Should You Intern?

[su_dropcap style=”simple” size=”4″]W[/su_dropcap]e often hear of the vast gap between college life and work life, between going through a structured education system for four years (or, really, 15 years if you count your whole education journey) and then entering the scary unknown forest that is “real life”. 

And guess what? It’s true. Real life and academic life is very different. Being in school means, for better or for worse, your days, tasks, objectives, and goals are structured out for you. You just have to do the grind. But when you go into the work force, suddenly everything is different. Your boss might not be so clear in defining what your tasks are. Your colleagues may have different communication styles. The pressure to produce results might be much more than the pressure to achieve good grades. And the whole game plan of succeeding in school is very different from succeeding in your career.

So are we doomed to just float around at a loss for the first couple of months of our working life? Well, that’s where internships come in. The benefits of an internship are tremendous for students. Let’s take a look at a couple of them.

1. You gain real work experience

Internships are crucial in giving you real life work experience. You learn and experience the working culture of the company where you are interning at, and you can judge whether it’s something you can deal with, or not. You also learn “industry lingo”, or key words and phrases that will help you when you are interviewing for jobs after the internship. Best yet, if you have a wonderful internship experience and want to continue to work at that company, then you are almost always secured for a full time job there.

2. Develop professional skills

Your internship program will likely have a mentor or someone who knows you are an intern and as such will be dedicated to helping you learn how to work and carry yourself in a professional setting. Internship mentors are usually dedicated to the success of the intern and the internship program. To have a professional be dedicated to your professional growth in that way is invaluable to your growth—don’t miss that opportunity.

3. Build your network

Tim Sanders, consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, says that “your network is your net worth.” What this quote means is that your value is equivalent to the value of your relationships! If you have a good relationship with other creative professionals in your field, are familiar with key decision making people, or have access to a pool of skilled and talented people, then that means you are more likely to succeed in life. If you don’t have this network, then the first thing you should do is go about making those relationships. And how do you do it as a student? Through an internship. 

Sangnila believes that internships are absolutely necessary because it builds a student’s experience, professional skills, and network. And as such, Sangnila has a robust internship program with various universities throughout Indonesia to provide learning opportunities for students before they dive fully into the workfield.