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(In this article, you can expect a more personal sharing from someone who managed to secure a few scholarships after SPM namely JPA Bursary, UEM scholarship (overseas), Maybank scholarship (overseas) and JPA Engineering scholarship (Germany). She doesn’t believe that she’s good enough or qualified to give any professional tips but she hopes to be able to help by sharing the little that she knows.)
1. Avoid faking/boasting your achievements
This is quite self-explanatory, interviewers are somehow experienced enough to know if you’re legit or just faking it. They would usually love if you could expound on your achievements or give them more details of what you did e.g. how did you overcome the challenges, what have you learnt from that etc. Also, don’t brag about your achievements but focus more on how those experiences that have shaped you to who you are today. Just be honest and sincere, relate more of your own personal experiences with them and how you grow through what you go through.
2. Avoid dominating in a group discussion
It’s very common that in a group there’ll be this 1 or 2 person who’s the centre of attention/dominating most of the conversation in group assessments, resulting in a few students who lost the opportunity to share. Sharing your opinions and thoughts are important to shine in an interview but don’t forget that it’s a group interview/group discussion and not your personal stage. Learning how to give others opportunity to share their thoughts or learning how to listen are good, in fact really good virtues. This also reflects how well you can work in a team and how much you value opinions from others. Sometimes, there might be a few people who are too shy to speak in a large group, hence you can also lead them into the conservation by asking their opinions directly to further facilitate discussions.
3. Don’t be unprepared for the interview
I don’t have the perfect answer or guide for preparation, but I believe thinking thoroughly about your choice of course and why exactly you want to pursue it before your interview is important. Prepare a few good questions to ask the interviewers at the end of the interview too! That might score you some good impression marks! ( A lot of times, I wished I did more preparation/research before interviews)
4. Don't pretend that you know the answers when you don’t
Sometimes, interviewers might ask questions related to a field that you’re unfamiliar with or just questions that you don’t know the answers. Again, be honest and tell them you don’t know instead of fabricating an answer for it. Ultimately, we’re still students and it’s understandable that we might not know everything. Honesty is gold too. However, if you managed to answer their questions which only a few could, you gained yourself some good points there!
5. Don’t be someone you’re not
If you think companies only favour people who are charismatic or extra outgoing, you might be wrong. (I’m not the most extroverted person) If you’re an introvert, trying to be someone you’re not just to get more attention or to prove yourself is certainly not a good idea. You might want to impress interviewers by showing them how outgoing or extroverted you are, but I believe it’s ok to be yourself because different people shine in different ways. Well, likewise, staying silent all the time is not a good idea too. Ultimately it’s still a scholarship interview, you still need to be confident in yourself, hence competing with people who talk a lot, you too can shine by giving constructive ideas and meaningful thoughts whenever it’s your turn to speak! Sometimes, a few words speak more volume than fruitless opinions!
Is grass always greener on the other side? Well, I don’t think there’s a definite answer for that but I do realise that home is always home after being abroad for quite some time. Maybe you’ll still not able to fathom that right now but trust me, life studying overseas is not all fun and games or as glamorous as you think it is.
Anyway, for those of you who are applying for scholarships right now or in the future, give your best and enjoy the process regardless of the outcome! Remember that your identity ultimately is not defined by what you study and whether you hold a scholarship or not! Keep building and growing yourself along the journey and shine in all that you do! You got this!
Yin Huey is currently pursuing Software Engineering at UNSW, Sydney under Maybank Scholarship. People usually call her Nicole. She is also a big fan of all things aesthetic and of course, food!