PETRONAS YOUNGSTARS DAY 2016

Hi humans, I am back! How are you all? Okay, I have got something going on in my life and I want to share it with you guys. I had told you before that I got straight A's for my SPM. And I applied for the PETRONAS SCHOLARSHIP. I was like ''nah, I won't get it, it is a tough competition, but I will just apply for it". And voila, I received a SMS on the 21st of March around 5.15 pm saying that I was shortlisted for the PETRONAS YOUNGSTARS DAY 2016 (PYD 2016). I was squealing with joy when I saw that, so I started making preparations for the day. Then I had to login to the Petronas website and I was invited to come to KDU University College, Shah Alam on the 4th of April on a Monday from 7.30 am till 6.00 pm. Wow, what a lengthy duration it was right. I was also asked to, in the invitation form, to print out the joining instruction, questionnaire & assessment information for applicants PYD 2016 and the parking ticket. So the future PYD programme applicants, you can all read my experience and feel free to ask any questions. I will be really glad to help you out.

Okay, first, let me tell you about this Petronas scholarship. It is a sponsorship given to students with excellent SPM results, active in co-curricular activities and possess good leadership skills. It provides students to do their foundation either in Universiti Teknologi Petronas or overseas before they could pursue their Bachelor of Degree. I applied for the UTP foundation as I am a bit of a clingy-to-my family type hahaha. So, if this sponsorship is given to you, later when you are working for Petronas, you don't have to pay the loan and so forth. If it's vice versa, where you crossed the bridge and not working with Petronas, the loan has to be paid. COMPULSARY!! I asked for the chemical engineering programme whereas my ambition was to become a dentist. But yeah, they are two different things right. Unfortunately, Malaysia is on money crisis which forces me to grab any career opportunities that are available and not to complain hmmmm.

So, on the 4th of April, I woke up really early in the morning at 4 am, washed up and wore an office wear ( a white blouse with a black blazer on top, black slack pants, black shoes with skin socks and tied my hair into a ponytail). This kind of an attire will attract people, that is what my father said and it is true. I was quite smartly dressed on that day. Moved outta house at 5 am. My father drove me there and reached around 6 am with the help of GPS hahaha. Then I had to nap in the car because the event only started at 7.30 am but we reached way too early haha. I didn't eat my breakfast, I was too nervous even to drink water hahaha.

At 7.30, we walked towards the main building, and my father and I were separated. My dad was asked to go for the PESP briefing while I were to go to the main hall for my whole day activity briefing. When I was in the hall, I quickly made friends as I didn't want to be lonely. Soon, I made friends with a few people such as Yootha, Adam, Tan, Anisa, Qistina, Aisyah and a few people who I can't remember their names. I was quite shocked with myself as I was not the type to socialize and make friends easily. But then I  realised puberty changed me a lot hahaha. Firstly, we had to present our IC, the original documents and CTC documents at the registration counter. Don't worry about these. All these will be informed in your joining letter, you just have to follow the instructions. Then, we were given breakfast( Mighty White's ikan bilis bun, an apple and mineral water). I didn't really eat , I already told you the reason before, nervousness was killing me hahaha. But talking to my new friends helped me in easing that feeling a lot XD. Then, we were given the briefing.

Next around 9 am, we were brought to the computer labs for the assessments. First was the Cambridge Personal Styles Questionnaire (CPSQ). It was kind of a personality test and it was really easy, as easy as ABC hahaha. Given 45 minutes to answer the questions, but I only took around 20 minutes to answer. Next, was the Thinking Skills Assessment(TSA). This was kinda hard, 40 questions to answer in 90 minutes time. But I was confident that I did my best. Oh, I also visited KDU's toilets and they were super clean. You could even sleep there hahaha. The tests finished at 12 noon. We were given lunch (chicken rice of Malay Style and mineral water) and the original docs were returned to us. And time for the results for successful candidates who can go for Phase 2, the interview part was to be announced. Phewww, luckily I got through and my dad was so happy for me. Oh and my father was staying at the KDU campus the whole day, Pity my father :(

I was given my group number. I was in group B09-4. But I didnt know who were my teammates until we had to go for the interview. We were brought into the holding room and voila, there were only 5 of us in the room. And out of a sudden, people were filling the room and it became a 100 of us in the room hahaha. I still didn't get to meet my teammates at that time until they called us group by group. There were five of us in group B09. They were Xi Yin, Arifah, Raja and Hariz. And they were all very fluent in their English. Then we were escorted to another room and given our case study there. It was quite challenging as the case study was something related to bussiness but I just gave my all to it. I have come so far and I had to ace this. Given 15 minutes to crack our heads for ideas and yeah. After that, my group was called. We asked our names and so on. And the interview started. For our batch, there was no individual interview, there was only individual sharing. Where we were all seated in a group and asked to present our ideas each for 5 minutes. And when that was over, we were asked to do a group discussion for 30 minutes and come up with the best idea for our case study and present it for 15 minutes in a group. This was the toughest part of all. But I managed myself to talk and ask for opinions. And then, it was over. Our interviewers were ladies, they were once Petronas scholars, WOW!! They were friendly,too and they don't eat you. You are free to ask them any questions regarding their careers and Petronas. Once my group was out of the interview room, we were taking wefies and exchanged phone numbers and all hahaha. We were also given tea break( muffin, banana and mineral water) and this time I had appetite to eat as it was all over. And yeah, my day ended like that with a happy ending. It was a really exhausting day, I was completely fagged out, my legs felt like breaking but the experience was worth the time. I made new friends, socialized, sat for difficult assessments that I passed successfully and was interviewed in a group which was all new and memorable to me. What else could I ask for? XD. Thank you to my father who sacrificed his time and energy for me and my mother who supported me profusely all the way to this. This day will be always close to my heart.

p/s: I haven't got my results for the Petronas Scholarship yet, will be informed soon yeah.

new p/s: I received the 100% petronas scholarship to do chemical engineering  at a local university. Future engineer hahaha but i want to become a dentist lol lets wait and see what comes first hmm