IRAS Scholarship Interview 2016

As compared to the other scholarships, the online application for IRAS was relatively easier as they only asked 1 question (What are your hobbies and interests?) with no word limit. Of course it’ll be a wise idea to try to tie in your academic interests as well (and not just elaborate about how you enjoy watching korean dramas, listening to music etc etc)

First Round

The first round of selection consisted of 2 components. First, the written assessment. I was scheduled for this round with 1 other guy. The two of us were brought into a room and each of us was given a laptop. We had 1 hour to answer 2 questions:

1. What are some of the challenges that Singapore will face in the next 5 years? What role does the tax system have to play in solving these challenges?
2. Describe an experience that changed your life.

I can’t remember the exact wording of the questions but that’s just the gist of it. I allocated around 35 minutes to the first question, and the remaining time for the second one because I thought that I should focus a little more on the academic question rather than the personal one. Plus the personal one was much easier to write so it took less time (no need for brainstorming, coming up with different points etc)

After that, there was interview with 3 HR staff. The questions asked were:

• Tell me more about yourself
• Elaborate more about your choice of undergraduate studies
• Elaborate on any leadership experiences
• Did you apply for any other scholarships? Which ones are you interested in?
• What do you know about IRAS and the IRAS scholarship?
• Why should we pick you over other candidates? What are your strengths?

They spent quite a bit of time explaining to me what the IRAS scholarship is about, because taxation is a very specific field in accounting and by choosing the scholarship, it also means that you’ll be deciding in your field of specialization even before graduating from university, so they need to be sure that applicants are fully aware of what this scholarship entails. They also gave me the opportunity to ask questions at the end.

Tea Session

Out of the 500 applicants who applied for the IRAS scholarship, the HR department interviewed about 50 applicants, and 9 were shortlisted for the final tea session.

I was invited to attend the tea session and I was really excited! I was first handed a file with my personality profile. Prior to the tea session, I was asked to complete a few questionnaires regarding my working style/personality. The personality profile was really cool and detailed and accurate.

After that, we were given a short presentation about IRAS and more about the organization. The HR department also shared with us the different career tracks (management vs specialist track), and showed us timelines of the career progression of their scholars, which was really insightful and gave me a better idea of what to expect if I were to take up the scholarship.

There were also sharing sessions by 3 IRAS scholars, who prepared powerpoint slides that showed pictures of their undergraduate days (some studied overseas), activities and projects at work.

After that, several other scholars joined us (about 10 in total) and we sat in this circle and had the opportunity to ask questions. Following that, the session broke into a more informal setting and we had the opportunity to mingle with the scholars.

One thing that struck me most was that the scholars there are really passionate about their work. The life of a scholar isn’t easy, and though scholarships are prestigious, scholars have to live up to expectations as well. The returning IRAS scholars emphasised the importance of being inquisitive and taking the initiative at work.

Since most of us candidates were undecided about which course/university we were going to study, and whether to stay local/go overseas, we took the opportunity to ask the returning scholars for advice. Most of the scholars advised us to go overseas if we had the opportunity to do so, simply because it is a really good experience. One scholar said that she was offered the IRAS local scholarship (comes with a 4 year bond), but she managed to discuss with the HR department and converted it to an overseas scholarship (but she had to portion of the school fees out of her own pocket) as she really wanted the overseas experience.

After that, the HR dept brought us on a mini tour of the IRAS building (we got to see the gyms, recreational areas etc) which was really cool and it made all of us motivated to do well in the final interview.

After the tea session, the HR department sent us an email with interview tips, as well as a few readings we had to read to prepare us for the final interview (e.g. budget, OECD tax reports, tax cases reported in the media etc)

Final Interview 

The IRAS board interview was my second board interview after SPRING. I was really nervous nonetheless, because I was brought into the Board of Director’s office and everything there looked really classy and cool but at the same time, foreign and intimidating. The panel consisted of 5 interviewers who looked sleepy and angry. There were 2 people from HR sitting at the table behind, and they kept smiling/laughing, which gave me a lot of reassurance haha 🙂

They focused a lot on the type of course I was going to study, which university I intended to go to, why I wanted to join IRAS (basically the standard questions, nothing really new here). Since I had been through so many interviews, I was kinda used to the process by this point.