By Anubhav Das:
Today, every graduate, be it an Under-Grad or Post-Grad, a science grad or commerce grad, an arts grad or a law-graduate, everybody and if not everybody, at least most of them are in a search of a handsome job as soon as they step out of their colleges. With this new trend of commercial education has emerged another new line of earning while learning is the field of Internships. An Internship is a system of on-the-job training for white-collar and professional careers. Generally, the internship works as an exchange of services for experience between the student and his or her employer. It can be paid or unpaid.
\Major student community in India pursues an internship with the motive of adding value to their CVs which will in turn fetch better jobs. An internship is a very good way of adding productivity to both the parties. Employers prefer interns as they can get their work done through them at minimal costs i.e. stipends. This is for the reason that when a student looks out for an internship, money is not the prime driver generally and he is least bothered about the stipend he will be paid. He rather focuses on the quality of the job that will be offered to him as it will add value to his learning and enhance his academic skills. Furthermore, another benefit a student can derive from internships is networking. A strong network in the corporate world will help him in finding jobs of his choice when he steps in as a fresher in the world of corporate employers.
Now, after realizing the importance of an internship in your academic and personal development, next question to be answered is where to do it? The decision of taking up an internship should precede this. A thorough knowledge of your field of interests is most important as it will help you in deciding the field in which you will look forward to search an internship. It is worth noting that, not all people do it for academic purpose and some also do it for their personal satisfaction; for example some people pursue internships in NGOs just because they are inclined towards social service.
Ok, deciding your interests is followed by the question of finding the most suitable organization to do it. Fortunately, today almost every organization India, be it a well-established conglomerate or a new startup, has realized the importance of interns and has identified the same as a crucial part of its organization structure. When it comes to our part to decide for an organization, some basic checks should be done as to the nature of organization, a research about its work culture; if it’s a startup then it is advisable to do a background check on the founder/s and some of the projects it has undertaken recently.
Going for an internship marks the beginning of your career and also your first encounter with the industry, so it must be completed with utmost care. Coming to the job profile which is most important, it should be noted that many companies offer internships in the same work-area but the quality of work profile is different and that can make huge difference so a good check on the same must be done. If possible, it is advisable to take a word of mouth from your seniors or friends about the organization and then approach them accordingly. Next is the money quotient, generally a paid internship should be preferred to a non-paid but such should not be the case always as other factors should also be considered. Last but not the least, a detailed self-check should be done as before stepping in to the work culture of the industry, you should be mentally prepared and should not have any confusion in your mind.