Perception

Since my provisional acceptance into NCSV over a year ago, the much anticipated subsequent step in the NOC application process was the company interviews, and it’s something I’d been looking forward to this semester. The wait didn’t last longer than mid-October as that was the period of time the companies were scheduled to contact the selected cohort for the interviews. Having only had two prior experiences with Skype interviews before, I definitely saw this as a chance to further hone my communication skills.

The companies were required to liaise with the students directly to schedule an appropriate time for the interviews, and it was quite exciting to receive one request after another via email. We were given instructions that we could decline interviews from companies that we weren’t interested in, although to be honest I can’t fathom why anyone would turn them down. While it may be an interview at the end of the day, it’s also really a fantastic chance to have a conversation with someone working on a startup in Silicon Valley. And beyond that, the interviewer is more often than not the co-founder or C-level executive of the company, and such opportunities rarely come by if at all.

I did my best and successfully scheduled every interview, although it was quite a nightmare of a week given how often I had to get up early or stay up late to make it for the interviews given the difference in the time zone between California and Singapore. It was tiring, with back-to-back interviews on multiple occasions, but I found it to be extremely rewarding as well. It was certainly humbling to have these people take the time out from their frenetic startup lives to tell me more about their ideas and companies, with each pitching the perks of working for them. I can’t think of any other circumstance where I’ll ever be in such a position again, so that was the most amazing part of the experience.

I got to talk about quite a number of different things during the interviews too, like my interests, the school curriculum and my role in sgBEAT. It was a proud moment to be able to share what I’ve learnt from designing the user interface of sgBEAT as well as handling and interacting with users, so the effort that I’d put in over the last year or so definitely paid off. Parts of the conversation also revolved around the lifestyle of working in Silicon Valley, which only intensified my excitement and anticipation about heading there. There were a couple of technical interviews too, some of which I didn’t do as well as I had hoped (I’m apparently not good with data structures at seven in the morning), but all in all I don’t think I fared too badly.

Doing sixteen interviews in seven days is a first for me, but I can’t deny that it was anything but an immensely enriching experience. The interesting conversations serve as a prelude to my stay in Silicon Valley next year, and the great thing is I managed to secure an internship with Opzi, a YC startup. It’s an exciting place to work at based in the heart of Palo Alto, and I’ll surely be writing more about it in the year to come. I’ve no doubt that this interview fest is the first of many memorable experiences I’ll have in NOC, and now I can’t wait for the rest.