Internships serve as the midpoint and connector between students’ academic and professional careers. But this does not take away from the fact that graduate jobs are essential in understanding where candidates see themselves in the future. So, let’s break it down to what this means in simpler terms.
Stepping stone
An internship does not guarantee a permanent role, but it definitely guarantees an opportunity to earn one. It acts as an additional step in the process of a long and bright career by putting candidates in a trainee position which can be super helpful in establishing a career.
An internship ensures that candidates can start their career with basic knowledge of corporate culture, which at the very least puts them ahead of a fresh, inexperienced graduate.
Initial exposure to the professional work environment
Entry-level, full-time jobs provide emerging talent with initial exposure to the working world. But, internships do exactly that. Entry-level jobs were beneficial to employers and candidates due to their flexibility, space to learn new things, room for mistakes, and networking opportunities.
But today, internships provide exactly that – with the additional flexibility of compensation and cross-departmental support.
First-hand experience
The best thing about internships and entry level jobs is that you get to finally experiment and apply all that you’ve learnt to actual activities that matter. At a university level, students are used to taking individual level of responsibility i.e. whatever chances they take only has an impact on them whereas at an intern or entry level they learn to be more cognisant and responsible about the of the snowball effect of their actions.
So, while many internships don’t guarantee a permanent position, they definitely bring young talent one, giant, step closer to it. Internships give employers the opportunity to essentially conduct a 3-month or 6-month interview, on-site interview. In the end, employers can be pretty sure if their intern is going to be a positive addition to their business or not.
It comes to no surprise that more and more employers are opting for the route that allows them to get a closer look and judge potential-hires’ culture fit, personality, communication skills, and work ethic before investing in a full-time hire.
