Internships help understand real work

Internship can be mutually beneficial to both the aspiring students as well as the corporate entity. In case of students, they will gain valuable experience while the company will get an opportunity to groom prospective full time employees. Students can test the water before taking the plunge into a profession. 

“Internships is essentially a learning curve for students. It acts as a mechanism to give students insight into the field they have chosen to pursue. Most students who approach us for an internship do it out of passion. However, nowadays, we encounter many students who do it only to get a certificate. We do come across one or two students who are passionate and put in the extra effort to learn on the job,” says William Francians, from Ajax Enterprises, a tech start-up. 

Many companies take on interns as a means to identify prospective future employees.

“In many cases, we even offer jobs to students who excel during the internship period. The internship makes students mentally aware of what is expected from them in a professional setup. It eliminates the need to provide training once they graduate,” added William. The internship process in India is underwhelming when compared to other countries. 

According to Mahesh Soundararajan, a PR executive, “In the United States, internships last for a duration of up to six months. Students will have ample time to get a comprehensive understanding of the various departments in the organisation. In some cases, the students will also be paid during the internship. This gives them the incentive to go the extra mile. In India, internships usually last for up to two months in which time students will only get a rudimentary understanding of the organisation and the tasks that they will have to perform.” 

Ramachandran Sriram, who studied in SRM University shares his experience of interning at the National Informatics Centre, New Delhi. His decision of doing an internship while studying was to gauge whether he possessed the necessary skill to succeed in the industry. “I wanted to have some field experience to make it clearer for myself whether I was actually suited to the line of study and whether I was equipped enough to handle the professional life,” he said. 

Ramachandran realised that there was more to being a working professional than the information provided in textbooks. 

“More than just applying theoretical concepts in practical applications, it showed me how the computer science field is far away from what is taught in colleges. From the technologies in use to the nature of work, there is a world of difference between what we learn versus what we have to use,” he added. The experience that Ramachandran gained from the internship helped him to mentally prepare for the corporate world. 

“The internship was definitely beneficial, as it prepared me to enter the professional phase of my life and be unfazed by the rigours, thereby saving myself the bedding-in time otherwise graduates need to get accustomed. I thought I had a purely technical aptitude, but the internship showed me that techno-managerial work was better suited to me,” he concluded.