Internship seeking preparation

In certain higher education/IPT may include internship as a requirement for your graduation. In UTP, every students whether engineering or IT related students are required to apply an internship which consist of 14 weeks for training and 14 weeks for project execution which roughly can be around 7 months. I know it is longer than other IPTs but it is also an advantage in your Curriculum Vitae (CV) and Resume later if you are applying a job as internship itself is a working experience.

Moving to the topic, to prepare yourself for an internship, there are several parts that you need to look such as university requirements, documents needed and extras from my personal experience.

First we look to the university requirement. In UTP, students are required to finish certain amount of credits hours before applying for internship and have a minimum CGPA of 2.00. It is basicly can be achieved easily if you follow the flow of the semester calendar without failing certain numbers of courses and take semester leave. If you 'accidentally' or intentionally do the previous stuff you mind end up doing internship later than your batch mates.

Second is the document preparation. A lot of stuff need to be settled here so let see.

1. Resume/CV

In almost all typical job hunting, resume is an essential part which can be separated into several parts such as:

• Personal information - name, address, nationality, birth date and contact information

• Objective - purpose of applying for internship

• Education - Might include university and high school part including your grade and cgpa (yes it might seems terrifying but it may also be an advantage for your application and ease company's HR to shortlist candidates).

• Project - Include top projects that you had done in the university like mini projects, integrated projects, Engineering Team Project (ETP) or even simulation projects. This might attract the job recruiter as you have been exposed to a group based project.

• Work Experience - Include your past job whether its part time or freelance.

• Extra curricular - In this part, you may include top positions that you have experience in university events or clubs. It's okay if you are only a common committee, you may include in this part as recruiter may see you as an active student.

• Volunteering Activities - Look similar to extracurricular but this might highlight on community services like Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) like MPU4 and DTE for UTP students.

• Honors and Awards - It can highlight your achievement (if any) such as Dean's list, Scholarship awards, receiving first place in a mini project competition or even sports.

• Reference - I can say this in essential as recruiter have someone to contact you if the have interest or doubt. You may put your Student Advisory lecturer or any supervisors contact (with their consent of course) that you may trust on. But most of the time recruiter seldom contact them.

Above content is from my personal opinion and from my own resume section itself. Some may have different opinions to add or sections to be removed depending on the suitability of yourself. You should start construction your resume as early as possible and keep them updated so you might have saved time in the future. Trust me, I am a senior.

2. Academic Transcript

Academic Transcript normally can be requested from the Registration or Examination unit. In UTP you can request from REX. Academic transcript can be partial or full. The difference is the full transcript is when you completed your degree studies while partial is when you are currently studying like internship. All the transcript may include payment and other fees if you include postage. Physically it can be seen as a certificate but with courses that you have studied with grades achieved. REX also will email you a soft copy the academic transcript.

3. Cover Letter

Cover Letter for internship may be prepared by your course coordinator and will be released around week 5 of your studies. The cover letter basicly consist of information of the internship requirement request from the university to the host company. You may also do your own cover letter but my advice is just wait for the official cover letter from your course coordinator as some companies request only cover letter prepared by the university.

4. Recommendation Letter

Recommendation letter (RL) is about lecturers recommendation about you to ease the internship seeking. Some good student advisor will prepare this for you as a support for your internship placement. I didn't request for RL actually but some students request it. I can say if you have time and have good relationship with your student advisor, go ask them!

Last is the extras from my personal experience.

1.Create a LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn is a great platform for Job and Internship seekers as job recruiter can approach you from your profile. From LinkedIn, you may also find companies that offer Internship. I myself applied several internship placement from LinkedIn. You may connect with me to my LinkedIn profile below:

www.linkedin.com/in/hassan-basri-mohd-husaini-9b234a19a

Let's connect!.

2. Find proper attire

Find yourself a proper formal shirts, ties, slacks and shoes! This might sounds funny but I found some university student even my batch mates didn't even have a formal shoes. You can find yourself a decent formal shirts and slack pants at Padini and Brands Outlet. It may be useful if you attend an interview for a job later on. Oh some internship might need an interview such as Top Glove, Gamuda and Aker Solution.

3. Print out resume and files

Print out your resume to be handed to an interviewer is a good conduct as you may attract interviewer with preparation and spirit. Preparing Files for important document also can become handy if not now maybe in the future.

4. Print out passport sized picture

Printing out passport sized pictures is common for hard copy job/internship application.

5. Prepare a good profile picture.

Took yourself a good picture with formal attire (with blazer if possible, it looks neat) as you can use it on your resume or other professional networking. Using selfies and informal pictures may result you in lower impression from recruiters.

6. Asking seniors

Most common advice is refer your seniors about his previous experience. He/She may help you by recommending certain companies or even giving you direct contact to the Human Resource. This may sound like 'cable' but it is just pure smart work.

7. Others

Some student have different opinions on the internship placement and other factors such as:

• Allowance

• Location

• Popularity of the company

• Friends

For me, allowance is a major issue as it may give you a hard time with rent, transportation, food and even mobile plans. But if you have no problem with this, then go on. Most people I observe is the location of the company as some may prefer to be close to their hometown or even their relatives house and some may want to be in hot areas such as KL for entertainment. Location have many pros like you can reduce your money if you stay at your family's house. Popularity of the company what I see does not even seem as an issue unless you have certain aim to have connection for your future entry job application. Friends, yes friend can be a huge factor for you to be happy or prevent you to be stressed out from your job. You may apply together in the same place although the chance for you to be in the same department is damn low but you might give a try.

Happy internship seeking!