INTERNSHIP- a pastime or an excellent mechanism for growth?

I am writing this post just to convey my experience (mixed with some of my friends’ as well) about how an intern, if valued can do miracles.

A general perception, when a summer vacations come is to do an intern. Irrespective of the interest, passion, goal, a student today wants to do an intern. It is followed by one of the three instances

1)      A student who passionately pursue his interest, work hard in his intern and end up with a PPO (pre placement offer, for those who don’t know ) , a research paper, and sometimes an offer of Phd. Or MS from the same university.

2)      There is second category of students who join an internship only because their friends are doing it, and moreover they assume that their certificate of that intern will do wonders during their placements and there is no harm visiting the firm (place of intern) once in a week. It can be a good outing as well. Moreover, they would be able to brag about it if their firm is good.

3)      These are those students who doesn’t even care to join an intern and works on the fundamental of jugaading (arranging) a certificate. They are least bothered about the company or the kind of work it does. Moreover, it is not difficult to arrange training report from some friend or senior or internet. 

I would consider the second and third type of students as a single lot along with the first type of students as the second lot. Now let’s explore their condition at the time of placements where I would like to specially stress on the fact that, the company in a rare case will do the effort of visiting your expensive folder with well placed certificates. The only paper they may have with them is your CV. This eliminates the highest held purpose of your intern- your certificate. (Reaction of most of the students who belong to second and third category: “Ohh No!!! I just bought a certificate folder worth Rs 300. It all got wasted. If I had known this before hand then I would have bought a cheaper folder and had surprised my tongue with delicious taste of Dominos Pizza”).

Now, when type 1 student encounters a question from the interviewer regarding his intern, the answers seem pretty accurate as the person has actually worked on the topic, but when a similar question is fired on type 2 students, there comes the problem. Obviously as the intern was fake, similarly fake were the answers. Now let me describe a hypothetical situation of interview room when all three kinds of students are sitting in front of panel. Interviewer asks following simple questions about training and within no time he will be able to find truth.

1.       What is the nearest metro station to the company?

2.       What is the name of the HR manager?

3.       Can you explain the route to reach company by car?

4.       Can you tell me few companies located in the vicinity of your company?

5.       What advice would like to give to company in order to improve their service and quality?

Now these five questions are pretty simple but all three candidates will not be able to answer them. First students will be able to answer all the questions. Second candidate will be able to answer first three answers and fourth one only if he had observed the surroundings properly. But the third candidate will not be able to answer single question.

Now I need not describe what will happen after this interview?

You can always say any random answers to these questions but my friend, interviewer is not foolish. He has been taking interviews for so many years and if, by any chance, he happened to know the details about that company then…. (I am laughing imagining your situation). Let me remind you that they have been recruiting students from before the time you were even born.

I would refrain from mentioning my personal instances in this post (will write that if got a good response on this :P ) but would like to mention some of the commendable success stories of some of my friends who really made the most out of their intern.

A friend of mine from IIT was offered a job based on this work in his intern and moreover was referred to one of the universities abroad for his further studies while other was able to publish his works in one of the international journal. There are no intentions to justify anything and I am not taking any stand through this post, but would definitely want to advise my juniors that an intern is something you should opt for only out of your interest else there is no point because you do not gain any knowledge and moreover your certificate will also be useless.

So friends you still have time. Study and work hard in your internship. You will learn so many things which you cannot learn sitting at home and chatting with friends on FaceBook. The scope of internship is not limited only to college exam or placement Interview but it will help you in understanding the corporate world and culture better.

Click on the link to know How to apply for internships to universities and colleges?