Overseas scholarship interview tips
Hello friends, in this article I will share some tips for taking part in overseas scholarship interviews. I wrote these tips based on my personal experience when I got a scholarship for a youth exchange program to the United States, so these tips can be combined with tips from other scholarship recipients. Oh yes, I hope these tips can help you a little when you pass the interview stage. Here are some tips for taking part in overseas scholarship interviews:
1. Master the initial stage files
Before we are asked to go to the interview stage, it is clear that we will go through the file stage. For me personally, the first stage or file stage is the most difficult and challenging stage. The reason is that we have to be able to convince the selectors to choose our files which will then continue to the interview stage. So, if you have entered the interview stage, mastering all the files that have been submitted in the first stage is MANDATORY. Why? Because usually the interview stage can be called the "Confirmation" and "Excavation" stages. What I mean by the confirmation stage is, the interviewer wants to know whether all the things we wrote or included in the file stage were really us who wrote them or whether we just made them up. Apart from that, at the interview stage, the interviewers will dig deeper into the files that we have sent in the first stage. Therefore, in this scholarship interview tip, the thing that must be prepared carefully is to master in detail everything we have written in the first stage.
2. Predict questions
Predicting what questions will arise during the interview is very important. If it has been predicted, we will automatically try to prepare the answer. And when the questions we have predicted appear, it will be easier for us to answer the questions. So how do you predict the questions? The way to do this is to read all the writing or files that we have submitted at the initial stage. After that, map out the files one by one and from there we can write down any questions that might arise. Remember, friends, the questions must be written down, don't just keep them in your head, because sometimes it's easy to forget. Oh yes, I also want to share some tips and experiences when I got a scholarship to the United States, friends, please click the link below:
a. 10 tips for qualifying for the YSEALI Academic America scholarship: Click here
b. 5 tips for writing a scholarship recommendation letter: Click here
c. Experience of getting YSEALI America scholarship: Click Here
3. Update the latest news
The next overseas scholarship interview tip is that apart from understanding the files we have submitted in the first stage, updating the latest news is also very important. Usually in several scholarship interviews the interviewers will ask about a recent issue that is happening in Indonesia or outside Indonesia. So, therefore, it will be very important when we get into the habit of reading local and international news regularly. So if we are asked about an issue, then how should we answer it? One way we can do this is to answer questions or respond to issues according to our background. For example, you are asked about climate change, but your background is in children's issues or you work in an organization that focuses on children's issues. Of course you can link the issue of climate change with the issue of children, for example one of the impacts of climate change can be an increase in child marriages because in some areas one of the impacts of climate change is landslides. Landslides that hit poor families, for example, can cause parents to force their children to marry at a young age because they can no longer afford to support their children.
4. Be yourself
What do you mean by being yourself during the interview? So you see, sometimes the interviewer will ask about your strengths and weaknesses. So of course, in answering this question you are expected to be yourself, meaning you have to really know yourself and how you overcome anything that is considered your weakness. For example, your weakness is "taking part in too many organizational activities so you can't manage time for other activities." If you have identified your weakness, then what you have to do is work around it. The way to do this is to look for a problem solution, for example because you are taking part in too many activities, which makes your schedule disorganized, therefore the solution is "you have to make a priority scale".
5. Practice speaking in front of a mirror
Practicing speaking in front of a mirror before the interview is very important and of course this is one of the important overseas scholarship interview tips. Sometimes, even though we are used to speaking in public, it is not impossible that we feel nervous or nervous when faced with interviewers. Nervousness can come without us being able to predict it, therefore one way to get around this is to do as much exercise in front of the mirror as possible. Let's just say that the person in the mirror is our interviewer when we are interviewed for a scholarship.
6. Relax and smile
When being interviewed, it is very important for us not to be nervous, try to remain calm and smile. At one point, it is very important for us to assume that the interviewer is our friend or someone we have known before, so that the conversation goes well or is not awkward. So, you can take a breath before entering the room and let go of the problems that are on your mind, then focus on the interview session so that your conversation will be more focused. Oh yes, for me, relaxing and smiling is also very useful so that our conversation with the interviewer feels more friendly. For example, when we talk to someone who is rude, make sure there is a feeling of discomfort, well it's the same when we are in a scholarship interview position.
7. Dress neatly
During the scholarship interview session, there are scholarship institutions that require certain clothing to be worn, some of which are not as long as they are polite. Dressing politely and neatly during an interview is very important, because a good appearance can show our professionalism in something. If you come from a long distance, for example to an interview and make your appearance less neat, I suggest bringing a change of clothes, makeup and other things to improve your appearance so that it is fresher. Usually, based on my personal experience, a neat and fresh appearance can also make us more confident when talking to interviewers.
