Blog post #3: Application Letter Critique

Sean Tan Jui Siang

Alpha Beta Gamma Street

#123-456

Singapore 987654
(+65) 98765432
abcdefg@gmail.com

17 Feburary 2013

Ms Nadia Lee
Human Resource Manager
REC Group (Singapore)
REC Tuas, Singapore
20 Tuas South Avenue 14
Singapore 637312

Dear Ms Lee,           

Application for Engineering internship.

I am writing in to express my interest in joining REC Group as an intern during the summer vacation period from 8^th May to 7^th August.

I am a 2^nd year Engineering student at National University of Singapore (NUS), pursuing my Bachelor’s degree. I find an internship at REC Group very enticing and am excited, at the prospects of interning at a major renewable energy company. This is because I am very interested in the fields of clean energy sources and the implementation of these energy systems in countries like Singapore, where I believe there is a huge potential for clean energy to be exploited.

I learnt about the company after attending a career fair held at NUS earlier this month. I was impressed with the company booth speaker who shared with me the insights into REC Group and how working as an intern at the company would benefit me greatly. This only served to solidify my decision to apply for an internship at REC Group.  As a high tech firm that focuses on cutting edge sciences and technology, I firmly believe that I possess the right hard and soft skills required to work in this company. Despite the fact that I have no experience working in the field of engineering, I have, over the course of my study, read many different engineering modules which I believe have equipped me with knowledge and skills required for an internship at REC Group. Currently, I am also involved in the early stages of the “Solar Decathlon 2013” competition, where a group of NUS students come together to design and build a small house that is powered solely by solar panels.  It is a competition against other international universities around the world and NUS is represented in this competition by the team that I am working with. This competition has given me relevant background knowledge on the workings of solar photovoltaic cells, which forms the basis for most of the products at REC Group such as solar panels.  As such, this competition has given me substantial exposure to the technology involved at REC Group and also imparted to me a sense of teamwork, which will serve me well if I am interning at the company.

In contrast to the hard skills that I possessed, I am a reliable individual who have no problems working with people. I am able to establish effective communication with my fellow staff and have been acknowledged as an approachable person by my former employers. Before beginning my undergraduate study at NUS, I have had taken up several ad-hoc jobs and part time jobs during the school vacation periods. The most recent of which is working as an administrative assistant staff at National University Health System (NUHS).  During my time at NUHS, I helped my supervisor carry out various tasks such as replying to emails, assisting her in arranging meetings for other staff members, delivering important documents to various departments within NUHS, handling logistics for NUS Medicine students’ examinations and other miscellaneous administrative tasks. As my supervisor is not available at all times, I have been at the front line as an administrative staff, representing her on her behalf at meetings and important events. As such, I am required to be able to communicate with other staff members from other departments as well as not get intimidated by major tasks assigned to me. Being an administrative staff meant that daily interactions with staffs from other departments were inevitable, effective communication skills were crucial for me to carry out my role effectively.  In summary, I personally feel that I possessed the required soft skills to work in any job environment.

Aside from my working life, I have served two years of national service as a Combat Engineer in the Singapore Armed Forces which has expanded my horizon on engineering military hardware. Being a heavy plant operator, I have had first hand experiences in operating three major construction vehicles, namely the excavator, dozer and shovel. The two years in the Army has taught me to be discipline, resilient and professional in my duties as a serviceman to the country. It has also taught me the importance of interpersonal communication skills as I am required to interact and work with people from all walks of life, especially when working as a team. 

If this internship opportunity is given to me, I would hope to gain as much hands on experience as I can and of course acquire the necessary skills required to become a practicing engineer in the future. You may refer to my enclosed resume for more information. I welcome the opportunity to discuss any internship opportunities with your company. Do contact me at abcdefg@gmail.com, alternatively you may call me at 98765432 to schedule an interview.

Yours Sincerely,

Sean

Blog post #2: Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

The event took place last year, when I was reading the module “Critical thinking and writing”. For this module, we are required to do a group project in which we had to do research and present our findings in the form of a final report.

 In my group, were two other members, one was a close friend of mine and the other was a student whom we both did not know (I shall name him “X”). Initially, everything went well and we all did our fair share of work. However, mid-way through our project, I started to notice “X” contributing less and less. He did not do his part of the project that we had assigned him, and he was also absent for our weekly meetings. Since he was absent during our meetings, he did not contribute his findings to the project. My friend and I were both furious at “X” because we had to do his share of the workload in addition to our own parts. Prior to the day of our report submission, I decided to confront “X”, to find out the reason behind his lack of participation. If he fails to give a valid reason, I was going to report him to our tutor. I told “X” to stay back after class, after everyone had left the room. Filled with anger, I immediately shouted at him, asking for a good explanation as to why he did not do his share of work. In response, he kept his head down, and remained silent. I asked him again furiously, hitting the table with my fist at the same time. He was startled but again did not reply to my question. He left the classroom shortly after, without giving me an answer. My friend and I had no choice but to report him to our tutor for his lack of contribution.

After the end of the module, I decided to have a serious talk with “X” to find out the reason behind his shortcomings. He revealed to me that his father had passed away some time during the course of the module. With the main breadwinner of the family gone, he needed to do part time jobs to earn some money for his family. His mother was already working full time but her income was not enough to cover the family’s expenses. He told me that he did not want to reveal any personal problems he had during the semester, as everyone has problems of their own. He explained that he had good intentions for our project and tried his best to contribute. However, work had taken up almost all of his free time and he could not find the time to work on his part.  As a result of being reported to our tutor, “X” was marked down for the project and did not do well for the module. I felt terrible that I had caused “X” to receive a bad grade and realized that I should not have reported the situation to our tutor, without listening to the real explanation from him.

My friends, what do you think I could have done differently, to deal with the situation better?