excel at scholarship interviews by aryomoedanton 1.0

How to excel at Scholarship/ Exchange Program Interview

By

@aryomoedanton

CEO and Founder of Anakmuda.net

Ver 1.0 Copyrighted @aryomoedanton 2015

This guide are not your magic bullet, interview process is a somewhat highly individual

approach, there is no single “right” way, what I share, is my personal experiences

Ver 1.0

Copyrighted @aryomoedanton 2015

It seems unfair that the only chances of you getting into your Scholarship

or exchange program you badly wanted, is depended on 15 minutes

conversation with total strangers that you never meet before..

But that is exactly how interview works, congratulations , your CV looks interesting,

now let’s talk and Prove it!

But how exactly can you excel at Scholarship/Exchange Program Interviews?

The idea is simple, Relevance and Noticeable, however before that let me

share to you a couple of facts

Here I said, you “can’t” lie, instead of you “shouldn’t” lie, simply because it’s the fact. Sure maybe you

can fake one or two things, but if it is not you, eventually they will realize your true, fake self.

You CAN’T Lie #1

There are 2 reasons why people are lying or faking it up during scholarship interview :

• They don’t know what to answer because its not their skills and knowledge or

• They can’t think fast enough to answer the question in a satisfactory manner

If it is the first one, then maybe you need to think it over again, is this really program that suits to

your skills?

If the program is about culture and there is no dance or other arts that you mastered, then maybe its

not the appropriate program for you

Be patient, don’t force yourself to enroll to every single program that is available

If it is the second one, then there is less excuse

You heard about the program, you know what this is all about, PREPARE

1. Regardless of the program, most often the interview will cover 3 aspect :

• Your background, why you are relevant to the program, why you are a suitable candidates

• Your plan during program, how eager are you? How well planned are you to not wasting every

single opportunity you’ll get during the program.

• Your Plan after the program, how effective it would be to you, and (more importantly) to your

surroundings, can you bring bigger benefit and impact?

Rule of Thumbs of Scholarship Interview

2. Your Interviewer are NOT perfect!

• They could be inferior to you in capacity and capability (this is true)

• They could be not mastering your skills (happens most when the one that interviewing you

is the human resources)

• They might be new to their Job (studies proved that 37% of newly hired HR staff are sent to

the “interview room”

Rule of Thumbs of Scholarship Interview

3. Unless you are the first five that they interview, they could be TIRED and BORED

• On average recruitment process for scholarship, there could be 15 applicants interviewed for

each 1 opportunity

• The average of interviewer on routine recruitment process could interact with almost 20

people a day (It could go as high as 40 during busy days)

• Assuming each last less than 15 minutes, then it is around 5 – 10 hours a day

• Can you talk to 40 people non-stop without getting exhausted?

Rule of Thumbs of Scholarship Interview

So how is these 3 facts show you?

• There are lots, lots of others being evaluated and judged, you are not the only one

• There are chances that due to exhaustion and being overwhelm, they can’t really objectively

and correctly assessing your capability

There are two ways how Interviewer usually able to differentiate candidates

• By being different

• By being Relevant

Image credited to sijuki.com

means externally to be different, noticeable fashion, looks, without turning into freaks, still adhere to

professional etiquette

#1 BE DIFFERENT

Based on my experiences, here are top 5 of noticeable things distinct certain individual from the rest :

• Bright Shirt (surprisingly in a study in UK, 70% interviewee are wearing black and dark blue)

• Color of ties

• Accessories in appropriate sizes and colors (NO to big shiny necklace, simplicity is the rule)

• Blazers

• But most importantly :

#1 BE DIFFERENT

The first minute interaction and conversation (The Golden Minute), interviewer mostly impressed

with candidate that :

• More active, not passive (you can talk to you know)

• Firm and Bold (yes, start from shakehands)

• Yet relaxed (interestingly, sweat are easily noticeable)

#1 BE DIFFERENT

remember this :

We are not looking for “BEST” candidate, we are looking for “SUITABLE” Candidate

#2 BE RELEVANT

Suitable means :

• You a good (good, not necessarily the best) representative for the program/scholarship

• You are the candidate that will benefited mostly from the program

#2 BE RELEVANT

Most of interviewee will have :

• Long, tedious Speech retelling all their achievements since winning the first prize at Bayi Sehat

up to recent winner in tug of war at previous program’s family retreat

• Normative, unfocus answer for questions such as “why are you interested in the program” : “I

want to contribute to company/organization/nation” or “becoming a great future leader”

#2 BE RELEVANT

• Cut Short your Speech, ONLY put the relevant ones with the program you are applying

• If you still want to show your full capability, put it in separate files and give it to the interviewer

• Or make an executive summary with relevant content only, then your full CV follows

#2 BE RELEVANT

Be SPECIFIC with your answer :

• If the program is about culture, then boast your cultural gift and capability

• If they ask you something, don’t be general : SMART(ER) methods!

#2 BE RELEVANT

EVALUATED

REGULARLY

Almost all interviewer use this questions to evaluate whether :

• You are investing your time preparing for the program

• You do serious, and have a plan or a mission that you would like to do after the

program/scholarship

#2 BE RELEVANT

EVALUATED

REGULARLY

Instead of saying :” By joining this program I am

sure it could benefit me and my community to be

a better environmental defender, we will spread

the knowledge and experiences to all of our

surroundings

#2 BE RELEVANT

You can say : “Joining this program will benefit us

with the forest preservation knowledge, we will

conduct a seminar approximately 1 months after

the program where we will share this info to around

40-50 farmers within our community how burning

down forest is bad”

Make Sure that the

program suits your

needs and Skills

Be Different Be Relevant

Ver 1.0 Copyrighted @aryomoedanton 2015

PROFILE

Aryo Moedanton

A passionate youth development activist,

Aryo believes in the power of will and consistent relentless efforts..

Judge for various competition, national and international such as

:

National University of Singapore Social Venture Challenge Asia

2015

National Online selection of Pertukaran Pemuda Antar Negara

Indonesia – China, Indonesia – Japan

“Penghargaan Pemuda Indonesia 2015” (Indonesian Youth

Award 2015)

“When the student is ready, the

teacher will appear”

Summary

Up to date, Aryo has been working with more than

40 education institutions and 12 companies & government institutions in the last 4

years as Professional Development Speakers

To name a few, He is a speaker in… • Youth for Colombia, entrepreneurship session, Bogota Colombia October 2015

• ASEAN – Republic of Korea for Woman and Youth Entrepreneur , Cambodia

2014 • Class Management, Putra Sampoerna Foundation 2014 Youth Development • Founder and CEO of Anakmuda.net 2015 • Member of the team for Strategic Long Term Planning Ministry of Youth and Sports Republic of

Indonesia 2015 – 2035 Entrepreneurial • An entrepreneur since 2006 • Owning 2 start up enterprises while building the third right now

PROFILE

Aryo Moedanton

Let’s Discuss more, should you have additional info that can be added, or want to know

deeper about the topic(s), please contact me :

@aryomoedanton

aryo@aryomoedanton.com

Ver 1.0 Copyrighted @aryomoedanton 2015