How Internships Can Help With Career Planning
Technology / 1, June 2020

How Internships Can Help With Career Planning

Effective career planning is crucial at the college level. If you want a sound career you need to do effective career planning ahead of time. This is one of the reasons why students undertake internships. In fact, in many colleges, internships are a requirement for a bachelors’ program. Internships allow you to get a glimpse of professional life before you enter into one. That is why they are very helpful in career planning. Internships are paid for employment programs offered to students during their summer or fall vacations. Usually, internships last for between 4 to 8 weeks. Colleges have placement offices that help students get internships in different companies. Internships are very helpful for career planning for students. Likewise, they help corporations identify future employees. It gives a chance for students to explore the corporate world at a young age. They receive mentoring, knowledge, career planning advice and training during the internship program. Here are some ways internship helps with career planning. Read also: How To Make CV Like A Professional

Different Ways Internships Help With Career Planning:

Internships Help Identify Different Career Paths:

During internships, internees are posted in different departments on a rotational basis. This lets them analyze how work is done in different career paths. This is very crucial to career planning.  You might have done your career planning with a particular field in mind. But while doing your internship you might realize there are other career paths as well that look interesting. It helps you discover avenues you never knew of. Likewise, a career might look appealing at first glance. But actual working might make you realize maybe it is not as interesting as it seemed. Hence it gives you an opportunity to do career planning at a ripe age by experiencing a few different career paths.

Develop Work Skills Through Internships:

Internships help you identify the set of skills required for different types of career planning. It lets you know if you need to do any special course or acquire knowledge pertaining to a particular subject. Similarly, during internships, you get to work on different projects and tasks under the supervision of your supervisor. This allows you to polish your work skills and proficiencies. You learn a lot of practical knowledge that cannot be attained through reading books alone. This is very important for your career planning. The supervisors also give feedback on performance. This is very helpful as an experienced corporate professional tells you areas where you need to work and polish your skills.

Helps Build Confidence:

You might be nervous and hesitant on your first day of internship. But with the passage of time, you will realize the far-reaching benefits of this experience for your career planning. Not just career planning but also grooming your personality. When you return to college after an internship you will be more confident and practically informed than before. This confidence would be extremely beneficial when you would be applying for jobs in the future.

Establish Social Network Through Internships:

Successful career planning is all about using your social network intelligently. An internship allows you to develop and grow your social network. You can make a good rapport with your co-workers as well as your seniors. This helps you throughout your career. Especially when you are applying for jobs in the future, your connections established during internships can be helpful.

Polish Your CV With The Help Of Internships:

CV plays a great role in career planning. It basically outlines your accomplishments and achievements. Having done internships adds great value to the CV. Employers prefer candidates who have done internships as they have practical exposure and knowledge as to how work is done in corporations. Hence internships help a lot in career planning by making CVs worthwhile.

Provides Practical Exposure With Less Pressure:

Internships help you get practical exposure without bearing the pressure of the situation. You get to watch and learn from your seniors as to how to deal with emergency situations in the workplace. Career planning requires you to identify your strengths and weaknesses. You can find the areas where you need to work to improve your problem-solving skills. Similarly, you can discover your strengths such as collaborating with others, thinking out of the box or sharp reflexes in such situations. Depending on such knowledge you can do your career planning.

Internships Help In Personal Development:

No matter which field you belong to personal development is extremely crucial to career planning. As a student, you can afford to be carefree and irresponsible. But when it comes to practical life you need to develop professionally. You need to have a positive attitude, ready to work with teams and accept people belonging to different cultural backgrounds. A pleasant personality is what employers look for when they are recruiting. Internship helps you in grooming your personality.

Helps Improve Time Management Skills:

Professional career planning is all about effective time management. Companies want to recruit professionals who are adept at time management. This is the age of multitasking and effective time management. You need to be good at juggling different tasks at the same time. Internships allow you to improve your time management skills. You get a chance to work in the corporate before the actual time; hence you get an idea as to how to go about your time management.

Gives A Sound Career Foundation:

Internships give a sound foundation for a blooming career as they play an integral role in career planning. At your bachelors’ level, you have ample room to make choices for the internship based on your interests and skills. You can experiment with different internships during summers. This will help you do career planning and choose your career wisely. Usually, companies give preference to internees when it comes to recruiting fresh grads. Simple as that, it is better to employ those grads on whom they have invested time and energy in their company rather than doing it all over again on other grads. Prove your worth during an internship. Show interest in career planning within the organization if it is the one where you want to end up after graduation. This is how doing an internship in your preferred organization can help you get a job there.  In fact, doing an internship is so important that if you have not done an internship anywhere it might be very difficult for you to get a job anywhere. Hence, the importance of internships in career planning is magnanimous.