I'm Abdelhakim KHAOUITI, an engineer graduated from ENSIAS. In this blog, I want to share the lessons I learned from the final year internship (PFE) search, through 8 real scenarios that I either lived through or observed around me. From resumes to interviews, impostor syndrome to choosing between multiple offers, each scenario is followed by the concrete lesson to take away from it.
Scenario 1: The Resume, Too Many Opinions Kill the Resume
The situation
Ali is in his final year. The internship search period is approaching. First question: where to start? A resume. Ali prepares a first version and shows it to his friends.
- Ahmed: Why do you put hobbies on a professional resume? Remove that.
- Moussa: Nowadays you need an ATS-formatted resume. And definitely no photo.
- Fatima: Colors on a professional resume? No, it should be black and white.
Ali no longer knows what to do. He ends up creating five different versions of his resume, one per piece of advice received, without knowing which to keep, torn between YouTube, his friends, and his professor.
The lesson
Simplicity is the hallmark of a great mind, but more importantly, standing out starts with the resume.
Why aim for a resume identical to your classmates'? You don't have the same profile, the same dream, the same personality. Here are the most important points to pay attention to when building your resume:
1. The title: who are you?
Most students simply write "GL Student" or "Engineering Student". The problem? It tells the recruiter absolutely nothing. They don't know what you do, what you love, or what you're looking for.
Try something specific instead: "Software Engineering Student, Web Developer, AI Enabler". A title like that immediately makes the recruiter want to ask questions, and that's exactly what you want: to open the conversation.
2. The profile (summary)
This is the most underrated section of a resume. Two to four lines at the top of your page summarizing who you are can change everything. Recruiters spend an average of 6 seconds on a resume. If those lines are well written, they'll read the rest.
Example: "2 years of backend development experience, 30+ projects using Django, Spring Boot, with a passion for automation and distributed systems."
This kind of summary gives a clear picture of your profile and creates a natural desire to read the rest of your resume.
3. Soft skills: not a checkbox
Everyone writes "leadership", "teamwork", "communication". But what does that actually mean for you? The recruiter has read those words 50 times that day.
The rule is simple: every soft skill on your resume must be backed by a concrete fact. If you write "leadership", prepare a specific example where you guided a team, made a difficult decision, or resolved a conflict. No word without proof behind it.
4. Hobbies: you are not a robot
A resume without hobbies is a resume without a human behind it. Many candidates remove this section thinking it's not "professional". That's a mistake.
Drawing can suggest a calm, creative person full of ideas. Sports can show discipline. Reading can indicate intellectual curiosity. These small details give the recruiter an idea of who you are outside of code, and that makes all the difference when two technical profiles look similar.
5. Your resume, your space
Your creativity guides the resume, not other people's opinions. Don't copy your neighbor's template, don't blindly follow YouTube advice.
A highlighted award, a competition won, a personal project that stands out, that's worth more than 50 projects stacked on top of each other. That award or project becomes your entry point in the interview: the recruiter will ask you questions about it, and that's your chance to shine on a subject you master perfectly.
6. The general rule
There are no fixed universal rules for a resume. The advice you get from friends, professors, or the internet often contradicts itself because each person speaks from their own experience.
Your resume simply needs to answer two questions: who are you? And why you, and not someone else? If your resume clearly answers that, the format, colors, or layout don't really matter.
Scenario 2: The Fear of Failure, or Why We Stop Even Trying
The situation
Reda is in his final year. He has a decent resume, a few projects, but every evening he scrolls through LinkedIn before bed. He comes across posts from alumni: "Proud to have joined [Big Tech Company] for my internship", "3 internships in 2 years, Big Tech, thanks to the whole team".
Reda thinks: "These people seem to have done everything before even starting. I have nothing special. If I apply there, they'll see it right away."
He starts avoiding ambitious offers, and only applies to two or three "more accessible" companies, "just to be safe". One of them responds. Interview. Reda is stressed, freezes on a simple technical question, mumbles an off-topic answer. Result: rejected.
Reda thinks: "See, I was right. I'm not made for this. There's no point trying the other offers, it'll be the same everywhere."
He stops applying entirely for several weeks, while the internship period moves on without him.
The lesson
This scenario touches on two traps that often chain together: impostor syndrome, and generalizing after a single failure.
- LinkedIn is a showcase, not a mirror of reality. Nobody posts their rejections or unanswered applications. The recruiter isn't looking for "the perfect candidate", they're looking for a profile that matches a specific need at a specific time.
- A failed interview is not a verdict on you. An interview measures a one-time performance, not your worth. It's influenced by stress, fatigue, team fit, sometimes just recruitment timing.
- Failure is data, not a sentence. The real question isn't "did I fail?" but "what do I do with this failure?". It's free feedback, not a closing door.
- One attempt never represents all attempts. Many people admired today were rejected multiple times before being accepted somewhere. You need volume to have reliable data.
- Applying "small" out of fear doesn't eliminate risk, it displaces it. Fear didn't prevent Reda's failure, it just reduced his chances of success elsewhere.
A little anecdote to finish: remember when your mom used to compare you to your cousin? "Look at your cousin, he did this, he did that..." We've all been through that. But what we forget is that your aunt does the exact same thing: she compares her children to you. "Look at your aunt's son, he's like this, he's like that..."
It's a fake comparison. We always see others as better than us, but it's not the reality at all. Everyone has their own strengths, weaknesses, and pace. Next time you scroll through LinkedIn and feel small, remember that someone, somewhere, is looking at your profile and thinking the exact same thing about you.
Scenario 3: The Art of Conversation on Interview Day
The situation (real experience)
An interview with a manager at a major company that ended as a discussion about fish and their different species. A phone call with HR scheduled for 20 minutes that lasted over an hour after switching devices. An HR person who couldn't keep a straight face because the answers kept making her laugh. A manager's office where the candidate settled in comfortably and joked about waiting for their next interview at another company.
Nobody believes these stories, yet that's exactly the key. Look at how most people do interviews, like robots:
Typical interview:
Recruiter: What technologies do you use?
Candidate: I use this and that.
Recruiter: Have you worked on a project of type Y?
Candidate: No.
Question, short answer, silence, next question. A one-way interview will very likely fail.
The difference:
Recruiter: What technologies do you use?
Candidate: I use this and that, and by the way, I noticed you use technology Z a lot, that must be interesting, right?
Recruiter: Yes, absolutely... Have you worked on a project of type Y?
Candidate: No, but I worked on something similar that might resonate with you, a bit like what you do but on a smaller scale! Actually, I was curious about how you handle...
It's no longer an interrogation. It's almost a coffee break with a close friend: you listen, you talk, you inquire, you ask questions back.
The lesson
- An interview is a conversation, not an interrogation. The goal isn't to answer questions, it's to exchange. That's what transforms a cold interview into a real human moment.
- Always bounce back. Every answer is an opportunity to bounce back to the interviewer, showing genuine interest, not just a desire to "pass" the interview.
- Find common ground. A detail, a shared passion, an anecdote, it humanizes the exchange and stays in memory far more than a list of skills.
- Never memorize your answers. Prepare the substance well before the day, but never memorize ready-made phrases. A memorized answer sounds hollow the moment a question goes off-script.
- Why preparation changes everything. Like that moment when someone speaks to you in English on the street and you freeze even though you're fluent, it's a lack of mental preparation for the exercise, not a lack of competence.
A personal hack I used myself: when you don't know the answer to a question, don't waste time. Just say it honestly and move on. But when you land on a question you truly master, that's where everything happens. That's your moment.
Take your time. Breathe. Articulate well. Develop your answer with confidence, give details, examples. The idea is simple: the time you spend talking about subjects you master should balance out the time the interviewer spends asking questions. If you answer every question in 10 seconds, the interviewer will ask 30 of them and you'll inevitably hit topics you don't know. But if you truly develop the answers you're confident about, you fill the space, you show depth, and the interviewer has less need to dig elsewhere.
Scenario 4: The Hidden Trap, Competitive Programming
The situation
Lamya is a strong student: very good at web development, UX/UI, with solid DevOps and cloud knowledge on top. A major company responds and offers an interview. Then a new email arrives: before the interview itself, there's a first step, a competitive programming (CP) test. Three problems to solve.
Lamya: "What is this? I do web development, not CP! I'm not prepared for this!"
Lamya isn't alone. A huge number of students fall into this same trap, because yes, it is a trap, and you need to know about it to not get caught off guard.
The lesson
- Understand why this filter exists. Some companies require preparing dozens, even hundreds of problems just to filter candidates. If you get caught in this filter, your actual profile no longer makes any difference.
- "But it has nothing to do with the job". That's everyone's first reaction. Yet an engineer unable to solve a simple algorithmic problem raises questions about their real understanding of fundamentals.
- The real level of these tests. These problems are almost never at the level of major competitions. They're simple problems that seem complex because we don't solve them regularly in daily work.
- The real problem behind the problem. We no longer train ourselves to think through this type of logic alone, we use AI to solve everything instantly. On test day without assistance, that muscle is gone.
The only real solution: prepare in advance. This isn't a test you can improvise. Two useful resources: neetcode.io (more structured, interview-focused) and leetcode.com (the historical reference, broader scope).
Scenario 5: The Day You Don't Know the Answer
The situation
Youssef prepared well for his interview. The interview is going well, until this question:
Recruiter: How would you handle scaling this system if the number of users was multiplied by ten?
Youssef freezes. A few seconds of silence, and panic sets in. Rather than simply saying he doesn't know, he improvises a half-made-up answer, stringing together technical words that sound good but don't really make sense together.
"We could do some... microservice... with some... load balancing... and some... horizontal scalability... yeah, that's about it."
The recruiter, who knows the subject very well, immediately sees the answer is hollow. He says nothing, notes something down, and moves to the next question. Youssef never hears back from that company.
The lesson
- Not knowing isn't failure, bluffing is. A recruiter also evaluates how you react to the unknown. Bluffing is almost always detected, and it destroys the trust built up to that point.
- Saying "I don't know" isn't a weakness. It's a sign of maturity and honesty. The right phrase: "I haven't worked on this specific topic yet, but here's how I'd go about finding the answer..."
- Show the reasoning rather than the answer. The recruiter wants to see how you think. Turn a block into a moment of exchange rather than a dead end.
- A missed question rarely tips an entire interview by itself. It's not the missed question that costs the job, it's how you handle it.
- It can even become a positive. Turning the situation around by asking a question back shows curiosity, always better perceived than silence or bluffing.
Scenario 6: Choosing Between Multiple Offers
The situation
Yassine worked hard on his resume, prepared his interviews, even trained in CP. Result: he receives three internship offers at the same time, one well-paid with no hiring guarantee, one low-paid but with confirmed pre-hiring, and one highly specialized and well-paid. Yassine is lost, not from lack of opportunities, but from excess. Each person close to him gives a different opinion based on their own priorities.
The lesson
- Pre-hiring: criterion #1. Companies invest in their PFE interns rather than isolated juniors. An internship with confirmed pre-hiring is often worth more than a better-paid one with no continuation. Starting the job search all over again right after your defense is exhausting, better to avoid it if a solid alternative exists.
- Stay generalist. DevOps, Cloud, AI, everything evolves fast, and most companies apply AI rather than invent it. A fullstack + AI + data internship offers more flexibility than a purely specialized position. What remains constant: you will always be coding.
- Salary matters. The atmosphere varies little from one company to another. What really varies is salary, which pays the rent at the end of the month. Between two offers with equal workload, the financial choice is legitimate.
- Seek difficulty when you're young. Responsibilities and significant challenges accelerate learning. The real question: how to learn as fast as possible, right now?
- Know what YOU really want. Status, money, or peace, there's no universally right priority, only yours, at this precise moment.
- Istikhara. The most important point: pray, seek sincere guidance, and find inner peace with your decision. Don't overthink beyond a certain point.
- The right to change your mind. Confirming an offer then finding a better one 15 days later happens, and it's not disloyal. Companies work exactly the same way.
Scenario 7: Talking Without Proof Is Just Hot Air
The situation
Recruiter: Can you tell me about one of your soft skills?
Nadia: I have great teamwork skills.
Recruiter: Alright... can you give me a concrete example?
Nadia: Um... yes, I enjoy working in teams, exchanging with others, being a good listener...
The recruiter nods politely and moves to the next question. Nadia leaves the interview feeling good, she said what she needed to say. Except she proved absolutely nothing.
The lesson
Never announce a soft skill without proof behind it. Saying "I have teamwork skills" without a concrete example is noise, a ready-made phrase the recruiter has already heard 50 times that day.
The STAR framework: structuring your proof
Situation (the context), Task (the objective), Action (what you specifically did), Result (the outcome, ideally measurable).
- Proof doesn't stop at the oral stage. Many IT profiles have neither an active GitHub nor a polished LinkedIn, but a very curated Instagram. For an IT engineer, priorities should be reversed: a solid LinkedIn and an active GitHub that actually proves the announced projects.
- LinkedIn + GitHub + Resume are enough. No need for a portfolio or personal website to start, as long as all three say the same thing and everything is verifiable.
Scenario 8: "Why Our Company?", the Question That Reveals Everything
The situation
Hakim has a good profile, a solid resume, and applies to a dozen companies with exactly the same application. An interview goes well... until this question, almost always asked:
Recruiter: Why do you want to join our company in particular?
Hakim: Because it's a big company, well-known, with a good reputation, and I think it would be a good experience for me.
Recruiter: Do you have any idea about our recent projects? What we do specifically on the technical side?
Hakim: Um... not really in detail, no.
The recruiter understands within seconds that Hakim did zero research, and would have said the exact same thing at any other company. Trust is already damaged.
The lesson
- This question is never trivial. It instantly separates candidates who took the time to research from those who mass-apply without distinction.
- A generic answer = a generic application. The recruiter immediately understands that their company is, in reality, just one more line in a list sent at random.
- Research doesn't take hours. 15-20 minutes is enough: a recent project, a specific technology, a news item, a stated value. A single concrete element cited in an interview changes the candidate's perception entirely.
- Turn research into a real conversation. Instead of reciting a ready-made answer: "I saw that you work with [specific technology/project], and that's precisely an area that interests me because..."
- What it actually reveals. A recruiter is looking for someone who genuinely wants to work there, not someone who would accept any equivalent offer elsewhere.
Final Advice: Rizq Comes From Allah
After all these scenarios, all these lessons, all this practical advice, there is one truth that goes beyond everything else. As Muslims, we believe that the internship, the job, the career, all of it is part of the Rizq (provision) that Allah has written for each one of us.
You do your best, you prepare your resume, you train for interviews, you apply. But the final outcome is decided by Allah. And what is written for you will never miss you, and what is not written for you will never reach you.
Always remember what Allah says:
وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ
"And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out and will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him."
Surah At-Talaq (65:2-3)
وَمَا مِن دَابَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَّا عَلَى اللَّهِ رِزْقُهَا وَيَعْلَمُ مُسْتَقَرَّهَا وَمُسْتَوْدَعَهَا كُلٌّ فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ
"And there is no creature on earth but that upon Allah is its provision, and He knows its dwelling place and its place of storage. All is in a clear register."
Surah Hud (11:6)
فَقُلْتُ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ إِنَّهُ كَانَ غَفَّارًا يُرْسِلِ السَّمَاءَ عَلَيْكُم مِّدْرَارًا وَيُمْدِدْكُم بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ وَيَجْعَل لَّكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ وَيَجْعَل لَّكُمْ أَنْهَارًا
"And said, 'Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver. He will send rain to you in abundance. And give you increase in wealth and children, and give you gardens as well as rivers.'"
Surah Nuh (71:10-12)
وَأْمُرْ أَهْلَكَ بِالصَّلَاةِ وَاصْطَبِرْ عَلَيْهَا لَا نَسْأَلُكَ رِزْقًا نَّحْنُ نَرْزُقُكَ وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ
"And enjoin prayer upon your family and be steadfast therein. We do not ask you for provision; We provide for you. And the best outcome is for those of righteousness."
Surah Taha (20:132)
وَكَأَيِّن مِّن دَابَّةٍ لَّا تَحْمِلُ رِزْقَهَا اللَّهُ يَرْزُقُهَا وَإِيَّاكُمْ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
"And how many a creature does not carry its provision! Allah provides for it and for you. And He is the Hearing, the Knowing."
Surah Al-Ankabut (29:60)
Do your best, place your trust in Allah, and know that what is meant for you will come to you. Good luck to all.