Imagup General Magazine 2024
An internship allows you to be a short-term employee to provide some work experience. Internships are offered by companies and other organizations primarily to students (but virtually anyone can be an intern) to get some entry-level exposure to a particular industry or field. An internship is as much of a learning experience as it is work.
These programs are specifically designed for people (mainly students) to have a well-rounded and multifaceted experience at a workplace to better understand the ins and outs of the field of work they are interested in.
Variety and Firsthand Experience
The best experience comes from internships because you get to do a little bit of everything. Many offices will give you the opportunity to see and experience the different roles and responsibilities that people have in certain areas of a company, business, or practice. You also get to see and experience working life from different perspectives because you are constantly interacting with others, whether you are given the temporary role of a receptionist, a filer, are in a shadow program, or even the coffee guy.
As opposed to what we normally see in films and tv shows, internships are not toxic environments. An internship allows you to take time to understand your role, tasks, as well as the industry. These programs are created because they want you to leave knowing more than you came with, and this is something you cannot experience in a lecture hall. This is exactly why showing enthusiasm by asking questions and having an eagerness to learn is what can significantly make you stand out at your internship.
It is a great opportunity because you are able to learn from the best during your time in the program. Supervisors will be watching over you and working closely with you on projects so that you have someone to look up to, learn from, and reference a goal or position to work towards. They will give you tips on time management, organization, and how to produce the best work.
During an internship, you will learn many valuable new skills from the people you work with, as well as things about the industry and life that you would never have learned sitting in a crowded lecture hall.
Potential Future Workplace
It is so common for undergraduate students to graduate, receive their degree, and not get hired within the first few years or so for a job in their field. One of the major reasons that stop employers from hiring freshly graduated individuals is due to their complete lack of actual experience in the field. Most of us have spent the last four years of our lives holed up in our rooms or the library, relentlessly studying in an attempt to pass every course in every semester.
The sad truth is that all students lack experience. The only way to get it is to work part-time alongside your degree or to do an internship. Even if you are choosing careers that don’t require a degree, doing an internship can be crucial to your success because the vast majority of employers look for some kind of work experience. If your potential employer sees that you have completed an internship, it shows them that you have some experience in the field.
This gives you an edge over the hundreds, if not thousands, of other undergraduates applying for the same job. It also looks very impressive on your resume and whether you participated in an internship program is definitely something that employers look for. Not only does an internship give you a great advantage in getting hired after you graduate, but it can also potentially secure a job for you.
Many internship programs are created to scout future employees for a company. If you perform well and stand out during your time doing the internship, you may have a good shot at getting hired by the company after you graduate.
Networking
It is crucial to make a good impression at your internship. Firstly, they might hire you themselves, but even if they don’t, if you have made a good impression, you now have friends on the inside. Today, finding work is more about “who you know” than “what you know”. Networking is perhaps the most important thing today, and internship programs are one of the best and most practical ways for you to create a strong professional network.
If you are charismatic and hardworking, you will most likely build personal connections with the supervisors and mentors you meet during your internship. These connections you make are going to be valuable relationships that can help and guide you as you pursue a full-time job. The more positive and hardworking you are, the more likely these supervisors and managers are willing to recommend you for positions in either their company or another one.
References generated from an internship are very advantageous in your job searches because those mentors will have known you personally and saw your work ethic and how you contributed to the company. Their recommendations can speak to specifics, describe your developing skills, and how you have been prepared for employment. Getting a strong recommendation from a person in a position of power at a company, business, or practice can make or break the chances of you getting hired.
College Credit
This may not apply to every internship in every college, but it is still worth pointing out. Many colleges around the world have internship programs for their students. Colleges have connections to other institutions as well as their alumni globally, and these connections allow students to have internship opportunities that directly relate to their major.
Plenty of colleges also offer internship opportunities for credits, meaning that you could potentially do an internship that gives you firsthand experience in a specific field instead of taking a class. Offering students credit for their work encourages them to participate in these internship programs. It is highly beneficial to opt for this instead of taking another class because you typically end up having to apply your knowledge and learn a lot more working for a semester rather than sitting in a lecture hall.
Depending on both your school and degree, it is possible that doing a summer internship, for example, is mandatory. Many humanities and social science degrees highly recommend summer internships, if they are not outright mandatory for some college graduation requirements. These internship programs most commonly run in the summer and are for actual credits, just as any course during the semester would be.
Even if your degree or your university does not require you to participate in an internship program, it is still a very wise idea to do one for your future’s sake.An upcoming platform for finding internships is Lensa which focuses on developing the recruiter’s skills to match their perfect training.
