A short trip to Perak

   I received my SPM results last month and Alhamdulillah I passed with flying colours. I spent the whole week right after I received my results to apply for universities and scholarships. Before this, I did apply for the government universities but that was somewhere in the begining of march.
  So that one day, I spent time in front of my computer and applied for Universiti Teknologi Petronas admission and scholarships such as JPA, MARA, Maybank, and Petronas.

    After about a week of submitting my online application, finally UTP results were out. Alhamdulillah, I was called to attend an interview called Educamp in UTP campus which located in Seri Iskandar, Perak on the 15th of April. I was really happy for the good news as I really wanted to further my education there.
A week before the interview, I practised a lot talking in front of the mirror with confidence and prepared what I needed to say during the interview. I also read a number of articles on the current issues.
  15th of april fell on Monday. The day before that, which was Sunday, I already set off to Perak and luckily we managed to find a homestay for my family and I to stay overnight.

  The next day, which was the important day for me, I woke up at 6.15 am, showered and put on the Baju Kurung and Tudung which I've ironed the day before.  The registration started at 7.30 am.

  I arrived at UTP campus at 7.20am. By 7.25am I reached the Chanselor Complex which was a magnificiently beautiful looking building. It was huge. It wasn't 7.30 yet but the queue of applicants were veryvery extremely long for the registration. I had one of the last and back queues. While queiung, I was given a small peach coloured paper with an alphabet and 2 digits on it. Not long after that, it was my time to register.

                                                                           Registering time!

  After registering, I was told to sit at the Chansellor Hall with the other applicants. Wow, there was sooo many people there who will be interviewed just like me. I went up the stairs and found a seat near my schoomates. I knew a lot of people there. I had some of my friends from my school, tuition classes there which made me felt  slightly relieved as I am not alone.

   At the hall, we were given a talk and briefing by the lecturers there regarding the Universities courses, fee structure and also the interview process. I was placed in group D which will be interviewed in the afternoon.

After the talk which finished at 10am, I still have ample of time to prepare and eat. I haven't had my breakfast at that time so I was really starving.
I had brunch with my family at a Mamak Restaurant outside the campus. It was just nearby. We went back to our homestay for a while as it was quite near to UTP.

   I took the time at the homestay to relax for a a bit and prepare a lil bit more for the interview.
  My interview session started at 1 pm. So I got there 15 minutes early. I went up the stairs to the waiting room and waited there with the other applicants in group D. I just spent my waiting time praying and zikir to Allah to calm myself from the nervousness I'm having that time.

   An hour after that, the applicants of group D were called to enter the preparation room. The room was quite big and there were many tables being prepared. Each tables with 5 seats. The person in charge said that we could seat anywhere we want. It took me some time to find a seat as I wanted to make sure I sat with a bunch of people whom could be helpful teamates for the group interview. I sat at this table with 3 guys. The person in charge said that a table should consist of at least 3 guys and 2 girls or vice versa.
We were given a case study each. I was given a topic about Industrial Pollution. We were asked to find a solution for the case study and told them why we gave that solution. I have to convince the interviewer that my solution was the best one. 20 minutes given to me to prepare the answers. When the time was up, my name was the first to be called for the individual interview session. Whyyy am i the first?
  Anyway, I walked to the panel room with high hopes. The interview session took about 5 mins or so. It went pretty well. The interviewer was quite friendly. It was a guy. Alhamdulillah I managed to answer his questions calmly and with self-confidence.  Then, it was the time for the group interview. My team mates and I did pretty well on discussing, argueing and eventually we came out with the best solution and came to a conclusion.
  After the interview, I managed to stop by the library there and read a few books.

Overall, the interview went quite well. I did my best. So I'm leaving everything to Allah now.

We went back to KL at 6pm and reached around 9pm.

Employed for 3 months

Assalamualaikum and bonjour.
It's been a while. Did you miss me? NOT. Okay. I wanted to post this for such a long time but didn't really get the chance to. So here I am.

    I have left school for about 4 months now. While waiting for my SPM results, I didn't chose to become a couch potato instead I worked for 3 months. Now the common question people asked me, "Where?  What kind of job? Since when? until when?". Okay. So last december, on the middle of december I think, I went on a job hunt at KLCC accompanied by a friend of mine. First I went to Parkson KLCC, one of Malaysia's leading department stores. I went straight to their customer service counter as soon as I entered the department store. I took a number and sat and waited on the couch there. There wasn't many people there so in no time it was my turn. So I went to the counter and asked, "is there any vacancy here?" . Then the staff asked me how old am I. I told her I was a school leaver. She straight away gave me a job application form for me to fill up. I took about 10 minutes to fill up the form. Then I'm done. The staff said she will give this to the Human Resource department and told me to wait for a call.
  After my first job application, I actually planned to go to a few more stores such as Isetan and Harrods. But I end up just applying for one job. haha. So much for a job hunt.

 3 days later, I received a call from an unknown number. It was an office number. I hesitated to pick up but then it was actually Parkson who called me. They told me to come for a job interview that weekend and told me to bring my PMR and SPM trials result. I was reaaally excited to receive a phone call from my future employer. It was my first time ever experiencing this kind of joy of being called for a job interview. haha.
  That weekend, I went to Parkson for the interview. Waited for about half an hour, I noticed there was my schoolmate who was waiting to be called for the interview as well.
Finally it was my turn to be interviewed.  One of the staff showed me the way to the office. I was quite nervous at that time as it was my first ever job interview. I walked slowly towards the HR's table and sat on the chair. It was a malay lady in her mid 20's. She looked kind of young. So first thing she told me to introduced myself in english. I did as she told me to. After that, she said there were 2 vacancies each from the Customer Service's department and Cash Management department. I chose the Cash Management department. That means I'll be working as a cashier. She then said she will hire me and explained to me about the job details and etc.
   A few weeks after that which fell on the 3rd of January. I went to work with a white formal shirt and black slacks. My mom sent me to work on my first day. She dropped me off at KLCC's main entrance. I have no idea where was I suppose to go. I just followed the people who were wearing black clothes that might be Parkson's staff. Luckily I followed the right person to the staff entrance. I was quite scared seeing people whom I've never met at all. I saw there was a security table at staff entrance. I didn't know where to go. And then one of the staff told me that I should just wait in front of the store's entrance until it opened. So I waited and straightly went in. I went to the customer service counter and the staff directed me to the office. The same lady in the HR dept again. She asked me to sign a 3 months contract and told me to read all the long list of terms and condition. After done with all signatures, she gave me the staff's uniform. I was overwhelmed. She told me to go to the changing room outside and change to the uniform to see if it fits. Luckily it did.
  Then, I finally get to start working after the lunch break. I was directed to go to the Household department's cahier counter to work as a packer. I saw unfamiliar faces everywhere. I smiled at the cahiers there and told them I was new and asked what did I have to do as a 'packer'? I was taught how to pack customer's item neatly in a paper and a plastic bag. When the clock striked 6 I got off work.
 So there goes my first day at work.

  After a week of employment, and being trained how to be a cashier, I finally get to open a counter. I wasn't really ready though to be a real cashier. Luckily there was this old cashier, who helped me out.
   I enjoyed my work actually. It was quite fun. I met new friends whose my age. Actually most of the cahiers there were school leavers too just like me. So I started to become comfortable working there as the Supervisors and Executives there were also nice and friendly. They didn't scold me for making mistakes during my first 3 weeks working there.
  There was a time when me and my collegues went for a movie right after work. I had a great time with my collegues. They were quite fun people to hang out with.

The night when we finished watching "Hansel and Gretel" and most of the shops were closed.

                                         

                                        I was high after the movie and loads of popcorn.

  My expenses for going to work wasn't that much too. I took the LRT to work everyday and ate lunch at the staff's canteen. The staff's canteen was quite small but the food there was delicious and cheap. I had white rice with a few Malay cooking style side dishes which only cost about rm 3 to 4. Well there was a time when I wanted to eat at the foodcourt outside. I did eat at the outside foodcourts but very seldomly.

My salary wasn't that bad too. My basic was rm1100 and they gave me a comission too. However, they did deduct a few percent from my salary for EPF and Socso which was good actually for my future.

                                                   
                                            oh this was me at gents department.

                                                   
                                          My ex colleague named Asfa went for a visit.



        On the 2nd of April was my last day of employment. I was quite relunctant to leave my job and the other colleagues behind. But  I had too. I could actually extend my contract but I decided to stop as most of the colleagues my age had stopped working already. But that was not the main reason I stopped. The main reason was I haven't took my driving license and I needed to prepare myself for University and College interviews which will be taken place in the middle of April. On my last day of work, I managed to say my goodbyes to the other staffs. They were quite upset to see me leaving.  I told them not to worry as I will visit the store in the near future.

So that was my employment story. Appologised for the long entry. Thanks for reading!