This student completed 8 internships in under 5 years of uni, and this is how he did it

An internship is designed to help students gain valuable work experience, and can be seen as a rite of passage during their educational journey.

Generally, students complete between one to two internships during their university years.

TikTok user Jerv.is, however, isn't cut from the same cloth.

He completed eight internships within the span of four and a half years as a computer science student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). 

Earlier this month, the 25-year-old posted a TikTok clip sharing how he managed to serve his internships while continuing to thrive academically.

@jerv.is

This is how one of Amazon’s leadership principles resonates a lot with me

♬ original sound - jervis - Jervis

Jervis headed to different types of companies for internships, ranging from Shopee to BMW.

At his final internship with Meta, he stated that he was earning $5,700 a month working as an enterprise engineering intern.

This did not include the $4,000 per month in allowances and life benefits worth $670 that he was also bringing home during that time period.

Impressive as it is, Jervis mentioned that "one of his best semesters" was when he completed a full-time internship at Amazon. 

Not only did he thrive as an intern (by snagging five Amazon Web Services certificates), the computer science student aced his modules and achieved a 5.0 GPA.

On the fitness front, he also managed to hit new personal best in the gym.

Just do it

Jervis feels that his productivity levels shot through the roof as he learned to adopt one of Amazon's leadership principles, a bias for action.

In case you're wondering, Amazon's leadership principles are a set of values that form the backbone of the company's culture.

These principles are used daily to guide how their workforce thinks, acts and communicates.

The bias for action principle resonated most with Jervis and adopting it in his daily life has done wonders to his productivity levels.

He shared that, being a bit of an overthinker, there's a tendency for him to overthink when his plate is full.

When in that overthinking phase, Jervis admitted that he "always ends up doing nothing" instead.

So what he did instead was to have a plan in the morning.

"Just trust in the plan that your morning self made and not overthink about it across the rest of the day," he said.

This mindset shift helped him boost productivity levels and not linger on inaction and overplanning.

But even with such a mindset, eight internships in university is quite a feat.

He also mentioned that he graduated with a Master of Science (Technology Management) on top of his Bachelor with Honours.

In the comments section, netizens wondered aloud how Jervis was able to juggle between both his internship and academic commitments.

The fact that his lectures were recorded helped as this allowed him to study at night.

Furthermore, his work was remote so if he wasn't required to attend meetings, Jervis could do his exams during that time.

"I think with things going remote, we are no longer confined to fixed timings. The entire day is now available to do your tasks, be it work or school," he shared.

AsiaOne has reached out to Jervis for more information.

ALSO READ: Breaking the dog-eat-dog cycle: Amazon intern shares tips on how to ace a tech company interview

amierul@asiaone.com

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