SINGAPORE: For the last two years of his university studies, Mr Andrew William strategically scheduled his timetable to maximise most of his time outside class taking up internship stints.
While educational institutes have long emphasised the importance of and helped students secure internships, students are growing increasingly hungry for more internship opportunities outside of school requirements.
“I can’t change my major, but I also can’t break into consulting if I remain status quo. So I got an internship at Euromonitor as a research consultant intern and slowly took up more internships in the industry.” CNN reported in 2019 that tech giant Google received 125,000 applications for its internship programme that year in the United States. At investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, 236,000 students applied for its internships in 2022 globally - of which reportedly 1.5 per cent were given a role.
The company claims that it can help students “to get into investment banking in London, Singapore and Hong Kong”, but did not state how much its services cost. Temasek Polytechnic’s director of student support and career services Samuel Wee said that internships allow students to establish connections with professionals and peers in their field and gain “valuable insights, guidance and potential job prospects”.
Ms Louisa Lau, director of Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Office of Immersion and Careers, added that the polytechnic has education and career coaches who run clinics and coaching sessions to “help students build their confidence when applying for internships and enhance their employability”, among other initiatives to help prepare students for these work stints.
Polytechnic students at the launch of OCBC’s accelerated banking career programme on Jun 12, 2024. Most institutes of higher learning require students to go through an internship as part of their graduation requirements. Take for example third-year SMU student Koh Liang Jun, 24, who participated in a case competition for the chance to intern at global professional services firm Accenture - which he described as the most “tedious” way to get an internship.
Wanting to gain experience and increase her chances of getting a good job at a global company, the 22-year-old has been searching for an internship in Australia and Singapore. As for second-year National University of Singapore business administration student Ryan Ong, sitting through several rounds of interviews was all worth it when he secured his fourth internship at a travel start-up in Vietnam called LFG.
The programme, which gives NUS students the opportunity to intern overseas at a start-up, involves rounds of interviews to get into, followed by another round of interviews with several start-ups to secure the internship. "It's extremely difficult getting into the top three consulting firms as there's so much competition globally," said Mr William of firms such as Bain and Company, McKinsey and Company and Boston Consulting Group.
“There’s a lot of people around me that take on more than five internships since it's so competitive ... But I know that I’m definitely fuelling the rat race by taking on so many internships.But despite her lengthy resume, which also includes running a fitness start-up and volunteer work, Ms Lim has been rejected by multiple banks and large corporations when applying for internships.
The Business Times reported in 2017 that the monthly internship pay can be up to S$10,000 at firms like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Beyond that, these opportunities also allow them to make career changes and gain expert knowledge from mentors. “These internships are definitely of value as they are often competitive to get and increasingly are scrutinised by governments or certain bodies to ensure they are not exploitative and give the intern good exposure,” he said.These systems, which recruiters and employers use to manage job applicants, might rank candidates with such coveted internships higher - meaning they have a higher chance of getting an interview with the respective companies.
There should also be access to mentors who provide guidance and feedback, as well as assignments that challenge and develop the intern’s skill sets. “Employees are undeniably far more successful, happy and value-adding in roles and environments that fit them well.” Students told TODAY that they also found networking to be a useful tool in discovering internship opportunities and securing them - noting they have had friends getting internships through their social circles.
“If all your summer holidays are used for internship and you don’t get a proper break, you don’t get the chance to be a student,” said Mr Ong, the NUS business administration student interning in Vietnam now. proved to be bad experiences, where they were either overworked or asked to do menial tasks such as picking up coffee orders.
While most educational institutions pair students with a mentor or career coach who can help manage company expectations during an internship, youths may not have access to such resources when taking on their own gigs. Because of this, lacking connections could translate into internship inequalities - and that would also apply to job opportunities too.
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