Doing an internship comes with a whole lot of benefits for your professional career as well as for the company.
Finding a job can be a challenge, especially if you don’t have experience.
Unfortunately, you need to obtain a job before you can gain experience.
Internships are a great way for college students, recent graduates or anyone considering a career change to obtain valuable work experience.
By doing an internship, you become exposed to many aspects of a company’s business to help you explore the work you intend to pursue full time.
In this article, we discuss the important benefits of doing an internship.
Continue reading to learn these benefits of an internship and find out how an internship can prepare you for the demands of today’s workforce.
What are the benefits of internships?
Here are some advantages of internships for students:
#1. Gain valuable work experience
One of the most important benefits of doing an internship is the hands-on work experience interns receive.
This experience is invaluable and cannot be obtained in a classroom setting.
Interns have the opportunity to apply acquired knowledge to real work experiences.
Also, they witness firsthand the day-to-day job duties they can expect to encounter in their chosen field.
In addition to learning the specialized skills of a particular field, transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, and computer proficiency are also obtained in an internship.
These lessons go a long way to fully prepare interns to enter the workforce upon graduation.
#2. Develop relationships with mentors
The most valuable mentor relationships often start with a personal connection.
This personal connection is such that enhances the experience for both the mentor and the mentee.
Working as an intern may allow you to meet a potential mentor naturally and establish a relationship that helps guide your career path.
In-person, you have the chance to reveal your personality and show deference and respect while seeking guidance and input.
An internship can create a situation where your relationship develops organically, even if you end up working elsewhere in a full-time position.
#3. Develop and refine new skills
Internships are an opportunity to learn and refine new skills.
You can learn a lot about your strengths and weaknesses during an internship.
That’s because internships allow for feedback from supervisors and others who are established in the field.
As a result, it offers a unique learning opportunity that you may not have again as a working adult.
So, embrace the mistakes you make as an intern and the many things that you won’t know.
Ask questions, observe, and take risks to get the most out of your internship training experience.
#4. Helps you to test and improve your research skills
If you are in the scientific fields, for instance, an internship might consist of assisting with research in a lab.
With this opportunity, you can test the research skills you learned in your college courses in a practical setting and meaningfully contribute to the important research the lab does.
Some permanent research jobs require this kind of post-education training.
Internship opportunities can help you decide what kind of lab work you would like to do.
#5. Explore a career path
Internships are a great way for students to acquaint themselves with the field they are interested in.
Some students begin college with a major or career path in mind and end up changing their minds later on.
This is because exploring is an important part of the college experience which allows students to settle for what they love.
Taking on an internship while in college allows students to work in their desired field, helping them decide if the field is right for them.
By graduation, students who interned are more likely to feel confident they chose the right degree.
#6. Access to a variety of tasks and departments
Another benefit of doing an internship is that it allows you to take up a variety of tasks.
While some internships, like lab research, might assign you to a specific task every day, other offices might enable exposure to people in various departments and jobs.
You may help senior management, sit in on meetings, complete small tasks for projects or observe the daily functions of the office.
In the end, you get to learn from a thing or two from each of these tasks and departments.
#7. Give yourself an edge in the job market
This is one of the most important benefits of doing an internship.
College graduates who already have some work experience in the form of an internship stand out to potential employers.
Internship experience makes a college grad more marketable as they usually require less training and can handle more responsibilities.
You may also receive a higher starting salary than those who do not have internship experience and are entering the workforce or starting a new career.
#8. Create a professional network
Doing an internship is an opportunity for you to network with professionals who are already in the field.
With this kind of relationship, you will not have a hard time getting a job.
This is because the most successful job searching usually comes from meeting others in your field who can recommend you for open positions.
And internships are a practical way to expand your job network.
The professionals you will meet might be the most valuable connection to your future jobs.
So showing curiosity, enthusiasm and willingness while interning can help professional contacts see your potential.
#9. Build a strong resume
Today’s employers usually look out for job applicants who have experience of the job openings in their company.
This valuable job experience from doing an internship enables you to fill out your resume with honesty and specificity.
After completing your internship, you can add the duties and projects from your internship to the experience section of your resume.
You will also be able to more clearly describe your objective for a permanent position since you already have a prior experience.
#10. Secure good references and recommendations
Doing an internship is one of the easiest ways to get references and recommendations from industry experts.
Besides using your lecturers and relatives as references for your CV, adding the names of professionals in your field will make you stand out.
The supervisors and mentors you meet during your internship can be a valuable reference for you as you pursue a full-time job.
The more positive and hardworking you are, the more likely managers are willing to recommend you for open positions.
References generated from an internship can be valuable in your job searches.
This is because those managers will have known you personally and seen how you contributed to the company.
They can speak to specifics and describe your developing skills and how your education prepares you for employment.
#11. Make money for yourself
Well, this benefit of doing an internship depends on the type of internship you got.
If you are interning in a place where you receive compensation for your work, then you will have much money for yourself.
In fact, many internships are paid which means you can gain valuable work experience and make money at the same time.
A paid internship will provide money to fund your college tuition and expenses.
#12. Easy transition to a permanent job
In case you did not know, after interning with a company for a while, you can turn your internship into a job.
Although, it all depends on whether your internship is a positive experience for you and the people you work for.
So, if that is the case, then you could be hired for a permanent position at the company.
Hiring managers often use internships as an interview process to determine which interns would be a good fit for open positions.
Internships can act as preliminary employment training.
During the internship, human resources personnel and managers can observe you in various situations to determine if you might be a valuable addition to a team.
This will help you to reduce some stress you might face in looking for a job without making internship contacts.
Even if that company does not have an available permanent position, you can still move on with contacts and mentors in your field.
#13. Build confidence
The transition from college to full-time employment can fill you with excitement, anxiety, hope and ambition all at once.
An internship is a good way to fill some transition time with the work you hope to do long-term.
It can eliminate some pressure of quickly finding a permanent job and help you apply the skills and knowledge you have been studying into a practical situation.
Internships can show you how a company develops leaders rather than just learning about it in the abstract.
You can observe excellent time management skills and make a note of those you want to emulate.
You may also learn about valuable collaboration and cooperation skills.
If you think of an internship as an extension of your education, you are likely to have a whole range of confidence-building attributes to apply to your future employment.
Conclusion
With these amazing benefits of doing an internship, I believe you are convinced to apply for an internship immediately.
The experience and the network you create is invaluable and will last for a very long time.
Please, share this article with someone so that everyone is encouraged to get this amazing experience of doing an internship.
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