Summer is winding down which means it’s time to switch out swimsuits for layers and say goodbye to our summer interns. We talked to our interns before they headed back to school to see what they thought the overall benefits of internships were for them.
School Benefits
The most basic benefit that you can get from an internship is school credit. Some schools require you to participate in an internship to graduate, while others just encourage it. Either way, most colleges will reward you for having done an internship.
School benefits reach beyond getting class credit. When in the classroom you’re introduced to a lot of abstract concepts that become more concrete after working in the industry. Specifically, in marketing, you are taught a lot of acronyms that can easily get mixed together when you haven’t worked with them in a real-world scenario. The knowledge you get while working within the industry you’re learning about not only helps you understand your previous classes, but can give you a new view on the classes you take in the future.
Career Benefits
A lot of people have complained about the paradox of employers expecting experience, but being unable to get experience until you’ve been hired. Interning is the great way to assist with this. Employers feel more comfortable hiring graduates who have experience in the industry that goes beyond the textbook. Internships also give you a way to gain experience in a slightly more sheltered environment. While the work is important, there are more people double checking your work and showing you the ropes than if you weren’t doing an internship. This is also a great opportunity to get feedback on your work so you can continue to build up your skills.
A professional buzzword we hear often is ‘networking.’ Networking boils down to creating productive relationships. Even if you don’t end up working with the company long-term, you can keep the relationships that you build with your coworkers. The benefits from these connections could be recommendations, future employment, or having someone to turn to if you have a question.
Personal Benefits
You probably have heard about your school’s internship program, or how employers value experience on a resume, but what’s in it for you on a personal level? Internships are a great opportunity to test and see if the industry you’re interested in is a good fit. It’s difficult to measure your interest when you’re learning about things in a classroom, but when you jump into the job you find out if you jive together. Interning before you finish college is almost a test run to make sure you’re going in the right direction. It’s better to spend a few months interning to discover a job doesn’t fit you than to take a job straight out of college that’s a long-term investment.
Overall interning allows you to better understand the industry you’re interested in and see if you truly want to be a part of it. You’re given the opportunity to do the work that you’ve been practicing at school and seeing the real world application of it. We appreciate the work that our interns do and are always hoping to see them again.