March 21, 2015

Westlake International School- Make a Difference Carnival

Annyeong! Went to carnival from Westlake International School (WIS) today. It was fun and really an eye-opening experience. It's so much different from the goverment school carnival. I mean, in term of value, perception. How to put it~~ will explain further in between of this post. Teehee~~




The landscape of the carnival, but not all~~



 I saw their video before I joined this carnival, I thought the entrance is free, but...It actually require Rm 20 for this =.=.

I doesn't mean to look down on the effort of these students in preparing all the stuns in this Science Center. But Rm 20 is consider quite high for entrance fee, despite that maybe I can play all the interactive game inside.

Even a concert, and theatre performance in UTAR Grand Hall is only Rm 10-15. Anyway, I really wish that I join this exhibition in the future. There are 18 booths inside.


Quite impress with their hall~~~


While on the way to the carnival spot, we found this along the road. 

 eh~~ I didn't see this at all. Got meh? 

This is interesting, like funfair.  

Haunted house, run by Year 8 (Form 2) students! Quite brilliant ler~~

So I took this chance to take photo with them! Though not all of them. Actually felt quite ashamed that they speak better English than me ler~~ 





Poster to promote Water Striker. Run by Year 4 students. Didnt see  kids' doodling for quite sometime. What amaze me is that, their school management allow them to paste their masterpiece on the pillar on the way to canteen. I mean the adult won't block the creative development of the kids, and they were proud of their students, display their hardwork to showcase the public, in the most functional way.



see what I mean? 



Another way of promote people to Mansion house. Thumbs up!

 Some of the booths for the carnival. Why our UTAR flea market never sell pizza one? Guarantee selling fast ler~~



SOme of the other foodstalls!

FIrst pic: I believe the man who selling exoctic food here, is really from Spanish lor~~ Quite tempting to buy, but I need to save money for game, so no buying lo~~



 This aunty selling Chicken Briayani rice here. My friend believe that this is from Arabian.

Alright, it look ugly here, I only remember to take pic halfway eating. But the gravy is so delicious. A bit sour, made up from Mint, Coriander, and....etc ...forgotten. The nasi also very nice, with chicken inside, this remind me of the arabian restaurant in my hometown.



Game corner run by students 

I don't think when we were study in Primary school, we were given the chance to selling food to public, in charge of a game booth, and need to talk to public one. I don't think so. 


Maze at the first floor. 


Spent my Rm 2 to play this game. Unlimited number of throwing within 30 seconds. In the end.... I only get 1 target hit. =.=  Though Rm 2 is expensive for a game, but credit to the student approaching to persuade us. I really admire their courage at the age of Year 7? year 8? 


Even the paintball game also available.  This carnival is like ALL in ONe, with each game cost certain amount also. 


 Came across my student here! #itsasmallworldafterall , He is only year 5 when I taught him, and now transform into a Year 9 secondary student, anyway quite proud of him lar, he seem more outgoing ler~~ and more handsome also.


playing with props! 


 Photo taken using my sonyNex F3 

Photo taken with polaroid camera. Why look nicer than semi-pro camera one?? I feel like I wanna buy a polaroid camera now.  

Only look a bit better after enhancing~~ 

 Since I am here to cover news, of course I should have take this opportunity to take photo with WIS principal! Ms Sherry~ =D

This is not only a carnival, but carnival for charity course. All the profit that they earn today would be donated to 2 organizations.



 Looking good!

Interview 2 of the girls that benefit under Malaysian Care. 



and I found this stall selling cute colourful pillowcase, it is sth- wheat (pronounce as but-wheat) inside the pillow, but not the usual cotton. Price between Rm 38-58 including the pillow case.

To my surprise , she is actually selling this in TEsco Kampar, near the food court there. in a gift shop called

 Lovely Q Jewellery.   
the bos : Sam Yen
 011-24184338. 



Fun Craft & Art


 So, Sheena and Me decide we should try on DIY, making a cute memo holder!



That's all the journey of us in this WIS-MAD carnival. 


p/s: Didn't explain the theme "Make A Difference" because I wanna keep some for my news covering mar~ 

March 18, 2015

Top 4 things to note before you go to internship interview

updated on 12th April 2014

WHile thinking back , I figured out there were some which I have omitted. 

For all the companies that I went through interview, they would inevitably asked
1. Have you found/plan your accomodation? 
2. How do you come here? 

Now when I thnking back, I guest they all these to literally know about the information, and maybe how well you have prepare or maybe how confident/determine/serious you are in getting in job. I simply answered frankly. Cause I really did search for accomodation and transport! 

ALso, some companies, like AStro, they would request you to have CGPA 3.0 and above. By saying this, I didnt despise those who scored below 3.0. Last few weeks ago, when I had conversation with this one of the HR executive from one company during the career fair in UTAR, he also agree having an excellent result might show that you are smart, but it also show that you 

1. you take ur study seriously (meaning you might take ur work seriouslly also)
2. you could at least manage your time, juggling between study and doing your favourite hobbies. 
3. You are not smart, but you are hardworking. 

Just my 2 cents. WOuld update here more if I got more opinion from the credible one =D 

The Original Post




(the magazine I got from MYC after interview)


 Harlo~~~ It's week 10 now, and as a UTAR student who is going for industrial training aka internship next semester, you have to get all your document, confirmation, indemnity letter ready before week 13.  Argh~~ although I am not feeling uncertain, but I certainly looking for the best.

Alright, let's not get off the track.
I wish the share my experience with those who will go to intern in any future. Hope it's useful!

Background:

As you all know, internship is the best opportunity to explore in the field who you think you will work in the future. Although, there's a saying that what you study in school won't necessary become your job. It's True, but since we are given the chance, we should thrive for the best, don't we?

Since I am taking English Language, (which I cannot intern as a teacher =( , and minor in Journalism. I quite interested working in mass media field, be it magazine, newspaper, online portal anything about the mass media.

Unlike most of my friends who sent about 30-50 companies, I sent to only about 25 companies. Because I am quite indecisive when it comes to too much choices.



FYI, I went through 3 times face-to-face interviews with

So in this post, I am going to share with you the top 5 things that you need to know. 


1.  Compulsory Asking Questions


1. Tell me about yourself (MYC, WIS, Mk)
2, Did you know anything about our company? (MYC, Mk)
3. Why you want to be a journalist? (Mk)
4. What you want to do after your graduation? (WIS, Mk) (To test our career motivation, and direction)


Mk: For me, Steven Gan is a man of wise. He will of course ask you the latest issue in Malaysia. LIke he asked me "What is the issue that you are most angry of?"

At the end of the session, the interviewer would also ask you.



 2. Anything else you want to ask? 

This is your chance where you get to know anything you want FROM THE PERSON:  THE PERSON FROM COMPANY TOP MANAGEMENT  (Like STEVEN GAN, the co-founder of Malaysiakini interview you, get it get it?  ). Leave  basic questions/ Or just ask the secretary HR staff later (allowance, working hour) at the end. 

P/S: I actually plan to take a selfie with him after the interview, but the interview room is so transparent that if we take selfie, all the employees outside for sure will turn their head, and stare at me..better don't degraded my image, hahaha.
I just felt like I am so stupid that when Steven Gan give me this chance. I only asked him the stupid basic questions, which I quite regret later. 



Some the questions that you can ask :
1.How is the working culture of this company? (What I wanna ask is---the office politic here seious not)

As you are going to interact with your potential colleague in the company. I would prefer to ask 
 (I really wander how Steven Gan would answer me this question)

2. What’s expected of me when I take on this role?(taken from timothytiah.com)
3.Who would I be reporting to? What he or she like? (taken from timothytiah.com)


I actually quite puzzled about what else I can ask. Anyone want to share your experience ?

My personal questions that I wanna ask out of curious.
1. Any other competitor of your company? 

2. Sir, you ask me just now what is the issue that I am most angry about. What about you? ( Super regret I didn't ask him this!! Coz imagine that you get to see how Steven Gan give critic commentary on all these) 

Although , I not very sure that he would answer that question or not, due the limited time, there are still other candidates after me. 





3. Focus on oral presentation rather than written portfolio: 

1. My job in MYC and Mk is mostly deal with writing. So, the HR staff from MYC asked me to prepare a writes-up for the interview. So below is the documents that I have prepared for the interview.

 Left: My Written production to let the interviewer evaluate, not evaluate lar, just to see how far I can write. Honestly, I don't much confident on writing, but I just have to write. So I picked from of the latest work of me, and during my degree life. Not very thick, just 3 or 4 copies of writing only.


Right: The portfolio about my achievements, with all the documents like SPM, STPM results, Sijil Berhenti Sekolah and paramount of certicates.



For the purpose for these interviews, I went on to add my working history and put inside. (you can click the photo to enlarge)


And a piece of recommendation from ex-boss. 


I thought all these can help to impress the interviewer. But nope, I am wrong. I am so naive that I thought each of them would flip through or browse through my portfolio and writes-up page by page, but NO, They don't give a damn on that. 

It's only when I explain to them what my course allow me to do, I only flipped to the transcript and showed them the subjects that I have taken, that capable me of doing this~~ this~~ this~~~


4. Others

1. No need to prepare so much on document, unless they request, cause they don't have time to flip through them . 

2. Impress them orally. Speak confidently, but stick to your capability. Don't brag too much until you cant do it in the end. 

3. Make sure you know what you are writing putting in the writes- up. I was once asked by an interview, what is my FYP proposal (which I include in the writes-up) about, I was quite blank, and but I managed to give them the core answer lar~~ apparently. So you really need to know what you are writing, and prepare how you are going to present your work to them without making it tedious, and make it short.   

4. Be witty, humour and nimble (think fast and respond quickly). As I am too busy with all the assignments, I dont have much time to prepare for the interview. I felt that my respond to " Tell me about yourself" is a bit too simple, I only present myself with all the facts, but no any personality or achievement like that. 

Also, when you stop speaking, some interviewer also pause awhile before they continue, as in signal you to elaborate more. I ended up looking at them, waiting for  them to continue. I want to speak more.....but I really lost of words , I afraid if that I speak without prepare, I would say wrong things, or something that I shouldn't say. 


5. Interviewer is not the people from HR department, but the Head of the department which you are going to work to.




Before VS After
Came across a Utarian Journalism student, Christine! OUr happy faces before interview.

 Our insecure face, lame, worry face after the interview.


To avoid you all have such as big emotional roller coaster, please remember to

Prepare Well before Internship Interview yea!!

It's utterly important. As important as your assignment that you are going to handle tomororow!

Last but not least, good luck for all who is going for interview! Hope my tips would benefit you! 



that's all my opinion. I believe different people has different way of tackling all these. What's your experience? Share with me here too!



Came across this post from timothytiah.com: 5 mistakes that I made at my first job interview
I decided to splurged some of my ideas here.

1. I didn't show ENERGY
I did show my energy , enthusiam, but I am too honest. Cause when the boss of Malaysiakini, Steven Gan me to write a short article on "Why I deserve a journalist job in Malaysiakini?" The first paragraph I am actually just to briefly go through the history of my ambition shift. And I wrote, until now I still never lost hope on teaching. I think that's what turn him off.


If you were looking to more of this similar post, this post is quite useful for me, i think you would love it too!
March 11, 2015

The one day student journalist life




Okay, in the midst of super tension now. I even skipped most of the class today. and only attend to campus 30 minutes for the tranformative grammar.

Woke up 8.45am today, I jerked up and went down from bed immediately, without need to 来床。First thing I did, turn on my laptop, wanted to confirm about the format of Moral Writing with my lecturer.

Sat until 11.00am like that, I grab my camera, paper and all the necessary stuffs, went out to grab some brunch cum interviewing the hawkers in Westlake. It's an aunty who sell economic rice. She is quite friendly and polite in replying me, though she was busying handle food for customer.

I realise that all the hawkers here were friendly, probably because we, students are their potential customer. So they don't wanna to break their earning.

In fact, I am not the only one who approach them. The aunty today, said that quite a lot people come and ask about this issue already, I repeated this for few times already. Anyway, she still accept my interview when I told her that I need more information from every food proprietor.

In the end, when I asked to take her photo and her name. She kindly refused by saying : "A lot students came and asked me, but none of them ask about my identity also.


I started to wory. How am I going to get a photo of an authority. It is required for my assignment. When I went back , while noming for da bao economic rice, with a soy sauce chicken and mixed vegetable. I thought of this.

People who selling food in Westlake now don't have license, do you think they were still want to give you to show their face in the news?

Oh, crap~~ how? The only credible source that I can approach now is Masjid Daerah Kampar (MDK) aka Kampar District COuncil. I called several time to the office this morning.


The first receptionist: Can, you just come lar.

The second receptionist: You must have a surat (letter) in order to interview them.


After my presentation, I went to MDK around 1.30pm. It also took me some time to figure out the way going there. Upon reaching, I talked my concern to the receptionist counter >> Couter 9 >>> Puan Mas sekarang pergi rehat, you duduk situ tunggu yea~~ (During the one hour waiting)

1. Talk to Miss Kong that the receptionist? or maybe the so-called pintu (door) counter there. I realise that everyone in the MDK is quite friendly and helpful.  They all offer to help me seeing I had been waiting for stone age.  Eventually, I got the hp number of Puabn Mas, but damn, her line is not reachable =.+. So I continue to wait.

I was so determined, and must get to interview her about this issue by TODAY.

2. After sometime, another Malay men who seem vocal suggest that I could have go to Jabatan Penguatkuasaan to get this information. So I went. (Going upstair, counter 13)


3. The friendly staff in the Jabatan Penguatkuasa also share the same thing, you have to the the Yang Di Pertua's permission to get any information about this.

4. So he helped me to pass this matter to the Yang Dipertua's office.  After waiting for around 5 mins in the office. I was told this



" Your letter should have a UTAR letterhead, and it's signify by someone from there, either admin staff or lecturer. Meaning, it should be an official letter." 



Actually I knew before when I was informed that I need to have the letter for interviewing. I chose to act tak-tahu (don't know) about this, cause the only things I knew is, I must get this done by TODAY!! I just try my luck without the official letter. So in the end, I went back home vain. Vainly, without any information from MDK.


Expected but still feel a bit frustrated. The assignment require us to type about 1000 words, and I already half way, only a photo is needed. There is 10 seconds I asked myself whether to ask Ms Tang Ying Ying signed for me?

But forget about it, it's way too troublesome. She would ask me why that I didn't complete this earlier.


On the way back, I have several ideas about special reporting assignment (in-depth, complrehensive, what beats? )

1. Convocation and accomodation available

2. How does MDK dispose the complaint from people. (Apparently, they have meeting every Monday to sort of the complaint received, and discuss which department should in charge of which cases. Sometimes, 2 different departments were also need to work together to handle those compalint) You can focus on the procedure, let people outside know how MDK process the complaints receive from people.

What I feel now is:

1. That feeling of being rejected, when people don't wanna to accept your interview.
2. After all your effort (though negligible, but it counts! ), waiting for one hour, typing out the letter, you still didn't granted your wish. =(
3. I also moaning on after all the 579 words that I type, I might need to consider switch to other topics already~~

Actually, I am not frustrated, I knew this would come. But I need sometime to digest it also. Especially now, this week and next week, is the assignment and mid term peak season, all the assignment duedate is just 2 or 3 days from each other. How you hope you can just finish everything in a sweep.

When I went back I also very determined to write this out, in the midst of busy hour. But do you know, blogging is my passion. The busier I am, the eager I wish to update my blog. I won't delay in action when it comes to blogging, but others? hehe, I would see the duedate first.  it's a useful escapism for me. Some more it took me less than one hour to do this. It's actually a productive escapism, which can sharpen my writing. Blurt out everything in my mind.


my vain look while internship interview in KL.


So off my grumble now. Back to reality =/