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Building a Career from Internships

Building a Career from Internships

An internship is an amazing way to get out there, learn and build a career Trust me I know. Wikipedia defines internship as a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. A lot of interns go for internships to find their calling, understand what they want for their lives and know the career paths that best suits them. An internship can help push you towards the right career and teach you a lot of things. With employability skills becoming an important factor in Nigeria, it is important to do extensive internships. Even before you step into the labor market, companies ask for your experience and this can only be gained by doing internships. Internships help to build your career in a number of ways which includes.

Work experience

With a few internships, you have a better chance than other candidates and an edge over them. Employers will take into account that you have faced the real world and you have an idea as to how things work and that makes you a better choice than your peers that lack similar internship experience. Your internship counts as professional experience and has the ability to boost your resume. Also if you are good at your job then you might not have to go through the stress of finding work as you would get referrals from your placement or even get retained at your place of placement.

Building skills

To understand the practical aspect of work and how to apply the knowledge taught in school internships are very necessary. It enables you to put yourself in real situations and apply places where the knowledge you have gained is required so it can be put into practice. It teaches you to be employment ready and helps you to brush up on interpersonal skills. You also learn to be a team player and this is an added bonus for you as you begin your career.

Understanding how the industry works

As an intern, you get to experience first and the industry you want to work in. you get in-depth knowledge about it, follow up with the latest trends in the ever changing industry, hence when your potential employer asks questions the industry related, you know what to say. Even when they ask you about the future of the industry, you have an idea on what to say because of previous insight.

Financial compensation

This is one of the more oblivious reasons to engage in an internship. While most internship programmes are unpaid, there are a few paid internship programmes. But even the unpaid internship programmes offers some sort of financial benefit, from stipends to daily handouts. An internship can be a much-needed financial umbrella for a student or early career professional.

Building a network

Networking is a very important career tool and internships can help you build it. You get to meet people outside your space and interact with people who are actually in the field making waves and contributing to the industry. You get to connect with people and by so doing expand your network. The best part is, when the time comes for you to get references you can ask your contacts in the industry to vouch for you or put in a good word for you.

Connect with colleagues

Beyond building a network, an internship helps you learn how to connect with colleagues and employers. It builds your interpersonal skills in the workplace. An Internship helps you learn how to connect with a work place and build a work culture. And this is the cornerstone of doing an internship.

There are a lot of ways that an internship can help you build your career and explore new possibilities. It can help to boost your resume and the chances of you getting a good job in the industry of your choice. With an internship experience, you can move from a naïve college/university student to a person with work experience.