Internship...

Will be doing my internship with my dream company in the coming Summer holidays, and ironically, my best friend had to work in Apple.

I was asked to attend an interview two weeks ago as an selection interview was one of the criteria for the internship position.

The night before the interview, prepared my transcripts, CCA Records and various other certificates which, I suppose would help me gain a better footing amongst all the people who will be competing me for the internship position.

I remembered I had a sleepless night as I mentally prepared myself for the interview. The product number and specifications, the company history and recent new news ran through my head again and again.

Then it was the day of the interview. I was all formally dress up and ready to put my best foot forward.

The interview was rather informal I would say, but as the interviewer flipped through my transcript, I was a little nervous. I am not exactly the first-class-honors type and my achievements are mostly non-academic.

I was hoping to score better "marks" when she was about to go into the CCA Records, but just like in the transcripts, the interviewer flip through without even looking at them!

But something caught her eye, and that was my list of "skills". And she started asking me about them and about the projects I engaged and how those skills helped me. For those who know me, my skills are mostly technical: Photography, Video, Programming (C, C++, C#, JAVA, ASM) and good knowledge of databases as a designed one in my NS time. I also have some skills like project management and inventory management while I was in NS as well.

Then the interviewer went down to look at my previous job experience and asked me many questions about my experiences. At a point in time, we even discussed about the organizational culture of the company and its shortcomings in the US.

As I walked out of the interview room, somehow I felt that all the things I done in school seemed useless I would say. People are interested about that I do in the working world, my skills and not my grades, and certainly not what position I held in various committees in school.

All the things I did in school can only serve as a prove to myself of my abilities, and cannot be use to prove my worth at in the workplace.

This is not the first interview where people ignored my transcript and CCA Records. This is the fifth in my lifetime.

I guess the time to prove me to myself is over. Now it is time to improve my worth and value. And learning .NET Framework would be a good start. =)

Disclaimer : Your personal interview experiences may vary from mine. And I am 90% sure that interviewers for scholarships or academic awards DO look at your transcripts, and often CCA Records very carefully.