Re: Seth Godin - Are internships overrated?
It was interesting to read the blog by Seth Godin this morning suggesting that internships are overrated. The general gist of the article seemed to be that internships don't offer up meaningful work experience and that working on a project for free is a better use of your time and effort. I can see his point of view but have to disagree with the general argument that internships are overrated. I'm sure some are and that people are given menial tasks with little responsibility or given things to do that have an internal face so it doesn't matter so much if they mess up but is that applicable to all internships?
I can obviously only speak for myself but so far I feel I've been given quite a bit of responsility. At times it has been a bit daunting and I'm having to learn pretty quickly to repay that faith, but isn't that what this is all about? To learn new things. You get a lot from learning in a classroom environment but you get so much more from actually having a go, trying things out, making mistakes etc.
So I guess in some ways I agree with Seth, that work experience should be that, an experience of work that helps you in your career. Don't rule out internships though as they can provide an excellent experience of both work culture and the kind of tasks you'll be expected to do.
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I totally agree that internships are critical. Many companies recruit future employees on the back of an internship. For the finance companies it could be 50% of new hires. When I worked in the oil industry it was nearer 100% if we liked the individual.
It's the equivalent of a lengthy job interview-get it right and you are in.
I agree internships are very important and help to enrich the knowledge capital in organisations but they do need to be properly resourced by the company and aligned to the career interests and development of the individual. We try to encourage people who have ability but lack confidence to come to us be supported to develop a specific project or co-ordinate an event - this works very well because our people are committed to making the experience positive and that involves giving of their time and experience too.
I agree Susan. The internships I've seen at many companies are excellent and often lead to the internee themselves wanting to work there.
I wonder how many roles actually provide you with that visible 'take away' evidence though? I fully agree that having such a thing to take with you as evidence that you've learnt new things and had a degree of success is great, just wondering how easy it is to achieve?
I don't have widespread, hard evidence however I do know from the internships done by our students at a range of organisations-science, engineering, finance,law, journalism, nhs etc-the positive feedback is well over 90% from both the employer and student.
Gosh, I can whole heartedly and sincerely vouch for the sheer quality and usefulness of an internship with a professional accountancy/professional services firm like PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Deloitte.
As a current intern student-of sorts with one of them at the moment - I can assure you that valuable internship opportunities do exist. I live and work there just like a graduate does, and the amount I have learnt is incredible. These giants take on 100s of interns every year, and boost CVs across the country! They also heavily use the internship programmes to recruit the best talent.