ATTENDING A SCHOLARSHIP INTERVIEW

“The best interviews -- like the best biographies -- should sing the strangeness and variety of the human race.”

- Barber, Lynn -

Are you feeling nervous when you are attending an interview? If you are feeling nervous, why can it be? Some people may already be familiar with the interview. However, it does not establish that they are not nervous attending interview, even less; they do not have any preparation. Some of you maybe have ever experienced some kinds of interview, for example, a student’s exchange interview, a job interview, and other interviews. You need preparation, Right? Especially if you will use a foreign language on your interview stage, for instance, English. And now, I want to share you about how to attend a scholarship interview. Let’s check it out!

When we want to get a scholarship, the first thing to do is looking for detail information about the scholarship and then filling out an application form. After your application form was accepted, you will go to the next selection stage. That is interview stage. You will talk about your strangeness. Interview stage will determine whether you are a recipient of the scholarship or not. It also determines how far your knowledge, achievements, and your conviction to obtain the scholarship.

Interview is a process to match your answer session on the application form with your answer in the interview stage. (I Can Get a Scholarship, Why Can not You?” by Aan Satriani, 2011). In the job interview, interviewer will match between your curriculum vitae and your answer in the interview stage. It is not different with the process in the scholarship interview stage. The difference is the interviewer will match the application form that you have applied. Actually interviewer want to make sure that it is really completely filled by you. So, remember the answer of your application form. Make it for your answer references.

After the interviewers were sure that you filled your application by yourself, you will go to the next session of the interview. You will get some questions related to the faith you follow the scholarship program, whether you are worthy to be recipient or not, what achievements have you accomplished, what your prospects in the future, and many more.  You might also get an unexpected question. Don’t forget to answer these questions honestly and not making it up because dishonesty will let fall you into badness. Just be calm in answering the questions. If you feel nervous, you should be able to make yourself still cool and looks calm in front of interviewer. Take a good eye contact with interviewer because it can convince them. If you can not focus on the interviewer and you even look into unimportant things, it will show that you are not serious.

One of the other keys to pass the interview is confident. Believe to yourself that you deserve a scholarship. Feel free to answer the questions that interviewer asked and think creatively in answering those questions. Being confident makes opportunities to get successes. However, you must control your confident not to be excessive because that will cause unfavourable impression.

Having simulation is one of the ways to further stabilize, try to simulate with your friends or relatives who can act as an interviewer. So that, you can answer the questions spontaneous and you also can be more creative to answer it. After that you can have an evaluation of what you practiced. You can ask for some critique and corrections to her or him, so that you can learn from your mistakes that you have done. You will be more ready to go to the stage because it makes you confident.

Another thing that we have to pay attention is our appearance. Appearance usually leads to the first impression in front of the interviewer. If you are required to look appropriate for what has been determined, so take a good looking based the provisions. Even if there is no provision, take a good looking by wearing formal clothes, polite, and neat. You can take a simple style, but still looks interesting and not to be excessive.

Besides the appearance, there are things that must be maintained and care for your health. Make sure that your health will be good when you are in the interview stage because that will affect your concentration. If you are healthy, your concentration will be good. But if you’re physically deteriorated, your concentration will be decline. So that, keep your physical health by having exercise frequently or you can go walking to refresh your mind. In addition, keep food intake. Do not think interview too much because it will leads to stress and forget to load your food intake. If it is necessary, take supplements or vitamin C.

After you finished having preparation, do not forget to pray to God and hopes everything gets easier. You can also ask for prayers to your parents, friends, and those people who close to you.

Thus in summary, attending an interview scholarship takes some preparations. The first thing to do is make sure your application form. You might be confident in answering question, having simulation before go to the interview stage, think creatively when answering the question, keep your health, and do not forget to pray.

Sources :

http://quotationsbook.com/quote/21417/. Quotation Books.

Satriani, Aan. I Can Get a Scholarship, Why Can not You? Bandung : Grafindo, 2011.