Editorial Team Chief Editor

Norizan Mohamad

EditorsNazatul Azleen Zainal Abidin

Mohd Hanapi Abdul LatiffSiti ‘Aisyah Sa’dan

Vol.: 1, Issue: Mac 2015A publication by members of Computer Science Department, Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, UiTM Terengganu

BEYOND WINDOWS

by Norizan binti Mohamad

Bulletin

Our Graduate in the Industry: Internship Placement: An Interview-by-Skype Story

This is a story about Adam, one of our students in CS230 pro-gram (Degree in Computer Science). Currently (as the article is written), Adam is undergoing his industrial training as the final requirement to obtain his degree. And this story refers to Adam’s experience in an attempt to secure a place for his industrial training.

The Background of Industrial Training

For the industrial training, students are required to search for places at the potential companies. Advice has also been given to them to search for companies that offer internship opportunities. Some of the potential companies offer intern-ships using job-hunting services such as:

• www.jobstreet.com.my

• www.careerjet.com.my

• Malaysia.recruit.net

• gradmalaysia.com

• intern.my

• www.jobcity.my

Examples of internship openings are shown below (Figure 1-3):

Figure 1. Internship through Jobcity

Figure 2. Internship in IT

Figure 3. Online application

2

We welcome any feedback, suggestions, questions or comments from the readers. Email them to: norizanm@tganu.uitm.edu.my

Through the websites, the students can also apply online. Chances are, the students will be placed at the right depart-ment and the scope of work is much more focused, as detailed in their advertisement in the websites. This will undoubtedly help the students to fully utilize their time at the companies throughout their internship duration.

Adam’s Story

Okay. Back to Adam’s story. As for him, he took on the chal-lenge and applied for internship placement through one of the job hunting websites. And guess what! Within hours, he got a call from one company, asking to come for an inter-view. Adam was asked to come to the company’s premise for the interview, however since Adam was still having class at that time and could not attend the interview, the com-pany had different alternative for him. The company then scheduled a live tele-conference session with Adam through Skype. The company said that it was the first time ever they had conducted such a Skype session, and the same was for Adam. An example of a Skype session is shown in Figure 4.

So, on 13 Jan 2015, Adam skyped for the first time. In the other end of line, the Managing Director himself and his Head of IT Department conducted the meeting. So, what were the questions asked during the session? Same ques-tions actually. Just like sitting for the actual interview. Here are the questions asked as shared by Adam:

1. Tell us about yourself.

2. What can you contribute to the company?

3. How good are your skills? Coding skill? Communi-cation skill?

4. What did your friends think about you?

5. What about your social life with others?

Those were the major questions asked, and knowing Adam, I believed he could have convinced them well. Apart from that, Adam was also asked to demonstrate his skill in cod-ing. He was given several questions which consisted of a variety of elements such as SQL statement and functions, and he was asked to submit the solutions within 4 days. Not a surprise to me, Adam managed to submit the tasks the next day.

The best part is, realizing that Adam comes from Chinese educational background, both interviewers started to com-municate with Adam in Mandarin. Indeed, to me it is defi-nitely an added value for Adam. The conversation went well for all of them.

At the end of the session, Adam raised a question. He asked if it has been the company’s practice to conduct an interview even for an intern. To that, the Managing Director said, “It is now.” Why? “Because the company wants to hire only the qualified and highly-skilled candidates. The company does not want to risk its operation by hiring the incompetent can-didates.”

Okay, so you must have been wondering, “Did Adam get hired as an intern at the company?” Well. NO. Why? Well.. We were made to understand that other candidates per-formed better and were much more qualified.

Consequently that made us think.. Good CGPA, good com-munication skill, good programming skill, ability to converse well in third language, good personality, still could not guar-antee a place in the industry, even as an intern. So, the question is, are our graduates industry-ready? What exactly does the industry want from our graduates? Check Figure 5.

References:Adam (15 Jan 2015), Personal Communication.www.aquos-world.com (FIgure 4)job outlook 2013 (Figure 5)

Figure 4. A Skype session

Figure 5. Employers rate candidate skills