In need of an internship | Diploma Information & Communication Technology

[Y2K]

Good afternoon my fellow forumites.

I come to you in my time of need...

Context​

I'm in my final year of this qualification and we're required to do work integrated learning (internship). Our lecturer for this module has a list of companies that are supposed to contact us for interviews and such but only a handful have had offers made and will start on the 1st of July.

I had a company whom I was liaising with since December 2021 and was informed by my lecturer that every potential company we would like to intern for needs to be approved by her as it is required by the department of higher education.

Eventually I emailed the company to find out whats happening, they told me they cannot employee me until I graduate in December so they can take me on full time.

With this knowledge I contacted the lecturer asking her for the official letter that we're supposed to send to companies we'd like to intern for. She sends me the letter and says that she thought I was "placed" with the company she spoke with??????????????

I had to explain to her that I contacted the company and as per their conversation with her they could not come to an agreement.

She's added my profile back to the list of students who still need to be placed but I have very little faith that anything will come to fruition without me actively trying to get hired. The rest of the people in my class is too complacent that they will be placed with companies

Actual reason for posting​

Anyways the whole point of this post is that I'm exhausting all my options, I send out about 20 applications per day that pertains to my field and matches a junior software dev position. If anybody is able to assist please dm me or comment down below.

The company needs to be operating in Cape Town.

I really do not want to graduate with 0 experience nor do I care for a simulated office environment that the university setup which would mean no real world experience.

Please assist!

 

[biometrics]

Listing your subjects and self taught skills would help. Can you code? Can you admin a Linux server? Etc...

 

[Y2K]

Listing your subjects and self taught skills would help. Can you code? Can you admin a Linux server? Etc...

Will do. Thank you @biometrics

 

[Johnatan56]

Is this CPUT, Inderlal? For us she only sent it out like the Friday before internships closed, it was a joke, since I started freaking out about it as got no feedback from any company she said she sent out to until that day, so I accepted another offer I got myself, and then didn't get a company I actually wanted (that ended up paying more). I turned out lucky with my position, would not recommend the company anymore as pretty much everyone good left.

The usual caveats apply, do not accept anything where they force you to work for them after due to e.g. allowing you to do certs, specifically EoH.

What you can also do (and I recommend doing this instead) is just a normal junior software dev position, just apply to full time stuff and say your degree as ending this year in your CV, everyone understands it, just also mention in the cover letter that you're completing this year (don't mention that it's needed as an internship till interview). That junior position will count as internship, internship is just working at a company.

Try applying to BBD Cape Town, they're in Century City I think, they usually are up for hiring new people pretty quick, see if you get lucky, they have a lot of good devs (though they are a software house and the culture did shift from pretty relaxed to time pressure and stuff, should be fine as junior still though, don't know the situation for the last few years anymore). They might decline though as usually Bsc hires, depends on personality/what else you can show.

For practice for interviews, do some leetcode, any position you apply to will force you through it with time pressure, don't worry about getting it right, just that your thought process is there. E.g. when I was hiring some uni grads we checked the actual code, hired the two people with 40-60% and didn't hire the 90% person because we could see that they just copy-pasted the answer without understanding (it's fine to copy paste, just make sure when you get to the interview, you understand it very, very well).

I'd also reach out to OfferZen if they can help you get a position or know companies that are hiring in CT as a favor, they'll probably decline but if you get lucky they'll recommend a place for you to apply at (decline as they earn money from commission from companies that hire you, for e.g. me that's a very nice commission they got so they'll go the extra mile, other friend they thought they'd not be able to place so they declined to take him on).

 

[Y2K]

Is this CPUT, Inderlal? For us she only sent it out like the Friday before internships closed, it was a joke, since I started freaking out about it as got no feedback from any company she said she sent out to until that day, so I accepted another offer I got myself, and then didn't get a company I actually wanted (that ended up paying more). I turned out lucky with my position, would not recommend the company anymore as pretty much everyone good left.

The usual caveats apply, do not accept anything where they force you to work for them after due to e.g. allowing you to do certs, specifically EoH.

What you can also do (and I recommend doing this instead) is just a normal junior software dev position, just apply to full time stuff and say your degree as ending this year in your CV, everyone understands it, just also mention in the cover letter that you're completing this year (don't mention that it's needed as an internship till interview). That junior position will count as internship, internship is just working at a company.

Try applying to BBD Cape Town, they're in Century City I think, they usually are up for hiring new people pretty quick, see if you get lucky, they have a lot of good devs (though they are a software house and the culture did shift from pretty relaxed to time pressure and stuff, should be fine as junior still though, don't know the situation for the last few years anymore). They might decline though as usually Bsc hires, depends on personality/what else you can show.

For practice for interviews, do some leetcode, any position you apply to will force you through it with time pressure, don't worry about getting it right, just that your thought process is there. E.g. when I was hiring some uni grads we checked the actual code, hired the two people with 40-60% and didn't hire the 90% person because we could see that they just copy-pasted the answer without understanding (it's fine to copy paste, just make sure when you get to the interview, you understand it very, very well).

I'd also reach out to OfferZen if they can help you get a position or know companies that are hiring in CT as a favor, they'll probably decline but if you get lucky they'll recommend a place for you to apply at (decline as they earn money from commission from companies that hire you, for e.g. me that's a very nice commission they got so they'll go the extra mile, other friend they thought they'd not be able to place so they declined to take him on).

I can confirm it is inderlal, looks like she has not changed since you were there.

Thank you for taking the time to respond and give your input, I did try offerzen as well but they turned my down because I haven't graduated yet.

Once again, thank you for the advice, I'll definitely check out BBD as well.

 

[biometrics]

So what are you looking for? Six months of intern type work for no pay?

 

[Johnatan56]

So what are you looking for? Six months of intern type work for no pay?

Must be paid, but minimum wage is fine.

Technically what a friend did is him and a colleague already started a business in 2nd year, then for internship his partner hired him in the business, technically is completely fine. He did the entire thing of getting clients, scoping requirements, building and deploying and hosting product. Only issue again is no intermediate/senior, so not improving coding skills outside of tuts and stuff, but that's generally fine, I came in a year later and we upped the quality of work once I brought in what I learnt, and he helped teach me that people are fickle since we had clients that completely messed us over and nearly sunk the business.

This info is enough to give away who I am quite easily, lol, all your lecturers will probs know who I am as I had a biggish impact, it hasn't actually been that long since I graduated my first degree there, yet I probs out earn all of them now (except two, who you should know if you're in software dev stream and actually talk to your lecturers ).

I can confirm it is inderlal, looks like she has not changed since you were there.

Lol, she's changed a bit, she's at least trying a little more to get into IT itself, still don't really like her or her attitude towards men, not sure if that improved, highly doubt it. She barely passed me in my interview for some reason, but I've not sat in an interview yet I haven't gotten an offer in and been able to negotiate a higher offer, she used to be quite out of touch for IT interviews. For a good IT company, never wear a suit, clean clothes though, you won't be negatively judged for a suit unless it's the second interview and they've told you they're casual. Don't be afraid to ask for a dress code for interview, companies will usually supply it.

 

[Y2K]

So what are you looking for? Six months of intern type work for no pay?

My apologies I know I've been very vague I will post info regarding everything in the morning. It needs to be paid, I don't have an issue if the internship is shorter/longer than 6 months so long as she approves it.

I know that the university had us sign documentation from BankSETA/InSETA regarding payment.

I'll provide more info first thing in the morning ultimately everything needs to be approved by this lecturer.

So once I find a company who would consider taking me on, I would pass on the company's point of contact to the lecturer and she negotiates on my behalf. If everybody is happy then the interview commences.

I want to be clear, I'm not only doing this because it forms part of our module, I'm doing it to gain experience in this industry. I quit retail/work to further my education and I intend on investing my time and probably a good chunk of money into myself so I can make something of myself, it's not enough just to be qualified anymore.

 

[Y2K]

Must be paid, but minimum wage is fine.

Technically what a friend did is him and a colleague already started a business in 2nd year, then for internship his partner hired him in the business, technically is completely fine. He did the entire thing of getting clients, scoping requirements, building and deploying and hosting product. Only issue again is no intermediate/senior, so not improving coding skills outside of tuts and stuff, but that's generally fine, I came in a year later and we upped the quality of work once I brought in what I learnt, and he helped teach me that people are fickle since we had clients that completely messed us over and nearly sunk the business.

This info is enough to give away who I am quite easily, lol, all your lecturers will probs know who I am as I had a biggish impact, it hasn't actually been that long since I graduated my first degree there, yet I probs out earn all of them now (except two, who you should know if you're in software dev stream and actually talk to your lecturers ).

Lol, she's changed a bit, she's at least trying a little more to get into IT itself, still don't really like her or her attitude towards men, not sure if that improved, highly doubt it. She barely passed me in my interview for some reason, but I've not sat in an interview yet I haven't gotten an offer in and been able to negotiate a higher offer, she used to be quite out of touch for IT interviews. For a good IT company, never wear a suit, clean clothes though, you won't be negatively judged for a suit unless it's the second interview and they've told you they're casual. Don't be afraid to ask for a dress code for interview, companies will usually supply it.

Lol, I'm sure if I ask Mr Rothman or Mr Naidoo they'll know exactly who I'm talking about. (Still have no idea who you are xd)

But... I will not pry as I consider myself to be discrete. Thank you for the words of wisdom, I will definitely make use of it.

 

[Y2K]

Listing your subjects and self taught skills would help. Can you code? Can you admin a Linux server? Etc...

Apologies for the late reply, this morning has been hectic and my group doesn't know how to use GitHub correctly.

I have attached the letter I received from the lecturer. I have also included the SAQA qualification documentation in pdf, here's a link as well directly to their website.

Coding Skills:​

Coding is not my strong point,

I am however a problem solver and can resolve issues with some help online, after I figure something out I never forget it.

Some of the technologies we've utilized throughout this course includes Java (Maven, test driven development/unit testing (JUnit), Exception handling, Spring & Springboot, JPA, Version Control - Git/GitHub) ,MySQL and Python.

Self taught skills:​

Linux & Server stuff​

I may not be an expert in Linux but I am proud of how what I've been able to achieve on my own. Linux was offered an elective (additional) module but it wouldn't make sense for me to learn something I already taught myself so I chose Blockchain instead.

• I fell in love with Linux towards the end of high school.
• I've taught myself to use Linux (LAMP stack).
• Installed, hardened, configured and maintained my own Ubuntu headless server (I run several VM's containing Windows & Linux so I can learn stuff without breaking the server )
• Had a minecraft and teamspeak server running for about 3 years.
• I'm familiar with UFW, port forwarding, ssh, bash and cronjobs.
• My router runs OpenWRT because the stock firmware is trash.
• I also use Arch on my laptop since I have no need for Windows and if I did I would just RDP into a VM.

​

Goals:​

After completing this year I intend to complete my CCNA and take on Harvards CS50 course, I'm interested in learning C and potentially Math/Physics as I believe we did not sufficiently cover data structures and algorithms in this course and want to improve my understanding.

 

[Johnatan56]

Sorry, I thought you were in software, networking side you should be looking at devops as a career path imho.
You should learn coding no matter what, all networking is moving to that, it's mostly scripting though.

 

[Y2K]

Sorry, I thought you were in software, networking side you should be looking at devops as a career path imho.
You should learn coding no matter what, all networking is moving to that, it's mostly scripting though.

You are correct, I am studying app development, first year was hell for me so I didn't end up making the cut for networking. My passion still there and I self study networking but my qualification is software.

I've been researching DevOps, in terms of coding I'm attempting to come up with my own solutions to problems vs just copying what some person does on YouTube as I feel like its a waste of time unless it's something simple.