Internships: The Secret Code To Unlocking Talent?

Mohammad Zeeshan Aug 13, 2021

It is never too late to discover your talent or passion for something. From Statistical Analysis and Data Reconfiguration to a Copywriter intern, Chandler Bing proved you can follow your genuine passion regardless of your age.

Importance of an internship

For students, internships are a platform where they can practically apply the skills they have learned at their college. A student needs to pursue an internship while still in college because it allows them to have an insight into what a particular career works like. It gives them the choice of whether to continue in the same field.

For one thing, employers overwhelmingly point to internship experience as one of the most important factors they consider in hiring fresh college graduates for full-time positions. Internships are believed to set the base for one’s professional journey and help students to discover their strong and weak points while working in a professional field at an early stage.

Figuring out what one wants to do

Working in an organization or a field that matches one’s interests is the best way to realize their passion. Some organizations hire interns despite their educational background because real talents are not limited to a textbook.

If a student has a passion for photography and is pursuing engineering, they can always create a portfolio of their best works from freelancing to receive internship offers from reputed organizations like Discovery, National Geographic Channel etc.

Also, figuring out what one wants to do through an internship can prevent them from choosing a job role that is ill-fitting for them.

Discovering skills

Interning at an organization can help one discover what they are really good at. For example, some may have a good knack for communication, while a few others can handle any technical work with ease.

In a LinkedIn Skills Report (2018), 57 per cent of people rated soft skills as being more important than technical skills. Skills such as communication, leadership, problem-solving, and teamwork can all be learned through an internship and utilized beyond that experience.

Working with experts

Working under the guidance of an experienced professional in the field can be a source of inspiration for the other person to turn their interest into a passion. To win constructive criticism from their mentor, one has to give out their best. This pushes them and helps in proving what they are capable of.

Getting pointers on one’s performance throughout the internship can help one develop and hone their skills. Therefore, it is believed that both personal mentoring and professional feedback are relevant to building one’s career.

Building a network

A huge benefit of doing an internship at a good firm is that one gets to connect with industry experts and seek advice. Throughout the internship period, one can make valuable contacts that can help them with their career prospects in the future. You can also build networks with the interns who work with you, who most likely will be fellow industry peers. If your work stands out, your mentor might even recommend you to the best in the field using their connections.

There are a plethora of internship opportunities around us. There are ed-tech companies that provide internship opportunities to their mentees as per the latter’s choice of field and organization. You can find plenty of them online. Now, most internships have shifted to a remote style because of the pandemic, where one can work from home at their convenience and earn incentives.