Career Connexions, Internship profiles, Career switchers

Hi
This blog is a continuation of my previous post on CSO. The theme of this post is to explain the kind of profile that my batch folks got and what was the scene like for career switchers.

Career Connexions is the flagship event of the CSO. Is is exclusively for NUS MBA students - first and second years. It is held once every semester and it is a congregation of companies under one roof. Our Career Connexions was held in the ballroom of a hotel in Raffles sometime in October. The fact that I can neither remember the date nor the hotel point to one fact. Career Connexions was more hype than action. The companies that came varied from Microsoft to Unilever to Citibank to Schlumberger to Merill Lynch. Each company had set up a desk with a couple of representatives - one from HR and one from the business function. We went upto each desk and spoke to these representatives and handed in our resume. To which they promised to get back. The brand value of a company could be judged by the length of the queue in front of the desks. The better the brand the bigger the queue. I collected the HR ids of the companies that I was interested in and dropped them a mail that immediate evening. I was trained to do so by the CSO. I even followed up with them for a couple of months. But nothing materialized. I am not sure if this event helped anyone. On average, it was a waste.

The internship search is a core activity of the MBA. There are many ways to approach it. The easiest option is to get an internship with any company that comes to campus. The trouble is that very few companies prefer to hold their interviews in campus. I was lucky enough to get mine through this route. I got an offer with TATA - I shall explain how I got it in a later post. A lot more companies came in the second semester to conduct in-campus interviews. There were examples of people getting into CTS, HCL, SK Telecom (Korean telecom firm), J & J, Alghanim (a middle-east company) through this route. The next option is to keep applying into company websites. All major firms have an internship link in which to apply into. People got into companies like Standard Chartered, JP Morgan through this route. The CSO also has an active web-site called the "Global Workspace" wherein they update deadlines of companies to apply into. Through the web-site they pool in resumes and cover letters of interested students and send the details to the respective company. People got into companies like Nestle, Frost & Sullivan, Asendas through this route. The next option is to obtain HR contacts through attending company talks or networking after company talks or other networking events. People got into KPMG, DBS, ANZ through this route. The final option is to use your own personal contacts to secure an intership with a firm. People got into companies like S & P, Deloitte, Ernst and Young through this route.

As can be seen above the companies that my batch mates got into were diverse and there were many routes to getting there. This list of companies is not exhaustive but the lessons are there. It is possible to secure a decent internship. And during your time at NUS, you will have to employ all the above routes because only time will judge which is the best route for you. Similarly, the projects that my batch-mates are doing is diverse. They consist of consulting activities, supply chain, corporate finance, equity analysis, risk management, trading, marketing and sales, pricing analysis, M&A. Again this list is not exhaustive.

And what happened to the career switchers. Some of them did really well for themselves. People have broken into equity analysis and corporate finance roles without a background in Finance. The same is the case in Marketing and Supply Chain wherein people have secured these roles without a relevant background. So, switching careers is possible. But it comes with a caveat. Not everyone is succesful in doing so.

I conclude with a strange observation that I had during the last one year. It is very tempting for me to say that hard work and endurance are all that you need to succeed. But this is not what I have seen. There were some who did not work that hard who got some great internships while there were others who worked their hearts out but struggled to get an internship. I believe that we all need that little X-factor called 'lady luck' to be on our side. Having said that, those really "lucky ones" were few and far between. For the rest, it was hard work supplemented by an element of luck. So, unless your one of those priveleged lucky ones, you must be prepared to sweat it out. Ultimately the old adage will come true, "The harder I work the luckier I get."

Cheers,
Suraj