As an undergraduate in a local private university, I never really imagined myself doing more than one internship, other than the one I had planned to do which was the one required by my faculty in order for me to graduate. As any naïve student, I expected my student life to be as smooth as I planned it to be: study > summer internship > graduate > find a job. Without realising how competitive the job market was, it was only at the beginning of my third year that I hit a road bump; I wanted to kickstart a career in marketing, a field on the opposite spectrum of my educational background, but I had ABSOLUTELY ZERO experience or knowledge in the field. Compared to many other students and friends who had the relevant education required, I was sure definitely on the losing end of the hiring list!
While it’s important, to be honest about reality, it’s also unhelpful to just sit around and let time pass without doing anything to improve the situation. It’s normal to lose your way and overthink sometimes, but it’s always what you do to get out of the situation that counts. I was very fortunate to have one remaining year to turn my career pathway around, and I definitely maximised that time period by joining a plethora of competitions, webinars, and mentoring programmes.
However, the highlight of my final year was definitely the three internships I undertook. I was very lucky to have landed internships at two of my dream organisations. While gaining technical knowledge is part and parcel of the role, the greatest learnings I obtained from working in two different roles in two different organisations stem from the people that I had met, interacted and worked hand-in-hand with. Albeit in the same industry, how each organisation achieves their goals can be very different. These learnings allowed me to realise many things about myself, such as my preferences and drivers at work, which would allow me to perform better in the workplace. As such, here are three reasons why I believe why undergraduates should complete internships before kickstarting their careers:
- Networking
For many students and fresh graduates, networking is one of the most prominent benefits of taking up multiple internships. Every role in every organisation allows you to work with and meet individuals with various experiences and life stories. From exchanging genuine conversations, you will often find yourself inspired by others not only to follow their footsteps career-wise, but also by the values they uphold and how their backgrounds have shaped them to become who they are today. This was something I had gained by having casual lunches and chit-chat sessions with my colleagues and team leaders with many years of experience, and it’s always an exciting experience to learn more about the people I would be seeing very often in the next few months. I have also received heaps of advice from senior leaders regarding my career progression, which I will always be grateful for.
Not only will you get to gain people skills from interacting with different types of people, you will also be able to showcase your capabilities and ability to grow to those with the authority to make hiring decisions. While you may not be immediately offered a full-time position, you would at least have a head start and half a foot in the door in comparison to other potential candidates, as the hiring managers would have already witnessed your capabilities, and is more confident to entrust you with future responsibilities in a full-time role. This would also be a great opportunity to ask your team leaders if they would be able to write you endorsement letters or endorse you verbally for any future roles suited to your skills.
- Communication
As students, we feel inclined to communicate everything we know from head to toe to ensure that we cover every aspect of the task we are given. However, in a corporate setting, each organisation has different preferences on how updates and important information are communicated between each other, and using different channels. Being an intern in two or more different organisations allows you to experience and sharpen your communication skills in a way that suits everyone – concise and precise.
The reason I believe that one internship is not enough is because it only teaches us one specific organisation’s style of communication. With two internships, it allows you to compare and contrast between the two organisations’ communication strategies to determine the pros and cons of each strategy, and how you can improve and leverage on those points to ensure effective flow of information between different stakeholders. Based on my experience, there are organisations that prefer elaborated explanations, and some that prefer key points, and only ask questions when they require clarification. When you learn how to communicate effectively, you are able to reduce the processing time between each task which ultimately allows you more time to take on other projects and tasks, to maximise your learning experience in the internship.
While communication often refers to the interaction between two or more parties, there are certain benefits that you can gain for yourself. As interns are often new to the roles that they are assigned to, it is not uncommon for us to make mistakes when conveying information to our team leaders and stakeholders. We may explain too much and miss out the important points, or speak too little and also miss out on the important points. These mistakes can stem from nervousness, lack of preparation or inadequate knowledge on the discussed topic. Regardless, being an intern is the best time for you to make honest mistakes and learn from them. For example, if you have tried and found that speaking key points without tangible quantification of results caused confusion between you and your team leader, perhaps it’s good to try adding some numbers and reporting the percentage of KPIs that you have achieved to your team leader, along with your other key points. By being very clear on the message you aim to deliver, you are able to craft out your points and communicate them effectively with multiple stakeholders. These skills will not only help you in your career but also in your university presentations and business challenges as it is pleasant to hear and easy to understand.
Don’t worry if you can’t get it by the second try, as even in my early days as an intern, I said many things without thinking too much of them as they seemed normal to me, but resulted in confusion and even penalty between different stakeholders. It definitely takes practice, but as long as you follow a steady pace, you are bound to get better with every try.
- Culture
This is likely the most important aspect of being an intern in two or more organisations, and preferably in the organisations that you are interested to kickstart your career at. Company culture refers to the beliefs and behaviours that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. It affects how and how well you do your work in the organisation, how communication is being handled internally and externally, as well as another few important hot topics – work-life balance and mental well-being.
It's good to experience these in the places that you’d like to work because it helps you determine if the company’s culture and working style suits yours, and if it is an environment where you can see yourself growing in the future. Being on LinkedIn, there are often many career gurus and fresh graduates alike that have shared their experiences of being hired and ultimately submitting their resignation letters due to unsuitable or terrible company culture. Such company culture can include micromanagement, overworking, company politics, miscommunications or even lack of value alignment. It may seem under control in the beginning, but in the long run, it breeds unhappiness and even resentment, causing your career growth to be stagnant and fulfilment to crash down to an absolute zero. It becomes just another job to put food on the table without any true aim. This too leads to a plethora of unhealthy behaviours – procrastination, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and even depression.
As undergraduates, it feels as if we won’t be affected if we just give our best effort in everything we do, but the culture that is formed and solidified within an organisation and the resulting consequences on its employees is rarely something we can control. As such, it’s always good to experience it early, and later reflect on what you could’ve done better and what was out of your control, or even remove the possibility of re-joining that organisation again completely. This was what I did with my first-ever science internship (needed to take this to complete my degree!), given the terrible experience I had. From the tasks I completed to the management of the organisation, I did not feel happy and felt every day that I did not have a reason to return to the lab. As an intern in both my dream companies, I took some time to sit back and reflect on the culture in both organisations. Both suited me in the sense that my creativity and problem-solving skills were put to the test, but also flexible enough for me to make mistakes and grow, and work when I am in the best condition and state of mind (when ill, not an excuse to be lazy). As a result, every day was an adventure and I look forward to the new things I get to learn.
In conclusion, nothing is guaranteed to us and it is with our best effort that we do what we can to be prepared for our future careers. One of the best ways is to go out there to experience it for yourself, and I would highly suggest internships.
Crystal Chai is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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