Internships are vital in bridging the gap between theory and practice, and offer a peek into the real world, which helps students pick the right career.
Even though internships were offered virtually this summer owing to the pandemic, organisations took extra efforts to ensure the interns had their orientation, interacted with top management and got some peer-to-peer engagement.
“In today’s time when internships have become virtual it gives students immense opportunities to start thinking out-of-the-box. At the end of the day, every internship is like a problem statement, all students need to do is to use their resources and knowledge to help the company find a solution for the same in the most resourceful manner,” says HR professional Mitali Verlekar.
After the internship, students must be able to articulate what they did and communicate this effectively – either during a job talk or in their resumes. It is advisable to maintain continued relations with mentors after the internship has ended to establish stronger networks and connections within the industry.
"Mentioning about the project in your CV or getting a recommendation on professional networking sites or job sites from the person who mentored you always adds value to one’s profile," adds Mitali.
"Students must realise that they have an ocean of opportunities with the advent of virtual internships. A slew of online internships is being made available by companies across the globe. Companies that students could only dream of interning in are now reachable because the barriers of geographical limitations are no more an issue. Instead of looking for internships locally or nationally they can now apply globally," says Apoorva Awasthi, a Strategy Analyst
"Students pursuing courses in retail, aviation, tourism sectors may not be able to find any internship opportunity for sectors they are interested in, however, this should not discourage them, rather they can focus on learning how Information Technology (IT) enables these sectors and search for suitable online internships which are available in abundance within the IT sector. Post Covid-19, this knowledge is bound to come in handy for students when they apply for jobs of their liking. Management Consulting is yet another area of service industry, which is flourishing during the unprecedented situation that we are in and would present to be a promising opportunity as a full-time career as well," Apoorva adds.
(The author is a media and communications researcher)