Missed out on a summer internship?

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Hi networkers,

Last week I said I would write about my action plan if I didn’t find an internship this summer.

So that is today’s topic. But before we dive in, just a FYI, this is not:

• a guide on polishing your resume

• or a tutorial on cover letter writing

Because neither of those will get you interview offers in today’s job market.

Instead, I’ll be discussing a different approach.

(If you have an internship or job, the advice below is still relevant!)

Here’s the route for today

🎙️ Topic: Create Your Passion Project

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TOPIC
Create Your Passion Project

The Context 

If you didn’t land this summer, don’t beat yourself down! The job market is in a rough state, just take a look at all the layoffs happening.

However, just because the market is “bad” doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It was still considered “bad” 2 years ago when I found my co-op.

You don’t need to have a 4.0 GPA or a bunch of prior work experience either. I definitely didn’t.

Instead, what you need is to correctly prioritize your time.

Let’s take a look at a typical application process:

1. Submit your resume to the job posting

2. Hear back from the recruiter and do a screen call

3. Complete an online assessment

4. Do interview rounds with the team

5. Get hired

Now, let me ask you, which part of this process are you spending the most time preparing for?

The answer is NONE of these. You should be prioritizing your time on step 0.

What is step 0? It’s what I call, your passion project.

Simply put, a passion project is something of value you create to show off your expertise.

It’s something you work on in your free time or for extracurricular. Hence the passion part.

Why You Should Care

I’m a strong believer that with how the current market is going, your resume alone isn’t going to get you anywhere.

If you’re lucky, you might get 1-5 responses per 100 resumes you send. I know, not great odds. That’s where your passion project comes in.

It’s one of the most effective ways to stand out.

Here’s a personal example. When I applied for my last internship, it had a key description. They were looking for interns with digital transformation experience.

Coincidentally I had just won a case competition the month prior that was on digital transformation.

Now sure, I could have written 2 bullet points about this in my resume.

But I ALSO had a fully fleshed-out slide deck tackling a real-world problem on digital transformation.

It had a detailed strategy, financial metrics, the whole package, it expressed way more than 2 bullet points could ever.

That slide deck was my passion project, so I included it in a separate email along with my resume.

Shortly after, I got a reply. The hiring manager said he loved the slide deck! And the day after that, I got a call.

They decided to skip the 2nd round of interviews and hired me.

Many if not all job applications give you the option of submitting extra documents or website links.

If I didn’t land anything this summer, I would use the time to create 1 or 2 passion projects.

Then, I would include it in my job applications or email it directly to the hiring manager.

Closing thoughts:

Here are some project ideas:

💸 For finance or banking roles, create a pitch deck on your favorite stock.

📣 For marketing roles, showcase what you made for a school club or your social media content

💻 For tech roles, make a personal website or create a GitHub to display all your coding projects

See you next Tuesday 🤝

-Michael Ly

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1. To learn about my career journey, click here

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