MIM interview

February 4th 2006

My schedule was 2:30-3:00pm slot, they only opened for registration at 2:15 and not any earlier. But they were running late and by the time I get in it was after 3:30! Pity the people in the later slots.

But the most pitiful bunch would be the interviewers, think Randy, Paula and Simon in American idol auditions!

While waiting, I overheard a bunch of fresh-grad-look-alikes talking, one of them already went through, he told his gang about the classification that he learned from the orientation day (I didn’t attend, didn’t know when it was) and that the interviewer left the file wide open that he could see his TU-GET and written exam score and he saw his classification as C which mean the lowest class, he was openly upset. He said A is a “definitely in” , I didn’t catch the meaning of other class though nor what other questions are. It was a long waiting and finally my turn came. Note: The girl who went thru this room before me was a pretty young thing in stylish outfit, think a teenage version of Carrie Bradshaw, she was one of those fresh grads too.

In the interview room:

Me: Good afternoon
Prof T: You should wai Professor B here’s thai
Me:(wai - it's the thai traditional greeting, you put your hands in prayer position and bow your head a little)
Prof B: Have a seat
Me: Thank you
Prof T: So you see we are tough
Me: I’m scared
Prof T: Good. So what have u been doing for 10 years
Me: oh after I graduated, by the way, I graduated from this place..
Prof T: yes we know, we know everything about you. You are working at QAD I&I, is that right?
Me: Not any more, I quitted last November
Prof T: (giving me a piercing look) so you no longer working there? Where do you work now?
Me: I’m not working right now, I mean I don’t have a full time job
Prof T: will that be any problems for you having to pay for the courses
Me: No, that’s not a problem. I’m actually helping my family taking care of family asset
Prof T: you mean like collecting rent?
Me: not really. More on the investment and developing
a piece of vacant land
Prof T: so I’ll put you down as a freelance. I don’t know, we have just too many of them. How long did you work at this QAD I&I?
Me: Only for 3 months
Prof T: And before that?
Me: Oh! I see, in the application it only asked for the current workplace! Before that I worked for Hewlett Packard in Singapore for 5 years
Prof T: Yes, you have Singaporean accent, that’s so strange.
Me: Is it very strong? I’m trying to cut if off
Prof T: You mean you can change it?
Me: Probably (WHAT IT REALLY MEANS:I'm afraid i'm a complete liar), coz I just pick it up when I was there
Prof T: And before HP?
Me: Guardian industry in Rayong,
Prof T: What’s wrong with you why did you try to hop around changing jobs and moving countries, do you have a criminal record or something?
Me: No I don’t have any criminal record, but if I have one I’ll make sure it’s nicely wrapped up and nobody alive ever find it.
Prof T: We are the toughest program in Asia, much tougher than NUS, Blah blah… I don’t see why someone from your profile would want to take this program blah blah blah… why do you dress like this?
Me: (I was in my favorite off-white shirt and well-seasoned office black pants, with a pair of court shoes. And for crying out loud, It’s 32 C outside and people were gathering in front of the university for the rally to expel the PM, plus MIM made us wait 2 hours longer than we suppose to!)
*grinning* So u can take a picture of me for a before vs after shot to place on MIM notice board? seriously, What do
you mean, what’s wrong with it?
Prof T: It’s so minimal, you are not trying to market yourself like someone who is so into marketing industry, see I’m wearing a Jacket. In fact, you are like de-marketiing yourself
Me: *laughing* I don’t try to de-marketing myself. I think this’s smart casual
Prof T: Are you sure you are not trying to say that you are a rebel by that?
Me: I don’t know (WHAT IT REALLY MEANS:what do i care? u can't deny me a place for what i wear, it's a discrimination!), I do dress up sometimes too (WHAT IT REALLY MEANS:yeah, when i go to a wedding dinner)
Prof T: Don’t worry, I just wonder. Rest assured this has nothing to do whether or not you are going to be accepted or not
Me: Ok, thanks for bringing it up so I know there’s a room for improvement.(WHAT IT REALLY MEANS: rest assured this will mark the highest standard of my dressing sense throughout the study)
Prof T: And one thing I want to mention, normally girls your age have plans for settling down. This program is very demanding and it's very important that the boyfriends
understand, this could mean you have to mix with a bunch of guys til 3-4AM for your assignments or someone honking under your windows in the middle of the nights. (looks like he's caught up by his memory here) there was some instances
of complications. So I just want to make it clear.
Me: I'm prepared for that(WHAT IT REALLY MEANS:I would be celebrating if i ever find myself in such situation)
Prof B: Do you know our regulation?
Me: (totally blank) What regulation?
Prof T: How many times can you miss the class?
Me: Why? I don’t plan to miss one
Prof T: But do you know how many times?
Me: Sorry, I don’t know about that rule
Prof T: 3 times a semester, and if you were late, less than 15 mins for 3 times is a missed class. more than 15 minutes late and that’s a missed class.
Me: That’s fair enough. Anyway, people pay to get in program. Why would they want to miss any class?
Prof T: Ha ha you are tough. I gonna put you in as definitely accepted and I believe Prof Buarat will have something similar. But that’s not a confirmation, you know in case we put down 90 names but we could take only 80 people.
Me: Understood
Prof T: Go shopping!
Me: Thanks (WHAT IT REALLY MEANS:whaddahecks! i gonna go for my lunch first! u guys made me wait for 3 hours and i'm starving!)

At some point in the middle, I recall what that young man said so I scan the paper in Tasman’s hand and I saw the classification is A. I guess they had different sets of questions for each class. I didn't get to talk much during this interview, i don't think they have any idea what i'm about.. but, they don't have to anyway.