The modest economic outlook is not stopping organisations from looking to hire NTU students. A record number of 221 Singapore and multinational organisations will be zeroing in on these students at the annual NTU Career Fair 2012, compared to 175 last year. This is also the largest employment fair at a Singapore university campus, with public and private sector employers looking for students from every college across NTU to fill full-time positions. Held over two days on 7 and 10 February 2012 just like last year, it is so that a bigger number of eager employers can participate in the event.
Almost 90 employers will be taking part for the first time. They include big names like Coca-Cola Singapore, Merck, and Toshiba Group. Also for the first time this year, the Fair will have a Technology Showcase, to give employers better insights into the latest innovations and research work that is being done by NTU’s engineering students. The Fair also boasts other firsts – two pavilions featuring job openings at Japanese companies based in Singapore and jobs based in Japan, and the Careers@Start-Ups pavilion, which features 13 start-up companies from the information technology sector.In total, there will be about 3,000 job openings at this year’s Fair. Close to 15,000 students are expected to attend the event, including more than 8,000 final-year students who will graduate in July this year.
Dream jobs months before graduation
Ms Joyce Neo Li Yun, 24, is mid-way through her final year in Communication Studies at NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, and already has a prized job waiting for her when she graduates. She will be joining Procter & Gamble, one of the world’s leading producers of consumer brands, as a Customer Business Development executive. Ms Neo had applied for the position during a campus recruitment drive in September 2011, and had to undergo 4 rounds of interviews before she was offered the job last December.
Relating her experience, Ms Neo said, “Competition was really tough, but my communication course has given me a lot of useful knowledge that I could apply and share during the selection process, and it really enhanced my confidence. I’m elated to be chosen for this dream job. P&G is also one of the world's best employers, and it has got good leadership and development programmes. I can’t wait to join the P&G team and grow with them. I also hope to see more of the world and gain some work experience in P&G’s offices overseas, if I have the chance.”
Ms Swetha Balachandran, 21, from NTU’s Accountancy & Business Double Degree pioneer class, will be joining global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Ms Balachandran, who had earlier spent an internship at Goldman Sachs, went through 6 rigorous rounds of interviews over 2 months. She has made an outstanding entry into BCG, as only a select group of students from Singapore universities make it into the firm each year.
Ms Balachandran, who has been gunning for a career in the management consulting industry from the start of her job search last year, said, “The job at BCG is very appealing because I can apply my skills and talents in a wide range of areas, including project management, communication and business analysis.”
Internship "conversions" on the rise
Internships “conversions” to full-time positions are expected to increase this year as well. Internships have proven to be effective talent-spotting for organisations as they extend offers of full-time employment to students who have held internships with their firms. For the Class of 2010, nearly 800 out of about 4,000 undergraduate students surveyed had received job offers from their internship companies. In that year, about 4,300 NTU students did their internships at more than 1,200 organisations worldwide, such as global technology company 3M, the Big Four accounting firms, American multinational oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, Lucasfilm Animation and power systems giant Rolls-Royce.
One such intern was Nanyang Business School student Mr Adamson Alagan. Four months into his internship at global marketing powerhouse Wunderman, Mr Adamson so impressed his bosses that the Chairman and CEO offered him the job of Chief of Staff, a role that needs at least 5 years’ experience. Now based at the firm’s New York office, Mr Adamson, who graduated in July 2011, attributes his success to the combination of strong industry knowledge gained from his training at NBS and his passion for marketing.
Another class act this year is Ms Shayne Tan Su Ying, 23, who is pursuing Maritime Studies. She was offered sponsorship for her final year of studies and a full-time position by marine liability insurer Shipowners Asia, after impressing her managers during her internship last year.
Mr Sarvesh Sudhir Nevatia, 21, who is graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, is joining Credit Suisse’s Investment Banking division, after spending a 2-month internship stint at the firm.Professor Kam Chan Hin, NTU's Associate Provost in charge of Undergraduate Education, said, “This Career Fair is an exciting opportunity for us to bring together the employers and students on campus – both to show employers what our students have to offer, and to show our students what employment opportunities exist for them as they pursue and complete their studies. The fact that there are a record number of employers attending this year's Fair is a testament to the quality education our students receive here, and how well it prepares them for the global workplace.”
Mr Loh Pui Wah, Director of NTU's Career & Attachment Office said, “Companies always want to attract the best and brightest, and despite the sombre economic outlook for 2012, they are still hiring our graduates. When we ask these companies why they prefer to hire NTU graduates, they tell us it is because our students are well-prepared for the workplace, but just as importantly, our students have integrity and positive work attitudes that companies look for in new employees. This is wonderful feedback for our students and professors.”
Two major employers honoured
Credit Suisse and ExxonMobil were honoured as major employers at the NTU Career Fair this morning. These two companies have converted a high percentage of NTU interns to full-time hires over the years, and have employed a total of 100 or more students over five consecutive years. At ExxonMobil, which hired over 150 NTU graduates in the last 5 years, about 4 out of 10 were employed through internships programmes, and a third was recruited through campus recruitment activities.This brings the total number of such major employers to 23 – a significant feather in the cap reflecting NTU’s fast-rising stature among the world’s top universities.
Contact:
Feisal Abdul Rahman
Senior Assistant Director (Media Relations)
Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University
Tel: (65) 6790 6687
Email: feisalar@ntu.edu.sg
About Nanyang Technological University
A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science, and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. In 2013, NTU will enrol the first batch of students at its new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, which is set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to four world-class autonomous institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).
A fast-growing university with an international outlook, NTU is putting its global stamp on Five Peaks of Excellence: Sustainable Earth, Future Healthcare, New Media, New Silk Road, and Innovation Asia.
Besides the main Yunnan Garden campus, NTU also has a satellite campus in Singapore’s science and tech hub, one-north, and is setting up a third campus in Novena, Singapore’s medical district.
For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg
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