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SD3079 Professional Intership

Course Summary​

This module is a compulsory module for all DSAI students that seeks to impart industry knowledge into the students and give real world work experience. Students choose can choose to work with a company that they have found themselves (self-sourced) or with one from NTU's career portal inPlace.

Workload​

The workload is generally manageable but depends on the company that you are attached with. Most companies will typically function on the standard 9-5 schedule but may vary from company to company.

Projects​

The kind of projects that you will undertake will depend on the business requirements of the company at that point of time. Usually, smaller companies/teams will be more focussed on doing Software Engineering, while larger teams will have dedicated teams for each component of their software, e.g. a Data Science Team and a seperate Web Dev team. Hence you should try and see what sort of roles fit you best. You might not end up in a role that you want but take it as a learning opportunity nonetheless.

Since you are not expected to have all the knowledge going into the role, your mentors will be more than happy to help you out in the event that you are stuck. There will be a lot of self learning involved as you will be exposed to tech stacks that are not taught in school such as:

  • React
  • Django
  • Terraform
  • Scala
  • Airflow

Things to take note of​

  1. Plan in advance with semester you want to take your internship in. The school is flexible as to the semester you choose to take your internhip in. Typically most students are recommended to take their internship in Year 3 Semester 2, as per the curriculum structure, but you can take your internship in any semester as long as you are Year 3 standing at the start of the semester.

  2. Start looking for your internship early. It is recommended to start at least 6 months in advance as the process of applying, interviewing and the subsequent paperwork will take time. Also given the sheer number of students that will be applying for internships at the same time, HR departments will take time to sift through the applications and select the candidates that they deem fit for the role.

  3. Diversify your avenues to look for internships. Since inPlace only allows you to apply to ~5 companies, your best bet is to look at other job portals for possible internships. If you are looking to work at Big Tech, it is advisable to get in touch with their Recruiters over LinkedIn or during the various job fairs. Some of them can provide you with recommendation codes that they can use to expedite your application through their process. Other places that you can apply are:

    • Directly to the company's jobs page
    • LinkedIn Jobs
    • Glassdoor
    • MyCareersFuture

  4. Be prepared for the interview.

    • Know your interviewers ahead of time. When you are scheduled for the interview, the HR department, for the most part, will add the interviewer to the calendar invite or specifically name them in the email exchange. It should be fairly easy for you to find them on LinkedIn just to get a sensing of their background to try and understand what is it that they do and what they might be looking for in a candidate.
    • Ask questions during the interview that are relevant and not something that can be found in the job description. For example, ask questions like
      • What does it take to be successful here?
      • I am really interested in learning [skill/framework/concept], what are some things that you are working on currently that can help me achieve that?

  5. Know your worth. The minimum Allowance recommended by the school is $1000 and some companies are intent on sticking as close to that amount as possible. Based on an analysis of job listings on inPlace, most internships offer between $1200-$1500. However, feel free to negotiate with the company. Big Tech like Amazon and Shopee offer up to $4000 but their requirements are just as high.

    analysis of job listings on inPlace

  6. Practice LeetCode or HackerRank or any other such Coding Test problem site. Having knowledge of your Data Structures and Algorithms is such a key factor in the decision process of many companies. Writing efficient code is as important of a skill as it gets.

  7. Companies may offer you a conversion to full time staff if they are impressed with your work so use this opportunity to learn as much as you can and make a good impression at your place of internship. Even if they do not offer you a position, you can still ask your supervisor to write a great recommendation for you which you can use for your future employment.

Conclusion​

Take this 6 month opportunity to really hone your skills as a coder and learn as much as you can about how things operate in the workplace. Use the skills that you have learnt at your next workplace and/or your next projects in school. These 6 months will fly past.