5 things you need to know before accepting an internship offer
Let us tell you the story of how most off-campus internships occur:
Most off-campus internship hunts begin the last moment — just before the summer/winter break begins or when you see your best friend getting a paid internship and have a huge FOMO.
What happens next? You probably go to a platform like Internshala/LinkedIn, apply to multiple internships, and patiently wait for something to happen. 1 week passes, and you hear from no one or don’t manage to clear any interview. You start to lose patience and become aggressive while applying — you suddenly want to try out a new skill set, be okay with doing an unpaid internship, and slog 12 hours a day as well.
Someone knows you have been doing this and has been waiting for you. You get a shortlist, followed by a call for an interview. It’s (purposely) made it easy for you (because they need *baits*). You are promised ‘learning opportunities’ in return for working for no money. You agree because you can’t handle the pressure of your friend posting his/her office/laptop photos on social media. You need to be cool, too.
You finally get an internship and your long hunt finally comes to an end. Phew!
Then comes the actual part. Your internship slowly starts showing its true colors. You are doing things even a 10th standard kid could do, and pushing hard to fulfill the ‘targets’ you have been given. You are attending more meetings than classes you did in a day. Life seems unfair and hard.
2 months pass. It’s your final day. And HR manager mails you a letter and a certificate. That’s it! (In some rare cases you might get a LinkedIn recommendation too). After a few weeks, you realize that the only takeaway was the two e-papers you received. Still holding yourself up, you remain happy, (at least the academic requirement has been taken care of!)
If you noticed one common pattern here, it was that there was little to no thinking behind choices made.
And that is what’s most important.
Everyone is on cloud nine after they receive an internship offer. How do then know whether you should say ‘yes’ or ‘no’?
Look at these 5 things:
- How big is the company — in terms of revenue, number of employees?
- Have there been interns previously? If yes, reach out to them over mail/LinkedIn and ask them about their experience. Look at Glassdoor reviews (if the company is old enough)
- How many interns are being hired? If its a mass recruitment role, chances are likely it's of the ‘bait’ kind. In general, anything more than 5 is a red flag.
- Did you get a selection task? If yes, how difficult it was for you? If it’s easy, it’s likely a red flag again. If there’s no selection task/assignment, you know what we’re indicating.
- How are you going to be compensated? The ones with fixed stipends are more likely to turn out authentic. Performance-based ones rarely make the cut.
Next time you receive a call/offer, evaluate your decisions based on these 5 points. You can thank us later :)
Here’s to a fun-filled internship experience for you!
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