Islamic Capital Market Graduate Training Scheme (ICMGTS).

Alhamdulillah. Done with BBA. All that's left now is the walk across the big stage in the cap and gown for a scroll. Time flies. 3.5 years? I've made mistakes. But I've learned many good lessons from it. Regrets? I have a few. But I dont wanna dwell on the past as I cant change it. My CGPA? I dont wanna let numbers define me. I can't give a score to the many valuable lessons I've learned, can I? A piece of advice: "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go," Dr. Suess. In short, #UIABest.

The next chapter in my life: starting my first career. I've been job hunting. Started applying via JobStreet early December. Attended three different interviews so far. The first company offered a job not according to my expectation. It had a very fishy job scope actually. And of course, I refused to being accepted there. The second company, which I am blogging on today, is a two months graduate development programme, namely the Islamic Capital Market Graduate Training Scheme (ICMGTS). The third company, which I will write about my interview experience in the near future, unfortunately, I failed miserably to shine during the second assessment.

So, back to the main topic ... what is ICMGTS? Basically, it was jointly developed by the Securities Commission (SC) and Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC) in 2009 to facilitate the creation of human capital for the Islamic Capital Market (ICM). Its main objective is to produce entry-level professionals with strong fundamental knowledge and skills for the ICM. Since its inception, over 200 graduates have participated in the scheme and 92% of ICMGTS participants have been employed in various organisations in the financial services industry.

The benefits of joining the programme are as the following:

• Acquire relevant technical skills and fast-track your career in the ICM.
• Gain inter-personal skills to meet the demands of the marketplace.
• Earn the opportunity to sit the SC's licensing examinations.
• Get interview opportunities with potential employers from the industry.
• Receive a monthly allowance of RM2,000.

Alhamdulillah, I made it through the assessment. And starting 17th March, I am a student under this programme. I am still job hunting. That is not going to stop. Even the facilitator at SIDC encourages us going for interviews while attending the programme at the same time. So, I am basically filling my time while job hunting and I actually get paid for it dowh. From wasting my time staying at home, I decided to give it a go. I mean, what's there to lose kan? Free classes, free course materials, free license, and allowance of RM2,000!

So, these are basically the things that took place on the assessment day:

• Given three topics and required to write an essay of no more than 300 words in 20 minutes on one out of those three topics. The topics were pretty simple, I must say. But I screwed up la. I had idea's for each three topics, but just tidbits. You are required to choose one. So, yeah. Go figure.
• A video was shown for a short objective quiz. The most important thing on this one is the attentive part. If your focus is not on the video shown, you definitely cant answer the quiz. But, I guess the video was interesting enough to pass on.
• A video was shown once again. But, this time around it was for a 20 minute group discussion. An assessor will be sitting with you watching the way you discuss among your group. Points will be rewarded for different criteria's I guess. At the end of that session, each person in the group are required to present their points one by one.
• Last but not least ... selling yourself! It's pretty simple actually. If you go to any interview, the most common question to be asked is: tell me about yourself. Basically, selling yourself is more or less the same as that. One advice from me though ... please, please, PLEASE, be professional in this section. Do not bring up stories about your personal life. Be professional.

So, that was about it. I hope the future ICMGTS students may have found this article a little bit helpful for their preparation in the future.

Hasta la vista. Adios.

See you later. Goodbye.