Shell Recruitment Day (Miri)

Went to this Shell interview last week at Miri. Well, it was an unforgettable experience. Why? To and fro air flights (to be exact my first time flying). 4 Stars hotel. Interview at the former Managing Director of Shell Asia Pacific’s house (size of football field). RM 100 allowance. All for……. FREE! The interview process was like playing the reality series “ Apprentice” minus Donald Trump. The rewards are RM2600 salary + RM 1500 (if you are from peninsular) + accommodation and Proton GEN 2 for two weeks until you settled down at Miri + one container to shift your household item from peninsular (you can put in your car if wanted to) + illogical allowance to get your wallet thick enough.

I was not successful. Sighed. Maybe just not good enough in bullsh*t and act I guess. Yes, I’m not lying. They don’t test on my technical but more to teamwork in tackling issues and how good you are in talking (lawyer if they apply sure can go through). The procedures were interesting putting myself as a business analyst for Shell. Then being given 20-30 pages of emails, newspaper cut-outs, graph, and chart regarding some issues Shell is facing in one country. I have to digest all the data, identify the issues then come out with short, medium and long term solutions. All these in 90 minutes. If only I can speed-reading in 2 minutes then I’ll have the whole lot 88 minutes to come out with solution (I can even come out with 5,10,15,20,30 till there’s no more oil in the universe solution for them). But I can’t. When I finished with the reading and really understood the situation there was not much time left to come out with the solution. Then come the second part.

Discussion in group . Something like MUET I must say. We were told to represent local authority to suggest to Shell some community service (sort of asking sponsorship money from Shell). Pick up two best activity and then fight with another groups of two. The chosen activities will then be presented to Shell. My activities were not chosen because of this SUDDEN earthquake that happen in the country and the government requested large chunk of the money to be given to them. Then we’ll have a press conference to answer all the question from journalists (assessors). Something like China thrash Malaysia in soccer then you’ll have a post match conference. Lastly, came the technical interview about a project that we’ve done. Of all the 3 parts, they considered this the easiest where the other two just now the toughest. Initially, I thought of that too. But to my surprise it might proved to be my downfall. The so-called expert assessor in my field doesn’t turn up to be master in my topic of concrete. He was totally blank with my topic and doesn’t seem to be impressed. I was surprised considering the previous candidate that is same field as mine found him to be very pleasant and easy going even though his topic is something on bridge structure ( his thesis actually). I was understood that the requirement for the project to be discussed must involved the candidates in group work. Lady luck was not shining brightly on my side that day (blackout some more that day)

Pros:

Shell interview was once in a lifetime experience that you’ll never find it at any other company. The free flight and short period of travelling to Miri is something to savor.

Cons:

The process of you getting to the final stage was really long. You must have the patience. The two days interview was really tiring considering the fact that you don’t have much time to recover from the first day briefing and you start very early in the next day.