Your future career starts long before graduation day.
Employers are always looking for the best and brightest to hire in their businesses. Many want their new hires to have prior workplace experience, and all of them are looking for individuals with the skills and knowledge to benefit their company.
College students who participate in internships consistently have higher rates of being hired and perform better in their new careers. An internship can jump-start your future and put you on the path to success.
Check out 5 reasons to intern:
#1: Apply Your Knowledge
We’ve all had the thought, “When will I ever use this?”
How many times have you covered a topic in class only to have it immediately dropped? Too often, important knowledge is memorized to pass a single exam and then forgotten.
Working with a company gives students opportunities to explore unique challenges and gives them the opportunity to use the wealth of knowledge they’ve gained in the classroom. Working with a team and designing creative solutions reinforces concepts that fall by the wayside during a semester.
The experience of using these concepts and applying them in real world situations is invaluable to future employers.
#2: Develop Your Skills
Colleges pride themselves on training and developing the talents of their students. But inevitably, some of that talent is lost in large classrooms. Schools simply don’t have the time to mentor all students to a professional level.
Internships help students pick up the slack, allowing them to grow and develop in ways Universities are not able to provide them.
During their time working for a company, students are continually improving their skills and taking on progressively more challenging responsibilities and projects. By the end of an internship, interns are more prepared to start their professional careers.
#3: Learn Your Craft
Universities do a fantastic job of teaching concepts and mechanical skills, but often fall short of connecting the two.
Internships provide the opportunity to develop a strong connection between skills and concepts, helping interns to turn knowledge into action.
Working with a company also allows students to interact with current professionals. These mentors give interns a unique insight into their profession of choice, sharing knowledge and techniques that they’ve learned.
#4: Build Your Experience
You know what you want to do with your life, right? Of course you don’t. You don’t have any experience.
The inner workings of a business can appear strange and mysterious to those who have never been part of one, and popular media is often the only window college grads have into how a workplace environment operates and people communicate.
This doesn’t help students decide where to work, or who for. The business landscape is difficult to navigate, full of strange cultures and practices. Internships give college students insight into what a company culture is and what kind of business best helps them perform with greatness.
#5: Become a Professional
College is an amazing time in a person’s life. You pay thousands of dollars a semester to an organization so you can imbibe knowledge in your pajamas after pulling an all-nighter “studying”.
The professors may be wearing dress clothes, but the vast majority of students definitely won’t be. This is because the students are paying the University, and not the other way around.
Higher learning, while fun, hardly does service to the requirements and expectations of the professional world. Some companies expect a suit and tie every day on the job, some companies require blue jeans and work boots, and sometimes you get to work from home in whatever you want to wear.
Professionalism extends beyond clothes into socialization, behavior, written conduct, and much more. Internships allow students to develop their professional nature and learn the expectations of the professional world.
Your Future is Brighter with Internships
Interning provides the opportunity needed to take your college experience to the next level and beyond. Connect with your school’s Career Services and jump-start your future today.
