Resources, tips and tricks on how to land an internship and more.
You scroll through LinkedIn for what feels like the hundredth time. Your friend brags about her latest internship at the company of her dreams over the winter break. “I can’t believe how much I’ve learnt over the past few months. I’m so grateful to my bosses and colleagues, who were patient and understanding to me. I’m so sad that I have to go…” You try not to go green with envy. You want to start your internship era too. But how do you even find an internship like that to begin with?
Fret not! The SSS club has compiled some tools to get you started on your journey.
Finding The One
Finding your ideal internship probably feels like finding lost treasure at times. As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” – everyone’s dream internship is different.
Some quick resources for you:
The “SsS Career Coach” Telegram Channel – you should join ASAP if you haven’t! It contains:
- Telegram channel with recent internship opportunities
- SSS Internship Chatbot to answer any queries you may have
- Padlet with many job portals
Click here for NTU Career Axis.
It contains:
- All upcoming career events e.g. workshops by industry professionals
- Career coaching appointments
- Featured jobs and internships
- And many more!
Boolean searching “refers to a search technique that uses tools called operators and modifiers to limit, widen, and refine your search results.” By using this method, you can reduce the amount of time and energy used to filter through the countless opportunities available. (Psst, you can use this for research too. Just an FYI.)
Just use the Boolean Builder to create the description you want, and plug it into the job portal of your choice. This works on LinkedIn too.
To the social butterflies out there who want to personally reach out to prospective employers, peek at this template for how to structure your message. Going for a networking event? Create an elevator pitch to market yourself succinctly!
Creating a stellar portfolio – how to stand out?
We get it. You work hard to get good grades but finding an internship still kinda feels like this sometimes:
Clearly, the war starts even before you enter the battlefield. But it’s okay, don’t be too overwhelmed yet! Instead, let’s think of the process of working on your portfolio as a video game, with different levels for different stages in the process.
Level 1: Basic Stats
Let’s start with the basics – how can you enhance your portfolio to market yourself better? The truth is, there are opportunities all around you. All you have to do is keep an open mind and collect skills and experiences. Read these infographics for some ideas!
Level 2: Enchanting
Okay, you’ve gathered all of your latest achievements. Now what? It’s time to write a brilliant resume that will blow your interviewers out of the water! But resume writing comes with new challenges: how should you format it? How can you optimise it so it mentions keywords employers are looking for?
Let’s go deeper into the details of resume writing. Check out NTU’s Career Axis Resume Template here for an example of how you can format your resume!
Level 3: Slaying the Dragon
By now, you’ve built your basic skills and enchanted your equipment. It’s now time to defeat the final boss! (Which sounds way cooler and less anxiety-inducing than saying you have an interview in two days.)
We get you, interview jitters are real. Still, if you ensure you’re well-prepared for interviews, you’ll be able to significantly reduce your anxiety. Here are some tricks you can use:
Whew, those were quite a few levels you cleared, but congrats for getting through them! Now you have a foolproof guide to levelling up your internship game. Still, you might have a few more questions about the specifics of internships in uni, so check out our FAQ section next to get all the answers you need – we referenced the SSS student intranet for this. Click on the bolded question to see the answer!
1. Are internships compulsory for SSS students?
Yes! The credit-bearing internship is a compulsory core requirement towards graduation requirements for students who matriculated in 2021 onwards.
SSS students admitted before 2021 have the option to do 10 weeks of Professional Attachment (HB3079) at the end of Year 3. On successful completion, students will be awarded 5 AUs to be used to fulfill unrestricted electives.
SSS students admitted in 2021 onwards can choose to fulfil their compulsory internship requirement, by choosing to go on a 10-weeks attachment (HB3080) during their Special Term from end of Year 2 or a 24-weeks semester internship (HB3081) / Overseas Entrepreneurship Programme (HB3082) during their 3rd Year of study. These core foundational modules will be awarded credits upon successful completion. Students can only choose to do HB3080 or HB3081 or HB3082 and not more than one.
2. Are there any requirements I need to clear before I go on credit-bearing internships?
If you want to go on a 24-weeks Semester Internship and you matriculated from AY21 onwards, you have to be in Year 3.
If you want to go on a 10-weeks Special Term Professional Attachment (PA) and you matriculated AY20 and earlier, you should be a Year 3 student who has achieved at least 60 AUs.
If you want to go on a 10-weeks Special Term PA and you matriculated from AY21 onwards, you should be a Year 2 student who has achieved at least 57 AUs and be at the end of Semester 2.
3. How do I ensure my internship is credit-bearing?
As of Jan 2025, these are the most updated steps! However, please also double-check the steps on your end by referring to the NTU student intranet to avoid missing anything out.
If you have a school-sourced internship:
Step 1: Do the Safety Quiz on NTULearn. Get a score of 8 or above to pass.
Step 2: Register for internship on InPlace.
Step 3: When applications open, you can apply for up to 20 positions. Remember to consider your choices carefully (e.g. based on your interests, abilities, availability for the internship etc).
Step 4: Wait for interviews. If accepted, your internship will be credit-bearing.
If you have a self-sourced internship:
A self-sourced internship is one that you find from outside of InPlace. Even internships found from the CareerAxis Portal and CAO Email Blasts are considered self-sourced!
Step 1: Do the Safety Quiz on NTULearn. Get a score of 8 or above to pass (see “School-sourced internship”).
Step 2: Download the self-source application form at the internship blogsite (Colleges > College of Humanities and Social Sciences > SSS).
Source: Padlet
Step 3: Ask the organisation to fill in pages 1 – 3 of the form.
Step 4: Fill in page 4 of the form.
Step 5: Submit the self-source application form via InPlace by the stipulated deadline.
For a more detailed breakdown of either process, check the internship blogsite (Credit-bearing internship > Pre-internship).
4. How many AUs will my credit-bearing internship give me?
It depends on the type of internship you do! See the table below for some common internship types. Please check out the NTU Student Intranet for more info.
| Type | When? | Length (weeks) | AUs awarded |
| HB3079 Professional Attachment (for students who matriculated before 2021, an optional internship) | Year 2 Sem 2 or Year 3 Sem 2 | 10 | 5 |
| HB3080 Professional Attachment (for students who matriculated after 2021, a compulsory internship) | Year 2 Sem 2 or Year 3 Sem 2 or Year 4 Sem 2* (May to July, Summer) | 10 | 5 |
| HB3081 Professional Internship (for students who matriculated after 2021, a compulsory internship) | Year 3 Sem 1 (Aug to Dec) or Year 3 Sem 2 (Jan to July) | 24 | 12 |
| HB3082 Overseas Entrepreneurship Programme | Year 3 Sem 1 (Aug to Dec) or Year 3 Sem 2 (Jan to July) | 24 | 12 |
*Only applicable to students who are extending another semester, not for graduating students.
Source: Student Intranet
5. So, if an internship is not credit-bearing, I don’t need to tell the school?
Even if it is not credit-bearing, please fill up the Non-Credit Bearing Internship Declaration Form in the Career Axis portal. This will help you be covered under the Public Liability NTU insurance!
6. Should I take a semester-long internship?
This question is a tough one. In the spirit of the social sciences, do a personal cost-benefit analysis! A list of potential pros and cons are added below.
| Potential Costs | Potential Benefits |
| Delaying graduation: while undergoing a semester-long internship, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to take as many classes as a typical semester. This might mean graduating later than your peers. | Increased exposure and learning: for those of us who have clarity on the specific field/industry you want to work in, a semester long-industry will likely reap more benefits. |
| Energy, time and opportunity costs: Balancing internship requirements while studying might take a toll on you, and means giving up on other opportunities you could have pursued with your mental and physical resources. | Scarcity? Some fields, such as finance and banking, have a higher tendency to only offer semester-long internships. While this raises the barrier to entry, it also decreases the pool of people who have such experience, possibly making you more unique. |
| Taking a Leave of Absence (LOA): For more intensive internships, you may choose to take an LOA to focus exclusively on the internship. This may change the time frame of your current study plan. | |
This list is by no means exhaustive. Think hard about what works for you!
7. What if I want an overseas internship?
Check out CAO’s range of overseas internships! Subscribe to their telegram sub-channel on this topic for more. Check your email for their regular Outlook Blasts too.
Source: CAO Overseas Internship Telegram, Global Experiences (CAO)
8. How many internships are enough?
Have you heard of “internship stacking”? Maybe you wonder if it means you need more internships.
In truth, you should prioritise quality > quantity. Despite your fears that you will end up jobless and destitute if you have less than that one person on LinkedIn, you should take the number of internships which allow you to learn and grow as much as you need to.
For a more concrete number, SSS seniors generally average two to three internships before graduation. If you’re following this benchmark, you should take up one internship in year two and one in year three. (You can take an additional internship in Y3/Y4 if you wish!)
Conclusion
You’re now well-versed in levelling up your internship game. Remember that the skills learned in the social sciences give you a niche that others may not have. Use it to your advantage – and good luck!
Further Resources (click to expand)
General
- NTU Internship Blogsite – everything internship, including more FAQs
- CAO NTU Instagram – follow their comic strip, #CaoInternComics!
- Padlet – half of the links in this section come from this site – use it! (All resources that come from here will be marked with a “P”)
Finding The One
- Careers@Gov – for those looking for civil servant internships and jobs
- Glassdoor – find out more about companies, their work culture, etc
- Job Portals (P)
- InternSG
- JobStreet
- GradConnection
- Many more…
Creating a stellar portfolio
Basic Stats
- Hard Skills
- List of hard skills (P)
- NTU-Google Career Scholarship Program – despite the intimidating name, requirements are nowhere as strict as a normal scholarship. You are, however, required to complete at least one “specialisation”.
- LinkedIn Learning – see instructions on NTU Learn to activate your Linkedin Learn.
- MOOCs: As part of clearing your BDEs, NTU allows you to take MOOCs. You can consider taking the opportunity to learn something not within your syllabus. See here for more details.
- Soft Skills
- Relevant CCAs
Enchanting Weapons
Slaying the dragon
Written by: See Han Jie
Edited by: Tyra Ang
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