Entering a software engineering programme but have no relevant background whatsoever.

Describe an exceptional achievement and/or lesson learned in your academic or work experience.

How would your experiences support your choice of programme(s)? What are your plan(s) upon graduation? (max 300 words)

As a Chemistry student in Singapore Polytechnic, we had to conduct weekly experiments. Most of them had to be done with lab instruments such as Universal Testing Machine, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Software is essential as it is how we interact with the equipment and it is how we obtain our results. Good software ensures that the end user should not have to deal with bugs or issues that might jeopardise the results. It also makes our lives much more efficient and convenient as we could alter the experiment parameters through software without manually adjusting the measuring instrument.

During my internship and National Service, I had other experiences where software greatly impacted my work. As a Data Analyst in Clariant, I assisted my supervisor with the manufacturing digitisation process where we converted all analog tasks to being fully digital and helped convert and prepare the data so that it may be presentable. I was an Admin Support Assistant during National Service, tasked with Human Resource matters. During both roles, the program; Microsoft Excel had shown me its flexibility and versatility. It allowed manipulating the data convenient and how I needed it.

Both work and academic experiences have inspired me to pursue a degree in Software Engineering as I would like to contribute to developing software that will be used in various different settings; from daily life to working environments. I also learnt that almost everything we do involves interacting with software; from ordering food, booking a ride, printing, surfing the web and much more.

Upon graduation, I plan to enter the industry as a Full Stack Engineer as it encompasses aspects of both a Front-End and a Back-End Engineer. I would like to get involved in the visuals, aesthetics and as well as the functionality of software engineering.

There is no exceptional achievement or impressive lesson learned in this presentation. These are normal and average on the part of a student, professional, or person in national service. These are not mentions that would leave an impression on the reviewer nor will it help your application moving forward. Since you do not have any relevant background, what makes you think that you will qualify for this program? Do you at least have a self-study reference you can use to take the place of these unimpressive information? Self-study would normally help you create some sort of personal achievement based on work experience. If not, I do not know how we can move you forward without any relevant background. Your studies need to be based on a solid and relevant foundation or accomplishment on your part. The university is obviously not looking for so-so students to enter the program, so maybe you should seek entrance into a different university instead that will not require the relevant background so much on the part of the student. Your background is more relevant on the user side of things, the course requires stringent coding experience instead.