By Sakshi Gupta:
An internship is a learning experience for a student before actually stepping out in the world of high work load. It helps the student to receive mentorship, supervision and training but more valuable is the knowledge gained from the experience. Good grades and extracurricular activities are looked upon favorably by employers but they are not enough. According to the 2001 Job Outlook Survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers say that the perfect candidate is a graduate who brings relevant work experience to the table. This experience is mostly gained through internships.
An internship is surely a way to add glitz to your resume and to get foot in the door with a potential employer, but internships also
- Provide an opportunity to get a ‘test-drive’ of the career you have chosen.
- It also helps in getting the gist of different fields, if the chosen internship is not your actual career option. For instance, a student of engineering gets a completely different environment when working as an intern for a journalism company.
- It helps us to learn things on a broader perspective and also helps to put theoretical learning into practice.
- Today, to build up a good career is not just based upon getting good grade in your chosen field but it is actually about how much you can implement from what all you have learn and what work experience you have already have even if your grades are not all that flashy. So, internships are a great approach to get that required work experience.
- Internships can build connections within a career field- through interning, students can build their professional network which can be invaluable in today’s job search. When starting a job search, it’s important to know that 80% of jobs are found through networking. In fact, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 2008 Experiential Education Survey, employers reported hiring 70% of their interns.
Few good internship programs in different fields are listed below:-
- Engineering internship– The best of the engineering internships are provided by the great Google. Google being the best example for the development in the field of technology, is able to meet all the demands which an engineering intern would be looking forward to. All interns receive ongoing mentorship and training throughout their time at Google. The learning includes weekly talks given by various Googlers, leaning about different products and groups across the company.
- Internships with an NGO– Teach For India, a nation-wide movement for all the collegiates and young professionals to teach in low income schools, is the most famous internship program under NGO fields. It helps in prunnning the natural abilities and furnishes leadership quality for educational equity. It helps the interns to transform their lives along with the lives of children in their classrooms. An emerging NGO, Protsahan offers fantastic opportunities to work in the development sector with street children and marginalized women with art and information and communication technology for creative education and skill development.
- Journalism/Media Internship– The media industry is getting bigger and bigger by the day. The boom in social media and independent journalism platforms is an example of how this sector is bound to grow in the next decade. A number of journalism based groups on Facebook such as Media Movements and Media Jobs Daily helps people find opportunities in this field. Even Youth Ki Awaaz runs a work-from-home online journalism internship program.
- Architectural internship– India is a market where architectural practice is emerging and growing, Destindia is the best internship option in the field of architecture. They help in getting the work experience for the future architects by taking them to the core areas of India, rich in architectural buildings constructed in the era of the Mughals and a few of the time of the British as well.
- Medical internship– Experiential Learning International (ELI) is a world famous organization for internships for pre-med students, now also available in India in Chennai and Madurai. They don’t over-burden the interns with medical responsibilities, but the interns actively participate in health outreach activities like health camps, dental check-up camps, audit nursing and also health education camps which are really important for the students stepping in the field of Medical.
Have more points to add? Feel free to pitch-in in the comments section below.