Why getting real-world experience is invaluable for pre-U students and graduates
Is interning really that important for a pre-u or JC student, and why?
In my first Career Preparation workshop in university, my professor revealed that in her previous job as a hiring manager, she wouldn’t look at a resume unless it had a minimum of 2 relevant internships. It was then that I thanked my lucky stars that I had at least one under my belt from before I started freshman year and now I have another one with CareerContact.
But this begs the question: why is getting real-world experience so important? As it turns out, the internship journey isn’t just about going on coffee runs or, as Grey’s Anatomy puts it so aptly, ‘doing scut work’, anymore.
Get an Introduction to Your Chosen Career Field
Taking on an internship or a part-time job in your chosen career field can help expose you to working life in that particular industry. While you carry out your day-to-day duties, you can observe how experienced colleagues make decisions, create and execute plans, and communicate a broader vision. You can also get a ‘feel’ of the organisation — maybe you’d like to return after your studies?
By interacting with professionals immersed in the field, and trying everything (you can even ask for a tour of their everyday work lives), you get a rare chance to look at your academic curriculum from a fresh perspective! This can give you an extra edge in either cementing or reorienting your choices in university, be it changing your specialisation, or even your course. Furthermore, you can ask your colleagues for advice on what trajectory you should take to launch yourself into the working world.
Develop Valuable Skills
Perhaps one of the most important things that you can gain from an internship is the development of soft skills such as teamwork, communication, and time management. These aren’t taught in school but are acquired from practical experience. Accept feedback from supervisors; this will teach you a lot about your strengths and weaknesses.
A good tip to make your internship worthwhile is to perhaps ask for guidance from someone who is willing to mentor you. If you are part of an internship program, your professors should be able to guide you through the process of finding a suitable mentor at your workplace. If you’ve applied to an external internship, remember to enquire about mentorship opportunities during the interview as organisations understand how important it is for new employees and interns to have a mentor. It is critical that you clearly articulate the qualities you seek in a mentor to ensure a best fit: after all, you need someone you can connect with in order to develop your skills, and for them to facilitate introductions to people who can further your career goals and connect you to other influential individuals.
Expanding Professional Network
When you’re interning, you are surrounded by professionals in the industry. The Human Resources (HR) department, hiring committee, manager, coworkers; are all people that you will meet and connect with before you even start your first task.
Leaving a good impression on your colleagues, no matter how short your time in the company may be, is particularly important when expanding your professional network. Look to the future, after you’ve completed your internship: you can rely on ex-colleagues for letters of recommendation for future jobs, university courses, or even job openings in the company after you graduate! The prospects are abundant. And imagine, all that you’ll need to do is to keep your connections warm, and drop them a note every now and then to stay in touch!
Take that next step for your career
Perhaps one of the most practical reasons as to why you should engage in an internship is to flesh out your resume. In today’s competitive job market, hiring managers look far beyond academics. Internships prove professional experience in related fields. As my professor says, such experience is a critical condition for hiring interns, much less full-time staff. Furthermore, you can use this experience to secure another higher-level internship or job before graduation.
One useful platform that you can check out is CareerContact. CareerContact offers freelance opportunities in digital marketing, website design and content creation — you can apply for such internships and opportunities using this nifty link! If you want to brush up on your digital skills, CareerContact also has training courses on the basics of UI-web development and digital marketing, all on this one platform!
Boost Confidence
Yes, an internship can help you in ways other than in the career aspect. By fine-tuning your skills and applying your knowledge to a professional setting, you’ll feel more prepared to enter the working world. Nothing boosts your self-esteem quite like facing a challenge head-on and overcoming it. After you overcome the fear of speaking up at your internship, the sense of empowerment and motivation that you’ll feel carries through into your personal life. You can use your newly acquired confidence to achieve your personal goals, or develop healthier relationships with family and friends.
Get that application ready!
Motivated to start applying? For those of you in local universities, winter break is coming up, and we all know what that means: internship season! time to dust off your resumes, brush up on your LinkedIn profiles, and start looking at job ads. Not sure how to decode internship descriptions? Check out our article to find out just what employers are looking for.
CareerContact is an ed-tech platform designed to bridge the gap between school and work. We help students develop digital skills and connect them with SMEs in Southeast Asia. Feel free to reach out to us at info@careercontact.org or join us at CareerContact.app.
