It's that time of the year again, when professional internships are around the corner and everyone is gunning for the best jobs. The competition is keen, as usual. The showcase has come, and everyone wants a role on the stage.
What has astonished me though is the sheer naivete of people applying for internships. Instead of being confident in their own ability, they choose to measure themselves against the abilities of others, and damage their own chances based on what they perceive other people to be. They try to ward off competition by asking people to not apply for companies they are interested in, in the hope that this will better their "chances".
The people who get cushy jobs are not the ones who fear competition. They are the ones who relish it because competition forces them to demand the most out of themselves. If you are afraid of competing with your peers, you don't stand a chance in the industry out there because the sky is that high and you've only seen a small part of it, namely the small world of CS which you might arrogantly think breeds the next generation of talent for the media industry. You couldn't be more wrong, because talent can be bred anywhere.
I find it even more amazing that some people think that they deserve certain jobs. Just because there are more places than applicants and an internship is assured does not mean that companies are obliged to hire you if you do not convince them you are worth hiring. I've found myself answering the same questions a countless number of times, about how to answer interview questions and the like, and what they have to bring to interviews.
I hate to be brutally honest but it is really that simple. If you have never thought about the important questions, namely "Why are you here?", "Why would you like to work for this company and not others?", "Why should we hire you and not other people?" and most importantly of all, "What are you looking to get out of your internship?", perhaps you are not ready for internship. Perhaps you expect it to be handed to you on a silver platter like a typical Singaporean who has been spoonfed through school. If you have ever sat down and asked yourself those questions, the answers for any interview will come very naturally.
In any interview, it is highly unlikely that you will say something that someone has never said before. It is highly unlikely that any one answer you give will make the interviewer go "Wow I should hire you now because you are going to be the next CEO of my company."
Since that is the case, what are interviewers looking for in interviewees? The same thing they look for in any job applicant, whether an intern, or a graduate. They are looking for initiative, drive, the ability to think critically, out of the box, and most of all, the willingness to work hard, and trust me, these things can be discerned from interviews.
Telling me that interviews are a poor judge of one's character couldn't be more wrong. If you couldn't even be bothered to put in the effort to prepare for an interview, what assurance do I have that you will put in effort for an actual job?
I wouldn't even say interviewers are looking for the ability to do the basic scope of your job well because that is a given. If you're an advertising creative, you should be able to design campaigns, so mentioning how good you are at that is pretty moot because everyone else can do that too. If you are going into PR, you are naturally expected to be good with people.
If you are going into journalism, and I will be most critical about this particular group because I am one of those people too, if you have to ask me about what to say in an interview, I will tell you to go work in another industry because it is obvious you lack critical thinking skills, initiative and drive, 3 things which all journalists need. I do not believe in mincing words to people who desperately need a wake up call because massaging egos is not in my vocabulary.
Thoroughout my internship application experience people have been telling me "Oh you're so lucky you don't have to fight for places with other people because you already have SPH." Honestly, if I had the chance to apply for these other companies too, I would, and trust me I would give you a hell of a competition because I actually enjoy telling these companies precisely why I think they should hire me, something which I find amazing that most people aren't even thinking about.
This post will not make for easy reading, especially for the guilty, but I would be hard pressed to admit I've said anything wrong here.