Wednesday, March 17, 2010

SECOND REFLECTION: MY EXPERIENCE IN A MOCK INTERVIEW

Recently, I have gone through a mock interview. I was supposed to prepare a resume, cover letter and a cutting of a job advertisement of my choice. All stated articles have been posted in this e-portfolio in respective sections.

Before this mock interview, I already have experienced a few real life interviews. From these real interviews, I have gained a lot of knowledge for any interviews to come. Research is my main strategy for interviews. I look for strength, weakness and also information about the interviewers and who or what organizations that they are representing. Furthermore, I would practice my dialogues so that I would not stutter and I will be more confident to answer questions that would be asked during the interview. On the other hand, I will also conduct a mock meeting with family members, whereby I will become the interviewee and the others, the interviewer.

Back to the mock interview done recently, I took the role of a fresh graduate. To me, everything went smoothly, and I was able to communicate well with the interviewer. The questions asked were basic level and I believe that I have answered it well. I am confident that I will make the cut if it were a real job interview.

In my view, a few of the candidates have lack of confidence to communicate in the English language. They tend to not have adequate vocabulary and grammar, thus making it harder to understand their point in the discussion. However, there were few who braved the odds and carry on with the interview. This remark is not criticism; however, I do hope Malaysians especially my fellow friends would improve their proficiency in English so that we can be above the best in the industry.

In my opinion, using English as a second language is important as an engineer because there are possibilities of working with foreign people. Furthermore, multilingual individuals will receive a better chance of employment. My family for example, is multilingual. My mother is able to speak Malay, English and Mandarin. My father, on the other hand, can speak Malay, English, and French. My sister is undergoing a third language course, which is Arabic language at her school. I myself, have taken communication Arabic, higher Arabic (Bahasa Arab Tinggi) and also basic Japanese as third languages. Though it might sound like a handful, I do learn a few phrases in different languages of my parents’ third language to communicate better with other people.

In conclusion, this mock interview is a good activity to enhance skills to fight for jobs after graduation.