Summers rigged with internships, weaponize you best!

Evolution- be it biological, intellectual, academic or professional is always experiential in nature. Meaning; we take steps, make a mistake, learn, improvise and advance. Let's take the example of education- you first go to kindergarten, then junior school, middle school so on and so forth.

But when in college it's fairly easy to forget the gravitas of getting job ready through alibis of newly formed friendships, "academic pressure", home-sickness and most importantly unwillingness. I'm talking about internships. Whether you want to get into a PhD program at CalTech or work in management consulting after undergrad or grad school, it's absolutely important to work through your summers at different organizations and bolster your aspirations.

How do you know how's the world out there? Secondary nature leisure reads on Quora, Medium etc are as good as your coefficient of grit. So, act. Right from first year, students especially in top tier institutions like BITS/IITs etc find themselves in intellectual doldrums of choices/directions. Seeing seniors headed towards an MIT, or a McKinsey, or an IIM in the country- it is not unusual for juniors at these elite institutions to feel energy deprived after diverse thought sprints on what they'll be doing after graduation.

Another segment of students: at the-not-so branded/elite institutions feel the chills of ending up jobless, again seeing most seniors (mis)leading paths. Objectively both problems have different solutions, as they cater to wholly different ambition, student and environment strata. But the subjective approach to unlock both mazes is through internships. This subjectivity also needs to be standardized because scoring an internship for an IITian or a BITSian or someone from a Stephen's is often times way too easier in comparison with students from Tier-2/3 institutions, whose brands aren't well recognized.

Let's get this clear, point blank, why do internships, lots of them? Assumption- start early, super early:

• Direction: You want to get into a flagship role at an early stage startup or matriculate at a top university for grad school, right out of school? Do that first internship during your first year and feel the chilled sprinkles of wintry shower. You might perform exceedingly well and love the job or absolutely polar. Now you know, in the minuscule universe of your experience if you are good at that (this could have been an academic or corporate internship). Second year summer, repeat the area of work by changing the industry (or not) to see whether your previous assumption(s) hold(s) true. Basis previous experiences intern at more places till your final year and ZERO IN. Now you got direction, backed up by esoteric experience on what to do with your career just next.
• Network: Interns aren't really the worms in the corporate food chain, they are quite literally the most sumptuous feeder. Meaning? Internships will ricochet you to all possible employees/hierarchical levels in an organization, depending on it's size, so that amplifies the probability of meeting different (right) people from different functions. You meet and form connections with the ones you like! Let's say you're into marketing and you hate your summer job but apparently keen on the strategy team's work. As an intern you have the opportunity to cross-volunteer and bump into different people. Knowing someone from a different team will facilitate in giving you a free taste of the work and next time leveraging your contact you can get an internship/job in the domain of your choice. Now you literally know a variety of people who have guided you and can help place you in areas of your interest(s). This will keep growing with time and companies and this intangible, array of connections is really really powerful, especially for college undergrads who have to missile up through competitions.
• Professionalism/Communication: It's okay if you can't script an effective email or orate smartly an idea/concept in your junior years at college. Don't get deceived by the collegiate shelter and comfort zone, the world out there is on toes to strip you to your weakest, if you haven't prepared. During an internship (much like a full-time job) you get to write and communicate through your mails in a corporate setting, with a cushion of safety because you're training. Emailing or speaking ; too much or too less, too cold or to warm gets rapidly titrated and shapes your communication. You start to understand when people are too busy or irritated and put things accordingly for maximum output. These qualities are invaluable for a professional, and grasping to these early on can be lethal. So through your internships you can under safety nets develop this crucial success marker.
• Grit/Maturity: You've passed the entrances with flying colors, got 9 GPAs.. That's fine! Failure often hits when out of comfort zone. At workplace nobody really cares how much you got in your 1st semester or what your JEE rank was. If you fail to deliver the competitor analysis or the deck that was asked for, you're done! In reality there will be hundred such iterations asked for mercilessly. This develops the grit of hitting the bulls eye and perfecting on areas you like. Each failure however grunt, makes you sit down again and redo. This process, in life, broadly is severely helpful. Personally for me this learning, metamorphosis of approach helped me better my GPA at an accelerating pace. For you this can manifest good, not only in corporate setting but at various other facets of life.
• Expedite your way into the top echelon, of the undergrad race: I went to undergrad at BITS Pilani. I have a lot of friends who went to the top IITs. The competitive scenario at these institutions is utterly cut-throat. To mar a math olympiad guy, there's a physics olympiad gold grinning from a distance. The 9 pointer in Mechanical, secretly waiting to apply for BCG has a 9 pointer in Electrical competing him. The captain of Tennis team is chased by the Athletics team champ for the Schlumberger job. These attributes are definitely very important, but how can you lure the employer to really like you (a CV page) more? How can you make yourself more employable? Internships not only make you a professional: imparting in you communications skills, grit, practical concepts etc but actually make you job-ready and attractive on that piece of paper. You have worked across marketing on 3 summer jobs and have learnt practicalities in-and-out. How powerful is it to pitch yourself for that marketing job? Internships and relevant ones really put you ahead of the competing crowd. If nothing, it makes you better prepared compared to not have done a single internship. BIG VALUE-ADD to prospective employers.
• Job!: This can be an extrapolation of the points, above. As you near your final year the internships develop another angle. For employers this (internship) is the most frugal approach to trial test their future employee! You might not even need to sit for placements or job hunt if you got a PPO (pre-placement offer) from a summer internship in which you just worked. Or better you can sit for your placements, visibly confident and crack your dream job, because you already had one offer in hand, hatched a year back.

No the above points, apply well to students who haven't been to tier-1 institutions too. Just that getting an internship on the first place gets a bit harder. So next..

How to score an internship and dynamics of it? Assumptions- Dream big, have goals forming.

• Network: Unlike a job, internship application is not a chicken-egg problem. There's always a start, the shackles of background and experience requirements are fragile. So reach out and create your first start even if you are in your first semester of undergrad. If you're are from a top tier college your alumni are scattered through most companies at leadership roles. The fun part is that often times these people, because of their demanding schedules and more due to your insignificance (rightly so for a first year bookworm kid), will ignore all reach-out requests- be it Linkedin connection requests, messages or mails through your university email id to impart that alma cordiality. Keep trying! Cold call, cold mail, ask for referrals, connect with recently graduated seniors or just cold leads. Many people will connect for sure. But keep networking. Getting referred your way through is often, the most effective route.
• Linkedin: Networking subset, but deserves a second mention. Day 1 into your college, start a Linkedin account. Prioritize it over the incessant smoking breaks. It's that important. Start connecting, start reaching out and swell your network size. Be smart about whom to connect. Don't send a connection request to every MD/VP title that you see. Understand what internship you want, what area you'd like to work in and reach out accordingly. Interns in bigger organizations don't really report directly to the C-suite guys. Understand that as an undergrad junior you'll be reporting to an Associate or Manager level guy. So tailor your networking spree and improvise over time. Reach out to relevant people, only.
• Research: At junior or even senior years of college it's at times not possible to set in stone what you'd absolutely want to do, hence the whole point of interning. But however evolving, at every phase you should have a plan. So research the *beep* out of it. What area, what domain, sub-domain, which companies, what role in a company etc have to be thoroughly researched. Willingness to work in healthcare is good, but which side of it? What role? What scope? Will you find fitment as an intern with the role you are seeking? Because when you make the contact and reach out, the person on the other side should be able to see the precision of your ask. That doesn't leave him with: "I like healthcare, give me a role with your company!"
• Get some startup experience: After having worked with 2 global companies who are leaders in their domains, I can vouch for the fact that startup experience is lethal! It's like that concept booster booklet which absolutely makes you exam ready. Let's say you have been crunching summer jobs at big brands in Operations. That's appreciable and definitely helpful. But the same function in a startup can absolutely set your concepts and leanings on fire.
• Gear your internships towards a thread-able story: First internship with Lokheed Martin in Avionics, second internship with IBM in data analytics, third with ITC in marketing, fourth with a startup in content writing etc.. Never works. If you are interested in business make sure your internships are aligned along marketing, BD etc in an industry preferably so that the employer who sees the paper (You) can read a story flowing. That'll help you make the best career move, understand business or research depending on your interest and help the employer in recruiting.

So keep applying, keep interning. Hope this helps candidates find best possible jobs and employers, get snugly fitting talents.