Securities Commission Scholarship Interview - A guide

I applied for the Securities Commission Scholarship sometime back in March (after the release of the SPM Results). For the benefit of those who do not know what is the Securities Commission (SC), it is a regulatory agency empowered under the Securities Commission Act to oversee and regulate the trading of the financial tools. (Eg Shares, aka common stock listed in Bursa Saham Malaysia Bhd, bonds, trusts, and other financial instruments) It also serves to develop the financial industry.

The fields of discipline offered under this scholarship are :
- Business Administration
- Law
- Economics
- Islamic Finance and Banking
- Investment Banking
- International Business
- Accountancy
- A-levels (for holders of the Pre-U Scholarship)

Note: The scholarship is a free ride. It covers tuition fees, allowance, books etc.

There are 4 rounds of assessments applicants have to go through. (Excluding the essay submitted with the application form)
1st Round : Preliminary Screening
2nd Round: Case Study
3rd Round: Online Psychometric Test
4th Round: Q and A session

First, I shall start with the essay that is required of all applicants. Applicants are required to write a HANDWRITTEN essay "of not more than 1000 words on past achievements and future career aspiration in relation to the application of this scholarship."
Now, the SC Scholar Selection Panel have come across a lot of essays throughout the years, so what you would probably want to do is to make your essay stand out. Hence these are the advice I would give you:
-Do not write a letter that merely states your extracurricular activities. IE, I was the Head Prefect in High School, I represented the school in Frisbee Competitions, I was a school debater etc.That is what your resume is supposed to do, and what your stacks of certificates testify. Hence, what you should write is WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED by participating in such activities or holding such offices. Add your personal experience, your opinion, your reflection. Link that to your job scope when you serve the SC. In other words, HOW DO ALL THESE CONTRIBUTE TO THE SECURITIES COMMISSION'S OBJECTIVES? All in all, your personal experience will be testimonial to your character, virtues and leadership abilities. By sharing the experience on how you have led the club with your board proves that you are both a capable leader and a team player. This is better than writing "I am a good leader and a team player.I am also very honest. bla bla bla"
I think the experience in the Young Entrepreneur Programme and the Citigroup Stock Challenge will give you some insights.

- Provide some insights from your observation/reflection of incidents around the world that has to do with the position in the SC that you will serve in the future.Eg, You've read about how the former SEC (The USA equivalent of the SC) Chairman Christopher Cox was partly responsible in the Financial Crisis I.E allowing the banks to overleverage themselves, his laidback leadership, his penchant to push for deregulation etc. What have you learned from all this? (Though your essay is not to criticise the SEC, or to present a ten-point plan to solve the problem,but merely to point out what you have learned from this)

Summary on writing an essay for the SC Scholarship:
Write more about what you have learned from your ECAs rather than the position you've held. To modify a quote someone from ReCom, "you are more than just the sum of your grades", "you are more than just the sum of your achievements." (I am sorry because I have forgotten which thread have I read this from and I can't remember your name. Please send me an email and I will edit this post to include your name. )
Include your opinions and the idealogy that you subscribe to in your essay. Remember to link all these to the objectives of the SC, to show how you can contribute as an SC employee (which is ultimately the goal of this scholarship) . The last advice on the essay writting is of course, to be creative within the leeway.

Now, in around two week's time (or perhaps longer), you will probably receive a call from the SC to inform you that you have been shortlisted for an interview. Congratulations! You are one step closer to your dream of working for the SC. For out of state applicants, you are required to travel to the SC Building in Mont Kiara, KL for the interview. Your travel expenses will not be reimbursed. The SC Building is in the middle of nowhere, right next to the National Science Centre. It is hard to get transportation to go there, since some taxi drivers don't know where it is. The best landmark to use is of course, the national science centre. If you stay in any of the hotel in Bukit Bintang, it will cost your less than RM20 to go to the SC Building. Do let them know if you have problems going to the SC Building, they are glad to help you.

First Round Assessment: Preliminary Screening
Next, let us move on to the first round assessment, the Preliminary Screening. Basically, this is just a typical interview in which you will be assessed by a panel comprising of two SC Employees. You are required to register with the receptionist, and you will be given an access card. Go to the library, (which is normally where the interview is conducted). You will be ushered into the waiting room with the other applicants from the other age groups. So Pre-U students will have the chance to meet with the undergraduate applicants. This is a good opportunity to make new friends, and besides that, lunch will be provided. (Though everybody seemed to nervous to touch anything). You will be summoned to your panel of interviewers. This is a normal interview in which they ask you to introduce yourself and typical questions like

-Apart from your academic qualifications, why do you think that you deserve this scholarship?
-Tell us about your family.

They will also ask questions about your essay. So if you don't really understand anything about fiscal policy, DON'T WRITE IT IN YOUR ESSAY. You don't want to give them an impression that you are just putting words to make your essay impressive.In other words, DO NOT INSULT THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE INTERVIEWERS. They are after all, smart people selected to work in the SC. They are experts of their field, so, do not pretend to be knowledgable if you are not.

Second Round Assessment: Case Study
So, if you have made it through to the second round assessment, you will receive a phonecall from the SC. This is by far the most interesting assessment throughout the interview. The second round assessment will NOT BE CONDUCTED by the SC. They will outsource this job to a HR firm. Representatives from the firm will brief you on your task. You will be required to do a case study, and this is where all the fun is. They will give you a report that describes the role you will play, and the problems that you are required to solve. Most of the time, this will be a policy-making case study. In the "report", there are views and perspectives from distinct special interest groups. As an independent taskforce committee member, you are required to make recommendations and formulate a viable policy. You will be given 30 minutes to work out everything on your own (No discussion, no brain storming). After that, you will be summoned one by one to present your policies and make your recommendations to the representatives from the firm, who will assess you. Once everyone in your group is done, you will all be gathered in a room to come up with a policy and reach a consensus in a given period of time. The representatives from the firm will observe your discussion (or should I say,debate.) Their assessment are kept confidential of course, but you might find the following advice useful.

Advice:
First of all,use the following guidelines
a) Capture the essence of the case study and identify the tasks
(What are you required to do? What recommendations? What sort of policy?)
Note: Someone in our group devoted his time to criticize the problem and blamed one of the special interest groups in the case study. He did not come up with any concrete measures, but merely treated us to an emotionally packed sermon. Of course, for failing to identify his task, he did not make it to the third round assessment. I hope this highlights the importance of identifying your task and to capture the essence of the case study.

b)Identify and balance the needs of the special interest groups
Preferably, you need to come up with a win-win situation. Therefore, you must be able to make concessions with the other applicants in your groups. Pragmatically speaking, you need to balance the gains and losses of the special interest groups in the case study.
In other words, give everyone something to take home. You can't have a policy in which a side has all to gain and the other has all to lose. In the real world, such policy won't even survive a vote in Parliament.(Who wants to attempt a political suicide?) Even when you have come up with your balanced policy, be prepared to make concessions with the other applicants so as to reach a consensus as a group. Sometimes you have to stand your ground on an issue, but sometimes, you have to take a step back. So go in with an open mind, attempt to see things from the other's perspective, and then decide on the best course of action to take.
In my group, everybody worked together to draft out a policy, but there was one little provision in which me and one applicant couldn't agree on.I had to work out a concession that one very agressive fellow applicant.In the end, we all reached a consensus. The representative nodded in agreement when we worked out the concession and I knew I've made it.

c) Be explicit in your policy
Do not insert ambiguous languages that could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Be explicit in your content. If you are introducing regulations, make them clear. Take this assessment seriously.

Summary : Overall, this is a task that puts your knowledge and people skill to the test. Teamwork is crucial in this round. If you must disagree with something, say something nice first. When the applicant who spent all his time delivering a sermon emotionally made his presentation to the group, the agressive applicant interjected, complete with an exasperated look and tone with "Yeah yeah I know what you feel, but what do you ACTUALLY HAVE TO PROPOSE?!" Ouch! Needless to say, Mr-I-am-delivering-a-sermon here wasn't very happy.

Don't do that.

Instead, say something nice like me. "I recognise the sentiments that stems from this issue, and I concur with Mr-I-am-delivering-a-sermon. However I think that we have to(insert what needs to be done,and your policy recommendations.) "That helped me to get the job done, and everybody liked me more than Mr Aggressive. So this are little things in which you have to learn, while Mr Agressive is doing exactly what is required, he lacked a little bit of tactfulness.

Finally, and importantly, MAKE CONCESSIONS IF IT IS REQUIRED. Learn to understand that you won't have everything your way. This is the art of policy making that I thought they should teach at the Kennedy School of Government. That said however, remember, if there are issues you think you need to stand your ground, do it. In my case, I didn't want to allow advertisement on beer and cigarettes. Mr Agressive wanted that(He insists Malaysia allows such advertisement to be aired, guess who has the last laugh?). So what do I do? I took half a step back. We worked out a concession in which beer and cigarette companies are allowed to advertise, but they must not in anyway , display images of beers or cigarettes. So what that is allowed under this provision is that they can only display the name of their brand, definitely not their product.

Third Round assessment: Psychometric Test
This is my graveyard. I got a call from the SC to go to my third round assessment online two days after I have returned from the second round assessment. I was in a buoyant mood and was acting recklessly when I took the test. This led to my downfall. I FAILED THIS ASSESSMENT.
This is a test that asks you to rate statements relative to its impact on your motivation for work.There is no right or wrong answer, but your answers will represent your character. The bad news is, you can only do it once.

Let's say its something like this.

How do you find working in an environment in which protocol has to be strictly adhered to.
You will need to click on the answers based on the scale of :
It highly demotivates me, it demotivates me, it does nothing to me, it motivates me, It highly motivates me.

After some deep analysis of the structure of the SC, I think candidates who fulfilled the following criteria are highly desirable by the SC.
Note:This is just my opinion. If it works for you, you may send me flowers, PM me for my address. If it does not, do not haul molotov cocktails into my house. You have a brain don't you? Courteously speaking, VIEWER DISCRETION REQUIRED. If you make are here to follow my advice blindly, PM me, I would love to know you, you can be my slave.

Desirable characterics for SC employees:
Since this is not a profit-driven,self-interest regulatory agency, therefore you need to
a) Be comfortable working in an environment that requires adherence to protocol
b) Have no problems working in an agency that has no commercial interest
c) Work hard (Duh, every single employers want that)
d) Eager to seek challenges in work
e) Welcome critisim from peers or superiors to improve on work performance
f) Self-motivated
g) Have no problem taking a supervisory role
h) learn continuously even after graduation (Lifelong learning)
i) Be content with a competitive salary

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Even though I have broken down the desirable characteristic of an SC Employee to you, you are still obliged to answer truthfully even if you know that your answers will jeopardise your chance in getting the scholarship (like me). After all, it is no use if you have accepted the scholarship, graduated, and then feel miserable when you are working for the SC because you won't get bonuses. There is more to life than just scholarships. As a scholar(I'm a JPA scholar, not an SC scholar) myself, I don't think the "scholar" label makes you any more smarter than anyone. It is not a badge of honour. It is an obligation.

Fourth Round Assessment: Q and A session
I didn't attend this round mainly because I didn't go through the Psychometric Test. According to my sources however, the fourth round is like a briefing in which you and your parents are invited to have a dialogue with the SC. They will state out explicitly what they expect of you, and you have to return every summer for your internship (if you are sponsored to study abroad) . I think if you can make it to this round you are more or less guaranteed the scholarship.

So, for those of you who want to spread this guide around, feel free to do so. But seriously if you only read this blog for this guide, you suck.