Two representatives from Yahoo! – Katherina Park from Human Resource and Jeffrey Oon, the country editor of Yahoo! Southeast Asia – came on campus on 18 September to share their insights on the digital media industry and resume tips with FASS students.

The audience comprised mainly Communications & New Media (CNM) students who wanted to know more about the opportunities in Singapore’s digital media industry, Yahoo!’s work culture and how they can secure internships and jobs in this industry.

Ms Park shared her view on the Southeast Asian market for digital media companies, Yahoo!’s internship programme and the opportunities and challenges when working in Yahoo!. She said that Yahoo! expects the interns to be independent and empowers them to take charge of their own internship. For example, their interns crafted the current intern programme to include exposure to Corporate Social Responsibility Projects and interaction with staff and interns from different departments.

Mr Oon talked about his personal challenges and satisfaction of being a journalist and the differences between mainstream media and the digital newsroom. He said that students interested in journalism should have a deep passion for writing, read widely across subjects, love to meet people and are opinionated.  At the same time, they need to know that a career in journalism has long, irregular hours and has tight deadlines to meet.

Both speakers also shared candidly what they look out for in the resumes they received. They told the students to highlight their achievements instead of simply listing down job functions and to be careful about grammar and spelling mistakes in their cover letters.

Indeed, this was a useful talk for our students and most of them said they have enjoyed and benefited from it.