Zero to One in 7 Steps: this is how we built a culture of internships in India
In 2010: Let’s look at the picture below –
This is Rajeev. Rajeev graduated from IIT Madras & then went to London Business School for further studies. He wanted to do an internship in India & he tried finding one but could not land an internship. Rajeev is Sarvesh’s friend; and his conversation with Sarvesh led to the birth of Internshala.
In 2017: Now, let’s look at another picture.
This is Abhipsa. She is BA student at BJB College in Bhubaneshwar. She shared her story with us — that how Internshala has helped her do 3 internships in her first year of college & how she is planning to pursue a career in Content Writing (read the full story here).
Now, the interesting question is — how the heck in less than 7 years the scenario changed so dramatically? Well, at Internshala we have done a lot of things to be able to build a culture of internships where students — irrespective of her college or location — know what an internship is and are excited to do internship. Let’s look at the 7 things that we have to build the culture —
- Doing a lot of internships — In 2015, we took our first big, bold goal of making 1 lac internships happen a year. That was the year, the number of internships that happened on Internshala grew 10 times! But we could only achieve ~22% of goal we had set. It took us about two more years to get to 100K mark; finally happened in 2017
Learning — Having a clear goal (defined to the last degree) gives a sense of direction & helps progress fast. Essentially, you know where you have to go, and you direct all your efforts in the right direction without squandering.
2. Keeping ‘Intern’ First — ~22% of internships posted on Internshala are declined as they fail to meet the standard (for reasons such as unpaid, ambiguous JD, unable to verify the company/employer, and so forth). Also, we support only paid internships. It was a very hard policy to follow when we introduced in 2013, as it had drastically affected the number of internships on Internshala.
Right after we introduced this policy, we received our first big brand internship; the internship was unpaid. It was very difficult to say ‘no’ to them. But they were considerate enough to make the internship a paid one.
What is the philosophy behind this: Interns are young & inexperienced and are therefore susceptible to exploitation. We want to keep the process rigrous so that we could avoid any potential case of exploitation.
Every complaint raised with Internshala (either by an intern or employer) is tracked, followed up, and resolved within a week’s time.
3. Celebrating internships — We believe that meaningful internships can really help students, employers, and society at large; and this is a good reason to celebrate internships. But how do we celebrate –
Your internship story — this is a contest for students where students share their internship stories, and the winners get exciting prizes and recognition on Internshala. When we launched this first (in 2012), we didn’t know how the response would be — it was overwhelming & it’s been so since then.
Online Summer Internship Fair — this is all about getting summer internship with big brands. We launched in 2015, and it’s been growing ever since.
Internship Day — We launched in 2018 to recognise & award college (that are affiliated with AICTE) with best internship placement track record.
Learning: When you celebrate, people join in 😉
4. Elevating internships — We know that internships can make a great difference in someone’s career but saying so is just not enough. We wanted to do something that would communicate the essence — that how an internship could be a ‘turning point’ in someone’s career. And we launched Intern with Icon.
Intern with Icon is an Internshala initiative, launched in 2016, to create future leader by giving today’s students an opportunity to work under the guidance of their role models (from different walks of life) & learn directly from them.
In 2018, 15 icons participate, including legends like PT Usha 😊
5. Redefining internships — Internships are not only for students. It can help a diverse set of people in their career. And this is what we implied when we launched Internships for Women (to help women re-start their career who have been on a career break and women who never got a chance to start their career). Currently ~250 women get hired for internship every month. We also receive many heart-warming, inspiring stories.
Read Ahuti’s story who started a career at the age of 41. And Vidya’s story who re-stared her career in her 50s after over a decade’s long break.
6. Bringing all together — There are about 30 million college students in India. And we have a very long way to go. We will need to support of ecosystem partners (all the support that we can get) in making 30 million internships happen. We have collaborated with AICTE, Telangana Academy for Skill & Knowledge (TASK), Rajasthan Technical University (RTU), Rajeev Gandhi Prodyogiki Vishvavidyala (RGPV), Startup Oasis-Rajasthan, and many others.
If you want to go far, go together.
7. Living internships — Radhika Bhatia, Internshala Senior Product Manager; Siddharth Kumar, Marketing & Branding Senior Manager on students’ side; Ferhan Hazarika, Marketing & Branding Senior Manager on corporate side; Vinayak Khare, Internshala Trainings Product Lead, and about other 80% today’s full time employees joined Internshala as interns.
PS: I had also joined Internshala as an intern. I was the second Internshala team member after Sarvesh.
What next? The idea is to keep treading as there is a long way to go — 30 million students with at least one internship on their resume. And we’re hoping to keep doing the amazing stuff that we’ve been :)
I would be completing my 6 years at Internshala on 17th Dec, and journey has been amazing. It has been full of learning, happy, challenging, (& sometimes frustrating) times.
The biggest learning — there will be times when you would feel like giving up & there would be times when you’d feel like you have achieved a lot; and a lot of things in between. The key is, keep walking.
There is a light twinkling there. And that is just another lamppost on the way, not the destination itself.
