Yayasan TNB scholarship interview - My experience

“Early to bed, early to rise, keeps one healthy and wise”
I’ve been sleeping very late at night on a regular basis, slightly after 1 a.m. Gosh, my internal biology clock is in ruins due to my terrible sleeping regime. That’s why I’d decided to sleep early at 9 pm last night, skipping the 2nd episode of Prison Break season 2 for the sake of my health (I’m a die-hard of this series).

Alright, I’m just kidding!

I was forced to sleep early in preparation of another interview for the Yayasan Tenaga Nasional scholarship. Immediately after Buletin Utama ended, I dozed off in my room only to be awakened again at 1am, then at 2am, and lastly at 3.45am (just a mere, rough assumption). I guessed my mind was too clogged up with the interview and matriculation intake list that was due to be released on the same day. I got up at 3.45am and switched on my computer, knowing that the matriculation list was out by then (a sudden surge of instinct told me so).

And then,

GOOD NEWS for me, I’m selected to undergo the matriculation course at the Penang Matriculation College for a year. In actual fact, I didn’t apply Penang as one of the 3 preferred choices (they were Pahang, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan) but somehow, the ministry decided to place me there. I was so delighted, jumping wildly like a 3-year old boy (overly exaggerated) upon knowing the news. I walked over to my parents’ bedroom and woke them up, informing them the good news. For this year, there are 24 000 places available for the programme scheduled to begin on May 14th, 2007. Of 24 000 places, 10 percents are awarded to non-bumiputera students. So, I’m one of the 2 400 selected ones from non-bumiputera of about 400 000 SPM 2006 candidates in total. It felt like striking a lottery card.

It was already 4 am, but I could hardly sleep after that (my parents too!). My parents and I just chatted on many things till 5 am. Then, I got myself ready for the interview (i.e. bathing, combing, brushing teeth and shaving too). After taking my breakfast (a cup of icy-cold Nescafe – my favourite), my dad decided it was time to leave home for UNITEN, fearing that a traffic jam would occur at the HICOM interchange. We arrived in UNITEN at 6.45 am, which was slightly more than one hour earlier than my schedule time, at 8 am. Initially, I thought UNITEN is an undersized university with only a single building. I was so damn wrong; the university area is in fact as huge as UPM’s main campus. At first, we were lost in direction while searching for Yayasan Tenaga Nasional office because the lack of signboards in the university. Thankfully, after some help from a kind guard, we were able to locate the office which turned out to be a two-storey building – the lower flour was totally inaccessible.

After a short briefing, we were ushered into a meeting room whereby all candidates were required to complete three tests; verbal reasoning, verbal comprehension and a short personality test. Each test had to be completed in 10 minutes. Then, we waited patiently to be called for the interview with three high-profile executives. At about 10 am, I was called up for the interview. It was a 3-vs-1(me) interview, unlike JPA which was done in groups of seven. Indeed, this YTN scholarship interview provided me with a real interview experience, similar to a job interview.

Firstly, the interviewer (a Caucasian clad in black tuxedo) questioned me on why they should award me the scholarship. After giving them two reasons to support my answer, I was taunted about my ability of marketing myself. My mind was rather frustrated at that moment; nevertheless I kept giving them a few more reasons just to satisfy them. Next, I was shocked by his second question. He enquired about my Moral results (I scored 2A) – “why did you get A2 for moral? I answered him in a calm manner, citing the difficulty of the questions, answering techniques and a sudden change in question format. Several questions followed up, regarding national service, civic duties, any information on TNB corporation and so forth. I do admit that I fumbled slightly during the course of interview, especially on TNB objectives and core business information. Nonetheless, it’s a truly rewarding experience for me.