Ayo, Berkenalan dengan SOP

        Para pembaca sekalian tentu tidak asing dengan istilah SOP, terutama bagi kalangan yang berkecimpung dengan kegiatan gugus kendali mutu (quality control). Bagi kelompok ini, SOP seolah-olah merupakan kata/frase “sakti” yang tidak perlu dipertanyakan lagi kehandalannya.  SOP atau Standard Operating Procedure merupakan suatu pedoman bagi pelaksana suatu kegiatan, yang memuat sekumpulan instruksi yang sudah terstandarisasi untuk mencapai tujuan tertentu.

           Namun postingan kali ini, kita tidak akan membahas SOP yang di atas, bukan juga membahas tentang SOP (soup) – sejenis makanan yang kualitas rasanya tidak lagi perlu dipertanyakan, hehehe :). Dalam kesempatan ini kita akan mencoba membahas dan mendalami SOP dalam bentuk lain. SOP yang kita bahas kali ini adalah SOP yang berkaitan dengan perjuangan untuk mendapatkan beasiwa yang ditawarkan oleh pemerintah Amerika atau lebih dikenal dengan nama Fulbright scholarship.  

Kawan tentu sudah sangat familiar dengan Fulbright scholarship – salah satu beasiswa paling bergengsi di dunia. Sebagai salah satu beasiswa prestisius dan kompetitif, Fulbright scholarship mewajibkan banyak persyaratan yang harus dipenuhi apabila kita ingin mendapatkannya. Nah, salah satu persyaratan yang paling menentukan itu adalah SOP (konon katanya ini menjadi core penilaian para juri)

SOP (statement of purposes) merupakan suatu pernyataan tertulis yang memuat tentang latar belakang sekaligus proyeksi hidup di kemudian hari. SOP atau ada juga yang mengistilahkannya dengan motivation letter atau personal statement merupakan gambaran umum tentang profil kita, rencana kita, background yang mendasari pilihan kita, serta mimpi-mimpi kita. Singkatnya, SOP bisa kita anggap sebagai  sebuah proposal kehidupan (life proposal).  

          Namun membuat SOP tidaklah semudah dibayangkan, apalagi untuk membuat SOP yang bernilai jual tinggi yang mampu menarik minat pembacanya (dalam hal ini para juri/panelis pemberi beasiswa). Sebuah SOP yang berkualitas akan mampu menyampaikan point of differentiation (faktor pembeda) antara pelamar satu dengan yang lainnya. Faktanya ada ribuan aplikasi yang hadir ke dalam meja panelis, dengan kondisi seperti itu, bagaimanakah cara kita membedakan diri dari ribuan pelamar yang lain? Jawabnya hanya satu : SOP yang bernilai jual tinggi!

Karena SOP menyangkut proposal hidup, maka untuk menciptakan SOP yang berkualitas kita terlebih dahulu membuat hidup kita berkualitas. Kualitas yang dimaksud disini adalah hidup yang kaya akan pengalaman yang relevan untuk tujuan hidupnya dimasa akan datang. Sebagai ilustrasi seseorang anak pantai yang setiap harinya “berkubang” di laut dan ingin kuliah di program perikanan dan kelautan tentu saja akan memiliki cita rasa yang lebih kuat dan berbeda dibandingkan dengan anak perkotaan apabila ia mendaftarkan diri pada program yang sama (perikanan dan kelautan).

Selain hidup yang berkualitas tersebut, cara kita mengemas/menuliskan hidup yang berkualitas itu juga sangat menentukan. Dalam bahasa sederhana, kita tidak bisa dianggap cerdas kalau kita belum menunjukkan kepada orang kalau kita ini cerdas, dan cara kita menunjukkan kecerdasan itu, harus dengan cara yang cerdas pula sehingga orang menjadi yakin bahwa kita memang cerdas dengan cara yang cerdas pula (To work smarter, not harder). Singkatnya kemampuan kita mengemas kualitas hidup menjadi sebuah SOP  yang bernilai jual tinggi akan membawa kita pada keberhasilan untuk membuat SOP yang berkualitas. Penjelasan mengenai membuat SOP yang berkualitas mungkin akan dibahas lebih detail pada postingan berikutnya, namun sebagai penutup, saya ingin membagikan salah satu SOP yang pernah saya buat ketika hendak melamar salah satu beasiswa. Selamat membaca dan mencoba :)

STUDY OBJECTIVE

My journey to pursue M.A. program started on Sunday afternoon. When I was sitting on the dike facing the Indian ocean, a thought  by Carl Bark (1901-2000) crossed my mind: “Work smarter, not harder”. That might have been the key thought for my whole day trying to solve the current  problem of my hometown, Kutablang. Kutablang is a rural town in Aceh Province of Indonesia. Geographically, it lies on a farming area and borders the Indian ocean, so most of its inhabitants work as traditional farmers and sailors. Even though the town lies on farming land and borders the ocean providing an enormous advantage of natural resources for its residents, the occupants still live in poverty. They still depend on food supplied from other provinces especially from Medan, North Sumatera. I can still remember how frustrated the people were because the price of basic needs increased sharply due to the supply route linking Kutablang to Medan being discontinued. Thus goods from Medan no longer came to our town. I often thought, “How ironic and confusing that a farming village can be without food?” I thought about it for long time, until I was reminded of Bark’s quote: “Work smarter, not harder”. How do we educate people to use resources  positively and efficiently. 

Having been enlightened, how could I enlighten others? What could I do first? Nelson Mandela said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Based on this thought, I decided to continue my studies  in Industrial Engineering at University of North Sumatera. It was a good choice, there I was introduced to new conceptual thinking called integrated system thinking. This type of thinking might be a solution for the problem in my hometown and I devoted myself to becoming the agent of change.

In industrial engineering I was taught about economics, the manufacturing process, production systems, industrial engineering and design, production planning and control, layout and material handling, operation research,etc. In operation research I learned how to manage resources using supply chains and transportation solution. I thought about whether or not it could possibly be applied in my hometown, Aceh Province. As we know that Aceh has a potential port called Sabang port, but it is not used in optimum way.

During my study in industrial engineering, I involved myself in some extracurricular activities to build and strengthen my personality. Therefore, I joined the Islamic Student Association (HMI) and I was trusted to be the head of the research and development department. In addition to learning how to professionally network, there I learned how to interact in the community, how to convey and convince others of my ideas, how to build teamwork, leadership, communication and management skills. I also dedicated myself as an assistant to the laboratory of statistics and measurements. There I had a responsibility to teach a group of undergraduate about statistics. This helped me gain a deeper understanding of applying statistics in the laboratory as well as leading other students  in their understanding of statistics. I also was given the opportunity to represent my university through a national business competition held by The Company of Danone Group. Here  I was able to acquire real insight into today’s biggest commercial issues and gain a deeper understanding of business philosophy. The final year of my study I was selected to join CoOP program organized by PT. Telkom Indonesia. This is a three month internship program where I was placed at Community Development Center (CDC). In this program I obtained an valuable experience which I may not have in otherwise. At CDC I was involved in organizing local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to strengthen their business through financing, facilitating entrepreneurship training, marketing expansion, basic accounting and budgeting. I also helped them with the online marketing of their products. At the end of this program I was awarded the tittle “Best Participant in regional Sumatera” and I was given the opportunity to extend the program for another year in PT Telkom Indonesia. I was very fortunate to have all of these valuable experiences. I learned many powerful tools to build sustainable development in an economy as well as to apply them to the community. Through these experiences, I was looking forward to adopting this system and applying it to my hometown, with the aim of reducing poverty and strengthening the community’s prosperity.

I know that all of my valuable experience, skills, competencies, and education brought me closer to solving the main problem in my hometown. However, I do realize my undergraduate degree does not help as much as  a postgraduate degree would, and I’m still weak in research, not having great amount of experience in building and analizing systems and concepts. Therefore, I want to combat these weaknesses by continuing my education specializing in management and optimization of supply chains and transportation. 

My long-term career goal is to teach at university level and conduct research  related to my study with the aim of optimizing all of the resources surrounding my area. I hope it will bring advantages and improvement for my home province. I do hope that my desire to be an agent of change will bring favorable consideration to the committee  to grant myself as a Fulbright Scholarship Awardee.