Pre-Internship Story

Assalamualaikum and wishing you all an amazing month ahead. Oh my its already March, two months of 2018 has passed by really quickly. May Allah ease every step you take ahead. Today, I suddenly felt like sharing a story of mine while battling in securing an internship place since most of my juniors are currently looking for placement. I just hope that this piece will benefit them and anyone else who are looking for internship opportunities.

As a degree student looking for a placement was tough honestly speaking and at that point I was regretting the skills I could have developed but didn’t pay much attention to it before. In order for you to reach your future employer, the resume is the key for it. I felt like with all the subjects I took in my previous years, I was equipped with the basic skills at least but I was wrong. With technology evolving every now and then, the programming languages we learned especially for programming students is becoming outdated, more updates on the recent languages is absolutely needed. While going through each job description, I crushed mentally and physically even wanted to take other jobs than IT sector. My sincere thanks and love to everyone who stood by me and said you will do great and don’t worry especially to my dad who consolidated me at 1am or 2am that day after my first job fair visit (being someone close to me is hard, you guys, I really thank their patience in dealing with me all the time), my mom and my sister and everyone who were there for me(you know who you were). At that phase of life, I felt everything around me is falling apart, final year project was an absolute mess. What I just described is what happen to every friends of mine during this phase of their life but we all made it through and we thought we wouldn’t. I am truly proud of every one of them.

In my attempt drafting the resume, I was confused with all the information I received like colorful fonts on resume attract your employer, the shortest possible is good and the  longest possible is good too. This was one of the reasons I delayed writing but still ended writing in a rush for a job fair visit the next day.  Thanks to Uncle Google for providing samples for a quick reference.  I should have felt accomplished but I was more worried when it was done. With the lowest self esteem of mine when to check my resume and they said it was not good at all, I put too much information and need to add some more too. Employer wouldn’t be interested in my resume at all. With their advice, I took some definitely  but I choose to keep some things the way it was. There are so many samples online you guys that you can refer to and create your own and unique one. For the resume, I took a do-and-test method where I constantly changed my resume multiples times if I didn’t get any reply from the companies I have applied. Like two weeks and more once.

Most important thing, I would like to share with all of you is don’t be afraid to try and apply to big companies. We never know where your sustenance takes you. Well, this was something I was worried as well but it landed me best opportunities possible, all praises to Allah. Trust me, you are more talented than you really think you are.

Here comes the scary part, INTERVIEW……

Foe someone who have no idea of interview and only knew the setting of interview from movies (yes, you read it right movies). I remember the days I tried to memorize the answers from the movie I watched. Do you know what were the questions? “Who is the first Prime Minister of India?”(hehe, I reside in Malaysia) but seriously one good thing I learned from all the memorization I attempted is the confidence a person possess in answering these questions and also observed the posture of the person carries during the interview. You will be able to learn from everything you see and hear. I experienced three different interviews. Sharing some part of it.

I went to a first one totally unprepared in worst outfit for interview because this was suppose to happen like multiple times but didn’t happen. Suddenly, I was called for it and I remember saying the same things over and over again even got my introduction started about me only and not about my education at all but seriously my interviewer was so nice to help me drive the interview to a better direction by asking me questions like what is my specializing in and subjects and all. We were already discussing what will be my job scope and how I will be benefit from those assignment. Lesson learned from this interview was no matter how badly you start the interview, you can always drive to better along the way.

The second one I went was from somewhere I was sure I will never get it  but I still applied to see what happens, alhamdullilah really thankful I did. Received a phone call while I was out and had phone interview first and then soon scheduled an interview. On the day of interview, I was so nervous and almost didn’t want to attend the interview. Mummy, thank you. She was suppose to be out that day but she didn’t coz she sensed that I wouldn’t go if she was not home. I went there and stumbled upon arrival due to nervousness but thank god I went there early I was able to compose myself a little and remembered my mom’s face appeared in my mind. At that moment, I made my mind and sudden emergence of confidence in myself. Upon finishing my first stage of interview with HR, I asked review from my interviewer and she said “she is okay with me but I have overflowing of energy and she wants me to keep calm”. I really hope I could and followed by my second stage with two interviewer. Alhamdulillah, it went well. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself a little.

Third placement interview, had four stages : phone call, assessment (test like which quite common in IT sector interview chain), configuration and final is troubleshooting. This place was one of the place I really wanted to work but failed at the configuration stage coz my computer failed me. Something common every computer engineering student would face at least would face once in their lifetime. Took this as lesson learned that need to upgrade the hardware I own.

Everyone out there who are currently looking for placement don’t worry and strive for the best. Allah will provide you with the best and only the best. All the best ppl 🙂