My first ever interview X.x

I've been attending a bunch of scholarship interviews lately.. GLAD ITS ALL OVER!!!! \ ^ 0 ^ /..... (for now) It's been a soul-sucking and nerve-wrecking experience. Never did so much self-reflection in my life. I had to seriously sit down to think about myself and my future, then try to convince my interviewers about my resolutions. I won't say that I did absolutely brilliant, nor will I say that I did extremely terrible. I think I did decent.There was a few awkward pauses here and there (especially when they throw bomb scenario question X.x), but its definitely way way better than the first interview I ever had...

*Flashback*

My very first interview was when I was Year 3 (a.k.a Secondary 3). I was nominated by my trumpet section to be an EXCO member. The 15-year-old me naively thought that I could go into the interview room completely unprepared and just answer a few question about myself. I didn't really do self-reflections of any sort before I went into the room. So I screwed up even the simplest of questions.

I got stunned at a simple question like "Why should we choose you" -.- In my head I was having internal debates whether I should praise myself to the heavens.

"I should say about my strengths"
"But then what are my strengths..? Diligent,efficient, capable, smart?"
"Would that make me seem cocky? AM I REALLY SUPPOSE TO BULLSHIT ABOUT MYSELF?!?!?!"

 Yea..so...

                                      Tip 1 for any interviews: Don't be too humble.

Sell yourself with confidence. DON'T STARE BLANKLY at the panels of interviewers hoping they can read your thoughts and understand that you are trying to me humble by not talking. LOL #epic fail. In the end the band major had to rephrase the question to lure me to talk. Obviously, without preparation, I could only answer with lots of self-doubts and nervousness. Conclusion,

                                       Tip 2: ALWAYS BE PREPARED! 

If you want to be lazy for an interview, I'll probably end up like me: sweating like a mad dog, panic, tongue tied.

I was probably the quietest interviewee the panel seen the whole day. I think the interviewers talked more than me course the naive (and humble) me refuse to bullshit all the good things about myself. I myself wasn't even convinced that I should be an EXCO member at that point in time. So I had alot of difficulties answering questions like "How can you contribute?", "Why do you want this?", "Which role do you plan to hold". And you can basically imagine how terribly awkward the whole interview process was...

OTL

 So I believe you have to be clear about what you want before you go into any interview. Interviewers will only be convinced if you speak with confidence and answer them with a clear goal in mind. That's what I have learnt from this epic fail interview experience in Year 3. Yea.. so end my epic story on my first ever interviews.

Now, its way way WAYYYY better than what I had been in Year 3. At least I can speak a whole chain of sentence about myself without breaking into a sweat XD Just needa work on standing out in interview :/ I guess even if I'm not granted anything from any scholarship, it will be a valuable life experience for me:)

Praying I'll get better for future interviews,
Jojo