Internship trends

‘What you make of your life tomorrow depends on today’s planning.’ In today’s competitive corporate world, carving a place of your own is not an easy task. Landing a good job is more than a day’s toil – especially for college students and recent graduates. Spending week after week on scouring online job portals and polishing cover letter often renders no result at all. What you actually need to do is, get an internship!

A recent survey shows that 69% of companies with 100 or more employees offered full time jobs to their interns in 2012. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a Bethlehem, Pa. non-profit that links colleges with corporate, recently found this in a survey. The recent trends affirm the fact that internships have transformed into the ‘new interview’ in the job search process.

Evolving nature of internships

With time, internships have broken all boundaries and gone global. Today interns move from country to country and try their hands on various kinds of jobs. Educational institutes and organizations are actually professing cross-cultural internship, as this is valuable in creating a global work culture. Economies have changed with time and so the need is felt for skilled workers with deeper understanding of global market. Organizations have special internship programs designed for global interns.

Feeling the pulse of the time, internship platform- HelloIntern.com has specially designed programs like the Global Internship Program. This program provides a chance to foreign students to work with companies in India and APAC region. It is through such programs that interns get to experience the global work culture, which develops them into better professionals.

Why interning is essential for professional growth?

Climbing the corporate ladder is not an easy task, given the fact that millions pass out each year and only few land a good job. However, to get a good job is not that hard, if you know the tricks! In order to climb up, it is important to take one step at a time, rather than scurrying up the ladder. And the first step is that of a good internship.

Study by NACE shows that on average, interns spend 42%of their time doing jobs like analysis and project management and just 25% of their time on clerical work. This clearly underlines the importance of internship work and the amount of learning it entails. No wonder, the reason why most of the students are absorbed by companies while they are interning. The amount of time and resources spent on training an intern pays off, if the talent is retained by the company. And this trend is on the rise, thus showing the importance of internship for further growth in life.

Internships have some common salient features that make it absolutely imperative.

• Rendezvous with the professional world

Internship is a fertile ground to build excellent rapport with your peers and seniors, so grab every opportunity to enhance your relationship. Let us look into some techniques that can be useful:

• Find common ground – It will be good if you find somebody belonging to your home town, so even miles away from it you will be happy to chat up about your precious place. So when you meet someone new, find out things which you have in common; perhaps attended the same school, love for the same sport. Any common ground can help build rapport.

• Focus on your appearance – Imagine you are a sales representative and making a client visit to a plant supervisor. While you are dressed in an expensive suit, the supervisor might just be in normal jeans and a flannel shirt; this instantly creates a barrier. You should always dress to connect with people. Dress in a proper way for every occasion.

• Don’t forget the basics – Keep the basics on your finger tips – shake hands firmly, look people in the eye(shows honesty), be sincere, smile.

• Identifying one's own strength and weaknesses

It’s during your internship that you get to learn more about your strength and weaknesses and learn from it. It is always handy to keep a count on them. How to do that?

Maintain a learning book during your internship, where you list down the work you do and also the feedback that you get from your manager for it. All the appreciation received sums up to your strength, while all comments and critical analysis sums up to your weaknesses, rather areas of development. There, your list is ready!

• Developing talent

Internship gives you an opportunity to follow your passion and hone valuable skills to be retained for lifetime.

• Keep an eye for the training calendar of your organization, shared by the HR team. The training calendar will give you a clear picture as to what trainings are scheduled to be held and if you wish to attain such trainings, just enroll!

• Always share your thirst for knowledge with your peers and seniors, so that next time they attend a session or discuss something pertaining to it, they ensure that you are in it.

• Meet up and increase your rapport with employees skilled in the talent you wish to gain, learn as much as you can.

• Understanding teamwork and organizational process

Learn the basics of professional life during your internship.

• Read the HR handbook , company rules and follow it

• Be a part of team meetings; and yes, never be late for a meeting

• Learn about the different processes of the company, from managers and peers

So just play your cards right and get geared for a great and successful internship!

About the author:

Malavika Jaggi, is the Business Development lead with HelloIntern.com. Holding a degree in Management Studies, Malavika specializes in marketing and business development. Her deep rooted knowledge of the education system and its growing needs have helped develop HelloIntern.com into a successful internship platform, just after its formation. HelloIntern.com now has 25,000+ registered users and the number is increasing. Prior to HelloIntern, Malavika was associated with Microsoft as the Business Development Manager.