What are internships?

Internships are short-term, educational employment experiences which allow students or new college graduates the opportunity to build skills and gain real world work experience. They are like a job in that you work for a company or an organization, but as an intern your employer understands that you are still learning. Internships will provide you with more direction and support than you would receive as an employee, but the pay is typically lower than an entry level position.

Some companies have more developed internship programs which may provide a variety of opportunities that are attractive to students and recent college graduates. For example, opportunities for networking, management training, chances to learn about and even work in a variety of departments, and even special outings and activities just for interns.

What Are the Benefits of doing an Internship?

The reality is your classes can only teach you so much. Being in a real work environment and completing the tasks necessary in your field can only be truly experienced in a professional work environment. Internships provide students with the opportunity to gain this needed real work experience and to build skills in their field. When surveyed, 91% of employers require work experience in the field before they will hire for an entry level position.

Internships are the key to future employment. In addition to building your professional experience, many employers use internships to screen future employees, and 56% of internships lead to full-time employment with the company. Over the years I have seen many students turn their internships into full-time career positions after graduation.

Further, having an in internship gives you the low stakes opportunity to work in your field, and to try out working for a specific company. Even if you don’t have a great internship experience, you will learn a lot. For example, you may learn you don’t like the day to day of this type of work early enough that you are still able to change your career trajectory; or you may find that you don’t like working for a specific company, better to know now so that you have time to explore additional employers before accepting a career position.

Internships are only available to students and recent graduates, thus, there is a limited time window during which you will be able to explore career opportunities in this manner. Internships aren’t available when you get older, so college is the perfect time to take advantage of this opportunity to build your skills in your field, and to gain valuable work experience while doing so.

Recent college graduates without work experience in their field struggle to connect their work and life experiences to how they will be successful in the professional world on their resume and in job interviews. An internship experience will give you specific examples of experiences and successes you have had in a professional work environment and will give you the chance to demonstrate that you can do the tasks expected in your profession.