The week has just begun

Finally its Saturday. Ok well its not that big a deal for me since I am not working yet but just an update, praise God, I have a job. Finally, all this time waiting and countless applications have finally paid off. God really is gracious and let me explain why. Oh by the way, I am starting work on Monday the 6th of September at JVC in Shah Alam.

Firstly it all started with my interview being held on Tuesday. The HR Department called me last week and confirmed the time with me and of course I jotted that down in to my trusty Ipaq. Then came Tuesday, D-day. Chuen was so kind and sweet enough to accompany me for lunch as well as for the duration of the entire interview. The company was located in Shah Alam, about a 10min drive from the toll on the federal highway at the point between Subang and Shah Alam. Deep in the industrial zone and sandwiched between huge Panasonic factories, JVC had a huge area as well comprising of both JVC Video and JVC Electronic. Thanks to my horrible memory, I actually can't remember which one I was supposed to go. My interview is supposed to be at 2.30pm and I was there by 2.00pm eager and I remember the HR person whom I spoke to last week mentioned that the post was for an Electrical and Electronic Engineer so I guessed its probably a process or product engineer post.

Onward I walked towards the guardhouse and the guard for some reason gave me a a queer look. It was at that point I felt there was something wrong. Why? For all my other past interviews especially when it comes to huge factories, the guard in the guardhouse was always informed of my coming for an interview. This was the first time but thinking that the HR department might have forgotten to inform the guard, I became extremely critical of them being so unprofessional. So the guard then asked me to walk in to the compound and he was unsure where to send me. Pointing towards the building where the HR department is, I entered the compound but Chuen was not allowed so she drove off in my car and headed to the nearest mamak to have a drink and read her book. She finally learned from the previous two interviews I had when I was unexpectedly questioned for 2 hours straight so she had to wait for that long!

I was going for an interview, so the normal attire would be black slacks, a shirt and a tie. Now that sounds decent enough but under the Malaysian heat? You got to be kidding, I would rather be wearing slippers and walking around in my shorts. And you know what? The HR department was like a 10minute walk away and by the time I arrived at the building, believe me, I wasn't smelling all rosy and all. So much for the after shave lotion I put on. Want to know the funniest thing? The guard pointed me out in the wrong direction. Doh! Thank goodness someone from the HR department led me to the main lobby through the factory which was air conditioned (yay gave me some time to cool off).

Upon arrival at the main lobby, the help desk lady gave me an application form to fill out. Taking the paper, I noticed that there were a couple of other sheets and I was thinking that I had to spend a good 20mins just to fill out those long forms. I seriously wonder why do I have to fill in so much details especially when most of them are on my resume. Guess what? I was in for a surprise. The extra sheets of paper was not part of the application form. It was a test paper which I had to complete in like 15mins. Panic! I didn't realise that so I quickly took out my "Mark" pen which Joshua gave me and began scanning through the paper.

First question, how much amplification do you get from 6dB. So the first thing that comes to my mind is 10log (Output/Input) = 6dB. Those of you who are engineers out there would know that the formula is not for dB's but for another unit called dBm mainly used in fibre optics. So there goes my first question. Onward came some simple calculate the resistance problem and I thought I did quite ok. The next page came a couple of RC, CR and a notch filter circuit. Of course at that time I couldn't remember the notch filter but I managed to calculate and draw out the response curve of these filters together with answering the question to "What is a cut-off frequency?". All these while, I was not provided a calculator but thank God that I brought my trusty Ipaq with me and used it as my calculator.

After the short exam, they invited me in to a room and there were 3 people sitting in front of me just waiting to interview me. Noticing their name tags, the 3 of them were, a HR personnel, I guess she must be a pyschologist, the R&D manager and R&D Chief Engineer who so happen to be a japanese guy. So they begin to ask me loads of questions, those normal during an interview. The part that surprised me was that the post was for an E&E Engineer in the R&D section and I wasn't prepared for that. Second thing was that, haha, you are probably going to laugh in my face, the interview was actually scheduled for 1.30pm. I have absolutely why I mixed up my time and I was so sure that the HR person mentioned that the interview was supposed to be at 2.30pm. So I gave a very puzzled look when the manager mentioned about the timing. After the interview I asked the manager how I fared for the short test. He said not too bad but he actually understood why I made some careless mistakes.

Honestly I really thought that it didn't go well and I told God that it really was a humbling experience and the last thing that I thought was I would get the job. Knowing that things went not as smoothly as my other interviews had went, I said to God that I leave the results up to him. And of course by now you know that I had gotten the job. The great thing about God was that He just provides and the company actually called me up the very next day. So I start work soon! Woohoo!

Praise God!