Hello ladies and gentlemen, I Hope you are striving to achieve success in your life. In this article, we will look at the importance of internships in your college. These are the formal programs that provide practical experience for beginners in a specific profession or occupation.
Table of Contents
What is internship?
It is like a professional experience for any student before starting their career. It basically gives you the direction of how to proceed when you will get a job. Not only that, one can also explore their interests and learn many new things from these kind of opportuities. It’s like an opportunity for a career exploration and development. It also plays a very vital role while getting selected for job interviews.
Importance and Benefits of Internships
hey can be paid or unpaid and at the same time related to your field of study or interest. Employers frequently offer internships for a short period of time and then may provide full-time work offers (which are not mandatory) based on their assessments of individuals through internships. There are part-time interns and full-time interns. Part-time interns may or may not offer flexible work hours. Full-time interns are usually in-office or sometimes remote one also. Now, let us go deeper into it and understand the significance of internships and opportunities for professional growth.
First, internships offer a platform to exhibit the skills you have learnt through theories. It integrates classroom theory and knowledge with practical applications. So, we can say that internships help you apply the academic concepts you have learnt in a professional setting. Surveys show that internships in college translate into successful outcomes after graduation because employers rely on resumes with relevant work experience (volunteer work, actual job experience, or as an intern).
Internships help you in planning your career better and provide opportunity for boosting one’s skills which is required in jobs. You can change the trajectory of your career by choosing appropriate internships. Internships also allow you to learn from your mistakes early in life. They can save you from repeating those mistakes as an adult and facing disastrous consequences.
Second, internships can help you build a professional network even before you graduate from college. It’s a very big opportunity for a student. If you think about it, it is pretty cool! You can connect with professionals and gain valuable information from them and have opportunity to advance your career. Internships also help you in getting positive referrals for your future endeavours in jobs. You can also help others progress in their careers by sharing information. You can also learn from the people you work with by observing them, which can help you improve your time management skills, work strategy, choosing the right tools or applications, and much more.
Third, you can also learn from your mentor, from whom you may get beneficial feedback related to your work. Everyone needs mentors for guidance in becoming successful. Internships provide this opportunity for college students to get connected with experienced mentors. Colleagues and mentors help in character-building during internships. While working as a trainee, the interns learn characteristic traits like integrity, commitment, collaborative work, and many more.
Most employers value these ‘people skills’ along with technical skills during the recruitment process. Internships can also help you know yourself better by getting out of your comfort zone. The ancient Greek proverb ‘know thyself’ reminds us that knowing our limitations is the beginning of wisdom of any kind. Internships provide the golden opportunity to understand your strengths and weaknesses better. Further, it will make you envision your career goals with clarity.
Fourth, internships provide you with a ‘competitive edge’ over other competitors for jobs. Employers want college graduates available to work immediately (from the first day after recruitment) over those who need training before starting their work. Hence, they are more likely to shortlist candidates who have done relevant internships than those who lack prior work experience. Hence, it is imperative that you gain work experience early for building up your CV. Do not forget that the first impression is the best.
Internships may also allow you to claim college credits regarding which you need to refer to your university guidelines. Another significant leverage of interning during one’s college days is the financial aspect. Many internships offer a stipend. If not, employers follow up internship offers with job offers with a remuneration. This stipend can pay your college fees or supplement them. It would enable you to make early financial investments in your life and thus realize the ‘power of compounding’. Mr. Einstein has considered this to be ‘one of the most powerful forces in the universe’. We can also apply this concept to the exponential growth of skills in your career as you do internships early.
Explore Internship Opportunities
Now that we have established the importance of internships, are you looking to apply for internships? Here are a few websites for you:
Internships | Summer Internship 2024 (internshala.com)
Student Internship Opportunities 2024 // Dare2Compete
You can also apply for internships at premier institutes like IITs (Ex: Internship (iitm.ac.in) ), IIMs (Ex: Summer Internship Form | IIM Calcutta ), IISC (Ex: Summer Internship | Mechanical (iisc.ac.in)), among others. Also, various ministries of the Government of India (GoI) offer internships: MyGov Innovation | MyGov Internship , Internship | NITI Aayog, Internship Scheme | Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade | MoCI | GoI (dpiit.gov.in) , and many more exciting offers are available for you online!
Key tips to improve your chances of getting internships
However, you need not get disheartened if you do not get internships in the beginning. There are multiple references to people succeeding after getting rejected by employers. Take the example of the author of this article (I am referring to myself). Several organizations rejected my application for an internship before I got an internship in the company that I am currently working. Also, you can pay attention to the following points if your internship application did not make it to the ultimate list of chosen candidates:
You have a poorly written application – There may have been grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and incomplete answers in your application. Restrain yourself from plagiarism by not copying and pasting text from the internet. We can tackle this issue by using several tools, like Grammarly and Prepostseo. You can also see videos for writing better resumes and interview answers on YouTube.
Your resume is incomplete – Important details like education, skills, projects, work samples, and other information may be absent from your profile. You can solve this by partaking in more competitions, hackathons and volunteering work to build up your resume.
Competition -Many other candidates could have applied for the same internship that you have applied for, thus competing for it. We can tackle this issue by following the mantra ‘control what is controllable’. Do not worry about things beyond your control, but start working on things within your control.
Your contact details are outdated -Ensure that you update your contact details regularly. You should include the latest email address, phone number, or other contact information in your resume.
I hope you found this article useful. Thanks for reading!
Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is S. Deva Vikaas. I am from Chennai. Currently, I am pursuing my Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from the College of Engineering Guindy. My fields of interest include marketing, poster designing, content writing, and management. I believe in the values of hard work, resilience, and in having a growth mindset.