Woah!!!
This was the one word that ran through my mind right after the 1st phase one interview. Why is that so? Well, basically it is because of the mind-blowing questions given by one out of the three person interviewing me, Galvin. The other two that were there to witness the awesome interview were Clarence and Teck Kim, ex-co members and great person of their own rights.
Here, I will be recounting my experience under the Students' Union Junior Committee interview, where I will then describe in more detail why this was an awesome interview and why it just blew my mind. (In case you were wondering, it was a different type of mind-blowing, not the type brought about by stress but by extreme respect and awe)
In the beginning, I was feeling at extreme ease when this mentioning of a Junior Committee came as I have discussed this with my best friend and great squadmate from my secondary school, Varrick. His brother, Vianney, is well respected as a Sec 2 OIC from NPCC, and now that he came to know and join Students' Union, he is quite well known and much respected still, for he is a great guy and proceeded to live up to the name he had built with his great passion excellent skills. He actually became the Head for two departments within SU itself, and thus, from him, my friend knew of a department known as Operations, which basically encompass of planning and executing the planned events. It is a job scope very similar to what we, in uniformed groups do, and therefore as we still maintained an interest in doing such things, this Operations department appealed very much to us indeed.
Though introductions about the various roles and departments in SU were made in the first General Meeting and the second General Meeting, it was not enough for me as I feel that the information provided was much too less for me to know what exactly is that I should do as thus, affected my decision to joining SU Junior Committee to sign up for it straight away.
One of my best friend of my class, Joel, was interested in this to some extent, but would only attempt it should I decide to join in for the interview. Having discussed this matter for quite some time, I finally made up my mind to join in the interview and thus, so did Joel. On the 26th of July, we stayed back together with some friends and proceeded with the queuing for the interview. For the questions that I expected to be asked, which turned out to come true, I readied a sort of a speech about myself and what I knew to do from my days in NPCC. It goes something like this:
I have been undertaking leadership roles since secondary school, as a cadet leader under NPCC. I was a medic and also the Head of the medic department back in my secondary school and I am able to identify any possible casualties, as well as pre-empting the things that might happen unexpectedly in any events. I am also quite familiar with how things are supposed to be run and executed as all the various event plannings back in NPCC were required to be passed through me to let me start pre=empting the possible dangers and injuries that might happen, as well as to properly allocate my manpower.
Coming back to the interview, we waited for approximately an hour plus or so, and had been talking within the waiting area. Through this, I learned that the previous batch that finished the interview before we came left mainly with black faces, and that this Galvin guy is a much respected and fierce senior, which people were scared of. I did not felt much bothered by this news as I have been facing my share of such people in NPCC, my sirs and seniors. We continued to talk and finally, my turn came.
Obviously, i am not some godlike person that does not feel nervous in face of such matter of importance, and though I may have butterflies fluttering in my stomach, I willed myself to digest away all these irritating butterflies and just convert them into some crap in the toilet bowl, and yeah, time to give an introduction of myself to them!!!
They introduced themselves to me, with Galvin starting first, then Clarence and finally, Teck Kim. I was sort of ready for them as it is obvious that the 'Angel and Devil' system, which is also put to good use in NPCC, were being utilised by them, with Galvin being the Devil, the one that is the strictest, scariest, and tells you the bad news in your face directly, and Clarence and Teck Kim being the Angels, the ones that are smiling the whole time and lessens the impact of every heavy and harsh words spoken by the Devil.
If my memory does not fails me, which it has a tendency to do so, I was asked if I know what I was doing there. I just replied that I am here now as I wanted to be part of the Junior Committee. Then, I was told to give a three minutes introduction about myself. which consist of mainly what I mentioned earlier, and i added on that I wanted to join as a Junior Committee member as I have been observing the leaders around me, and that i am tired of just standing by the sidelines anymore, that I want to now be the one that stands up to take lead. This being said, plus that I told them I believed that this Junior Committee is where I will be able to do so, despite the lack of such experience, for I will have a great many opportunities to do so.
Next, I was told to give a gauge of my confidence level, on a scale of 1 to 10, which I then graded myself as a confidence level 7, for I lack the experience to properly lead, I cannot speak to an entire big crowd of people effectively, and that.. well, I kind of blanked out and started to random blast out anything that I could think of, then which I started repeating my first point and realized it in a sudden and stopped bull-shitting around.
Luckily, they also figured out that I am having some difficulties expressing out the last point and moved on to the next question, which was about what was my strengths and weaknesses. Though mentioned, I replied that my strengths are that I know how to look out for possible casualties, pre-empt things that will most likely happen, how to plan, as to have an effective plan, you will need to have a regular plan and a wet weather plan, as well as to place buffer times between activities and to flexibly adjust the plan according to the attendance for the event, and that I know too, about how to go about executing a plan, and in the case that a leader is needed, I am able to step out and lead. Next, I proceeded to my weaknesses, that I have not actually the sufficient experience in the field itself, that I am not able to make myself to be heard in front of a very big crowd, and that about it before I blanked out once again.
Suddenly, Galvin said this to me 'I have a very bad impression of you, because you wanted to outshine all the others, but this is not the way we do things in SU. We work together as a family, and that holding on to a lower position doesn't mean that those holding on to the higher post are better than them.' Clarence added on to say 'We support each other in SU, because different people have different strengths, and we learn from each other, we teach each ote=her what we are good at, so we can all be equals as part of the SU family.' Galvin then proceeded to say 'I think you got your concepts wrong, but I can still give you a chance depending on how you will answer later.' I was dumbstruck on the spot, for I did not expect things to turn out this way, but however, this was no time to think about it.
They proceeded with the next question, with 'What is Paul?' which must be answered in 10 seconds. The first thing that ran through my mind was that I have been supporting other people all my life, and so, I replied straight away as "Support". Then, I was asked to tell them my favorite quote, which was to never leave anyone behind. This was because I always felt that that it is really damn bad to do so, for aren't they human as well? Aren't they a friend as well? I wouldn't leave anyone behind at all, for I will be feeling really bad about it, and not for anything in the world will I abandon anyone at all if I can help it.
Apparently, this turns out to be a turning point for me in the interview!! For the next thing Galvin said was 'What if, you were given another chance to go for the interview again? Not a second (phase) interview, but the first (phase) interview, again?' Straight away, as quick as greased lightning, I responded 'Yeah!! I would come again!!'. He gave me a paper to note down my name, contact number, and email, which i filled it up, and now, after thanking them, it's my turn to go and time for Joel!!
In the time I was waiting for Joel, I was immensely deep in thought, and as disappointed as I was, I actually walked out the door smiling, for my mistake in my thoughts were corrected in this rare opportunity, and as this was the very thing I, in my ignorance then, was warned time and time again to not commit. It was the heinous crime of being a big-headed person, which is essentially an arrogant person that believes he or she is able to accomplish everything alone without the help of others. (To be continued in Part 2)
