Internship's Interview at Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Indonesia

So far, its been good internship period, but now let me focus on the interview part as it's quite unforgettable.

It began with the registration which quite easy. All requirements are stated in their website, specifically in IDB CGO Indonesia's website and we can just email the application for the internship program. I think every application will be responded and the next step is interview. However, as its only an internship program, the interview is quite horror to be honest.

I was being interviewed with 4 of their employees; their communication officer, infrastructure specialist, representative of ITFC, and learning & development specialist. It begins with the normal interview like introducing myself, why IDB, and why internship at IDB. After that, it started to be a very technical discussion since my background also in Islamic finance.

Yet, the one that they highlighted the most is my bachelor degree's paper which about a technical analysis on moving averages and exponential smoothing. Their infrastructure specialist which after that I know as a former World Bank economist, really dig in into my paper. He asked like the methodology, data selection, and commented a lot on that. I need to explained really detail until he was satisfied with the answer.

The next matters that they observed on is my personality. Since my degree's CGPA is not even exceeds 3, they demanded to know what was the reason. I honestly answered that I took some period to adapt, and the cost of taking those period is my fallen cgpa at the early semester. Then they pushed me on adaptability as this internship has only several months to be completed. I tried to give a proof as I have improved a lot now with graduated well in my master degree. But in the end I can't give any satisfying answer yet I was not really worried on that since my track record shown that I succeed in overcoming those problems although I can't put it on words.

The most interesting part is the last ten minutes. One of them asked me "as I looked in your cv, you have good academic backgrounds, you seems knowledgeable, so why you want to take this internship?". I answered with basic statements such as "I want to get an exposure as a development banker and etc". Yet they pushed me again and again, asked why I don't take a real job. Then I opened my story that I recently rejected job offering from one of well-known banks in Indonesia. Everyone surprised because of my main answer; Riba. Then about ten minutes they gave a lot of 'advices' such as "as a youngsters, don't be too idealist" or "you have to understand both sides first, then you know what to improve". I was quite surprised knowing 'IDB' against this kind of idealism but I only kept nodding and gave a respect to their comments. It is done after that, they informed me that it takes a week for the decision to come.

Overall, its like 45 minutes interview which honesty for internship program is very heavy. However, as I asked the intern here, all of them have quite similar experience where it is a bit technical and demanding. You can also have a teleconference interview if you're not around Jakarta, however all administrative matters such as working permit or insurance are not covered. So somehow it can be said that only for Indonesian, yet still it officially opened globally since there is one Indian guy as an intern in my period. For what I know, there is no chance to be absorbed as IDB has a really strict employment guidelines.

However, it is a very good internship program as you will be working alongside experts on development bankers as well as the clients likes government and significant company's stakeholders. The tasks given also a very good exposure on creating the concept of development banking in Islamic way though it is A LOT. They're very good people that can keep you busy everyday haha. In a nutshell, for me it is a very valuable experience and it honestly one of the miracle that comes to me after rejecting conventional bank's offer. May Allah gives us all his miracle and keeps us in His way.

al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah by Abu'l-Hasan al-Mawardi

     This book is one of the major works of al-Mawardi, the famous Islamic scholars in political science. It explains a lot about various aspect of the deen of Islam which are the concern and responsibility of chaliphate, amirs, wazirs and deputies. In the other words, this book talks about the system of leadership, or we can say that the system of governance.

     In the book, al-Mawardi really dig in into details. He was not only use Quran and Sunnah as the references, but also he shows a real life example in the past for how the leadership system has to be done. It gives the reader a clear picture about the condition of Quran and Sunnah that had been interpreted. This book depicts a stage of development of Islam which in this early date, was already manifesting toward strong governance and bureaucracy.

Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah

     What I like to highlight in this book is the system of leadership that al-Mawardi offered. In this book, al-Mawardi spend a lot to explain of the relationship between Imam and Wazirs. He wrote that there are two ways to choose an Imam which the first is chosen by the previous Imam and the second is elected by majority vote. However, wazirs or ministry, is a position that must be appoint by the Imam. Meaning to say, wazirs is a tool for Imam to control his government.

     Furthermore, the situation that happen now is there are many wazirs that have more power than the Imam. This situation is usually happen in the monarchy system with the King/Queen as the Imam and the Prime Minister as the delegation wazirs. For instance the Brexit situation that happened recently. Royal Family has done nothing over this situation and it literally nothing as they do not even have a right to vote for the Brexit. Moreover, it get worse when all the blame over this circumstances is taken by David Cameron, The Prime Minister. This situation is really contradict with the Islamic value that explain in this book. Because in the end of the day, the one that took judgement for all the decisions taken within the nation is not the wazirs (prime minister), it is the Imam.

     In the liberal country, this value is more practicable since their Imam is The President and the wazirs is more on the execution, not delegation. Hence, when the time the President elected, he appoint some people to represent him in the field they expert on which for example appointment as Minister of Finance or Minister of Education. However, this system relatively easy affected for sudden change of leadership style. For example the transformation of Bush Era to Obama. This means there will be some unstable political situation within the country and it affect any decisions taken. We still remember in 2008 that politics has bailed out the wall street, which people who think themselves as an institution that 'too big to fail'.

     In conclusion, al-Mawardi really gives some insightful writing in this al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah. All the ideas that came form Quran and Sunnah makes this book as a proof to people that everything has an answer and we just have to believe for what is right.