Young Singaporeans build internship, entry-level job trackers to close opportunity gap

SINGAPORE – Raffles Institution alumna Ace Yip, 18, created ’Sup (short for “what’s up”), a career portal for students and early professionals after she had to send more than 400 cold e-mails before landing a law internship.

She said internships are crucial for students hoping to enter prestigious law schools, but such opportunities are often harder to come by if one does not have the right connections.

Yip added that existing job portals such as LinkedIn and Indeed are often tailored for more experienced professionals rather than young graduates entering the workforce, so she saw the need for another platform dedicated to supporting younger applicants.

After posting an open call for developers on her social media account, she managed to form a team of five.

They wrote code that scans company websites from different industries for new job and internship openings. These are compiled and listed on ’Sup, which was launched in July 2025.

Yip and her team were among some young Singaporeans who are building their own digital platforms to make internships, mentorships and entry-level roles more discoverable for students navigating an increasingly competitive jobs market.

One frustration Yip encountered was recruiters’ use of applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter resumes and rank candidates based on keyword matches.

“ATS is like a black box for students. A lot of them send in their resumes, but they don’t know how they’re being evaluated,” Yip said. 

To solve this problem, her team reverse-engineered the ATS by developing an AI-powered feature that helps students tailor their resumes to the job descriptions when applying for jobs on ’Sup.

The portal has an average of 9,000 weekly users from Singapore, the US and India, said Yip.

“We are constantly pushing feature fixes to improve the website every single week. I hope in the future we can help not just students, but also mid-career switchers who are looking to pivot into different industries on our platform too,” she added.

Meanwhile, Oxford University economics student Yicheng Li, 24, decided to build tracker.sg after seeing that many students lacked access to information about scholarships, enrichment opportunities and competitions.

His motivation dates back to his junior college days at Hwa Chong Institution (HCI), when he offered free online classes for underprivileged students.

“When I was speaking to these students, I realised that they had the grades and ambition, but a lot of them didn’t have access to the opportunities I had simply because HCI had a really strong education and career guidance department,” Li said. 

“When we talk about meritocracy, whoever’s the best should get the opportunity. If students are being excluded because they do not know these opportunities exist, then we have a very big problem here,” he added.

To address this gap, Li and three other friends wrote a script to compile online courses, internships, competitions, and volunteering opportunities across many organisations. These listings can be found on tracker.sg, which was launched in May.

Li hopes these resources can help students discover their passion and build a good portfolio for university applications.

Another young Singaporean, Jack Chen, a third-year business analytics undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, noticed that searching for internships can often feel overwhelming.

“Many students apply to countless internships without knowing what companies are looking for or how to improve. The process can feel unclear and isolating,” said Chen.

The 25-year-old added that reaching out to strangers on platforms like LinkedIn can feel awkward, and advice from professionals may not always be relevant for students. 

This inspired him to launch OpenMentor in July 2025, a platform where undergraduates can seek advice from seniors on how to write their resumes, prepare for interviews, build side projects and gain relevant industry knowledge. 

Offline, Chen and his team of five also organise networking and fireside chats, featuring speakers from ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, and entrepreneurs like Adam Huh Dam, a 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia honouree, among others.

Many of these events were funded by the team, although they have also collaborated with companies like Notion, an online workspace platform.

OpenMentor’s mission is clear: connect students with seniors who have recently walked the same path. That is how students can benefit from the most useful and practical advice, Chen said.