Intern-ship Preparations

This was all new to me, so I had to do a thorough research online on ways to select a company best fit for me. This means that I had to check the company's credibility in terms of public image and also the kind of business they do. During my research I realized the kind of company culture I wanted is found in startup companies, these companies are still new and on their way to becoming more stable and established companies. These kind of companies are usually not so big in terms of the office space and also employees. They are small, more intimate than large and well established companies. In my opinion from the mini research I did on the benefits of working or interning in a small firm, I found out that its more hands-on in terms of contributing ideas and voicing one's opinions which is exactly what I needed to gain experience as an intern.

Apart from doing my own reading on the type of companies I would prefer to intern in, the University I study in (Taylor's University Lakeside Campus) also helped us to prepare in a few ways. Firstly, we were given tips on writing a good resume during a workshop conducted by Saville Consulting invited by the University's career services which was very helpful, there was also an online platform where we upload our resume and find companies to work in from there under Taylor's University career services supervision called Taylor's SEEDS. This was very encouraging for someone like me with little to no experience in job hunting. There were other workshops conducted that were very educational, encouraging and fun. These workshops consisted of different companies giving talks on different aspects of being a successful intern namely:

28th August 2014 - Effective Cover Letters & Resumes by Saville Consulting, Internship 101 by Career Services Centre 

29th August 2014 - Interview Skills: Get Hired! by L'Oreal, Professional Image & Executive Presence by Samsung. 

09th October 2014 - Ethics & Etiquette at Work by Unilever.

20th November 2014 - ACE Your Internship by L’Oreal

Unfortunately through circumstances that were out of my control, I was not able to go to all the workshops. I should say the ones I went to were very helpful for me. In addition to that, the University placement conducted on the online platform (Taylor's SEEDS) did not manage to book me a meeting nor a job. I was feeling very worried that I would not be able to get a job as an intern in time so I reached out to one of the career counsellor at career services, Mr. Christopher Hor Kean Hao to express my concerns and that was when he told me about the Student and Employer Engagement day which took place on the 15th of October in the University's grand hall where several companies exhibit their firm's products and what they do while also expressing their interests in hiring students as interns or fresh graduates as full time employees. I made 10 copies of my resume and gave it to all the possible potential companies. The event was mostly aimed for engineering and science students so I was limited in the possibility of getting  hired or even getting an interview. I waited for a call back on an email from any company that I had given my resume, but almost 3 weeks later and I hadn't heard back from any of them.

After a couple of weeks of no answer and I almost gave up doing my inter-ship in Malaysia, I was about to call my parents and ask them to send me a ticket to go back to my home country (Tanzania) and do my intern-ship there, I received an email from one of the companies I had given my resume to during the Student and Employers Engagement Day. Ms. Melissa, Lava Protocols' then human resource manager had sent me an email confirming having an interview with me, I was overjoyed! I immediately replied and set a time and date for the interview. On the day of the interview I was a little nervous, showed up at the Lava Protocols office 30 minutes early. As I waited to be called in, I observed the employees at the office and noticed a very calming and welcoming vibe in the air which helped to calm my nerves and felt more confident for the interview. I went straight away into reading about Lava Protocols, their mission, vision and values as well as the type of products they deal with so as I would not be blank if they asked me anything concerning their company. I find it rude, unprofessional to go for an interview and not know at least basic information on the company interviewing you. It is also not a good first impression as you would seem uninterested.

The interview went well as I did not stumble or go blank during the interview and to my surprise I came up with pretty good responses to their questions. It was a little challenging to convince Ms. Melissa and Mr. Kevin Chan, who were interviewing me at the time that I am fit for the job since I am a business student and their company deals with IT. Fortunately It seemed they were convinced and went ahead discussing my pay, what I should expect in terms of my job scope and who I was to report to which was Mr. Kevin Chan.