The goal of an internship is to learn new skills and land a full-time opportunity. Here is a recap of how an internship can be a great way to start your career.

• You gain skills by working on projects that can add to your work experience and help you showcase your strengths.
• It enhances your employability by giving you proper industry exposure.
• You get work experience and get a competitive edge as well,
• You find your niche, apply for the roles that interest you, and align with your niche.
• You receive hands-on training and get confident in choosing what skills are relevant to your goal or what new skills you should learn. You learn about your weakness & strengths.
• It creates your network and unlocks the doors of opportunities.

We have already established how an internship can be a reason to kick-start your career.

Internships are like mock matches before you decide to go for a real one. Let’s understand what you should focus on and what you should avoid at any cost.

Internships are good, but why?

Corporate life will become easy if good grades teach everything one needs to learn. But that’s not how it works. You have to be in the field to learn.

Must Learn from an Internship

Internships offer opportunities that you might not get otherwise. Using your domain-specific skills and time intelligently is a skill you learn in an internship.

Application of Knowledge

You have learned enough; now it’s your turn to use all the learnings in practical use. It is easier to develop software when you are working alone on a project, but it is different when you work with a team with one employee dedicated to one task.

You learn to use your knowledge most efficiently.

Research Experience

Every domain needs a kind of research, and that’s where you can use the skills you learned in college while writing the dissertation or making the final year project. This is one of the tasks candidates avoid, but you should not. It shows the organization how you are open to doing a few non-technical tasks.

Access to a Variety of Tasks & Domains

You might have joined the organization as a front-end intern, but during the internship, you also learn about other domains. You also get a chance to niche down your interest. You get to observe a daily pattern of employees from different domains.

Mentorship

This is an important one. Internships teach you more than any college class can teach you. Working as an intern may help you to meet a potential mentor and establish a relationship that helps guide your career path.

An internship can create a possible situation where your connection develops organically, even if you end up working elsewhere in a full-time position.

Secure Good References And Recommendations

Your attitude towards the work and organization could become the reason for references and recommendations. When your mentors/managers see you working hard, and with a positive attitude, it makes you lucky.

You meet plenty of managers from different organizations. References generated from an internship are valuable in your job searches, it makes you lucky. Those managers know you personally and have seen your contribution to the company.

The easier it becomes for managers to hire you, the probability of you getting a job increases too.

A Paycheck

This used to be irrelevant before COVID. But now, interns are getting a good paycheck. Before COVID, pay for interns was a topic of discussion, and now, interns working for startups get paid more than an average engineer.

An internship is an excellent way to ask for good pay in a full-time job when you already get a good paycheck.

Boost Confidence

You have worked for a few months in an organization. You have learned a bit about that lifestyle. You understand some to-dos and don’t-dos. You feel confident while going for a full-time. You understand the world of employment.

It opens you to incredible opportunities. You are open to seeking help. You are open to networking with people whenever needed.

Mustn’t Learn from an Internship

With benefits, you also get to see an ugly part of the employment world. These are the following that you should avoid at any cost.

Office Politics

You will see office politics from the first week itself. You should avoid becoming a part of it. Do your work. Learn from the mentors and keep your focus on the work. Observe from the outside. Do not get involved at any cost.

Office Politics is more common in corporate companies than in startups. It is because of the well-known hierarchy. The competition that should give a healthy push to do better sometimes leaves a negative residue - which we call office politics.

As an intern, your focus should be on learning, and avoiding office politics can be the most significant learning.

Losing Control of Work-Life Balance

As much as you think, hustle is the answer to success. It is not. You need to focus on working efficiently than working for long hours. Work-life balance is essential for a consistent result. Your focus should be on having experiences, not burnouts.

Working more than 50 hours a week can affect your physical and mental health. You won’t even know, and it will become a bad habit. This is not something to be proud of. And no, being busy doesn’t give you bragging rights.

As long as you don’t have a startup to run (and if you can read this), I don’t think so; there is any case where you need to overwork to gain more knowledge or achieve success.

Neglecting Your Health

Akash has already mentioned how you can learn to prioritize things when you experience a distinct lifestyle. It’s a door to prioritize your health, not neglect it in the name of work.

Once your physical health starts getting affected, a countdown starts for your mental health as well.

Health is your priority and it should not change - working late one day a week once a month is understandable but stop yourself before it becomes a routine.