“Experience is the teacher of all things,” is a well-known quote from Julius Caesar, one of the greatest military and political leaders of all times.
And we know that while academic credentials are important, employers also demand that you have at least a year or two of work experience in a similar field.
“Employers are facing some hard facts: the entry-level candidates who are on tap to join the ranks of full-time work are clueless about the fundamentals of office life.” according to Singapore’s Business Times newspaper report.
Applicants who are fresh graduates are simply unprepared to step in the world of employment.
To overcome this hurdle, students must actively seek out internship opportunities on campus as well as through online search and enquiries among friends and other contacts. Many university study programmes make internship compulsory. If so, you are in luck because the on-the-job experience will be invaluable after you’ve graduated.
During the internship, your performance and conduct are evaluated on the same standard as regular employees. So, it is crucial that you do well, even if you’re not paid (yes, it’s a sad fact of life that some employers do use undergrads as unpaid labour).
Consider your internship as an on-the-job education where you acquire work skills such as team work, resourcefulness, the ability to meet deadlines and accomplish tasks with limited resources. Adding these skills into your resume will impress any future job interviewers.
Another way to burnish your resume and credentials is to attend a summer school in a top foreign university. You usually spend a week, or at most a full semester. Since you have to pay the fees and expenses, choose only the most prestigious name, such as Harvard, MIT or Yale.
Resources:
SIM Global Education provides a broad range of Diploma to Bachelor and Master academic programmes from top universities in UK, the United States, and Australia. SIM Global Education has been awarded ‘Education Standard of Excellence’ and ‘University Standard of Excellence’.