Saturday, July 16, 2011 / The Next Stage of Our Life

Everyone is so happy after graduation, but it is not the ending, it is just the beginning of our next stage of life.
After graduation, everyone is obsessed with finding the right job. Some of them are lucky to find one in a short period of time while some other like me, need a longer period of time.

After ending my part time job, Jobstreet and JobsDB have become my most visited site(other than Facebook and Twitter, of course). My job everyday is to send out resume and waiting for calls for interview. So, let's see. During this 2 months period(oh yeah, I'm unemployed for two freaking months already), I have sent out 16 applications, went to 8 interviews(Shocked, eh?) and only 4 companies offered me a job. So you can see the chance of me getting a job is 50 - 50. Interviews used to be nerve-wrecking for me, at first but after attending 8 interviews, I sort of don't give a crap to impress them and just be myself. Please don't listen to me, okay. But remember, you got to give a first good impression, you never know what the company is looking for.

First and foremost, remember to bring your PORTFOLIO(for my graphic designer friends) and I do think that is the most important thing for us, some company might require you to bring your relevant certificate(such as SPM, Diploma or Degree cert) and some company might require you to give them your recent passport sized picture. In my experience, it is better to have one pen in your bag(cos some staff will just give you one form and leave you there without any pen). Luckily I always have one in my bag.

I know most people would like to know what kind of questions do they ask during interviews. Well, I have to say, it's different questions for different companies. Some of the questions that have been thrown at me:

# Why, of all courses, you take graphic design?
# What do you know about our company?
# What is your strength in design?
# What do you expect to learn here?
# Are you willing to work overtime?
# Introduce yourself
# Explain about your artwork/portfolio
# Where is your internship company and what did you do as an intern?

Sometimes, I was stunned for a moment because I didn't prepare for some of the questions. But always think fast, cos I think I sort of said whatever it is that pop-up into my mind at that moment. So, it is better to say something rather than remain silent. Just, talk.

Being a fresh graduate is hard, they will said you don't have any experience. In another words, you don't deserve high salary. But of course there are some lucky ones.          

What I have learned during all these interviews:
# For the reference part, remember to write your previous employer such as your boss or your supervisor during your internship period (I wrote down my friends contact for the first time, so this is a mistake).
# Remember to write your personal strength in your resume (e.g hardworking, punctual, etc) and also even if you only have basic in that software, you should list it down. (Like I didn't list down those multimedia software such as Flash, Dreamweaver cos I am not reallly good at it but one of my interviewers told me to just list it down)
# It doesn't matter how good your skills are, because skills can be learn, the most important thing is your attitude and your willingness to contribute.

For those who are looking for job, good luck for your job hunting and hope this will help in your interviews :)

Labels: Interview

Friday, July 1, 2011 / A Sunday Afternoon

Last Sunday (26.06.11), I went to ARTiculation, my fellow juniors' graduate exhibition at Annexe Gallery, Central Market. Have to say they did a pretty awesome job, more consistent, organized and much more artistic than my batch(no offence!)






Met up with my ex-classmates Yoke Chin, Wen Ling, Fishball, Kok Liang and Thomas and have a nice time catching up with them and talking about their working life. Of course I have nothing to talk about since I am still, well, jobless :S (more on that later).

Would like to give a big thank you to Yoke Chin and Wen Ling for giving me my belated birthday pressie. Well, honestly, I didn't receive a lot of presents for my birthday for most of my life so I am really surprised and touched :) ❤    

Labels: Arts, Events, Outings