Week 14 in the last semester might be the most stressful semester for some. 

Thank God in between the hectic Week 12 and 13, I was busy completing the tasks for Week 14 in advance AND had the free time to apply for jobs (had 2 months before the internship). Probably the most efficient I've ever been in my entire life #selfpatontheback 🤭

One of the jobs that I applied to was KPMG Malaysia and that was sent together with other big companies like Astro, Roche, Zalora and Petronas. Personally, I sent these without the slightest bit of hope that my application would get through. It was kinda like the places that I would only dare to dream of, but I sent anyway because this time around I have a criteria on the internship placement that I'm looking for.

FYI, this is my second internship. The first one was during Diploma and that was back in 2018. That internship was amazing and I met amazing people especially my dearest intern friends that I clicked so well with. It was really fun!

However, I didn't really like what I do there. Mainly because I didn't do any IT-related tasks, which was a huge bummer for me who have always been enjoying what I study. Not being able to taste the real working experience from what I study, or even surround myself with it, was upsetting tbh.

So I made some clear outlines of what I am expecting this time around. I'm very goal-oriented so here is my personal checklist of the job that I look for.

My Diploma internship salary was pretty satisfying which was RM700 so it was never my plan to settle for anything lesser, simply because I wanted to aim for an upgrade. If I could get that amount for doing an internship totally unrelated to my course, why can't my own major's internship give me more, right?

By now, it's pretty clear that I wish to do what I study so hard in. Therefore, my least expectation was to just be in an IT department, whether that be front or back end development. Even though my interest lean towards the planning and documentation aspect of development, I honestly didn't mind that much.

I sound so ambitious saying this, but I am. Having been in a small company before, made me wanna aim higher. I didn't mind being just a photocopy kid if it could mean that I can experience a different working environment. Taking up Diploma before, gave me the advantage to do 2 internships and I take this as a privilege to try different spectrums of my line of work in hope that I could see which kind of working environment suits me best. I'm a believer of trying things out for myself over someone else's judgment.

Of course a lot of people would agree with me on this. Having a security especially after graduating is one of the biggest concern for graduates, so I don't want to look into companies that are clearly not offering career growth from the get-go.

Basically those 4 are my only criteria in looking for a company. With that in mind, I applied to a total of 24 companies - twice as much as I did for Diploma.

And how many calls did I get back?

At the time of this offer... one. Just a single callback.

Honestly, it didn't felt that good. A lot of my friends got offers pretty fast, some didn't even go for an interview. Tbh, I am skeptical on those that don't have interviews. It speaks volume on their professionalism but let's not talk about that since I'm not an expert.

So the one I got a callback from was - as you know it - KPMG.

On a usual Wednesday evening, exactly a week after applying, I was scrolling my Twitter while laying on my bed when I got a call from KPMG's HR department. The person asked if I was free, which I clearly was so before I know it, I was engaged in an ad hoc phone interview.

I was literally trembling out of happiness on top of nervousness, while trying to sound professional answering the questions one by one. At first a lot of the questions were expected like introducing myself, my CGPA and SPM results and what are my strengths. There were also company-related questions like what do I know about them, did I apply to any other Big 4 companies and why did I apply here. Because it was ad hoc, I literally didn't even know what a "Big 4" was. Yang aku tahu Big 4 kpop je la. Obviously the interviewer calmly explained to me what it was, but I didn't know if I was leaving a bad impression or not for the lack of awareness 😮

Then I was asked on tougher questions (in my opinion) which was skilled-based, like what are my proudest achievement, my co-curricular activities and any past projects that I did. Frankly speaking, I'm not amazing at what I do. If you expect an IT major to be good at programming then that person isn't me. Of course, I know that IT is more than just programming but other than that as a "past project", I literally have no other thing to show, if that make sense. I managed to divert the failures into what sounds like a great project that started and ended with a definite purpose. In short, my IT projects were all great ideas that failed.

One thing that made KPMG stood out to me was the unique hiring process.

For one, they conducted a personality and psychometric test as you are applying. Basically, there are a total of 6 tests. 3 tests on personality, career and favorable work environment, then the other 3 are on cognitive ability like reading comprehension, logic and maths test. The latter 3 are hella tough especially because there were sooo many questions within such a short amount of time.

Secondly, I was actually given 3 different options on the job openings that they have during the interview. I apparently applied for their Cyber Security department when I applied for the Software Engineering position, which to me, was a bit confusing at first as security and software engineering are like two different majors in my university. The options that were given to me were Cyber Security which I assumed was a programmer, UI/UX designer and IT Advisory.

When the interviewer explained what IT Advisory was, I was so thrilled hearing about it. She initially gave only the first 2 options, but after that she asked if I wanted to deal with clients, which I jumped at and said yes! My favourite subject this semester is actually called Software Project Management and hearing that IT Advisory do exactly that in real life, was so exhilarating to just imagine. 

With that, they told me to expect a respond in 2 weeks' time - which if you aren't getting any other calls, felt like forever.

While playing the waiting game, I was doubting myself.

I feel such a hypocrite saying this but not getting any other calls was pretty disappointing, especially when you're already feeling incompetent on the one company that did got back to you.

After 9 days of waiting, I finally received the internship offer I was praying for. Alhamdulillah. KPMG is the one company that not only checks off all of the criteria I mentioned earlier, it's also so close to my house so going to the office is mainly not gonna be a problem.

I have a lot of great hopes for this internship. I hope it will give an even better experience than my past internship did. To my friends who are still struggling on finding the right placement, I pray you guys get what you aim for too.

Here I leave you with an office tour of KPMG Tower, which I found a day after the phone interview and made me go "I NEED TO WORK HERE" hahaha. Hopefully I'll be able to set foot here one day though, enjoy 😜

P.S. I feel even prouder when I found out KPMG is listed as the 4th company out of 100 in the Malaysia's Leading Graduate Employers Ranking in 2020 or known as M100. 

I might have a lot of interesting stories to share with you guys about my working experience this year insyaAllah 🤓

BUT THEN...

2 days after I accepted KPMG's offer, I got another unexpected offer from Petronas. Check out part 2 of this post to know the rest of the story!

Dropping by,