With internship experience, you can smoothly transition your way into your professional career. Employers prefer candidates who have live industry experience than candidates who have theoretical high grades and knowledge. Why internship is important: Taking internship programs will give the confidence to face your professional interviews as well as industry entry-levels easily. Being a young professional, partaking in internship programs will help you lay down a strong path into professional careers. Successful completion of internships will bring more value to your resume. The more experience you get the more valuable you are to employers, it's as simple as that.
To better understand, we have put together some pointers that will summarize everything you need to know about internships. We have emphasized on why internships are essential for your career growth, and how it benefits you. Let's take a look.
20 Reasons Why Internships are Important for your ensuring Professional Success
You Stand Out
Employers can get thousands of resumes from young professionals and from those who are straight out of college. With internships and live industry experience, you stand out. You stand out from the crowd of people who have good GPA's. The preference will be given to those who have prior industry experience. With no previous experience, employers have to spend time and resources to train from scratch. Instead, they like to choose potential candidates who are skilled as well interned previously. Put yourself in their shoes and who will you choose? The one with grades or the one with good industry experience?.
Your Resume looks Strong
With prior industry experience, your resume looks strong and un-avoidable to your employer. Internships programs by you add high value to your overall skill-set. It doesn’t matter if your internship is for a few months, a few weeks or a whole year. The emphasis is on your experience and industry knowledge. It brands your resume stronger, and preferable than those with grades and GPA’s.
Internship shows your Commitment
As we said earlier, it's not a matter of time. It can be for two months, three months or a full six months; your successful internship period shows your commitment. Employers will get to know your commitment, efforts, and performance that you have given to complete the internships. It is also a chance to show to your employers about how serious you are in your career and not because you are here just for a job.
Your Successful Internship period shows your employer that
You have sat through good days and bad days well.
You have shown very good commitment without quitting in the middle.
Knowledge and hands-on experience you gained.
Enhanced skills.
Reveals your sincere efforts.
It tells that you will have no problem in approaching people and getting work done.
Employers look for good commitment from young people who often find it difficult. Your successful period as an intern will be the best example you can give to show your real commitment to your employer. With a good interning record your employer will be more confident in hiring you.
You Gain Knowledge
It is self-explanatory. You gain real knowledge and experience when you put all your theories to the test. The best way to do so is by attending an internship program in your line-of-interest. Being an intern, you will gain real perspectives about how the industry functions. You will understand what it takes to fit in. You get to apply what you learned theoretically to good use. The experience and lessons you learn as an intern is valuable than educational grades. Of course, grades are important but they can help you qualify to a certain extent. What it takes to stand out from the crowd is to get live hands-on experience through your internship. Internships in your chosen field will give you the confidence you need to pass the entry-level jobs. And soon, you can efficiently fit into full-time positions.
Smooth Transition into the Industry with Intern Experience
If you are taking an internship in your chosen field, you will get a clear idea about what it takes, what it needs, and how it functions. It gives employers the confidence that you will smoothly transition yourself into the industry. It shows that you can do well in terms of coordinating with people as you have experience in it. By interning with different people, the employer can see good communication skills, team-building, goal-setting, and other positives. Employers will understand that you can gel easily into the workplace.
Good Team Spirit
Different people gathered as interns give a wonderful chance to learn about team dynamics. Employers are looking for youngsters who have the quality to build a great team and also be a value-addition to a team. For instance, if you are an intern in a design studio, you will probably work with multiple persons from multiple fields like color coordinators, sketching, designing, fabrics, etc., You get a chance to build team dynamics here. It helps you coordinate work as well as people together to get the desired output. This quality is more than enough to convince your employer about how good you are with people. At the end of the day, being good to people at work is all it takes for a good workplace.
Industry-Specific Internships
All major companies, brands, and even start-ups provide internships. Freshers, straight out-of-college people, and even employers are offered internships. You can choose according to your interest or related to your chosen fields. Upon completing your internship you will gain considerable industry-specific knowledge. It gives you an upper-hand in further looking for jobs or to qualify for full-time there. With good industry-specific internships, you can do something on your own.
For Example, Many startups are from people who have been interns in their field for some time, then moved to full-time and gained knowledge. Your 'course of action' during and after completing your internships is up to you. But don't forget that, industry-specific internships are always a value-addition in the resume.
Financial Help
Most of the internships are paid which is a double benefit; you get to learn and get paid as well. Internships aid financial benefit to some extent if not very big. But we can also find people who are interested to just learn. They don't mind if they don't get any pay. Either way, you won't come out empty-handed.
Door to Opportunities
Internships offer doors to multiple opportunities. You can get a chance to see if any further lines of interest will help you gain a stronghold on your career choice. You can broaden your skills. Your good work can pull clients even in this starting stage. Your salary can become better compared to other entry-level candidates. With the right opportunities through internships, you can make a note of how you can see yourself in a few years.
Easy Entry-Level
Employers prefer candidates with internship-experience because it will be an added advantage for entry-levels. Lots of people apply for the same entry-level job, but the ones with prior experience through internships become the top choices automatically.
Easy to move to Full Time
An internship is another way of talent-filtering that companies do. Upon completing your internship period you have brighter chances of getting hired full-time. Employers will see your performance and people-skills during your course of time. If everything checks out well, the job can be yours in no-time.
Networking/Contacts
Doing an internship is a great way to build networking and contacts. Building contacts, clients, and good professional networks are not easy. It won’t happen overnight. Internships are a great way to do so. As an intern, you may get a chance to meet top professionals, business heads, and other management people. Meeting those people during your work, industrial visits, or related to your projects can be good for you. You can even get a chance to say about your interests, innovative ideas, and your capabilities. You can for good opportunities through professional networks.
Interns Learn Real Industry Environment Culture and Ethics
Stepping as an intern in the industry, the first thing you learn is how the work culture and work-ethics are functioning. Learning and adopting the workplace culture will be good for you if you like to build a career out of your internship in that company itself. Wherever you intern, you will get the experience of how industry/company functions, how the work ethics are, how the people are, how everything functions, how the management works, etc. It is essential to know about them. It helps a smooth transition in case you are hired full-time.
Good Mentoring
The chances of finding a good mentor for your professional career are high during your time as an intern. You get to meet so many professional people or experienced personalities who know all the ins & outs of the industry or company’s landscape. Your mentor could be from one of them. Internships can open many doors of opportunities like this.
Abroad Internships are added advantage
Besides work, Interning abroad can give you a wonderful experience on the whole. It gives self-confidence like never before. Your adaptability will increase. It can open multiple opportunities, and explore different lines of interest. You get the chance to learn about work cultures, meet diverse people and build good contacts. It can be a life-changing and improving experience for you. Furthermore, your employer will find it very interesting and will have no second thoughts about picking you.
Helps you find your Niche
While interning, you will be able to judge your areas of interest and future line of work easily. If you are struggling to find your niche, partaking in an internship and see what works are a very good way. Short-period internships are a good way to see if this area is what you want or some other. You can narrow your choices down and pick one that finally works for you.
Gain Real Experience
There's a lot of difference between studying something and doing the same thing live. That experience is what an internship provides to you. Being an intern, you get to see the live industry experience that others miss. Apart from grades, your knowledge and skills are put to test here. They are put to use. You will learn a lot about yourself and what your capabilities are. You learn new things. You meet some wonderful people. You can sharpen your skills, enhance your performance, broaden your perspectives and see what happens. This live experience will always be a notch higher than the theories, studies, and grades.
Boosts your Confidence
Interning is a great way to build confidence. It brings discipline and professionalism. It gives a chance to bring goodwill and good-rapport with co-interns. Getting paid boosts your financials. Interning your way into the professional world will give you a good landing. Completing a given work through skills and good work ethics will bring a sense of achievement, and satisfaction. Interning gives your confidence a great boost.
Time Management Skill
By interning, you learn early about the concept of good time-management. You will learn to work effectively in a stipulated time and deadline. You will know how to handle pressures, and manage everything in time. It's one of the important benefits you get out of interning. Managing time and being on-time are good qualities you need to become a good professional.
Incorporate Good Personalities
Your professional life is different; it needs a different kind of ethics and qualities from you. Doing an internship will help you get a perspective on good work ethics. By meeting different people and working in different areas, you will realize the impact of adopting good behaviors, and conduct. The internship period will give a chance to learn all good things as well as a chance to incorporate all good personalities in you.
By now, you would have understood the importance of doing an internship for your professional career. It is a great way to launch a professional career smoothly. The experience you gain from your internship can become a formidable tool to decide your course of action. This list of 'why internships are important' will help you gain a good perspective on how you can shape your career. Especially to young people and college freshers, an internship makes your journey a smooth ride into the big professional world.
Why internships are more important than ever before?
It's a time where everything is challenging including jobs, degrees, and line of work. The need to stand out from the rest is becoming a necessity to thrive. Internships are a great way to sort things out. Employers prefer candidates who have live industry experience than those who present high grades or GPA. Companies are also using internships programs as a good way to filter talents. On the whole, the importance of an internship today has never been important than ever.
Where to find internships?
As we mentioned earlier, all top companies, manufacturing industries, brands, and start-ups are offering internship programs. Major colleges offer internship programs too. People are looking for interns everywhere. You just have to choose the right area and look for it. If you have your niche, then look for internships offered by companies/people/studios which are in your niche. If you want to start a professional career, look for internship programs offered by the respective companies. We hope that it will be easy for you to figure out things in terms of internships as you know your field-of-interests better.
What better time to take them?
It depends upon your line of interest. It depends upon companies that offer internships programs. Most people prefer their summer internships, but it is not stipulated to such alone. Companies can put up internship programs any time, so be on the look for it. If you are preparing yourself to move to job-interviews, then it is better to finish your internship before that so you can give a strong resume. If you are in college, you can choose your internship period by your curriculum, and time available. Preferably intern during your college time or before your degree since internships can give you extra credits.
Final thoughts:
Being young is a good time to try new things and look for your forte. Internships are one such way to stand out from the crowd, learn your line of interest and begin your professional career with a stronghold. We hope that the importance of doing internships that we discussed throughout this article will be of good use to you.