An internship is an opportunity offered by an employer to potential employees, who could be students, graduates or even work-at-home mothers, to work at a firm for a fixed period of time. This gives them relevant workplace experience and they will be valued more by recruiters compared to the others. Apart from this, the career guidance they get during their internship will help them decide the career path that they would like to choose in the future. Another important reason why internships are great for a career boost is that the competition among graduates and job-seekers for jobs is increasing by the day. In this scenario, recruiters will always prefer those who already have practical work experience and industry knowledge.
An internship could be either paid or voluntary, and this could last anywhere between 10- 12 weeks. To get better insights into how an internship can help you as an aspiring professional, we spoke to Simran Malik, an intern working in the digital marketing team of Capillary Technologies. The company works for scores of clients and each from a different industry type. She finds the work quite challenging and exciting at the same time. Here are a few pointers we understood to be benefits of internships after talking to her:
Real World Experience
When inquired about what Simran has learned from the real world experience she got at her workplace, she said that she was excited to understand practical applications of all the digital marketing theories she studied in college. Simran got a detailed and practical understanding of how digital marketing works and how differently it functions for different industries.
In addition to studying the basics of digital marketing as part of her MBA course, she also did short online coursesto further her knowledge before starting her internship. She says that it was a great experience to witness first-hand all the knowledge that she gained through various sources getting converted into real work experiences. This helped her to develop more interest in the subject and motivated her to explore more.
Explore a career path
Exploring is an important part of the college experience, and internships are a great way for students to acquaint themselves with the field they are interested in. When asked Simran about this, she said that doing this internship reinforced her interest in digital marketing and she intends to continue working in the same field. Often students join college with a certain career path in mind, and end up changing their minds later on. Taking an internship helps students to understand what actually interests them.Improve your resume
Employers always want potential candidates to bring a good set of skills to the table. And, it is your resume that will speak about the skills you have. The stronger your resume, the higher will be your chances to be called for an interview. The skills you learned during your internship will surely make you stand out from the rest of the crowd. Employers are much more likely to hire someone who has an internship experience over someone who has a generic resume.
Interact and network with professionals
In the professional world, networking plays a very important role. We asked Simran about the things she learned during the internship and one of the most notable things she said was that she learnt how to interact professionally with people. She learnt work ethics and how to blend herself into the work culture at that particular company. She has been able to maintain contacts with a lot of senior professionals and this will surely help her in the long run. If she wills, these contacts can help her explore different career options in the future.
Time management
Working in a fast-paced professional environment will help you master the concept of time management. Simran says that she learned how to manage time much better than before and also how to achieve her targets on time. This makes an individual much more efficient.
Simran Malik did a 3-month internship with Capillary Technologies and was able to make the most out of these 3 months. She feels much more confident as a professional now and is ready to dive into the professional world. The internship has given her a lot of confidence and she suggests that everybody should do internships, no matter how short they are, before they can actually do their career planning.
The Glow & Lovely Careers (formerly known as Fair & Lovely Career Foundation) provides fantastic internship opportunities with reputed companies for women who are interested. These internships are provided under various fields including sales, engineering, marketing, web development and many more. Check out the right internship opportunity for you at the Glow & Lovely Careers.
