Last two days, I posted IT女新加坡求职记（上），IT女新加坡求职记（中）and have a brief introduction about the background of this series, ways to find a job in Singapore, preparation&phone interview and some of my FTF interview experiences. Now I’ll continue to introduce my FTF interviews then put it an end, some of you may have read and reviewed it, here I want to say: Thanks for your reading, hope it will be somewhat helpful for you.
Contents:
① Introductions
② Ways to Apply For a Job in Singapore
③ Preparation & Phone Interview
④ Face to Face( FTF ) Interviews
⑤ Summary
A Creative Design Company (SENIOR WEB DESIGNER)
Office Building
It’s a specialized design company, so the working environment is well designed. I felt familiar there as it just like the ad company I’ve worked in Chengdu. The art director interviewed me, he’s maybe from China too. Because in the middle of the interview, he wanted to ask me a question but failed to convey his meaning in English, so he changed to mandarin. I suddenly felt so much relief. I’m not the first one to speak mandarin but he did. And in this way, I will not worry I failed to convey my fully meanings to him in English as it’s so much easy to do so in mandarin.
After he interviewed me, here came the other interviewer. She asked me some questions like: what software do u usually use? What’s your key competitiveness in this field? Do u have any work experience in EDM? And what are they? Sort of.
I felt good in this interview. I thought they had a good impression on me too. They just wanted to keep looking as they just started recruit. But they didn’t contact me again. I hadn’t the slightest idea about the reason. But I thought it might be:
· This is a position only for PR or Singaporean, but I’m not.
· They were going to set up a new division for this position to meet the market needs. And the key job of this position is design and implement all kinds of EDMs. But I had few experience in that. So they thought I was not senior enough to undertake all the responsibilities. Moreover, in the following recruit, they may already find someone more suitable for this position than me.
A Game Company(3D Artist or Animator)
Office Building
Main responsibilities of this position are to create 3D environment, characters and animations for games. I knew I’m not right for this position. But the agency convinced me to go and see. As I didn’t have other plans, and I thought I can have the chance to speak English more, I didn’t lose anything. So I went for it. Since I didn’t take it seriously, so I talked a lot in the interview. It’s the first time I felt I could express myself so fluently in English since I came to Singapore. So being happy about it too.
A Government Department (web graphic designer)
Office Building
This interview was a little different from others. I submitted a web design task before I really went for it. The interview details were as follows: two people interviewed me, unluckily for me, they’re both Singaporean. As I’m not a native English speaker, and also because Singaporean speaks a too much localized English so I can barely understand them. Then in the whole interview, I could only understand something they talked about my major, job or related. They saw my tasks then asked me a few related questions like: how u do the task? How many years of work experience do you have in this field? How is your skills in Js? Do u know JQuery? Have u got some experience in creating badge? Sort of. During the interview, they two occasionally talked and laughed, I felt bad as I didn’t understand what they made fun of. Could it be that they thought I was funny? I guess. Then I felt a little offended. So not performed so enthusiastic any more. After the interview, the man who saw me off told me they’ll let me know the result in these couple of days.
As I got home, I got an email from the company asking me to design an icon similar to the reference attached, and the icon should be that of a house. I started do it The next day, completed it and sent back to them. And as they didn’t tell me what the icon stands for, so I created five sets with different meanings I supposed.
The test requirements and my answers are as follows (2PSD+ web demo for web design task, 1PSD+1 introduction file for Icon design task):
One of Local biggest Banks (web designer)
Office Building
I made a stupid mistake and not even noticed it before I went for this interview. The interview was on Monday afternoon. I arrived on time and got my entry card from the reception desk in the lounge, but after I got to the specific floor, I found there’s door guard in the working area, and as the agent who sent me there forgot to told me who will I look for (and I myself also forgot to ask), so I failed to go in at this moment. And someone working there told me, he could help me only when I know who the interviewer is. So I had to call my agent first for some help……..that took some time, but finally came my interview.
The interviewer’s a mid-aged man. The whole interview is quite casual and short. We seated in the resting area and talked. I have a brief self-introduce first. Then he asked a few questions like: Do you have some work experience in EDM? What techniques do you use in EDM creating? Sort of.
The interview went well except going so fast. Which made me feel disappointed as I thought maybe they were not so interested in me. At last, he told me he’ll let me know the result before Wednesday. Never mind, I didn’t look forward to it. So it really surprised me a lot the next day that they told the company was interested in me and want the agent to sign me. But forgot it, I already sign my contract. So that’s it.
Even though I survived at last, but I have to admit, finding a suitable job for me is not an easy thing. I went through and learned a lot in the whole process. Sometimes, I had that feeling when I first graduated from university. It’s awful and hurt. After worked these years, finding a suitable job even through I’m in a new country should not be so difficult. But it is for me. Which push me to dig the reason: how this come? Why? Only because no multinational company work experience? Or no overseas work experience? I don’t think so. The key reasons are my lacking key competitiveness in just one technical field and failed in using English like a native. And keep thinking, the reasons for that should be:
· Having too large range of interests in design, but flair in specific objective. So in 4 years work experience, I did such a variety of projects. In 3D areas (3D map, interior design, garden design, urban design, product design, exhibition design, 3D renderings), in web areas (web design, UI design, front-end developer, graphic design), that’s too much. Can do many things means can’t really do one specific thing really good on the other hand. When someone first graduated from school, many people may tell you to try as many possible things as you can then find what you want to be and stick on. From my experience, I’ll say that’d better be set down in school. As we living in such a rapid developing world, you may find your way after few years trying. But that means you’ve already lag behind in this field because the one in your same age or the one who start at the very first line with you might already made some small achievements. But you just find what you really want, so you have to do much harder to catch up. I‘ve wasted much of my time to figure that out, I just don’t want others go the same way. I knew I wanted to work in graphic design areas in my first year in college, but then my jobs didn’t have much overlaps. So my work experience helped me little in neither of the specific field. I don’t mean useless at all, here, I still hope that experience can interaction and will help more after I’m more specialized in the future.
· Want to achieve something, you must persevere with it, but I didn’t. Someone said: if you keep doing one thing for a decade, you’ll be an expert with it. I think it’s absolutely right. I just need to follow it.
· Weak in summarizing. When I learn something, I need to first figure up why I want to learn it? What for? Then sum up what I learned and know what I need to do next to supplement. Not just learned it then went in bad circles – forgot it, repeated it, forgot it.
· Emphasize putting into practice and using fluently. This shortage is quite clear and distinctive during my English learning process. I love English and learned it hard for 7 years (3+4), I even try to improve my oral English by getting up early and reading English aloud every morning at six for a year in my college year. And even after I worked, I still try to do some listening or others every day. But until now, I still have some problems in expressing myself clearly and fluently. I still somewhat afraid of talking in English. That’s the main reason I try to put down my words in English here. I think if I practice more in English way thinking, I’ll do better in my English listening and talking environment.
Then I want to put down the things which I need to complement to be more specialized:
1. Wireframe + responsive design
2. Web design trends + design theories
3. AI (icon, badge design)
4. PS (web design, UI design)
5. code(HTML, CSS, CSS frame, HTML5, CSS3, JS, JQurey, XML)
6. Flash, InDesign, 3DSMax
7. English(daily live and working English words & expressions, listening, talking)
I know found the job is just the way. Achieving it and developing a better future me are that important thing. I have a long way to go, I have to try my best. At last, I hope my articles are somewhat useful to you guys. And I still hope you big fish can give me some advice to help me go faster and better. Thank you!
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