Why Are Internships So Important?
Updated: Jun 27, 2019
It seems like in today's world, the word internship is used in every other sentence. This is especially true if you are a college student learning about the stress of obtaining an internship. The immense stress to find the perfect internship surrounds you as your friends all talk about getting the best internship, your professors emphasize the importance, your parents remind you to apply and be on the lookout, and most colleges now incorporate internships into the college curriculum.
Finding the right internship can be a pain. There are very few resources available to assist students in finding an internship, however, the emphasis to obtain an internship has never been greater. I hope Position Placer is a leading resource to help you find the exact internship you wished for.
So, why are internships so important?
Real work experience: Internships are an extremely great way to gain real work experience. Most students at this age have worked summer jobs before, possibly a restaurant or retail store, however, this could be your first time at a corporate job. If you plan on working a job after school, you might have noticed most jobs require prior work experience. Most students are baffled how a job could require prior work experience when they have been working hard at college. Internships are the solution! Internships can provide a fantastic base layer to make sure you have the required work experience to obtain your ideal job. Internships provide real work experience!
Are you interested in this career field: Many college students remain undecided major until this junior year. Do you know what you want to do for the rest of your life at the young age of 19? If your answer is "No", that is completely normal. Choosing a career field and choosing your college major at such a young age can be wildly confusing. You are going to choose the job or job field you could be working in for the rest of your life, and you are making that decision at 19 years old! How do you know if you even like that job? Get an internship! Internships provide a window into the world you could be working in for a very long time. If you do not like your internship after a standard 3 month period, it probably won't make a good career choice. But that's okay because you discovered it now before you chose it as your actual job. Internships give you just a taste into your desired career, and helps clear a pathway into your life passions and happiness at a job!
Learn, Learn, Learn: Maybe the internship you picked this summer was nowhere near what you had in mind when you applied. Maybe the internship was exactly what you had in mind, and you realize now you don't want to do that job forever. These are perfect opportunities to learn. Learn absolutely everything you can from that job, and take those skills and new abilities to your next internship. Every internship experience is a chance to learn new skills and learn about yourself. Even if you now know, that one internship is not what I want to do, the skills you learned can be applied to a new job. Learning at a job can be constant. Internships are so important because they provide a period to learn not just skills, but about yourself. Learn what career field you like, what kind of employer you like to work with, large or small company, company culture, and most importantly what is going to keep you happy working there!