Importance of an Internship in Adding Value to a Student’s Profile

The importance of an Internship is significant in adding value to a student’s profile. Internships are an effective way to gain work experience and increase employment opportunities. Students look out to enrich their educational experience by taking up an internship. An internship experience provides the student not only a way to earn some money, but also to gain hands-on experience, and build a good network. Lets read further the importance of an internship and the benefits accrued by doing an internship:

Gain the Real Work Experience

The biggest benefit and

importance of an internship

lies in the fact that it offers a safe space for students to gain real-time work experience. This becomes important when applying for a job because most employers prefer to hire someone with some experience and not the one who’s never worked before. Internships not only allow students to experience a real workplace but also to gain a lot of soft skills which are crucial for one to succeed.

Get a Taste of Your Chosen Field

One of the greatest advantages of an internship is that it allows a student to get an industrial experience. This usually helps students in two ways: a) makes them more excited for their chosen field and motivates them to work hard and build a successful career, or b) it will help them realize in time that it’s not the right career for them and take an appropriate decision at the right time.
 

Networking Opportunities

I always emphasize the importance of networking (Check my previous article on Importance of Networking)

Networking, undoubtedly, is the most powerful tool in your arsenal to land up with a good employment offer. Nothing is more effective at increasing your employment opportunities than knowing the right people. Internships offer a fantastic opportunity to network with people that can become a part of your growth story thus again increasing the importance of an internship.
 

Test Your Academic Skills

As a student, your ultimate goal is obtaining a career in the field of your choice. An internship gives you an opportunity to assess your employability readiness by testing knowledge and skills you have gained during your studies.
 

Helps Choosing Specialization

An internship offers you an excellent platform to identify a particular area in your chosen field that you are interested in and help you gain more knowledge and skills regarding this area. As said earlier, it may help you realize your lack of interest in that particular field and help gain skills which will be useful to a field you do enjoy.
 

Boost Self-Confidence

With the experience, you gain while doing an internship you also improve upon a lot of things in your personality. It helps you understand your strengths and importantly what you bring to the table. In short, it helps you realize your abilities.
 

Boosts Your CV

The resume showcase that you have gained a quality work experience and acquire other work-related skills. The skills can be relevant to your chosen profession, which is admittedly crucial in a CV, but they could also be other skills, including communication and people skills that employers value.
 

Increases Market Value

In the end, it’s all about grabbing a good job and a handsome salary. An internship experience increases your chances in an interview where you can confidently tell about experience gained. Graduates with no or non-relevant work experience are offered less salary than someone with experience to do the same job.

Academic knowledge alone cannot be a match for practical experience that you gain on the job. The internship is the safest and incubated way to explore the job market in your industry. The internship experience teaches you about yourself and helps you to gauge your strengths and your areas of potential improvements. Many international students who intern while they study abroad have used the opportunity to gain some soft skills and improve their employment prospects in the long run.  Internships offer a great platform to gain a real-time work experience while studying, learn new skills, interact with people in the industry and stand out from the rest of the crowd when applying for jobs.

-Team Leverage