Our Senior Curriculum Executives - Cleon and Henry - presenting general resume tips

Photos from GIC #CODETOIMPACT Hackathon held in September 2023

Alternatively, most firms tend to create more openings from January onwards, although this will likely be the peak period for applications, where most students have just started their semester and would be more well-prepared to submit their resumes to the respective recruiters. Should you choose to apply during this period, be prepared to work extra hard in submitting your applications! Regardless of when you apply, however, do take note to make your necessary preparations early, whether it is curating your resume, preparing for technical assessments through LeetCode and HackerRank, or mock interviews latest by the end of summer. This would ensure that you would be well-positioned to commence your job search as early as September before the start of next summer.

Where do I apply, you may ask? With a wide variety of sources available online, here are some of the many sites you can utilise to apply for your various positions:

1. LinkedIn

2. Glints

3. InternSG

4. NodeFlair

5. 2024 Tech Internships

6. Tech Job Repo

7. NUS TalentConnect

8. NUS Internship-As-A-Service (IAAS)

Without going too much in detail, each platform provides a unique opportunity for students to seek their intended roles online, making it convenient especially for them to discover different companies which they may not have heard of beforehand.

Although we listed LinkedIn as one of our go-to sources, one extra precaution we would like to disclose: do try to avoid using LinkedIn Easy Apply whenever possible. Despite its self-explanatory intention, using such a feature lowers the barrier to entry for such applications, making it more difficult for your resume to stand out. In fact, this may also decrease your chances especially if your online profile is not crafted well, potentially leaving a bad impression on potential employers.

Nonetheless, do try to expose yourselves to as many online job portals and similar platforms as possible. In any situation, however, it would be most ideal to either apply directly on company websites, or by emailing a HR contact directly to attract their attention.

Yao Feng (Product Manager, Ninja Van) and Joanna (Product Manager, Singtel) assisting students with amending their printed resumes

Moving onto crafting your ideal resume - how do people excel in this? In my opinion, performing this is similar to art, often requiring long periods of time to hone your craft in order to master this aspect. With our ever changing landscape due to rapid globalisation, expectations are always different across different periods of time, as well as the type of company or role you are applying to. But what remains constant, are the main stakeholders who will be clearing your resume upon reception - namely: online resume parsers, HR professionals and hiring managers who will be directly in charge of you should you be recruited for the role.

Here are some general pointers to take note of when drafting your resume:

1. General layout and sections. Depending on your background, it is important to plan the layout of your resume properly. For instance, tech students are often advised to indicate their technical skills on top, while perhaps for business roles this can be secondary and the skills section can be placed below instead.

2. Usage of relevant keywords. Often a tip that is overlooked, you would usually need to modify your resume points to tailor to your ideal job description - this would better resonate with your potential recruiter on why you would be a good fit for the role. Mass applying a standard version of your resume to multiple types of firms may not work out in your favour, especially if you are applying for multiple roles at one go.

3. Role, team and organisation clearly stated. Self-explanatory: recruiters are seeking candidates with past relevant experiences, and specifically indicating your role and team can be a good indicator to assist them in doing so.

4. Consistency in font size, grammar and punctuations. Being detail-oriented is a very underrated skill - which also applies when crafting your resume. Personally I've heard of stories where well-performing students do not make it past the first round for certain applications despite their experiences - this shows that first impressions do matter, and even if it was an honest mistake, recruiters may misinterpret this as a regular habit, which can be very critical especially for tech roles, where miswriting one line of code, for example, can make a huge difference in building your programs and applications.

5. Single page. With the high number of resumes to review every day, it is no surprise that recruiters only spend an average of 3-5 seconds glancing through a single resume. To make a quick first impression, it is often advised to compress your essential information, experiences and projects onto the first page, as it is likely that he or she will not have the time to read your second page.

6. Application used to draft resume. Depending on the features available, applications such as Word, LaTeX or even Figma - all can do the trick. I would say it's just a matter of how you consider the previous points to finetune your ideal resume.

Common question: What if I do not have the relevant experience, and how do I sell myself using other school or non-related experiences?

For this, listed below is a set of guidelines that you can follow:

1. Brainstorm the qualities required

2. List down all your experiences

3. Link the required traits to your experiences

To illustrate, here are three examples that can be drafted to sell your experiences to fit the job descriptions of your ideal role:

1. Stakeholder management + Marketing Executive in CCA: "Collaborated with diverse stakeholders, including fellow committee members, faculty advisors, and external vendors, to ensure seamless coordination of marketing initiatives"

2. Project Management + did a project before: "Led team alignment with project objectives, ensuring milestones stayed on track through regular updates and effective communication."

3. Budgeting + volunteering experiences: "Developed and implemented cost-effective strategies to ensure the optimal utilisation of resources and adherence to financial constraints."

While it is true that some of the above tips are pretty straightforward, it is often easy to forget them from time to time, especially with the fluctuating market, along with the rush to apply before being fully ready to do so. Through these tips, we hope our readers will be more well-equipped to kickstart their summer internship applications.

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