#3 reasons why companies prefer candidates with internship experiences
Internships are not a very prominent part in many engineering colleges. According to the AICTE 2017 survey, less than 1% of graduating engineers have done an internship. However on the corporate side of things, Internships are a preferred mode of recruiting by the employers. If students don’t get a pre-placement offer, the experience they gained through the internship surely helps them through the placement process.
So, why do companies prefer candidates with Internship Experience?
#1. 2 months is a better time to judge a candidate than 30–45 minutes:
A typical interview spans somewhere between 30–45 minutes. This time is hardly enough for a company to judge whether the candidate would be a good fit to them not just capability wise but also culturally. A 2-month time period gives recruiters enough time to see the cultural fit as well as the capability fit of the candidate.
The time spent during the internship also means that the candidate also gets a hang of the work environment and they also get a chance to check whether this would be a right work environment for them.
These above factors would mean that if the candidate is offered a job and he accepts it then the chances of him staying with that company are higher.
#2. Experience in the real world:
Companies, especially product companies, prefer the candidates with real project experience. Though academics do provide candidates with exhaustive theoretical knowledge, companies prefer candidates who have worked on real-life problems especially in a corporate environment. This is where they put their theoretical knowledge to test. Working in the corporate world gives candidates the idea of how it is to work under pressure, importance of timelines and exposure to the corporate etiquette.
#3. Candidates are considered enthusiastic & serious about their career:
Imagine 2 sets of candidates one set who learn what is taught in the college and the other who apart from learning what is taught also goes out of their way searches for internships available, attends interviews cracks one of the interviews and puts his skills to use during the internship. Which candidate would you prefer to come work for you? Obviously it’s the second set of candidates. Going out of their way to do an internship talks about the enthusiasm of the candidates to learn and succeed in their careers.
Other benefits from the internship:
- Internships also provide a great chance for the students to network with various people at the organization. And if the student is not getting a job directly at that company the network he builds can be instrumental in helping him/her find a job.
- Internships would also mean pre-placement offers. Companies would surely hire students if they find them valuable to their organization during the internship.
Internships not only help a student get placed early but also grooms them for the corporate life. Hence, encourage your students to pursue internships.
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