To be or not to be… an intern?

The short answer is YES!

The longer answer is YES, as early as you can, as often as you can, for as long as you can!

Internships are our first opportunity to experiment different types of work in real life. 

They help us test our assumptions about what a certain profession entail, to dip our feet and test the waters, before we ever need to fully commit to it.

Meaning that even in the remote possibility we absolutely hate it, it is still useful to have learned that before we invest years getting ready for that profession. 

It is funny how many entry level jobs still require previous experience. Sounds like a conundrum, but internship might be a perfect answer to acquiring that experience needed to later land an entry level job.

It also applies to those of us thinking about being entrepreneurs: no matter how innovative our ideas for a product or service are (and I am sure your idea is brilliant!), we all need to start somewhere, and learning how to pave the path from working with someone who is already a few steps ahead in that journey goes a long way.

I totaled a bit over two years in internships, the first one when I was only seventeen. And I have a big sample of tens of peers who went through internship, as well as hundreds of interns I interviewed and tens I hired over the years. 

Here are a few tidbits of wisdom collected from that sample:

• Variety is good! We not always find the specific internship we are looking for. Or in the company we are vying for. But as long as we are gaining experience under different aspects of our field of interest, it is always a win!

• The main goal is learning! I grew up with a saying of “The theory is different in practice.” My first internship proved that saying in less than five minutes. As long as we are learning, it is worth it. And the experience directly depends on the questions we ask, and the retrospectives we make of the lessons we learn.

• It is an investment of our time. We gain experience. And potentially so much more… The three companies I was an employee of later in life were either somewhere I did my internship… Or where someone who met me as an intern remembered me and my work when they had an open position later (and I mean sometimes years later!). I hired interns that did a fantastic job, I recommended them to positions in the companies I worked for – or to positions in companies my friends were hiring for – because I knew how these interns worked – I had first-hand experience in seeing them work, not only what you can glimpse from an interview. So we should see internships as a long-term investment, not only as a short-term one!

• An early start is great! Some internships are specifically offered to juniors or seniors only. Some others are opened all the way to freshman. Beginning early is a jumpstart to educate our choices in electives, and to quickly identify the things we might love or hate in our profession. It can help steer our direction as we look into the world of first jobs.

• Steve Jobs said “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” It is impossible to predict exactly how past experiences will lead to future success, but without fail every person in my sample attributes some measure of their success to their internships. For some, it meant realizing they were in the wrong profession, and allowed a quick turnaround and course adjustment. For some, it meant finding their true calling within very broad professions by experiencing it first-hand. And for others yet, it meant finding the intersection between areas that allowed to them to recognize the niche they fit in. But in 100% of the cases, they all look back at the internship as a cornerstone of their careers. 

If the above does not seem enough, it is a bonus that most internships involve some paid work, so worst case scenario, we get more money in our pockets besides the precious professional experience that cannot be earned except by actually doing the job itself.

If you are intrigued by the notion, I invite you to keep reading on the upcoming posts about finding and choosing internships, interviewing for internships, as well as some do’s and don’ts during internships. 

But yeah, in the meanwhile, definitely BE an intern, it is awesome!