Interviews

I had been to many interviews and some of the conversation during those interviews I could still remember till these days!

Schlumberger came to the campus to recruit engineers for their oil fields. One tall and macho looking french man wearing a pair of sunglasses interviewed me and asked me about my interest and his subsequent comments were that I am more suitable to do a sales job! I think he might be right and I went to become a sales engineer in "Volvo Penta Marine and Industrial Engines"  division right after my graduation. One of my coursemate Lee Chee Fong scribbled on the Schlumberger job application form, his handwriting was so bad that he was told to re-fill up the form again! Schlumberger took in Michael Oh and Tien You Fong to fill their vacancies. Michael Oh did not last long before he came back for another job in Exxon! Schlumberger was a dream job for many as it offered a very attractive package and one could easily earn RM7K(USD3K) a month for a fresh graduate engineer. It was big money 28 years ago!

I also remember going to attend a MIDF scholarship interview, and I told one of the interviewers that I had chosen to study Engineering because I came from Chinese school background and my mathematics and science subjects were stronger compared to my other subjects. That guy got so offended and told me that he came from a non-Chinese school background and claimed that he was equally good in those subjects without any problem. A simple answer from me that somehow provoked someone with an inferiority complex, but I guess then I was not sensitive enough at a time when the NEP diversity policy implementation of the nation was taking place at its height,  though I did not mean to undermine the ego of someone of a different ethnic origin because I am simply not a racist! You could guess the outcome of the interview and my coursemate Bata got that scholarship!

My subsequent graduation had landed me a few more interviews. I went to an interesting one in Hong Leong with a panel of interviewers, so many of them in number that it scared me for a while . I was again asked the question on my interest of doing a sales job, I answered them " it is alright as long as I am not told to sell shampoos!". One of the GM from Hong Leong Yamaha posed me a question on how I should act upon a worker caught red-handedly stealing parts from the plant. I was a bit naive and told him that  I would just tell the worker not to do it again. Guess I am too lenient a guy and therefore I did not get the job offer either.

There was a travel expenses paid interview in Hitachi Penang. One of the interviewers was asking me a very technical question on coefficient of resistance and whether it is less for a boat to travel in a turbulent flow, and I had given him the wrong answer! Another older interviewer mentioned that all newly recruited engineers shall be sent to Japan for training but need to sign a contract with Hitachi. I argued with him that once we sign the contract and the company so decide at a later stage not sending us, what are we going to do? He was angry with me and saying that how could a big company like Hitachi swallow its own words and break a promise. I was probably perceived to be too cocky for a job in this Hitachi semi-conductor plant.

Anyway, finding a job was not tough at that time and we could afford to be a bit choosy. I had met good bosses most of the time and I did not normally let them down for employing someone like me, I am a good worker. For some of the jobs which I had attended interviews but did not get the jobs, come to think of it, they missed a good worker and some companies even went burst after that!