As an effort to reach out to university undergraduates, the City Harvest Church Uni Campus Ministry organized a special seminar for students on how to invest in their careers through good planning and CV management.
Contributed By Billy Ong
Undergraduates learn the art of crafting a good resume. CN PHOTO: Tu Jie Rui.
“You can get straight As and be in great leadership positions, but still lose that job offer if your CV is bad,” said Melvin Liew, the principal speaker of Mastering Your CV, a workshop that was held at Suntec Singapore on Saturday, Nov. 5.
Organized by City Harvest Church Uni Campus Ministry, the workshop saw a panel of qualified professionals in the banking sector giving a talk on what constitutes an outstanding CV. Over 60 people, including tertiary students and fresh graduates, attended the talk, keen on getting tips on how to improve their CV and how to manage their career paths more effectively.
In a classroom-styled session, Liew kicked off the talk by introducing himself as a veteran interviewer, having interviewed more than a hundred candidates throughout his career. He was part of the recruiting team in McKinsey & Co.—a global management consulting firm. Tapping on his extensive experience, Liew shed light on what employers look out for in choosing the right candidate for a particular position.
He shared that a CV should be customized to fit the right job. “The worst thing you can do is to submit the same resume to a hundred different companies with totally different job scopes,” he cautioned. After stating how that issue was a common mistake job seekers made, Liew pointed out that only relevant skills and strengths should be mentioned in an individual’s CV.
The next segment of the workshop featured the next speaker, Tan Chun Kiat, who talked about career management and goals. Tan started off as a medical doctor but made several career transitions throughout his working life. He stressed the importance of having a detailed action plan in order to progress in one’s career.
For him, he wanted to make a shift to a new industry in emerging markets, which was a huge transition from what he was doing in the medical industry. Determined that he could create his own way out, he took action and pursued an MBA at the London School of Business. He eventually received a job offer in London in the industry he was setting his eye on and was able to make the career transition as planned.
Tan ended off his segment with a Jim Rohm quote, “You cannot change circumstances, but you can change yourself,” and encouraged his audience to take the necessary steps to actively pursue their vocational dreams and goals in life.
The second hour of the workshop was a Q&A session where participants brought up areas of concern to the panel of professionals. There was a question on whether bad grades could affect one’s chances of getting a good job, to which one panelist shared from his own experience that he managed to get the job he wanted despite his bad grades, because he had the right skill sets that were required for the position.
At the end of the three-hour workshop, many students claimed to have benefited greatly from the insights shared by the professionals. Josephine Ng, 19, currently an intern in ST Electronics said, “I like the idea shared by Melvin, that the qualities you state on your CV must be put in a way that reflects your personal value. I also learned a lot more in this workshop compared to what I had in school.”
Organizer Veronica Tang, who is the person in-charge of CHC’s Uni Campus Ministry, stated that this event was not just to benefit the church members, but was also open to members’ friends.
The Uni Campus Ministry will be having a Christmas caroling outreach event on Dec. 10. For more information, email info@chc.org.sg.
