JWOC ran a self-development course to equip the Scholarship Students with better Interview Skills. It was a short version of the well-known ‘how to prepare for an elevator’s pitch’!

The turnaround was great, all Scholarships Students participated to this training either on the Saturday or the Sunday morning, which, for the most of them, count as the days they’re volunteering at JWOC (as part of their scholarship’s agreement).

JWOC had led a very practical training, with a step-by-step training to their Scholarship Students. JWOC organized the training and I spoke to Sothida Phen and Yen Yon following the interviews they had after that training. The idea for JWOC is the to capture what in this training helped them succeed at their job interviews in order to amend the training accordingly.

Sothida (Marketing, Year 4, Semester 2) was working for a hotel and her position was an entry-level job. She heard of the opening of a new position at another hotel, this time not for a level-entry job, but for a qualified position that fits right into her career plan.

Scheduling:

She was highly interested in the training because it happens just before just had her interview scheduled. Her motivation showed on the day of the training. She took advantage of the proposition made to the students to have some mock interviews organized and filmed. She She did an interview in Khmer and another one in English to put herself in real life situations.

Another student was Yen, studying Business Management (Year 3, Semester 2). Scheduling:

Still a student at University, but already experienced at navigating job interviews and internal promotions!

Yen dedicates his study and Free time by attending classes at The University of South East Asia every weekday from 6:00 till 9:00pm, and he works from 7:00 am till 3:00 pm.As a JWOC scholarship student, he volunteers as an English Teacher with Borey Tek and under the supervision of Kea Eng.

He has only one day off for him, Saturday! He now works as an office adviser at this hotel. He used to have, a level-entry position at this same hotel, but he applied through internal promotion for another position there. In fact, almost simultaneously he applied to 2 positions at different hotels.

He had search for jobs outside and went through a bit of a tug of war between the two hotels. In the end, his current hotel won the war bid and proposed him a position with more responsibilities and also better pay and benefits. His reasons to finally stay with his initial place, are based on his curiosity and willingness to take on a new challenge, being curious of what the new responsibilities entails and his capacity to apply some of his Academic knowledge directly into this job. One of his main motivation to accept this job, was his willingness to learn more about Chinese operations, processes, and working with Chinese top Management. Which indeed is a smart idea, considering the progression and trend of more Chinese investors in Siem Reap and Cambodia in general. So far, he’s fulfilled with the different functions of his new position, even though being so young he’s struggling a bit managing his new team. He likes that ideas are flowing, because of the management team is new, and he’s happy with the possibility to learn from this dynamic environment.

What’s remarkable about these two JWOC scholarships recipients is that despite being young, they’re fierce, with a clear vision of their future and the different steps that will compose it. They were both able to negotiate holding a new position, being consistent with their studies and their volunteering commitment.