Internships, Love Them or Leave Them?

Internships: We love them!

By Jason G
 

Hooray! I've almost made it through 4+ years of college! Wait, you're telling me I need to pay tuition to go work an internship before I can graduate? Many internships are unpaid jobs? Why would I pay to go work for someone for free? This stinks!  While all of these are normal reactions from students, internships are very much a positive--and necessary--part of a college education that greatly outweigh any negative connotation, which might be associated with them.

Many students argue that since an internship is not set in a traditional classroom, it is not a valuable learning experience. This could not be further from the truth. Working through a good internship, in the right field, teaches real world skills one can not get solely from classroom training. Moreover, after graduating, most students will use the experiences from their internship to help them land a permanent job since employers will seldom hire inexperienced candidates. So how does one gain experience? They do so by working an internship, in a particular field, to gain real world experience.

Most of the full time job duties in the workplace will only be based on things learned in school. Once hired, the real learning curve starts where you either sink or swim in the actual workplace. For instance, learning how to work with different personalities, networking and making many professional connections, and gaining real world experience. It is not reasonable to think these skills can be taught in a classroom environment. Did you ever wonder why nurses and doctors have to fulfill such a long residency? It is because no one wants an inexperienced nurse to stab them with a needle! A residency is just like an extended internship. Overall, experiential learning is as important as the book learning you did throughout your college career.

The Ugly Truth of Internships

By Cassandra M.

 

Although most of what Jason writes about internships is true, it is not true that if a

student is successful in completing an internship that a permanent job can be secured. While it is

possible for students to learn necessary skills by participating in an internship, sometimes those skills are not always the one's needed to survive in today’s marketplace. For instance, my current employer hires interns on an annual basis during the summer for eight to ten weeks depending on the student’s schedule. The interns work in almost every department of the organization, including the mail room. Over the past three years, some of the same interns have returned, but only a few have been hired.

An intern in an office environment, to some, means having someone around to do the tedious tasks that no one else wants to do or the jobs that have been put off because you  know the interns are coming. So it could be a positive experience for both the employer and the intern under the right circumstances or it could be a situation where an intern ends up being the office lackey. Who wants to brag to their friends that they learned how to sort and distribute mail over the summer? 

The good thing about being a college student is that most will gain experience working in an environment where they are exposed to a diverse group of co-workers and the public, and learn time management skills necessary for competing and surviving in a work environment. Furthermore, an internship does not necessarily afford students the life lessons they will learn when applying and securing a position that not only gives them hands on experience but also monetary compensation for the work they accomplish. Unfortunately, with most internships the only compensation a student can expect to receive is a heartfelt thank you and maybe a farewell gift.  While the student will be able to list the internship on a resume as an accomplishment, it will probably be most suited under the heading of community service for all the weight it will carry in securing a position.