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A paying strategy

Internships during college years are of utmost importance in the current scenario as employability is a major concern for students.

A paying strategy

Landing right internships during college years can make your resume stand out in the job market



Sarvesh Agrawal

Internships during college years are of utmost importance in the current scenario as employability is a major concern for students. Thus, your college experience is not going to be completely fruitful until and unless you add value to it with internships. These equip you with practical and interpersonal skills while you build a great network and lift your career graph. With AICTE making three internships mandatory for students, these are the practical solution for India’s struggle with low employability rate and skill gap. 

Here are is your guide to land an internship in different streams:

Humanities

Students have an option to choose internships from policy research, counselling and support, economic and political development to content writing, art history, and sociology. 

Some of the organisations or bodies that are hiring summer interns in humanities include AamAadmi Party, National Rail Museum, Rakshak Foundation, India Youth Congress, Koan Advisory, National Law University, Ministry of External Affairs of India, NITI Aayog, and WERP India.

With such varied options, how would you begin your hunt? Based on your profile of interest, start searching for internships related to your field. Students interested in content writing can find internships in start-ups and MNCs. Here the interns can learn not just the art of concise writing, but also grasp the basic understanding of Search Engine Optimisation and working on WordPress. 

Another profile which is gaining popularity among the students is policy research or public policy. Typically, a public policy intern will have to research, understand the legal aspects, work on the development of new policies or improve the accountability and efficiency of public offices. 

Students keen on pursuing an internship in history or geography can find internships with experts in the fields and can approach the students through an email or connect through the academic networks. Organisations like National Geography and Discovery Channel also have internship programmes for students. You could also approach the central and state government bodies, NGOs, and even start-ups which are working on these domains.

Commerce

Having an in-depth knowledge of Commerce will help you in understanding business better while churning out a greater profit. To find your expertise, you will have to first figure out which vertical you like — Economics, Accountancy or  Business Studies. Once this is decided, you could apply for internships based on the following profiles — Accountant, Accountant Executive, Chartered Accountant., Company Secretary, Cost Accountant, Finance Analyst, Finance Planner, Finance Manager etc.

If you have a keen interest in learning and teaching new things then you can intern as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) and share your knowledge to help students understand the basics of commerce better. DEN Networks Limited, Mahindra Comviva, Shoppers Stop, Times Internet, HP Incorporation are a few of the companies that hire summer interns.

Science

Science students can develop subject-specific content for education platforms, become subject matter expert interns, research under professors or academic organisations, teach online, or apply for internships in nutrition, statistics, or mathematics. 

One can work as content developer with education platforms. There is a high demand for students from science background who can research about a subject, solve questions, provide step-by-step solutions, and work on documentation. Students from the medical background can intern with hospitals or clinicss.

One of the most popular internship profiles which students from science background opt for is research internship. A research internship is usually undertaken in the final year of graduation or post-graduation. At the core of most research internships is a research project of your own. While working on it, you learn new scientific techniques, design experiments, analyse results, and formulate the different hypotheses. As an intern, you attend lab meetings, symposiums, and classroom lectures. You will work closely with scientists and get an opportunity to demonstrate your own scientific insight. 

Most science and research organisations offer internships as a form of work experience or as a partial fulfilment of the degree. Some of the best international research internships are programmes like German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and Singapore-India Connect. 

The Indian research internships offered are Raman Research Institute Bangalore, Summer Research Fellowship Programme, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Summer Student Programme, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, for Mathematics, Physics and Theoretical Computer Science, SURGE program IIT Kanpur, and CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (CSIR-NML). 

Engineering

Apart from learning the concepts in college, it is important for engineering students to apply these practically. An internship will not just give practical experience but would also help you to stand out from the crowd. Engineering students can apply for internships in profiles like web and mobile development, mechanical engineering and design, electronics hardware engineering, embedded systems, CAD design, automobile engineering, data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Students can either apply for internships online or connect with the HRs of the organisations directly. 

— The writer is the founder and CEO of Internshala (internshala.com)


Law

In a law student's life, internships are as important as passing the final exams. It's an experience that provides a peek into the tough world that they'll be getting themselves into. Ideally, start applying four months ahead of your preferred slot if you are applying by yourself. Legal internships can be broadly classified under following major categories:

Law firm internships: These include internships at various corporate and 

litigation law firms. Ideal if you want to 

make a career in law firms.

Court internships: Court internships primarily include an internship at a district court, High Court or Supreme Court under a lawyer's guidance. It's recommended for the students who wish to join judiciary or litigation as it provides them practical exposure to judicial procedure and its technicalities.

Public Sector Undertakings: Various PSUs like ONGC, HPCL, and BPCL including banks like SBI offer internships to law students.

NGOs: NGOs offer internship opportunities to law students and contribute in providing valuable insights areas of law like 

international conflict management, 

human rights, hunger or health care.

Government internships: Apart from the above-mentioned categories various government departments offer internships to law students. The prominent being Ministry of Finance, Competition Commission of India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs etc.

Research about the ranking and performance of the firm you are applying to using various online resources like RSG rankings and The Legal 500. Talk to your seniors in college and learn about various firm and roles that they offer. If possible enquire about the mentor and the kind of exposure and experience you should expect working for them. Applying to regional court of an area when you don’t know the local language is a big no. Be very particular about this and choose the language you are comfortable with or you might end up relying on someone else to translate everything for you.


Acquiring soft skills 

Students, especially those in the first year of college, might have limited technical knowledge but opting for internship would help them learn to work in a team and hone communication skills. It is better to acquire soft skills as early as possible because At this stage,  you can opt for an internship in content writing, business development, general management, or volunteer for social causes and give back to society.

Learning technical skills 

If you are interested in a career in programming, then intern with an organisation where you could work on the basics and learn web or mobile app development. Work on live projects and participate actively in coding challenges. During this period, you could also start networking with professionals and influencers in your area of interest as it would open the doors of opportunity for you and help you land a better career opportunity.

Landing your first job 

The experience you gain from the first two internships will prepare you for your dream internship. By this time, you will have an attractive resume, and you can start applying. The previous experience would also prepare you for a tougher interview process. But, once you crack it and land your dream internship, put equal effort into applying your knowledge to gain new skills. This internship might help you land your first job.

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