Okay, I will move onto the interview proper for this second part. All this advice has been drawn from my experiences interviewing candidates for university admission, for jobs (and I think I have done a fair bit of interviews by now.
The first thing I will say is that Singaporeans really do rather badly at interviews. I don't really know where to attribute this: is it the fault of schools for not teaching students these real-life skills? is it because we don't like to sell ourselves because of our Confucian values? Are we too comfortable? I really don't know. But this is bad news is really good news for those of you that prepare well for your interviews.... the competition ain't that great. So don't really stress if you can't follow all ten tips... I am sure if you do a couple of them well, you will be well ahead of the competition.
#5 Do your homework.
There is simply no excuse for this one. Especially in this day and age of the Internet. Anyplace you interview, you better make sure that you have scoured the web for everything that you can possibly find on the particular company you are interviewing for. I was particularly impressed when one university candidate managed to hunt down an essay I had written in my undergraduate days (of course, she would have scored more brownie points if she had read the essay and came up her viewpoint with regards the points I raised in the essay).
Just as important it is for you to show your numbers in your resume, you must bother to remember the numbers that the company has on its websites. (A company's website is pretty much their resume) If you don't bother to remember these numbers, who should your interviewers reciprocate by remembering your numbers?
Researching the company means you must know what are the key thrusts they are moving to. You can find this in their media mentions and on their websites. After all these are the thrusts they are trying to promote... and you need to know this for the next tip.
#6 Show how you can contribute.
Having done the homework, you know have to show how you can contribute to the mission of the company... with the skills, talents, experiences and passion that you have. You have to show why the agency is going to be better off with you, because if you can't even make this argument, why should they even hire you?
#7 Enjoy the process.
This is perhaps the hardest piece of advice.... but yes, you have got to enjoy the whole process.... In fact the more you enjoy it the more your interviewers will enjoy it... and the person they will pick is the person they simply enjoyed interviewing with, because they want to have the opportunity to continue talking to them.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Congratulations
Would just like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the interns and high fivers on their A level results. I am sure all of you guys did really well. No worries, I am not going to ask the interns to post their results on their blog.
I would like also take this opportunity to wish all of you all the best in applying for university, courses, scholarships. Please tell me if there is anywhere I can help in the process, whether by doling up advice, writing testimonials, or introducing you to some of my friends who may be better placed to advise you.
I have also done up Top Ten List of what to do for interviews which all you will find helpful. I had previously arranged a session on this with the Interns, understand that 2 or 3 of the High Fivers came but had to leave before I could start the session. Anyhows, if there is still sufficient demand, I don't mind conducting another session. (just post comments on this)
I would like also take this opportunity to wish all of you all the best in applying for university, courses, scholarships. Please tell me if there is anywhere I can help in the process, whether by doling up advice, writing testimonials, or introducing you to some of my friends who may be better placed to advise you.
I have also done up Top Ten List of what to do for interviews which all you will find helpful. I had previously arranged a session on this with the Interns, understand that 2 or 3 of the High Fivers came but had to leave before I could start the session. Anyhows, if there is still sufficient demand, I don't mind conducting another session. (just post comments on this)
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Tips on Resume Writing and Interview Techniques Part I
My first session with the interns was the go through their resumes. I thought I would take the opportunity to summarise some of the advice I had for them in writing resumes as well as interview techniques...
I will start first with the resume writing stuff...
#1 Be different
The most fundamental role of resumes and interviews is to stand out.... and yes, stand out in the right way. You must walk out of the interview room leaving an impression of just how unique and special you are. The bad news is that this something really tough to do, the good news is that most Singaporeans generally suck at this.... so you don't have to do too well to stand out. It's tough, because for the last twelve years, you should be very worried if you put down an answer that is very different from every body else in your exams. When it comes to interviews/resumes, you should be very worried if you are NOT different from everybody else walking through that door.
So when it comes to the resume, I want to read about how different you really are. I am not so interested by the number of As you have, because everybody seems to have the same number of them. Mention it by all means, but don't waste time on it. I am particularly interested in what is your project title for your project work, because this is something you and your team mates presumably chose, and its something different that I can talk to you/ find out and learn more about.
This was something I shared with the interns "You don't really know who you are until you are different from everyone else." What's really behind this statement? Honestly, if we are just doing whatever else is doing, how do we know that this is really what we want to do, or we are just folloing everyone else?
#2 Explain things in your resume.
please do not assume that I know all about your platinium award that you have received in your school. don't just give one liner explanations about what you doing, but explain it out. Resumes are predominantly written in point form, however, in appropriate junctures you may wish to switch to prose to explain things which are not particularly clear to the people who are interviewing you. For instance in my resumes I use when I am overseas, I will have a short paragraph that explains what the administrative service is.
#3 Add in numbers.
Numbers are what make resume professional and solid. Examples...
Bad: Awarded platinium award for social service
Good: Awarded platinium award (Top 50 out of 1600 students) for social service
Bad: organised programmes for elderly, in charge of budget...
Good organised programmes on a monthly basis reaching out to 80 elderly over 100 hours.
The numbers don't have to be high, and some numbers are always be better than no numbers.
#4 Be prepared to talk about anything on your resume
Your resume is pretty much your script so you must be prepared to rattle off a positive spiel about every single thing you are going to put down. If you put down that you were say section leader in the choir, you must be prepared to tell a pretty good story when asked about this experience.
This is one way to figure out what to put in your resume: figure out what you want to talk about, or what you think your interviewer might be curious to find out about you and put it into your resume. You must know what are the interesting titbits in YOUR life, it musn't be the case, where the interviewer has to snoop high and low just to uncover something really interesting about yourself.
I will start first with the resume writing stuff...
#1 Be different
The most fundamental role of resumes and interviews is to stand out.... and yes, stand out in the right way. You must walk out of the interview room leaving an impression of just how unique and special you are. The bad news is that this something really tough to do, the good news is that most Singaporeans generally suck at this.... so you don't have to do too well to stand out. It's tough, because for the last twelve years, you should be very worried if you put down an answer that is very different from every body else in your exams. When it comes to interviews/resumes, you should be very worried if you are NOT different from everybody else walking through that door.
So when it comes to the resume, I want to read about how different you really are. I am not so interested by the number of As you have, because everybody seems to have the same number of them. Mention it by all means, but don't waste time on it. I am particularly interested in what is your project title for your project work, because this is something you and your team mates presumably chose, and its something different that I can talk to you/ find out and learn more about.
This was something I shared with the interns "You don't really know who you are until you are different from everyone else." What's really behind this statement? Honestly, if we are just doing whatever else is doing, how do we know that this is really what we want to do, or we are just folloing everyone else?
#2 Explain things in your resume.
please do not assume that I know all about your platinium award that you have received in your school. don't just give one liner explanations about what you doing, but explain it out. Resumes are predominantly written in point form, however, in appropriate junctures you may wish to switch to prose to explain things which are not particularly clear to the people who are interviewing you. For instance in my resumes I use when I am overseas, I will have a short paragraph that explains what the administrative service is.
#3 Add in numbers.
Numbers are what make resume professional and solid. Examples...
Bad: Awarded platinium award for social service
Good: Awarded platinium award (Top 50 out of 1600 students) for social service
Bad: organised programmes for elderly, in charge of budget...
Good organised programmes on a monthly basis reaching out to 80 elderly over 100 hours.
The numbers don't have to be high, and some numbers are always be better than no numbers.
#4 Be prepared to talk about anything on your resume
Your resume is pretty much your script so you must be prepared to rattle off a positive spiel about every single thing you are going to put down. If you put down that you were say section leader in the choir, you must be prepared to tell a pretty good story when asked about this experience.
This is one way to figure out what to put in your resume: figure out what you want to talk about, or what you think your interviewer might be curious to find out about you and put it into your resume. You must know what are the interesting titbits in YOUR life, it musn't be the case, where the interviewer has to snoop high and low just to uncover something really interesting about yourself.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Assignment Five: Decision Analysis Framing and Alternatives
Assignment for this week.
1) Describe a decision where you framed the decision too widely and another decision where you framed it too narrowly.
2) Work out a table of alternatives for the decision that you came up with in Assignment 3.
1) Describe a decision where you framed the decision too widely and another decision where you framed it too narrowly.
2) Work out a table of alternatives for the decision that you came up with in Assignment 3.
Assignment Four: Plato's Republic
Just a reminder for all of you that you will need to hand in your Plato's Republic assignment next Monday. Same 3 questions as before.
Don't try to read the whole book, I have mentioned certain chapters you might wish to go through. Please go through the "Cave" Pick the parts that capture your attention and write about them, I will then try to talk about them.
Don't try to read the whole book, I have mentioned certain chapters you might wish to go through. Please go through the "Cave" Pick the parts that capture your attention and write about them, I will then try to talk about them.
Organisation of Interns Blog
I was wondering whether there was somebetter why of organising the stuff that I am having you guys put up on the Blog. Could you guys look through this?
I would propose that we should do better "Titling" of the blog entries...
What suggest the following titling
- Assignment # .....
- Journal Update: <<>>
- Meme # ...
I would propose that we should do better "Titling" of the blog entries...
What suggest the following titling
- Assignment # .....
- Journal Update: <<>>
- Meme # ...
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Interns Alumni
I spoke to Lina last week when we went down to support Angelina in her belly dancing routine on Dance Floor. Lina was sharing with me how useful she found our sessions now that she was in university. I thought I would invite our previous interns to share their previous experiences plowing through Plato, participating in the events and programmes. I have also invited them to post comments on your entries as well so as to make our discussion all the more richer and fun.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Good work!
Would like to commend all of you for reading through Gorgias and writing these comments. I don't think that it is easy and I am glad that all of you ploughed through it and made it. I hope that this is a good learning experience for you that really it doesn't matter whether you have studied literature or english, so long as you are willing to read, try to understand... you can pick up just about any text and get somewhere.
I think most of you have gotten somewhere. As before, I would like to encourage all of you to read and also comment on each other's postings as well. It helps in our learning process.
Okay, the Socratic Method....
Some of you hated it and some of you liked it...
To be honest, I also dislike Socrates way of leading his opponents by the nose until they ended contradicting themselves. And yes, I also do find it rather manipulative.... much as there is a part of me that really doesn't like debating and debaters.... (I like the winning part of it though)
However, it is important to understand the fundamentals of the Socratic method... I am glad that Inez has gone on to do some research. It is really about teaching by asking questions and having students answer those questions. The starting point of the Socratic method is really that the teacher is a guide, facilitator... asking the right questions to get the student to learn themselves. I am sure you hear about the Montessori method, and this is what underlies this as well (if we strip away all the hype behind it) is the belief that children can be and ought to be self-directed learners.
So the Socratic Method is really about learner-directed learning... with the learner charting out his own path of learning...
In some ways, this is what I am hoping to achieve when I get you guys to blog about what you have read. I hope to pick out the salient points that you have raised and try to teach based on the points that you have raised. Ultimately however, you will find that the most part of the learning experience is reading the books for yourselves, commenting on them and reading other people's comments.
I think most of you have gotten somewhere. As before, I would like to encourage all of you to read and also comment on each other's postings as well. It helps in our learning process.
Okay, the Socratic Method....
Some of you hated it and some of you liked it...
To be honest, I also dislike Socrates way of leading his opponents by the nose until they ended contradicting themselves. And yes, I also do find it rather manipulative.... much as there is a part of me that really doesn't like debating and debaters.... (I like the winning part of it though)
However, it is important to understand the fundamentals of the Socratic method... I am glad that Inez has gone on to do some research. It is really about teaching by asking questions and having students answer those questions. The starting point of the Socratic method is really that the teacher is a guide, facilitator... asking the right questions to get the student to learn themselves. I am sure you hear about the Montessori method, and this is what underlies this as well (if we strip away all the hype behind it) is the belief that children can be and ought to be self-directed learners.
So the Socratic Method is really about learner-directed learning... with the learner charting out his own path of learning...
In some ways, this is what I am hoping to achieve when I get you guys to blog about what you have read. I hope to pick out the salient points that you have raised and try to teach based on the points that you have raised. Ultimately however, you will find that the most part of the learning experience is reading the books for yourselves, commenting on them and reading other people's comments.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Assignment Three: Decision Analysis
Okay here is the assignment for the Decision Analysis module.
Would appreciate your responses on the following, due 21 Jan.
1) Give an instance of when you or have friend have acted in a pro-active instead of reactive way?
2) Do you think our educational system teaches student to make good decisions? Would like your views on this (2-3 para)
3) Choose a real-life example of a difficult decision you are in the midst of making a decision for?
(We will be using this example throughout our various decision analysis modules, so do please choose a real and substantive example.
Would appreciate your responses on the following, due 21 Jan.
1) Give an instance of when you or have friend have acted in a pro-active instead of reactive way?
2) Do you think our educational system teaches student to make good decisions? Would like your views on this (2-3 para)
3) Choose a real-life example of a difficult decision you are in the midst of making a decision for?
(We will be using this example throughout our various decision analysis modules, so do please choose a real and substantive example.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Assignment Two: 3 Questions
I hope that all of you had a chance to read Gorgias. It is quite a thin book, and it shouldn't be such tough reading. As mentioned to you, here are the 3 questions, that we will apply for all books that we are going to read...
1) What stands out and really captures your attention? What struck you after having read that passage, why?
2) What lessons does this book have for the work here as CDC, for public policy?
3) What lessons does this book have for you?
1) What stands out and really captures your attention? What struck you after having read that passage, why?
2) What lessons does this book have for the work here as CDC, for public policy?
3) What lessons does this book have for you?
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Comments
I have been reading through the responses to the first assignment. As mentioned would be nice to have pictures of the places that you mentioned up. I have commented on several of the posts and I will try to comment all of the posts.
I would also like you guys to comment on each other's posts. I had to put a rule to say that I expect to see 9 comments per post, but really part the learning is really amongst yourselves rather than between myself and my other colleagues and the rest of you.
I would also like you guys to comment on each other's posts. I had to put a rule to say that I expect to see 9 comments per post, but really part the learning is really amongst yourselves rather than between myself and my other colleagues and the rest of you.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
One More Thought On the Resume Book
Sorry guys, I left out one really important point that I didn't get to share.
One of the reasons why I have wanted you to collate the resume book is that I want all of you to be aware of the talents, skills and gifts all of you are bringing to the internship. All of you come highly qualified... with lots of useful knowledge skills that we need in our CDC work serving the community. I don't want you to leave that all behind after you have left JC and started joining us. However, it is not just important for us to know the talents, skills that you have but also all of you to know the skills and talents that each of you have. I hope that you will also take this opportunity to learn from each other and to grow from each other.
One of the reasons why I have wanted you to collate the resume book is that I want all of you to be aware of the talents, skills and gifts all of you are bringing to the internship. All of you come highly qualified... with lots of useful knowledge skills that we need in our CDC work serving the community. I don't want you to leave that all behind after you have left JC and started joining us. However, it is not just important for us to know the talents, skills that you have but also all of you to know the skills and talents that each of you have. I hope that you will also take this opportunity to learn from each other and to grow from each other.
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