3rd Session of GSF Mentorship

Two days ago, I got another chance to see Kak Jourdan (I didn’t really ‘see’ him technically since we used SKYPE call without video) and have a 34 minutes discussion (seriously, I counted).

We were supposed to do this last December (1^st december), but I was so stupid for mistakenly marking my calendar. The session was supposed to  start an hour earlier! I was very surprised when I got an email from Kak Jourdan, asking for my availability (is it the proper word? haha).

I actually might get an opportunity to see him (literally, not through screen) at the end of last year when he came to Jakarta, but thanks again to today’s technology, my or his email (I’m not sure which one) didn’t deliver. This actually happens a lot (not just one time)! 26^th January should be the final session but it seems like MBA has a reputation for making you super busy. That’s not a big deal. My teacher (who is also someone I look up to), Pak Nadra, once said that as a student or even any subordinates, don’t ever : (1) come late but it is acceptable for your boss (2) tell your boss when to see you, just follow his/her schedule.

Okay, back to our main topic. First thing first, we discuss my unanswered questions. In the previous session, Kak Jourdan gave me recommendation of some schools that provide good MPP program but focus more on economy and monetary sector such as BU and ANU. I’ve seen BU and it looks like the perfect school for me. I checked their curriculum, elective courses, and requirements, all good. I also tried to dig more about ANU, but their website is not exactly user-friendly (or is it just me?).

Kak Jourdan came up with a new suggestion, Harris Chicago School of Public Policy. In this case, Tasha from YESSBOSS helped me finding out that Harris is the #7 best public service school in US according to Best Value School 2015. It also has a focus area on “Economic Policy and Public Finance”. However, that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped considering my previous options. I also have a list of local schools, but then again Kak Jourdan said “Tapi kalau bisa di luar negeri, kenapa nggak’?”. Couldn’t agree more. Kak Jourdan also brought a good news, BI will not open any recruitment until next year, which means I still have a shot! (This is what he promised to ask to his brother who is currently working at BI).

I asked Kak Jourdan his opinion about my resume (which I already sent on 25^th October and had to send it again because I forgot the date, haha). And …. turns out I still make loads of mistakes. Yes, I know, I am bad at writing, academic/formal writing to be more specific. That’s why I decided to join an academic writing class in LBI FIB UI (upper intermediate, and still enrolling as a student the moment I write this). Not just the way I write, I also mistakenly put “experience” as “other addition”, chose comic sans as the main font instead of times new roman/arial (never knew about this before) etc.

I also asked how long I should know someone to get him/her write a letter recommendation for me. The answer is quite surprising. Because he told me that most people in Indonesia write their own letter and just show it to person who is supposed to recommend them, asking for his/her permission to send it. Well, that’s not how I asked my teacher (which later turns to be very bad).

Up until now, I still have no experience in organizations/community which can legitimate my personal brand as “a leader”. So his response after I questioned the importance of leadership skill to get into good schools was like “Penting. Penting sekali. Tapi kan’ kamu sudah punya bisnis sendiri. Bisa kamu cantumin.” Dang! Never crossed my mind! Well, it is just a small business and I have no intention to make it bigger, but at least I already hire someone (yes, hiring a friend of mine!) and that could be something interesting to put on my resume.

How important is a GPA? This question had been haunted me even before I got into university, haha! But it seems like universities in Indonesia are less attractive than other univ abroad, especially India (this one is a common knowledge, India has been well known as country with good education system. Only ignorant people don’t know). But don’t worry! We still have local students got accepted into good universities like Harvard, Stanford (including Kak Jourdan, haha) etc. Now it is my job to prove that a student from UIN can also do that!

I also told him about me getting an offer to work at *** (an international NGO focusing on environment), but I haven’t graduated by the time I was asked. Kak Jourdan advise me not to take it, because it could be affect my future study in a less good way. People will ask why I took banking program, decided to work at *** and now applying to public policy school? That actually makes sense.

I asked several questions I’ve been curious about and Kak Jourdan answered it very well. But due to his very limited time, we needed to end the session. He promised me another session at the end of this month (probably also the last). Still trying to fix my resume and thinking about other questions. I have to use this last chance and make the most of it!