The invisible power of internships

When we are at the entry portals of our careers or entrepreneurial journeys, we often have ‘hope’ as a clear virtue or attribute. There is a sense of accomplishment in every endeavour and imagination soars high and expectations know no bounds. Often the reality of a work place is different from the rigmarole, a young mind bargains for. Does that mean we need to teach the young to temper their aspirations? Well, a good alternative is to provide them an avenue to experience some of it themselves.

Internships have been around from the ancient days. The process of working intensely and assisting the ‘masters’ has been the credo of many a profession and skill in the past. The modern day version of internships for professionals is a route often explored and now made mandatory in many institutions. The process is always well meaning and hopes the student gets the best of a ‘corporate experience’. At times the corporates too don’t see the ‘light’ of having interns. We often hear the laments of interns who complain that they got was warmed-over projects, company propaganda, and lots of social events, where they were but an extra pair of hands.

But a few measures on the side of the intern and the institution can easily make the this process rewarding for both entities.

A clear plan for internship: Look at each project from the lens of a clear step by step roadmap with clear milestones and deliverables. A lot of ‘action and movement’ does not necessarily mean ‘work’. Interns should think through some of the activities with a quizzical mind and not be afraid of questioning what is happening around

Bridge to the organisation : This is a great opportunity for the intern to evaluate the organisation and understand the inherent culture – ‘ the informal way of – how things work here’. For the organisation , there is no better time to check the cultural fit of the individual to the company ethos. In most cases, it is not the technical knowledge that are lacking , but the sheer fit of the person in the organisation.

Internship as a ‘prototype’: This is also an opportunity to put your skills to test. Use some of the frameworks, used in the cases studies and experiments in college work? What is the real life challenge of some that theory? It is a lot better to put the frameworks to use on paper than reading about them in textbooks and literature.

Internship as a ‘finishing school’ : We often hear about how some of the fresh graduates and post graduates are ‘unemployable’. It is often a combination of our teaching methods, dearth of faculty who have the empirical knowledge to embellish theory with practical examples and the lack of motivation for the students to apply their minds rather than pick theory by rote. Internships give you the opportunity to observe a working entity , the ‘invisibles’ of people at work , the deadlines and timelines and not the ‘school boy’ overnight warfooting mugging up !

Internship – a platform for skill building: Internships are the best platform for skill development. A robust internship network can do leaps and bounds for building skills than most skilling schemes.The recent spate of policies like DDUKVY – Deen Dayal Upadhaya Kaushal Vikas Yojana and the PMKVY – Prime Minister’s Kaushal Vikas Yojana , are evidence that the government realises this aspect and have made interesting provision fo not just skilling but employment.

At the end of the day, internships and an ecosystem that promotes internships will positively improve not just employability but also give the right fillip for employment !