find that in my CV hahaha

in the SI, you are given a case study, where you have to understand the key elements, the problems, the best plan to solve it and the risk of the plan you took..this is where it get hard..the interviewer will ask question to see how you think, you need to have a vast amount of general knowledge..SERIOUSLY, if you say "I don't know" a lot of time, then it probably mean you get the X..and this was really tough for me,

my case study was Consumer Power, where Global Warming in the future can be blame to the oil industries, see how this conflict me? interviewing a job at an oil company that is to blame for Global Warming while at the same time environmentally conscious? DAMN!

and that's not all it in SI, there is also call Role Playing, where you are given a situation, where you can be a manager, a worker or anyone..but usually the manager, because they want to see the type of leader and the path you take in the role play and you are given a tough situation,

example of my situation, I was a manager at a factory, where pollution in a nearby river is suspected to come from my factory, there was numbers of card, where you play the same situation but with different story..at first I thought I was given 1 cards only..but then they decide to continue and continue, they was this one woman, she was really persistent in continuing with this..at the end of 3rd card, the other interviewers sigh a relieve...ME TOO! hahaha..

as I mention, the role playing it to see what is your leadership style, what would you do, what kind of leader you are..they also want you to think and really THINK about your plan of actions, you can't just jump into decision quickly..and the SI took me more than 1 hour to complete them..

by the end of both the interview I WAS TIRED AND HUNGRY!! but I think I did ok.

so here are some advices when you're going in the PETRONAS interview..
1. EAT FIRST! or bring your own foods and drinks
2.be SUPER PREPARE! fill your brain with general knowledge, it really REALLY helps!
3.don't be afraid to ask
4.be SUPER FRIENDLY!
5.remember all the time where you have to use your non-technical skills
6.practice practice practice

and there you go, I don't know if that helps, cause I don't know if I pass the interview or not but it helps..so, au revoir