7 minute read
Tailored for Freshmores
The Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Programme (UPOP) is designed to develop career readiness among SUTD undergraduates. With a wide range of practical and experimental sessions, taught by Career Advisors and Professional Consultants, students can acquire the relevant career skills they need to navigate the job market upon graduation.
Advanced Modules often have smaller class sizes, thus registration is based on a first-come-first-served basis and a nominal fee of S$10 is payable upon registration. UPOP Advanced Modules were strategically introduced to enhance students’ career readiness.
Year
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3 UPOP Essential Modules and Advanced Modules (for AY2020 onwards)
Jan - Apr May - Aug Sep - Dec
Freshmore (Term 1) Essential Module:
• Freshmore Welcome Tea
Freshmore (Term 2) Essential Module:
• E01: DYSUTD • E02: The Art of Communication • E03: Brand YOU: How to tell your story & create your personal brand • E04: Career SUPERDRIVE
Sophomore (Term 4) Essential Module:
• E06: Showcasing Your Skills: Resume & Technical Portfolio • E07: Ace Your Interview
Activities:
• Career & Internship Fair • Forerunners
Junior (Term 6) Activities:
• Career & Internship Fair • Forerunners
Vacation/Summer Programme
Junior (Term 5) Essential Module:
• E08: The Super Intern with the X-cultural
Factor
Advanced Modules:
• Nailing the Assessment Centre • Breaking the CASE
Vacation/Summer Programme/ INTERNSHIP Essential Modules:
• E09: Job Search Strategies • E10: The Art of Persuasion & Negotiation
Freshmore (Term 3) Essential Module:
• E05: LinkedIn Up
Vacation/Exchange/INTERNSHIP Activity:
• Industry Night
Senior (Term 7) - Capstone Activities:
• E-Resume Book for Graduating Seniors • Industry Night
Year 4 Senior (Term 8) – Capstone Activities:
• Graduate Connect • Forerunners • Career & Internship Fair
Advanced Modules:
• Nailing the Assessment Centre • Breaking the CASE
UPOP Essential Modules
DYSUTD: Design thinking is a widely-used process for product and service designers to create user-centric solutions. Find out how you can apply these concepts to yourself by building, designing and creating a meaningful journey here at SUTD and beyond! The Art of Communication: This workshop will help boost your confidence so you can network more easily and enjoy doing it! Meet and connect with people who could be pivotal to your career — be it a potential hiring manager, knowledgeable mentors and even investors for your future start-up! Brand YOU: A good story can be both moving and inspirational. Learn how to tell compelling stories that not only create an impact, but convinces your audience to take the desired action. Career SUPERDRIVE™: Learn more about yourself and what makes you tick in this refreshing take on career discovery. Find out what career paths you can take in a fun and interactive manner, and gain more insight on the possibilities you can pursue. LinkedIn Up: Become your own career influencer! Enhance your professional presence online and harness the power of LinkedIn. Develop a plan to connect with influential people within your discipline an establish your brand, opening up opportunities to get into your dream career! Showcasing Your Skills: Build an impressive portfolio to wow recruiters and hiring managers alike. Showcase the best of your skills and strengths with a well thought-out portfolio and create a brand for yourself. Ace Your Interview: With technology, interviews are no longer just conducted face-to-face. At times, it does not have to be real time too! Understand the different dynamics and expectations from each type of interviews. Learn how to stand out and pick up the best practices to help you win in any kind of interviews. The Super Intern: Utilise tips and strategies to become the best intern you can be! Develop techniques on how you can break the barrier of diverse cultures in a multi-cultural environment. Job Search Strategies: Looking for job does not have to be a daunting and time-consuming task. Learn how to better invest your time in activities that can help you maximise results. Knowing effective strategies for job-hunting will go a long way in getting that job you want. The Art of Persuasion and Negotiation: Knowing how to negotiate is an important skill at work. Pick up on effective techniques on how you can persuade and influence more effectively so that you can work out solutions that benefit everyone.
Freshmore Welcome Tea
All freshmore students are invited to attend this session at the start of their first term in order to learn more about the services CDC offers. This includes sharing the importance of early career planning, such as deciding the fifth row and choosing the right internships. Students are also encouraged to approach the Career Coaches to discuss their future career plans. All students are required to complete the UPOP Essential Modules before embarking on an official internship.
Forerunner 2021
Looking for an opportunity to connect with experienced SUTD alumni who have been-there-done-that? Then this is an event not to miss out on! Every year, the CDC invites several members of the alumni to share their work-life experiences beyond SUTD’s walls — from their successes to their preparations after graduation. Learn more from them about what it takes to have a successful start to your career!
E-Mentorship Platform
Graduating and taking your first steps into the workforce can be an exciting milestone. After years of academic study and countless hours mulling over projects and assignments, many of us are all too eager to get our degrees and step into the world of work. However, the workforce today is complex and everchanging, and as such knowing how to navigate your transition to your first job is essential. A mentor, typically someone with more experience and knowledge in your desired field, would be able to provide an opportunity for you to have a better understanding of what you need to find success.
Following the success of the pilot programme in May 2021, the SUTD CDC offered final-year juniors an opportunity to connect with mentors from their chosen industry. We are proud to offer DBS as one of our corporate partners, with 12 professionals hailing from the technology and non-technology divisions. With the banking and finance service sector digitising their services, having a mentor who has a grasp of these transformations is an asset to you should you wish to pursue this sector.
Here are a few reasons why you should engage a mentor:
1. Get valuable insights Not only have they experienced changes in their sectors in the past couple of years, but they have also experienced other waves of changes that have impacted their careers. By having a mentor from a relevant industry, you can obtain insider information and get a better idea on how to navigate the changing industry trends.
2. Sounding board Having gone through the ups and downs in the industry and perhaps even in their careers, these mentors would best know what ideas can work and what might not. Having someone who has gone through these experiences can help save you from making avoidable errors and detours in your own career path.
3. Career clarity Throughout your mentorship, you will be able to gather valuable information and be better equipped to figure out what career paths you really want to embark on and try out.
4. Job searching and career advice Mentorship can be an underrated aspect of not only job-hunting, but when it comes to building the foundations of your career. Many of these mentors are often team leaders or even hiring managers themselves and thus, are wellversed in what qualities candidates need to stand out. Their advice might be what you need to step up your job-searching skills and steer your first job to success!
5. Broaden your professional network Your odds of meeting an industrial professional are limited as a student, but a mentorship programme can open the doors to connecting with others from the industry. They may even offer you referrals to other professionals they know as well!
Those who have benefitted from mentorships can attest that it has given them a great boost to their confidence. After all, with a clear career trajectory, you will be better able to know your way around the industry and be more prepared for the world of work. So why wait? Take part in the mentorship programme today!
The SUTD eMentorship Programme is a 6-month long structured programme which is open to all penultimate students. It is a one-to-one mentoring between a student and an industry professional to enhance their career readiness. All communications would be hosted on the eMentorship portal, which supports both video calls and chat functions. The next scheduled run and recruitment will start in December 2022.
